Kir
KIR
1. A strong city of Moab; called also Kir-hareseth, Kir-haresh, and Kir-heres, Isa 15:1 ; 16:7,11; Jer 48:31 . It was once nearly destroyed by Joram king of Israel, 2Ki 3:25 . It is now called Kerak, and is a town of three hundred families, on a steep hill at the head of a ravine running up fifteen miles into the mountains of Moab. Three-fourths of its present inhabitants are nominal Christians, greatly oppressed by the Mohammedan Arabs around them.2. A region to which Tiglath-pileser transported the captive people of Damascus, 2Ki 16:9 ; believed to have been in the vicinity of the river Kur or Cyrus, on the northeast of Armenia. The Kur flows southeast, unites with the Araxes, and empties into the Caspian Sea.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Kir
(Heb. id., , a wall or fortress, as often; Sept. always as an appellative, , , , etc., but v. r. , , etc.), a people and country subject to the Assyrian empire, mentioned in connection with Elam (Isa 22:6), to which the conquered Damascenes were transplanted (2Ki 16:9; Amos i, 5), and whence the Aramaeans in the east of Syria at some time or other migrated (Amo 9:7). This is supposed by major Rennel to be the same country which still bears the name of Kurdistan or Koordistan (Geogr. of Herodot. p. 391). There are, however, objections to this view which do not apply so strongly to the notion of Rosenmuller and others, that it was a tract on the river Cyrus (Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6:10; Ptolemy, 5:12) ( and , in Zend Koro), which rises in the mountains between the Euxine and Caspian Seas, and runs into the latter after being joined by the Araxes (Busching, Magaz. 10:420; compare Michaelis, Spicil. ii, 121; Suppl. 2191; Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1210) ; still called Kur (Bonomi, Niveveh, p. 47, 71). Gurjistan, or Grusia (Grusiana), commonly called Georgia, seems also to have derived its name from this river Kur, which flows through it. Others compare Curena or Curna of Ptolemy ( or , 6:2, 10, Chald. ), a city in the south of Media, on the river Mardus (Bochart, Phaleg, 4:32); Vitringa the city Carine, also in Media (, Ptolemy, 6:2, 15), now called Kerend (Ritter, Erdk. 9:391). Some region in Media is perhaps most suitable from the fact that Armenia, whose northern boundaries are washed by the river Cyrus, was probably not a part of Assyria at the time referred to (see Knobcl, Prophet. ii, 108), Keil (Comment. on Kings, ad loc.) thinks the Medes must be meant, erroneously imagining that the inhabitants of Kir are spoken of in Isaiah as good bowmen. The Sept. (Vat. MS. at 2 Kings), the Vulg., and Chald. (at 2 Kings and Amos), and Symmachus (at Amos ix), render Cyrene!
For Kit of Moab (Isa 15:1), SEE KIR-MOAB
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Kir
a wall or fortress, a place to which Tiglath-pileser carried the Syrians captive after he had taken the city of Damascus (2 Kings 16:9; Amos 1:5; 9:7). Isaiah (22:6), who also was contemporary with these events, mentions it along with Elam. Some have supposed that Kir is a variant of Cush (Susiana), on the south of Elam.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Kir
“A wall”, or “place fortified with a wall”.)
1. An Armenian region subject to Assyria, Kurgistan or Georgia between the Black and Caspian seas (Isa 22:6). The river Kur (Cyrus) in it falls into the Caspian Sea. From Kir the Syrians migrated originally; and to it they were removed from Damascus by Tiglath Pileser (2Ki 16:9). Esarhaddon had subdued Armenia (according to Assyrian inscriptions: Rawlinson, Herodotos i. 481), warring with it as the harbourer of his father Sennacherib’s two parricidal murderers (Amo 1:5; Amo 9:7). Keil thinks Kir to be Kurena along the river Mardus in Media, or else Karine a town in Media, on the ground that the remote parts of Armenia were beyond the Assyrian empire (2Ki 19:37); but Esarhaddon subdued it. The Septuagint,Vulgate, and Targum rendering “Cyrene” favor Keil.
