Asshur

AI summary: Asshur carries a double significance in Scripture. It belongs to the table of nations and early post-flood memory, but it also points toward the great imperial reality of Assyria that later overshadows Israel and its neighbors. In prophecy and poetry the name therefore evokes both ancestry and geopolitical threat. The cross references present Asshur as a bridge between primeval genealogy and the emergence of one of the Bible's most consequential imperial powers.¹

Second son of Shem (Gen. 10:22; 1 Chr. 1:17). He went from the land of Shinar and built Nineveh, etc. (Gen. 10:11, 12). He probably gave his name to Assyria, which is the usual translation of the word, although the form Asshur is sometimes retained (Num. 24:22, 24; Ezek. 27:23, etc.). In Gen. 2:14 “Assyria” ought to be “Asshur,” which was the original capital of Assyria, a city represented by the mounds of Kalah Sherghat, on the west bank of the Tigris. This city was founded by Bel-kap-kapu about B.C. 1700. At a later date the capital was shifted to Ninua, or Nineveh, now Koyunjik, on the eastern bank of the river. (See CALAH; NINEVEH.) ³