Habor
(Heb. Chabor’, , if of Shemitic origin, from , to join, meaning the united stream; if of Persic derivation, from khubpadr= , with beautiful banks [Furst, Lex. s.v.]; Sept. and ), a river, and apparently also a district of Assyria, to which considerable interest is attached in connection, with the first captivity. We read in 1 Chronicles 5, 26, that Tilgathpilneser carried away the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan. About seventeen years later, Shalmaneser, the successor of the former monarch, took Samaia, and cared Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in fabor, the river of Gozan (A.V., by the river Gozan, 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11). There are two rivers still bearing this name, and geographers are not agreed as to which Is here referred to. SEE CAPTIVITY.
1. A river called Khabur rises in the central highlands of Kurdistan. flows in a south-westerly direction, and falls into the Tigris about seventy miles above Mosul (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 56; Schultens, Index Geogr. in vitain Saladizi, s.v.). Many suppose this to be the Habor of Scripture for the following reasons:
1. It is within Assyria proper, which Ptolemy says was bounded on the west-by the Tigris (6, 1).
2. It is affirmed that the Assyrian monarch would place his captives in a central part of his kingdom, such as this is, and not in the outskirts (Keil on 2Ki 17:4-6).
3. Habor is termed a river of Gozan ( ); and Gozan is supposed to signify pasture, and to be identical with the word Zozan, now applied by the Nestorians to the pasture-lands in the highlands of Assyria, where the Khabur takes its rise (Grant, The Nestorian Christians, p. 124).
4. Ptolemy mentions a mountain called Chabor () which divides Assyria from Media (6, 1); and Bochart says the river Chabor has its source in that mountain (Opera, 1, 194, 242, 362). Some have supposed that the modern Nestorians are the descendants of the captive Jews (Grant, 1. c.). SEE GOZAN.
2. The other and much more celebrated river, Khabur, is that famous affluent of the Euphrates, which is called Aborrhas () by Strabo (16, 1, 27) and Procopius (Bell. Pers. 2, 5); Aburas () by Isidore of Charax (p. 4); Abora () by Zosimus (3, 12); and Chaboras by Ptolemy (, 5, 18) and Pliny (Fl. N. 30, 3). It rises about lat. 363 40′, long 40′ flows only a little south of east to its junction near Kaukab with the Jerujer or river of Nisibis, which comes down from Mons Masius. Both of these branches are formed by the union of a number of streams. Neither of them is fordable for some distance above their junction; and below it they constitute a river of such magnitude as to be navigable for a considerable distance by steamers. The course of the Khabur below Kaukab is tortuous [through rich meads covered with flowers, having a general direction about S.S.W. to its junction with the Euphrates at Karkesia, the ancient Circesium]. The entire length of the stream is not less than 200 miles (Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, 1, 236; see Ainsworth, Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand, p. 79; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 304). Ritter (Erdknde, 10, 248), Gesenius (Thesaurus), Layard, Rawlinson, and others, maintain that this is the ancient Habor. There can be no doubt that Assyria proper was confined to the country lying along the banks of the Upper Tigris, and stretching eastward to Media. But its territory gradually expanded so as to include Babylonia (Heroaotus, 3, 92), Mesopotamia (Pliny, H. N. 6, 26), and even the country westward to the confines of Iilicia and Phoenicia (Strabo, 16). At the time of the captivity the power of Assyria was at its height. The Jewish captives were as secure on the banks of the western as of the eastern Habor. The ruins of Assyrian towns are scattered over the whole of northern Mesopotamia. On the banks of the lower Khabur are the remains of a royal palace, besides many other traces of the tract through which it runs having been permanently occupied by the Assyrian people. Even near Seruj, in the country between Haran and the Euphrates, some evidence has been found not only of conquest, but of occupation (Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, 1, 247; see Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, i, 114; Layard, Ain. and Bab. p. 275, 279-300, 312). There can be no doubt that the Khabur was in Assyria, and near the center of the kingdom, at the time of the captivity. Further, Ptolemy mentions a province in Mesopotamia called Gauzanitis (5, 18). It lay around the Khabur, and was doubtless identical with Gozan, hence the phrase Habor, the river of Gozan (2Ki 17:6), Chalcitis, which appears to be identical with Ialah, mentioned in the same passage, adjoined Gauzanitis. It is a remarkable fact that down as late as the 12th century there were large Jewish communities on the banks of the Khabfir (Benjamin of Tudela, in Early Travels in Pal. p. 92 sq.). The district along the banks probably took its name from the river, as would seem from a comparison with 1Ch 5:26. , Ptolemy mentions a town called Chabor (5. 18). The Khablr occurs under that name in an Assyrian inscription of the 9th century before our era (Layard, Nin. and Bab. p. 354) SEE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS.