2. KIR HARESH, HERES, HARESETH, HARASETH, or of MOAB. From harith “a hill” Arabic), or heres “baked clay,” namely, the walls being of brick (?). Moab’s two strongholds were Ar (mother) of Moab, the metropolis, and Kit of Moab (2Ki 3:25) on the most elevated hill in the country (Isa 16:7; Isa 16:11; Isa 15:1; 2Ki 3:25; Jer 48:31; Jer 48:36). Here the Moabite king made his last stand against confederate Israel, Judah, and Edom, (See DIBON.) Here he sacrificed his son and so created “indignation against Israel,” because they had reduced him to such an awful extremity; the Israelites’ own superstitious fears were excited and they withdrew from the expedition; then followed Mesha’s victorious campaign recorded on the Dibon stone.
Now Kerak, capital of Moat, on the top of a hill 3,000 feet above the Dead Sea, surrounded on all sides by deep ravines, and these by hills from whence the Israelite slingers hurled when they could not take the place; entered by a tunnel through the solid rock for 100 feet distance; a deep. rock hewn moat separates the massive citadel from the town. Kiriah is the archaic term; Ir and Ar the more recent terms for a city. Kereth the Phoenician form appears in Carthage, Cirta. In the Bible we have Kerioth (i.e. “the cities”), Kartah, Kartan (Jos 21:32; Jos 15:25; Jer 48:23-24; Jer 48:41; Amo 2:2).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Kir
KIR.An unidentified place, subject in the 8th and 7th cents. to Assyria. Amos (Amo 1:5), according to the present Hebrew text, predicted that the Aramans should be carried captive to Kir. In 9:7 he declares that Jahweh brought them from Kir. It is said in 2Ki 16:9 that Tiglath-pileser carried the people of Damascus captive to Kir, while in Isa 22:6 Kir is mentioned in connexion with Elam as furnishing soldiers to the Assyrian army which fought against Israel. It has been identified with Kur, a river flowing into the Caspian Sea; with Cyropolis; with the Syrian province of Cyrrhestica; with Cyrene; with Kurenia in Media; with Kuris, north of Aleppo; with Koa of Eze 23:23, which has been supposed to be the same as the Gutium of the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] -Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] inscriptions, which possessed a high civilization as early as b.c. 3000. In reality nothing certain is known of the locality of Kir.
George A. Barton.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Kir
KIR (of Moab).Coupled with Ar of Moab (Isa 15:1), possibly identical with it. Following the Targum, Kir of Moab has long been identified with the modern Kerak, a place of great importance in the times of the Crusades. Kerak is situated on a lofty spur between the Wady el-Kerak and the Wady A in Franji, about 4000 feet above the Dead Sea level. The hills behind rise much higher, so that it is commanded on every side by higher ground, which explains 2Ki 3:25-27. It was surrounded by a wall of great thickness, and there are remains of ancient rock-hewn cisterns. The gates were to be reached only through long tunnels in the solid rock.
C. H. W. Johns.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Kir
kur, kir (, kr):
1. Meaning:
The meaning of Kir is inclosure or walled place, and it is therefore doubtful whether it is a place-name in the true sense of the word. In 2Ki 16:9 it is mentioned as the place whither Tiglath-pileser IV carried the Syrian (Aramean) captives which he deported from Damascus after he had taken that city. In Amo 1:5 the prophet announces that the people of Syria (Aram) shall go into captivity unto Kir, and in Amo 9:7 it is again referred to as the place whence the Lord had brought the Syrians (Arameans) as Israel had been brought out of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor.
