Arah, aramsians

In On lO-^ Aram is the son of Shem, and father of Uz, Hul, Gethor, an<i Mash, the last of whicli is Arabia Petr.i'a, the Mas of the cuneiform inscriptions (cf. Gn 25"). In Gn 22 Aram is the son of Kemuel, the son of Nahor, the two elder brothers of Kemuel being Uz (AV Huz) and Buz (Bazu in the Assyr. texts). In the OT Aram includes the nortliem part of Mesopotamia, Syria as far south as the borders cf I'al., and the larger part of Arabia Petriua.

The inhabitants of this region were mainly oJ Sem. oririn, and spoke a Sem. language, which, with its dialects, is known as Aramaic. In some parts of it, however, as at Kadesh on the Orontes, near the lake of Homs, and at Carchemish (now JerablCis or Jerabis) on the Euphrates, the Hittitea had occupied the country ; and on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of Carchemish, the powerful kingdom of Mitanni was established, ^\•ith a language of a very peculiar type.

An Aram, dialect was spoken by the Nabata;an8 of Petra, and it is probable that the Ishmaelita tribes must be classed as Arama^ns. In the Assyr. inscriptions the name appears aa Aramu, Arumu, and Arimu, as well as Armft. In a text of Tiglath-pileser l. (B.C. 1100) the waters on the east side of the Euphrates and westward of Harran are termed mami mat Armd, ' the waters of the land of the Aramspans.' Assur- na?ir-pal III. (B.C.

88S-823) states that he restored to Assyria certain cities which a former Assyr. king had fortified in the land of Nahri, towards the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, and of which the ' Arumu ' had taken possession. Among the Aramaean princes whom he subdued here were Ammi-baal and Bur-Hadad, ».e. Bar-Hadad or Ben-Hadad. There were many Arama;an tribes in Babylonia (Piikudu or Pekod, J« abatu or Nabata'iins, Ru'ua, etc.

) who lived under sheikhs on the banks of the Tigris and Euplirates as well as on the coast of the Persian Gulf. They were partly traders, partly pastoral nomads, and were collectively called j\jumu. The Assyrians never gave the name to the populations westward of the Euphrates, who were included under the general titles of Hittitea and Amorites. In the OT, on the contrary, the name is applied to the inhabitants of Syria as well as to those of Mesopotamia.

The different Aramtean districts or states are distinguished by special titles. Meso- potamia is known as Aram-naharaim, 'Aram of the two rivers,' Tims and Euphrates. It corre- sponds in part to tlie Nahrima of the Egyp. in- scriptions, though the latter term denoted the district between tlie Euphrates and Orontes, as well as the kingdom of Mitanni on the eastern side of the Euphrates. In the Tel el-Amama tablets, however, it is confined to Mitanni. The Assyr.

country of Nahri lay in a different ilirection, in the mountains of S. Armenia. Cushan, rishathaim, king of Arara, naharaim (AV Mesopotamia), who oppressed the Israelites for eight years shortly after their entrance into Canaan (Jg^S'"'"), was a king of Mitanni. We learn from the Tel el-Amama tablets that in the 15th cent. B.C. the kings of Mitanni or 'Nahrima' had already interfered in the affairs of Palestine, and had intermarried with the royal familj' of Egypt.

The troops of Mitanni accompanied the nortliern hordes who attacked Egypt in the reign of Kamses III. (c. B.C. 1200) ; and as the king of Mitanni is not named anion" the conquered in- vaders, it is probable that he did not actuallj- enter Egypt, but remained behind in Canaan. This would have been ju-st before the Israelitish conquest of that country, and would throw light on the presence there of Cushan-rishathaim.

In certain passages of the Pent, assumed to belong to P (Gn 25* 28^"-/ 31" 33" So"-" 48'), the name of Aram-naharaim as applied to the northern part of Mesopotamia is replaced by Pad[d]an-arani, of which S'd^h 'Ar&m, 'the field of Aram,' in Hos 12", is supposed to he a translation. Paddan is the same word as the Syr. and Arab. paddAn, a measure of land which can bo ' ploughed ' by oxen in a day, and is found in Assyrian under the form of pac/i'inu.

Padanu is explained in the cuneiform lexical table'^s aa ARAM, ARAAf^lANS ARARAT 139 meaning 'field' or 'fjarden' {WAI ii. 62. 33), from a root which si^ifies to ' cleave ' or ' ploujrh ' the {jround. It is also brought into connexion w-ith kharriinu, 'a hij;h-road,' whence the name of Harran (Gn 11»' 28'° 27"), and is the eqiiivalent of a Sumcrian word signifying ' foot ' or ' plain,' whicli was used to denote 'the land of the Amor- ites ' ( WA I ii. 50. 59).

