If referring to a ruler by its name rather than by his title is an indication of a ruler's impact, Hazael's impact on the Bible is high. Hazael is the second most frequently named foreign ruler in the Bible after Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer of Jerusalem. Pharaoh is of course far ahead, but Pharaoh is a title that designates many individual kings. The same can also be said about Ben-Hadad, a name used in the Bible for various rulers of Aram-Damascus alongside Hazael's son, who was the only ruler who certainly carried this name. Hazael is named twice as many times as all the Assyrian rulers put together. Cyrus, YHWH's anointed, scores nineteen verses against twenty-one for Hazael.

The influence of Aram-Damascus and of its most important king on biblical literature exceeds these twenty-one verses. As the major regional power in the Iron Age, Damascus impacted the fate of the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah. Because the bulk of the book of Kings was written after the absorption of the kingdoms of Israel, Judah and Damascus in the Mesopotamian empires, and because it is less threatening to mention far away enemies than the neighbour, the biblical spotlights are turned on Assyria and Babylonia and overshadow the role Damascus and Hazael played during the previous centuries. Another important factor is the depth of collective memory.