Where is the biblical land of Shoa located?

Shoa was a region in Mesopotamia, located in what is modern-day Iraq near the mouth of the Tigris River. It is mentioned in the context of other Mesopotamian powers in Ezekiel 23:23.

What does the Bible say happened in Shoa?

The Bible does not record specific events in Shoa. It is listed only as one of the allied forces, alongside Babylon and others, that would come against Judah as an instrument of God's judgment (Ezekiel 23:23).

Why is Shoa mentioned in the Bible?

Shoa's mention highlights the reach of God's sovereignty over distant nations. Its inclusion with powerful empires like Babylon shows that even remote regions were under God's control and could be used to fulfill His purposes of judgment.

Shoa

regionOld TestamentMesopotamia

Loading map...

Modern Name

mouth of the Tigris River

Country

Iraq

Region

Mesopotamia

Coordinates

31.0043, 47.4421

Shoa is a region mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Mesopotamia in modern-day Iraq. Known today as mouth of the Tigris River. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.

Biblical History

Shoa is mentioned once in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 23:23, as part of a prophetic oracle against Jerusalem. The prophet Ezekiel, writing during the Babylonian exile, warns the city of Jerusalem — personified as the unfaithful woman Oholibah — that God would bring against her a coalition of enemies including the Babylonians, Chaldeans, and various Mesopotamian peoples. Among these is Shoa, listed alongside Pekod and Koa as peoples who would execute divine judgment. Scholars debate whether Shoa refers to a specific ethnic group or tribal confederacy in the region of Mesopotamia, possibly the Sutu, a seminomadic people known from Akkadian and Assyrian texts. The context is clearly punitive — these nations serve as instruments of God's wrath against a people who had forsaken their covenant obligations. Shoa's single biblical appearance situates it within the broader prophetic theme of Israel's spiritual adultery and the consequent judgment that history's great powers would bring to bear upon Jerusalem.

Archaeological & Historical Notes

The identification of Shoa remains uncertain among scholars. The name may correspond to the Sutu or Suti, a seminomadic people referenced in Akkadian texts and Amarna letters who inhabited the middle Euphrates and Tigris region. Some have located them near the mouth of the Tigris River in what is now southern Iraq. Assyrian royal annals occasionally reference these tribal groups as difficult-to-subdue peoples on the empire's margins. No definitive archaeological site has been positively identified with Shoa as a place name, and the term may function more as an ethnic or tribal designation than a fixed geographic location. Further excavation in the lower Mesopotamian plain continues to shed light on the complex ethno-political landscape of the Neo-Babylonian period.

Verse Appearances (1)

Ezek

Ezek 23:23

Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →

Content compiled from public domain scholarship, academic sources, and verified references. Editorial standards · View all sources