ELLASAR

(El·laʹsar) [oak].

A kingdom or city over which Arioch reigned in the time of Abraham and Lot. (Gen. 14:1) Many scholars once identified it with the ancient Chaldean town of Larsa, situated in Lower Mesopotamia on the Euphrates’ E bank, nearly midway between Erech and Ur of the Chaldees. This site, about twenty-eight miles (c. 45 kilometers) NE of Ur, is now called Senkereh. Ancient Larsa originally had its own rulers, but it came under Babylonian control after the days of Hammurabi.

The identification of Ellasar with Larsa resulted from reading the name of one of its kings in cuneiform inscriptions as Eri-Aku, some associating this name with Arioch. However, the name “Eri-Aku” is now considered to be more accurately read as “Warad-Sin.” As it is, many scholars now doubt that Ellasar is to be identified with ancient Larsa (the modern Senkereh) and some suggest that Ellasar was Ilanzura, a northern Mesopotamian town to which the Mari texts refer. This location is quite some distance NW of Larsa and is between Carchemish and Haran. Letters of Zimri-lim, a king of Mari who is said to have ruled about 1700 B.C.E., speak of a certain Arriyuk, perhaps a vassal. But linking him with the Biblical Arioch seems unsuitable because Arioch was living in Abraham’s day and the patriarch had an encounter with him much earlier, during the twentieth century B.C.E. Hence, positive identification of ancient Ellasar with a known present-day site still poses a problem for researchers.

King Arioch of Ellasar joined forces with Kings Amraphel of Shinar, Chedorlaomer of Elam and Tidal of Goiim in warring against the kings of the rebelling city-states of the Low Plain of Siddim, or the Salt Sea, that is, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela (Zoar). The rebels were defeated and Lot, then dwelling at Sodom, was taken captive and carried off toward the N. However, Abram (Abraham), with Mamre, Aner and Eshcol as his confederates, overtook the four kings’ combined forces at Dan. There he put them to flight, rescuing Lot and the people and recovering the goods.—Gen. 14:1-16, 24.