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Asshur

Man living at the time of the Patriarchs

Asshur was a son of Shem and is considered the father of the Assyrians (Gen.10.22; 1Ch.1.17).

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Also known as Ashur

Asshur is mentioned in the genealogies of Genesis 10 and 1Chronicles 1, known as the Table of Nations. He was a son of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah. The Table of Nations records the spreading out of Noah's descendants after the flood, indicating the origins of various people groups. Asshur is associated with the Assyrians, an ancient Semitic people who inhabited the region of Mesopotamia. The Assyrians established a powerful empire that played a significant role in the history of the ancient Near East. The name Asshur is also used to refer to the chief deity of the Assyrian pantheon and the capital city of the Assyrian Empire.

Family

Father
Shem

Bible dictionary

Asshur Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

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.)

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Asshur Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

second son of Shem, (Genesis 10:22) also the Hebrew form for Assyria. [Assyria, Asshur]

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Asshur Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

AS'SHUR. Gen 10:22. The second son of Shem. See Assyria.

AS'SHUR, a Hebrew form for Assyria, and in the prophecies and historical books refers to that empire. See Assyria.

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Asshur Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

AS'SHUR, a Hebrew form for Assyria, and in the prophecies and historical books refers to that empire. See Assyria.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Asshur appears

2 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H0804

Genesis1
1 Chronicles1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.