psalms of this group is of such varied nature as to leave the matter still uncertain.

ASENAPPAR

(Asʹe·nap·par) [Asshur is the creator of the heir].

This name appears in a portion of the book of Ezra (4:10) recorded in Aramaic and is evidently a clipped rendering of the name of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and, like the Persian, which has no letter l, substitutes an r for the final l. In Greek he was called “Sardanapallos” and in Latin “Sardanapalus.” Further basis for applying the name to Ashurbanipal is the reference at Ezra 4:9, 10 to inhabitants of Susa (capital of Elam) as being transplanted to Samaria by Asenappar. (Compare 2 Kings 17:24-28.) History shows Ashurbanipal to be the only Assyrian king in position to carry out such action as regards the inhabitants of Elam.

Ashurbanipal was the son of Esar-haddon (Ezra 4:2) and grandson of the mighty Sennacherib. He seems to have been a contemporary of King Manasseh of Judah (716-661 B.C.E.), whose name is found on a prism of Ashurbanipal listing some twenty kings as tributaries of Assyria. (Compare 2 Chronicles 33:10-13.) Under him, Assyria reached its greatest heights. Apparently appointed as crown prince three or four years earlier, Ashurbanipal took the throne of Assyria upon his father’s death; his brother, Shamash-shumukin, assumed the subordinate throne of Babylon. There is great uncertainty as to the length of Ashurbanipal’s reign.—See CHRONOLOGY.

Ashurbanipal quelled an uprising in Egypt, conquering and ravaging the city of Thebes (No-amon; compare Nahum 3:8-10). Later he was engaged in a lengthy conflict with his brother, the king of Babylon, and after subduing Babylon, destroyed Susa, the capital of Elam. It is this conquest that is the historical basis for relating him to Asenappar of Ezra 4:9, 10.

Ashurbanipal is best known, however, for his literary interests, a unique trait among the formidable Assyrian monarchs. Beginning in 1845 C.E., excavations revealed a great library formed by Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, containing some 22,000 clay tablets and texts. In one inscription he says of himself: “I, Ashurbanipal, learned the wisdom of Nabu, the entire art of writing on clay tablets. . . . I received the revelation of the wise Adapa, the hidden treasure of the art of writing. . . . I considered the heavens with the learned masters. . . . I read the beautiful clay tablets from Sumer and the obscure Akkadian writing which is hard to master. I had my joy in the reading of inscriptions on stone from the time before the flood.”—Light from the Ancient Past (1946), Jack Finegan, p. 181.

Ashurbanipal sent scribes to all the ancient temples of Babylon to copy the literary works contained there. Among the texts found in his royal library are those of the Babylonian accounts of the Creation and of the Flood. In addition to incantations, prayers and hymns, the thousands of cuneiform writings include treatises on history, geography, astronomy, mathematical tables, medicine, grammar, as well as business documents involving contracts, sales and loans. Some of the tablets are as small as one inch square (6.5 square centimeters) while others measure up to fifteen inches by eight and a half inches (38.1 by 21.5 centimeters). They are viewed as the principal source of information for secular history of the Assyrian Empire and its monarchs.

Historical information about the end of Ashurbanipal’s reign is uncertain. In discussing this, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 257) states: “With the year 639, the sources for Assyrian history cease, . . . No explanation can be given for this curious blackout. With appalling suddenness, the Empire disintegrated.”—See ASSYRIA.

ASENATH

(Asʹe·nath) [belonging to (the goddess) Neith].

The daughter of the Egyptian priest Potiphera of On, given by Pharaoh to Joseph as his wife (1737 B.C E.). She became the mother of Manasseh and Ephraim.—Gen. 41:45, 50-52; 46:20.

ASH

[Heb., tidh·harʹ].

The name of this tree occurs twice in the Hebrew Scriptures, at Isaiah 41:19 and 60:13. In the first text it is included among trees such as the juniper and cypress, which are to flourish in the desert plain under foretold paradisaic conditions, and in the latter text it is included among the same trees as part of the “glory of Lebanon.” The identification of this tree is conjectural, but there is some evidence through comparison with the Arabic and Aramaic that favors the ash tree.—See Koehler-Baumgartner, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, p. 1019; Brown-Driver-Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 187; Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I, p. 163.

Two varieties of ash, Fraxinus ornus and Fraxinus oxycarpa, are found in the mountains of Lebanon and the upper extremity of Palestine, though not throughout Palestine generally. If, as some authorities hold, the root meaning of the tree’s name means to “spring” or “bound (as a horse),” then the springy elasticity of the tough wood of the ash would make the name a fitting one. (See Parkhurst’s Hebrew Lexicon, 9th ed., p. 128.) It could also qualify as part of the “glory of Lebanon,” for it is a large tree growing up to fifty feet (15.2 meters) high, thriving in elevated areas in Syria and Lebanon where other trees find survival difficult, and of such beauty as to have been called, by some, the “Venus” of the forest. It has light-green foliage and ash-colored branchlets. It is of the same family botanically as the olive, but is unlike the olive, the leaves of which are ever green, because the ash sheds its leaves each fall.

ASHAN

(Aʹshan) [smoke].

A city in the Shephelah or lowland region of Judah. Originally assigned to Judah, it was thereafter given to Simeon, due to Judah’s territory being overly large. (Josh. 15:42; 19:7, 9; 1 Chron. 4:32) From them it passed to the Levite family of the Kohathites. (1 Chron. 6:54, 59) First Samuel 30:30 refers to “Borashan” (well of smoke) as one of the cities in that general region to which David sent spoils after his victory over the Amalekites, and this is thought by some to be the same as Ashan. At Joshua 21:16 the list of cities given to the Kohathites, corresponding to that at 1 Chronicles 6:59, is presented, but “Ain” appears in the Joshua list in place of Ashan. The Soncino Books of the Bible, commenting on the text, suggests that the full name of the city may have been Ainashan (spring of Ashan), thus corresponding to Borashan (well of Ashan). Others view “Ain” as a scribal error, preferring the Septuagint reading of “Ashan” in this text.

Ashan is presently identified with Khirbet ʽAsan, located about one and a half miles (2.4 kilometers) NW of Beer-sheba, alongside the dry wadi ʽAshan.

ASHARELAH

(Ash·a·reʹlah) [perhaps, God has fulfilled with joy].

A son of Asaph serving in the service groups of musicians and singers at the house of Jehovah in the time of David. (1 Chron. 25:1, 2) It is probable that Jesharelah of verse 14 is a variation of his name.

ASHBEA

(Ash·beʹa) [fullness (plenty), or, let me swear (one) in].

The house of Ashbea descended from Judah’s son Shelah and was noted for its production of fine fabric. (1 Chron. 4:21) The Targums add that their linen was made for kings and priests.

ASHBEL, ASHBELITES

(Ashʹbel, Ashʹbel·ites) [perhaps, a secondary form of Ishbaal, man of the Lord].

Son of Benjamin, listed third at Genesis 46:21, but