2. How Rendered in the Septuagint:
Except in one manuscript (Septuagint, Codex Alexandrinus), where it appears as the Libyan Cyrene (2Ki 16:9), it is never rendered in the Septuagint as a place-name. Thus the place whence the Syrians were brought (Amo 9:7) is not Kir, but the deep or the ditch Septuagint , ek bothrou, pit), probably a translation of some variant rather than of the word Kit itself. Comparing the Assyrian-Babylonian kiru (for qru), wall, inclosure, interior, or the like, Kir might have the general meaning of a place parted off for the reception of exiled captives. Parallels would be Kir Moab, the enclosure of Moab, Kir Heres or Kir Hareseth, the enclosure of brick Septuagint hoi lthoi tou tochou). It seems probable that there was more than one place to which the Assyrians transported captives or exiles, and if their practice was to place them as far as they could from their native land, one would expect, for Palestinian exiles, a site or sites on the eastern side of the Tigris and Euphrates.
3. An Emendation of Isa 22:5 :
In Isa 22:5 occurs the phrase, a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains (mekarkar kr we-shoa ‘el ha-har – a surrounding of the wall, etc., would be better), and the mention of kr and shoa here has caused Fried. Delitzsch to suggest that we have to read, instead of kr, koa’, combined with shoa’, as in Eze 23:23. Following this, but retaining kr, Cheyne translates Kir undermineth, and Shoa is at the mount, but others accept Delitzsch’s emendation, Winckler conjecturing that the rendering should be Who stirreth up Koa’ and Shoa’ against the mountain (Alttest. Untersuchungen, 177). In the next verse (Isa 22:6) Kir is mentioned with Elam – a position which a city for western exiles would require.
4. Soldiers of Kir in Assyrian Army:
The mention of Elam as taking the quiver, and Kir as uncovering the shield, apparently against the valley of the vision (in or close to Jerusalem), implies that soldiers from these two places, though one might expect them to be hostile to the Assyrians in general, were to be found in their armies, probably as mercenaries. See Fried. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? 233; Schrader, COT, 425.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Kir
Kir, a people and country subject to the Assyrian empire, to which the conquered Damascenes were transplanted (2Ki 16:9; Isa 22:6; Amo 1:5), and whither also the Aramaeans in the east of Syria once wandered (Amo 9:7). This is supposed by Major Rennel to be the same country which still bears the name of Kurdistan or Kourdistan. There are, however, objections to this view, which do not apply so strongly to the notion of Rosenmller and others, that it was a tract on the river Cyrus, or rather Kuros, in Zend Koro, which rises in the mountains between the Euxine and Caspian Seas, and runs into the latter after being joined by the Araxes. Gurjistan, or Grusia (Grusiana), commonly called Georgia, seems also to have derived is name from this river Kur, which flows through it.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Kir
A country from which the Syrians had come, and to which they were carried from Damascus by the Assyrians. 2Ki 16:9; Isa 22:6; Amo 1:5; Amo 9:7. Being associated with Elam in Isaiah it is supposed to be in Lower Mesopotamia.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Kir
H7024
The inhabitants of Damascus carried into captivity to, by the king of Assyria
2Ki 16:9
Prophecies concerning
Isa 22:6; Amo 1:5; Amo 9:7
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Kir
Kir (kir), wall, or place surrounded with walls. The country whence the Syrians emigrated when they came to settle in the region north of Palestine, and to which Tiglath-pileser sent the captive Syrians after the conquest of Damascus. 2Ki 16:9; Amo 1:5; Amo 9:7. About the location of the place scholars disagree, some placing it In Armenia, on the river Kar; others identifying it with Carena, or Carna, in Media.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Kir
Kir. (fortress). Kir is mentioned by Amos, Amo 9:7, as the land from which the Syrians (Aramaeans) were once “brought up;” that is, apparently as the country where they had dwelt before migrating to the region north of Palestine. (A difference of opinion exists in regard to the position of Kir, since some suppose it to be identical with Carma, a city of Media, in the south, on the river Mardus; others place it in Armenia, on the river Kar. — Editor).