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Aram-Naharaim
Aram-Naharaim (Hebrew: אֲרַם נַהֲרַיִם ʾĂram Nahărayim) is the biblical term for an ancient land along the great bend of the Euphrates River.[1]
It is mentioned five times in the Hebrew Bible[2] or Old Testament. In Genesis, it is used somewhat interchangeably with the names Paddan Aram and Haran to denote the place where Abraham stayed briefly with his father Terah's family after leaving Ur of the Chaldees, while en route to Canaan (Gen. 11:31), and the place from which later patriarchs obtained wives, rather than marry daughters of Canaan.
Both the Septuagint (early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) and Flavius Josephus translate the name as Mesopotamia.[3] Ancient writers later used the name "Mesopotamia" for all of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates. However, the usage of the Hebrew name "Aram-Naharaim" does not match this later usage of "Mesopotamia", the Hebrew term referring to a northern region within Mesopotamia.
The translation of the name as "Mesopotamia" was not consistent – the Septuagint also uses a more precise translation "Mesopotamia of Syria" as well as "Rivers of Syria".
- ^ Younger 2016, p. 96.
- ^ Genesis 24:10; Deuteronomy 23:4; Judges 3:8,10; 1 Chronicles 19:6; Psalm 60:1.
- ^ Wevers 2001, pp. 237–51.
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