An early king of Babylonia, Agu-kak-rimi (c. B.C. 1700) calls himself ' king of Padan and Alnian.' On the western side of the Euplirates the Arain.tan states and language extended, eastward of the Jordan, a.s far .south as Mizpeh in Gilead (Gn 31", where tlie cairn is described as forming a boundary between the languages of Aram and Canaan). In the north was Aram of Zobah (the Tsubitfi of the Assyr. texts, which place it cast- ward of Hamath).

In the time of Saul (1 S U") ' the kings of Zobah ' are mentioned, but soon after- wards Zobah appears under the sole rule of Hadad- ezer, son of Kehob (2 S 8*-"). Hadadezer, who had 'had wars' with Hamath, was defeated by David ' as he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates.'

Subsequently, in spite of assist- ance from the Arania'ans of Damascus (2 S 8'), and of Mesopotamia ' beyond ' the Euphrates (2 S 10"), the army of Hadadezer was again overtbro^^^l at Helain (perhaps Aleppo, Assyr. Khalman), and ' the kings that were servants to Hadadezer ' became the vassals of Israel. Josephus transforms the place Helam, which he calls Khalaman, into a prince of Mesopotamia.

Among the citicsof Hadad- ezer captured by Da\-id were Tibhatli (1 Cli 18', called Betah in 2 S 8') and Berotliai (Cun in 1 Ch 18'). Tibhath seems to be the Tubikli of the Tel el-Amama tablets and the geoCTaphical list of Tahutmes III. at Kamak, the Tebali of Gn 22=-'. The wliole district is probably that which is termed Nuklirisse in the Tel el-Amarna texts (Anaugas in the Eiryp. inscriptions).

Adjoining Aram-Zobah was Aram Beth-rehob or Aram-rehob (2 S 10'-'), which may have de- rived its name from the father (or ancestor) of Hadadezer. Rehob is associated with Ish-tob, 'the men of Tob' (see Jg ll'-"); but in 1 Ch 19" Aram-naharaim takes the place of both. To the south came Aram-maacah or Maacah, which, along with the adjoining Geshur, was .assigned to Mana.sseli, eastward of the lakes of Meroni and Gennes.aret (Dt 3'\ Jos 12» 13"-'>, 2 S 3' 13").

Like Tebah and Tahash, the Takhis of the Egyp. monuments, Maacah was a descendant of Natior (Gn 22-'). Between Maacah and Zobah was the cityof D,amascus(.'\s./)im<7.sAa) which wasconquered by the Egyp. king Tahutmes ill. (B.C. 1480), and was still subject to Egypt in the age of the Tel el-Amama tablets (B.C. 14U0). Damascus is called Aram- Dammesek in 2 S 8', when it sent aid to Hadad- ezer.

The defeat of Hailadezer made it tributary to David, but it recovered its independence early in the reign of Solomon under Rezon the son of Eliadah, wlio hail been a vassal of the king of Zobah (1 K ir-"''"'). Damascus soon became a dangerous neighbour of the nortliem kingdom of Israel, and at one time even exercised a sort of Buzeraintv over Samaria.

The other Aranuean states of Syria were absorbed by it, so that eventu- ally the name of Aram was applied to it alone ; but its power was finally shattered by the Assyrians. Foremost among tJie Aram.ran deities was Hadad or Addu (also Dadu or Dadda), the sun- cod, identifie<l bj' the Assyrians with their Kamnian (Uimmon), the air-god, also called Amumi, ' the Amorite.' We find the combination HailadUimmon in Zee 12".

By the side of Hadad stood his divine son Ben-Hadad, as wo leam from the cuneifonn inscriptions. At Scndschirli mention is made, besides lladad, of Keshcph the fire-god, of El, Shamas, Or, and Rekeb-el or Rekub-el, which may possibly denote ' the chariot of El.' NumeroxLs deities are referred to in the Palmyrene inscriptions, such as Baal-samen, Agli- bol, and Yarkhi-ool ; but several of them, like Bol, or Nebo, or Sin the moon-god of Harran, were borrowed from the Babylonian.

So also was the goddess Atar, the Bab. Istar, who, in combination with the Syrian 'Ati, produced the hybrid Atar- ":atis. In the south the Nabatwans of Tenia, I'etra, and the Sinaitic Peninsula had several deities of their own, such as Aumos(?), Jj^atsiu (Kas- sios), and Zelem (As. Zalmu) ; but others, like Du- sares and Allftt, Manot, J^ais, and J^aisah, they sliared with the Arabs. The gods of Syria are mentioned in Jg 10*. For the Aramaic Lt^guage, see Language of the OT. Literature.

— Rpnan, HUtoire ginimU et fysteme compari dfs Lnngut-^ s^mititpies (1863); Miltlieihingen aus <if'n orieutiilisch-'n Saminlungen, pt. xi., Au^grahuiigfn in Serulnclnrli i. nsita); Baethgeu, Beitrdgg zur semitisdten lieligiotisgesckifhte (ISSS). A. H. Savce.