Assur
“Ashur left that land, and he built Nineveh, and Rehovot Ir, and Kalah And Resen between Nineveh and Kalah; that is the great city” (Genesis 10:11-12).
As briefly mentioned in the section on Nimrod, the Torah’s distinction between the terms ‘emerged’ and ‘begot’ could be meant to imply that Assur probably does not descend from Nimrod but emerged from the land of Nimrod competing with him for ruler of the empire. It is interesting that there is another Assur on the Table of Nations, himself a son of Shem. This line could mean that the Assur who emerged from the Land of Nimrod was actually the same as Assur, the son of Shem. Lining up with this theory are the Philistines who also emerge from the Casluhim, or variously Caphtorim, and are themselves potentially not a Hamitic people just like Assur. All of this is supported by Radak in his commentary to Genesis 10:11.
Presumably Assur was itself conquered by Nimrod, it isn’t exactly clear in the text if Assur founded this land, then Nimrod came and conquered it, or if Assur later founded it after the dispersion at Babel? Alternatively some believe Nimrod may have even founded the cities listed to Assur, but we will hopefully dispel that over this section as the textual implication associates them to Assur, not Nimrod.
Helping us affirm the order of events is Chuzkuni who says “At the beginning his kingdom extended only to Babylonia and Accadia, extending eventually throughout the whole region of Shinor. Eventually he even conquered the region of Ashur. (northeast) Ashur had emigrated as he could not stand Nimrod’s anti-God attitude.”1 We see that Nimrod conquers Shinar, and then does make his way to Assyria to conquer it where, according to Chizkuni, Assur had moved in order to escape Nimrod’s “anti-God attitude”. This is a very curious fact, and begins setting up a distinction that not just Abraham, but all of Shem’s descendants as recognizing Nimrod’s folly on some inherent level.
Effectively we see Chuzkuni at the least implying Assur was almost a proto Abram recognizing the idolatry in Shinar and making his way east in order to escape these evil ways. While it’s difficult to fully lay out the process of events that unfold causing Assyria itself to become led astray into idolatry, we are given the clue that Shem probably taught his sons different from Ham.
Reinforcement for this comes in the form of Rashi, who builds a case off Genesis Rabbah 37:4 saying “From that land: Since Asshur saw his sons obeying Nimrod and rebelling against the Omnipresent by building the tower, he departed from their midst.”2 Rashi explicitly goes with the idea that Assur did have this early model of Abram built into his fleeing from Shinar, but in the time of the Tower of Babel. Actually looking at the source for Rashi’s commentary would be helpful.
“Ashur left that land” – Ashur left that conspiracy [of Babel]. When he saw all of them coming to contest the Holy One blessed be He, he vacated his land. The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘You left four [cities], by your life, I will repay you by giving you four [cities]’: “And he built Nineveh, and Rehovot Ir, and Kalaḥ…and Resen” (Genesis 10:11–12).3
Genesis Rabbah is quite explicit, even going so far as to say God rewarded Assur with the cities for his willingness to give up four of his cities in Sumeria. While a seemingly fleeting fact the details would actually imply that Nimrod conquered four OTHER cities that Assur had already founded in Shinar, or Sumeria. Given there are certain cities in Sumeria with a more decidedly Semitic element it’s very possible these are the cities that Assur had originally founded.
Being a son of Shem, Assur would have obviously spoken semitic. The earliest attestations of a Semitic language are Akkadian dating between the 24th and 23rd centuries BCE with earlier evidence for the language coming in the form of personal names in Sumerian texts from the first half of the third millennium BCE.4 One of the earliest known Akkadian inscriptions was found on a bowl at Ur, addressed to the very early pre-Sargonic king Meskiagnunna of Ur (c. 2485–2450 BC) by his queen Gan-saman, who is thought to have been from Akkad.5
These inscriptions helped prove a Semitic presence throughout Sumeria before they became the primary empire in the region and undoubtedly founded many important cities of their own. These cities would therefore be attributed to Assur in this period and be the very cities Nimrod conquers later. Akkadian became the primary language of the obvious Akkadian Empire, pioneered by Sargon, but another more westernly branch of Semitic that goes on to influence Phoenician and Hebrew was the Elba language emerging also around the same period.
