Kir

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

"A wall", or "place fortified with a wall".)

 1. An Armenian region subject to Assyria, Kurgistan or Georgia between the Black and Caspian seas ( Isaiah 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 ( 2 Kings 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 ( Amos 1:5;  Amos 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 ( 2 Kings 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 ( 2 Kings 3:25) on the most elevated hill in the country ( Isaiah 16:7;  Isaiah 16:11;  Isaiah 15:1;  2 Kings 3:25;  Jeremiah 48:31;  Jeremiah 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 ( Joshua 21:32;  Joshua 15:25;  Jeremiah 48:23-24;  Jeremiah 48:41;  Amos 2:2).

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Leviticus 15:1Kir

2. Kir is the Hebrew translation of the city name, Der (a word from Akkadian which also means “wall”). Kir was a Mesopotamian city east of the lower Tigris River (which is now identified with the modern Badrah) on the main road from Elam (Persia) to Babylon. During the Neo-Babylonian period (605-539 B.C.; see Babylon), Kir was the capital of the province of Gutium. The governor of this province joined Cyrus the Persian in the overthrow of the Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C.

According to the Bible, Kir was the city from which Arameans migrated to Syria ( Isaiah 22:6 ). Their migration—like the migration of the Philistines from Caphtor—is spoken of in terms similar to that of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt ( Amos 9:7; see  Amos 1:5 ). When Tiglath-pileser III conquered the area during the reign of Ahaz ( 2 Kings 16:9 ), the descendants of the original immigrants to Syria were sent back to Kir (compare the aversion of the ancient Hebrews to being sent back to Egypt in  Deuteronomy 17:16;  Deuteronomy 28:68 ).

Phil Logan

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

KIR . An unidentified place, subject in the 8th and 7th cents. to Assyria. Amos (  Amos 1:5 ), according to the present Hebrew text, predicted that the Aramæans should be carried captive to Kir. In 9:7 he declares that Jahweh brought them from Kir. It is said in   2 Kings 16:9 that Tiglath-pileser carried the people of Damascus captive to Kir, while in   Isaiah 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   Ezekiel 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.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

1. A strong city of Moab; called also Kir-hareseth, Kir-haresh, and Kir-heres,  Isaiah 15:1;  16:7,11;  Jeremiah 48:31 . It was once nearly destroyed by Joram king of Israel,  2 Kings 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,  2 Kings 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.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

 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.  2 Kings 16:9;  Amos 1:5;  Amos 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.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

 Kir.  (fortress). Kir is mentioned by Amos,  Amos 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).

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A country from which the Syrians had come, and to which they were carried from Damascus by the Assyrians.  2 Kings 16:9;  Isaiah 22:6;  Amos 1:5;  Amos 9:7 . Being associated with Elam in Isaiah it is supposed to be in Lower Mesopotamia.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 2 Kings 16:9 Amos 1:5 9:7 Isaiah 22:6

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kûr , kir (  קיר , kı̄r ):

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  2 Kings 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  Amos 1:5 the prophet announces that the people of Syria (Aram) shall go into captivity unto Kir, and in   Amos 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 ( 2 Kings 16:9 ), it is never rendered in the Septuagint as a place-name. Thus the place whence the Syrians were brought ( Amos 9:7 ) is not Kir, but "the deep" or "the ditch" Septuagint  ἐκ βόθρου , ek bóthrou , "pit"), probably a translation of some variant rather than of the word "Kit" itself. Comparing the Assyrian-Babylonian kîru (for qı̂ru ), "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 Ḳir Moab , "the enclosure of Moab," Ḳir Ḥeres or Ḳir Ḥareseth , "the enclosure of brick" Septuagint hoi lı́thoi toú toı̄chou ). 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  Isaiah 22:5 :

In  Isaiah 22:5 occurs the phrase, "a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains" ( meḳarḳar ḳı̄r we - shōa‛ 'el hā - hār - "a surrounding of the wall," etc., would be better), and the mention of ḳı̄r and shōa‛ here has caused Fried. Delitzsch to suggest that we have to read, instead of ḳı̄r , ḳōa' , combined with shōa' , as in  Ezekiel 23:23 . Following this, but retaining ḳı̄r , 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 ( Isaiah 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.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. id.,  קַיר  , a  wall or fortress, as often; Sept. always as an appellative,  τεῖχος,  πόλις,  βόθρος, etc., but v. r.  Χαῤῥάν,  Κυρηνή  , etc.), a people and country subject to the Assyrian empire, mentioned in connection with Elam ( Isaiah 22:6), to which the conquered Damascenes were transplanted ( 2 Kings 16:9; Amos i, 5), and whence the Aramaeans in the east of Syria at some time or other migrated ( Amos 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)  ( Κῦρος and  Κύῤῥος, 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 ( Κουρήνα or  Κοῦρνα, 6:2, 10, Chald.  קרני ), a city in the south of Media, on the river Mardus (Bochart,  Phaleg, 4:32); Vitringa the city  Carine, also in Media ( Καρίνη, 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 ( Isaiah 15:1), (See Kir-Moab)

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Kir, a people and country subject to the Assyrian empire, to which the conquered Damascenes were transplanted (;; ), and whither also the Aramaeans in the east of Syria once wandered . 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 Rosenmüller 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.