Harhar
Harhar is an ancient city mentioned in the Bible, located in the region of Persia in modern-day Iraq. Known today as Sarandaj.
Biblical History
Harhar appears in 2 Kings 17:6 and 18:11 as one of the cities and regions to which the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V (and later Sargon II) deported the population of the northern kingdom of Israel following the fall of Samaria around 722 BC: 'The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.' The parallel passage lists Harhar among these Median cities. This catastrophic deportation fulfilled the prophetic warnings of Hosea, Amos, and other northern prophets who had announced that Israel's idolatry and covenant violation would result in exile from the land. The ten tribes of the northern kingdom, dispersed to the distant cities of Media and the Assyrian heartland, became known in later tradition as the 'lost tribes of Israel.' Harhar's location in the Median region of western Persia placed these exiled Israelites at the eastern frontier of the Assyrian empire, far from their homeland. The exile represented the culmination of a long history of apostasy that began with Jeroboam's golden calves and continued through generations of unfaithful kings.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Harhar is tentatively identified with a site in the Median region of northwestern Iran, near modern Sarandaj (Sanandaj) in the Kurdistan province. This identification is based on the Assyrian administrative records that describe the cities of the Medes where Israelite deportees were settled. Assyrian annals of Sargon II mention the region of Harhar in connection with campaigns against the Medes, providing external corroboration for the biblical text. Archaeological investigation of the Sanandaj region has been limited by modern urban development and political factors, but the area has yielded Iron Age material culture consistent with Assyrian-period occupation. The broader Zagros mountain region contains numerous ancient sites from the relevant period.
Verse Appearances (0)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]