Turning our attention to some of these cities' identifications we can first separate out “the great city” - seemingly the capital of the Assyrian people. According once again to Rashi “the great city: This is Nineveh, as it is said (Jonah 3: 3): “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city to God.”6 In other words scripture is referring to Nineveh, not to Resen or Calah, which are not “great cities”. There is a slight problem with this identification, and that is that Nineveh wasn’t the capital of Assyria.
Now, saying that is a loaded statement since it was in fact the capital of Assyria sometime between 704–681 BCE during none other than the reign of King Sennacherib. While Rashi isn’t exactly incorrect, there is a problem using Jonah as evidence since it’s more than likely a story specifically about Jonah’s time in Nineveh during the renovations of the city by Sennacherib. Nineveh was indeed a great city in the time of Jonah, but was it the great city?
While Nineveh was always an important city, the capital of Old Assyria, Middle Assyria, and even the Neo-Assyrian Empire was all Assur until around the 8th century. Looking again at Genesis Rabbah for Rashi’s argument we find “And Resen between Nineveh and Kalah …[that is the great city]” – we do not know whether Resen is the great city, or Nineveh is the great one. From what is written: “Nineveh was an exceptionally great city, a journey of three days” (Jonah 3:3), we see that Nineveh was the great city.”7
To me, it appears that Genesis Rabbah substantiates it’s argument of Nineveh being the great city with Jonah, but if it’s true that this city was only “the great city” in the time of Jonah, Jonah cannot be used as the evidence and the argument stands that identifications for the great city are still up for debate. Let’s look at identifications for Resen to see if that city fits the bill either.
Returning to Genesis Rabbah 37:4, “[Resen is] Telasar. But he [Ashur] did not do so [indefinitely]; rather, because it [the nation of Ashur] came and participated with them [the Babylonians] in the destruction of the Temple, the Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘Yesterday you were a chick [efroaḥ] and now an egg? Yesterday you soared [mafriaḥ] with mitzvot and good deeds, but now you are shut in like an egg? That is astonishing.’ That is why [it is written]: “[Also Ashur has joined them]; they give a hand to the sons of Lot, Selah.” (Psalms 83:9) – for a curse [levat].”
Couple helpful things we learn from this, foremost that “Resen is Telasar”. Telasar is actually another biblical city, mentioned in king Hezekiah's struggle with the Assyrians conquering Jerusalem “Behold you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands to destroy them. Now will you be saved? Did the gods of the nations whom my forefathers destroyed-Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the children of Eden which is in Telassar save them?”8 In 2 Kings we see Telassar mentioned alongside Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the “children of Eden”. According to Rashi the children of Eden are a province, or small polity, but it’s very possible they had some relationship to the Ekur phenomenon mentioned previously in relation to Nippur.
The first two cities are known from Northern Mesopotamia, while Rezeph is likely somewhere similar given various etymological places in the region with the name. All of these sites are in Northern Mesopotamia essentially near Assyria helping affirm Telassar being in the north. In Ezekiel 27:23 it is mentioned again alongside Haran and Eden as well as Canneh.
In Isaiah 37:12 Sennacharib boasts “Did the gods of the nations whom my forefathers destroyed-Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden which is in Telashar-save them?” This reference explicitly places all four of these cities in Telassar, which makes it more of a region than a city. If Resen is Telasar, then could it just be inside this broad provincial region?
Looking at etymology for the term Telasar it is much more simple than it first appears. The archeological word “Tel” - meaning hill, or mound - might have first appeared in English in the 1840s, but the word has a much more ancient history through Arabic and Aramaic Hebrew as the word תל. Even in Sumerian the word was likely “DUL” showing that this place might very well have had the ancient name Telasar.