It seems doubtful whether Habor was identical with the river Chebar (), on which Ezekiel saw his visions. The latter was perhaps farther south in Babylnia (Eze 1:3, etc.). SEE CHEBAR.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Habor
the united stream, or, according to others, with beautiful banks, the name of a river in Assyria, and also of the district through which it flowed (1 Chr. 5:26). There is a river called Khabur which rises in the central highlands of Kurdistan, and flows south-west till it falls into the Tigris, about 70 miles above Mosul. This was not, however, the Habor of Scripture.
There is another river of the same name (the Chaboras) which, after a course of about 200 miles, flows into the Euphrates at Karkesia, the ancient Circesium. This was, there can be little doubt, the ancient Habor.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Habor
(See GOZAN.) Now the Khabour; omitting “by” in 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11. But “Halah” a province, going directly before Habor in the same connection, favors KJV It would be awkward to say he put them “in Halah,” a province, and “in Habor,” a river. Probably the river Habor gave its name to the province. It joins the Euphrates at Circesium; the country adjoining abounds in mounds, the remains of Assyrian cities. The Khabour is mentioned in an inscription of the 9th century.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Habor
HABOR.A river flowing through the district of Gozan, on the banks of which Israelites were settled when deported from Samaria (2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11, 1Ch 5:26). It is a tributary of the Euphrates, the Chaboras of the Greeks, the modern Khbr.
L. W. King.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Habor
habor (, habhor; , Habor, , Habior; Isidor of Charax, Aburas (), Zosias, Aboras):
1. Its Position and Course
Is described in 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11 (compare 1Ch 5:26) as the river of Gozan. It is the Arabic Khabur, and flows in a southerly direction from several sources in the mountains of Karaj Dagh (Mons Masius), which, in the 37th parallel, flanks the valley of the Tigris on the West. The river ultimately joins the Euphrates after receiving its chief tributary, the Jaghjagha Su (Mygdonius), at Circesium (Kirkisiyeh).
2. Etymologies of Habor
The meaning of its name is doubtful, but Delitzsch has suggested a Sumerian etymology, namely, habur, the fish-waterway, or it may be connected with mother Hubur, a descriptive title of Tiamat (see MERODACH; RAHAB).
3. Historical References
Layard found several interesting Assyrian remains in the district, including man-headed bulls bearing the name of Muses-Ninip, possibly an Assyrian governor. Tiglath-pileser I (circa 1120 bc) boasts of having killed 10 mighty elephants in Haran and on the banks of the Habor; and Assur-nasir-apli (circa 880 bc), after conquering Harsit (Harrit, Harmis), subjugated the tract around piate sa nar Habur, the mouths of the Habor. According to 2 Ki and 1 Chronicles, Shalmaneser IV and Sargon transported the exiled Israelites thither. Philological considerations exclude the identification of the Chebar of Ezek 13, etc., with the Habor.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Habor
Habor, or rather Chabor, a city or country of Media, to which portions of the ten tribes were transported, first by Tiglathpileser, and afterwards by Shalmaneser (2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11). It is thought by some to be the same mountainous region between Media and Assyria which Ptolemy calls Chaboras. This notion has the name, and nothing but the name, in its favor. Habor was by the river Gozan; and as we have accepted Major Rennell’s conclusion, that Gozan was the present Kizzil-Ozan [GOZAN], we are bound to follow him in fixing the position of Habor at the town of Abbar, which is situated on a branch of that river, and has the reputation of being very ancient. At this place Mr. Morier found ruins composed of large sun-dried bricks compacted with straw, like some of those found at Babylon. As this kind of construction is an infallible sign of remote antiquity, it so far affords a most important corroboration of Major Rennell’s conjecture.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Habor
[Ha’bor]
An affluent of the Euphrates, joining that river about 35 N. It marks one of the districts to which the Israelites were carried captive. 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11; 1Ch 5:26. It is now called Khabour . The name of the Habor has been found on some of the ancient Assyrian monuments. In ancient histories it has borne the names of Aborrhas, Aburas, Abora, and Chaboras, etc.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Habor
H2249
A river of Mesopotamia.
2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11; 1Ch 5:26
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Habor
Habor (h’br). Perhaps rich in vegetation. A river of Gozan, 2Ki 17:6; 1Ch 5:26; probably identical with the modern Khabour, the Aborrhas and Chaboras of ancient writers, and a branch of the Euphrates.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Habor
Ha’bor. (beautiful banks). The “river of Gozan,” 2Ki 17:6, and 2Ki 18:11, is identified, beyond all reasonable doubt, with the famous affluent of the Euphrates, which is called Aborrhas and Chaboras by ancient writers, and is now called Khabour.