ASSHUR

(Asʹshur) [perhaps, prosperous, strengthened].

1. A son of Shem, named second at Genesis 10:22 and 1 Chronicles 1:17. He was the forefather of the Assyrians, and the same Hebrew word is rendered both “Asshur” and “Assyria(n).” Either their nation or one of its main cities, Asshur (modern Qalʽat Sherqat), is meant at Ezekiel 27:23.

2. The foremost divinity of the Assyrians, their god of military prowess, to whom this warlike people prayed for aid. Asshur was a sort of “deifled patriarch,” and in venerating him the Assyrians may actually have worshiped their ancestor, Asshur, the son of Shem. The name Asshur is incorporated in such Assyrian names as those of Esar-haddon (“Asshur has given brothers[s]”) (2 Ki. 19:37; Isa. 37:38; Ezra 4:2) and Ashurbanipal (“Asshur is the creator of the heir”), who appears to be the one called Asenappar at Ezra 4:10.

The false god Asshur was believed to be the chief protector of the Assyrians, being represented in their art by the winged sun disk. It was in their god Asshur’s name and with his approval (indicated by favorable omens) that Assyrian troops entered battle, carrying his sacred symbol into the fray. Their kings ascribed victories “to the help of Asshur.”

Asshur’s temple in the city of Asshur was named E-khar-sag-gal-kur-kurra, meaning “house of the great mountain of the lands.” A similar concept of religious buildings seems to have existed in Babylonia, where Bel’s temple at Nippur was named E-kur (“mountain house”), and E-sagila (“lofty house”) was the name applied to the temple of Marduk at Babylon and that of Ea at Eridu.—See ASSYRIA.