When separated out we are left with “Asar” which is fairly obviously “Assur” alluding to the Assyria region proper which is different from the more northern Nineveh ‘province’. Let's return to the original text for a moment and look at the order of events.
As per Genesis “Ashur left that land, and he built Nineveh, and Rehovot Ir, and Kalah And Resen between Nineveh and Kalah; that is the great city”. First Ashur builds Nineveh which we know well from records, and is shown in the very north on the map. Unhelpful is that Rehovot-Ir is another unknown city yet to be discovered, but there is an alternative explanation that translates it to mean something like “Width of the Wider City”, or in a modern parlance “territory surrounding the city” meaning the land around Nineveh.
Kalah is most probably the Assyrian city of Kalhu - also referred to by the moniker “Nimrud” - located not far from modern Mosul just about between Nineveh and Assur. Kalhu was actually itself a capital helping certify why it would be on such an important list. This would place Resen “between Nineveh and Kalah”, but ultimately the city is also undiscovered.
One potential identification for Resen could be the site of “Dur-Sharrukin” or “Fortress of Sharrukin”. The site is located near present day Khorsabad and the name comes from the King of Assyria Sargon II, who ruled just before Sennacherib and moved the capital to Nineveh after his father’s sudden death. The abandonment of that site could have resulted in the name change, but a tenuous theory posits that the modifier “Dur” for fortress is essentially the same as “DUL” alternatively meaning “a built up place”. Dur, or Dul Sharrukin could have easily become Tel(a)Shar) under this transformation.
Another location is near a place called Res-ini, or modern “Ras al-’Ain”, but this is located on a different tribute river to the Euphrates rather than the Tigris and wouldn’t exactly fit with Assur proper.9 Some view the modern site of Karamlesh as a possible location, however I would like to put an alternative theory forward.
It’s possible that the entire region from Nineveh, to Resen, to Kalah was one entire megacity of sorts. While nothing like the connected modern cities it's very possible in an ancient context the “great city” was a series of cities forming an entire kind of mega complex. Important is that the actual city of “Assur” is never mentioned, but effectively the entire territory north of Assur is the region that the Torah is referring to broadly.
Based on Jonah it was said that it was a three day walk from one side of the city to the other, implying this was definitely quite a large area. Even in the modern era it would take about a four day walk all the way from Babylon to Nineveh, showing that a three day walk was meant as more than a single city proper, and that the great city of Nineveh was a megacity complex.
The series of events leaves room for interpretation, but a possible outline of occurrences could be that Nimrod conquered Assur from Assur, which fell much closer inside the borders of the various empires forming out of Sumeria. Nineveh was a much more distant city and offered a bit of autonomy, as did its surrounding region, and it’s possible it is here that we see Assur founding cities after Assur proper was taken from him. All of these events significantly predate the biblical Neo-Assyrian Empire with all of these cities existing for thousands of years by the time they are mentioned in geopolitical events.
Assyria is one of the most historically well known nations, with a defined ethnicity even today. Assyrians were one of the most well known and important political entities, and their culture left and indelible mark upon human civilization. Their over 2000 year relevance to world events begets their mentioned on the Table, and we will see when we eventually arrive at Shem how Ashur actually serves a dual role in this story, being one of the few children given importance outside the actual listing of sons. See you next time.
Chizkuni, Genesis 10:10:1
Genesis Rabbah 37:4
Bereshit Rabbah 37
Huehnergard, John (2019). "Introduction to the Semitic languages and their history". In John Huehnergard and Na‘ama Pat-El (ed.). The Semitic Languages (Second ed.). New York: Routledge.
Bertman, Stephen (2003). Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. Oxford University Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-019-518364-1.
Genesis Rabbah 37:4, Yoma 10a
Bereshit Rabbah 37:4
2 Kings 19:12
Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, “In Search of Resen (Genesis 10:12): Dūr-Šarrukīn?” in Birkat Shalom: Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Postbiblical Judaism Presented to Shalom M. Paul on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, edited by Chaim Cohen, et al. (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2008), 511–524.