Elitzur, Yoel 2011a

Literaturid

2025

Werksart

Artikel

Kurztitel

Elitzur, Yoel 2011a

Autor(en)

Elitzur, Yoel

Titel

Qīr of the Aramaeans: A New Approach

Sammelband

Reihe

Reihe kurz

Reihe Band

Zeitschrift

Shnaton

Zeitschrift Band

21

Ort

Jahr

2011

Seiten

141−152

Anmerkungen

Kir

Abstract

Qīr is mentioned four times in the Bible, all four are from the same period, the eighth to seventh centuries BCE, and three of them are connected to the Aramaeans. According to the Scriptures, the Aramaeans had come from Qīr (Am 9:7) and were exiled to Qīr (2Kgs 16:9; Am 1:5). Since the Aramaean exile is not attested to by any hitherto known Assyrian source, all suggestions for locating Qīr were based exclusively on the phonetic or semantic similarity to the name Qīr of various toponyms throughout the ancient Near East. The writer of this article draws attention to Durmasqanīn located in Bēn ha-Neharot (‘Between the Rivers’) which was labeled in the Babylonian Talmud as ‘the entrance of Paradise’ (Eruvin 19a). Durmasqanīn in Mesopotamia seems to be the place to which the Assyrians exiled the people of Damascus. Bēn ha-Neharot was the designation of the northern part of Mesopotamia – later al-Jazīra. The most fertile part of Bēn ha-Neharot was probably its southern region near Hīt and Ramādi. In addition, in this area bitumen, pitch, gypsum, and petroleum bubbling ‘springs’ are found, as well as salt-water springs. These springs were of great significance in ancient times because bitumen was taken from them for the buildings of ancient Babylon. Rabbinic sources mentioned the town Ihi-Deqira in this region, which was the same as Ἰδικάρα / Δάκιρα / Diacira of some classical sources. Two of the classical writers mentioned the environs of this town as a source of bitumen and salt. In Akkadian, qīru means ‘bitumen’. The writer suggests that Ihi-Deqira, which was probably not far from Durmasqanīn, preserved the element Qīr (=bitumen) which had also been the earlier geographical name of this region or of a particular spot in it. According to some Assyrian sources, especially the annals of Tiglath-Pileser the First (1114–1076 BCE), in the eleventh century BCE the Aramaean Aḫlamû moved westward from the mid-Euphrates. It is reasonable therefore to assume that this was the background for the prophecies of Amos, according to which, the Aramaeans came from Qīr and returned to Qīr.

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