Ivah
Fausset's Bible Dictionary [1]
2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13; 2 Kings 17:24; Isaiah 37:13. Now Hit , on the Euphrates, between Sippara (Sepharvaim) and Anah (Hena), with which it was apparently united politically. Probably the Ahava of Ezra 8:15. Iva was a Babylonian god representing the sky; to it the town was sacred. Sennacherib boasts that the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah, were powerless to resist him. The Egyptian inscriptions in the time of Thothmes III, 1450 B.C., mention a town 1st, whence tribute of bitumen was brought to Thothmes. From the bitumen springs of Is, Herodotus says (i. 606) the bitumen was brought to cement the walls of Babylon. These springs are still found at Hit. From Ivah, along with Babylon, Cuthah, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, the king of Assyria (Esar-haddon) brought people to colonize Samaria.
Smith's Bible Dictionary [2]
I'vah. (Ruined). I'vah or A'va , which is mentioned in Scripture twice, 2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13, compare Isaiah 37:13, in connection with Hena and Sepharvaim, and once, 2 Kings 17:24, in connection with Babylon and Cuthah, must be sought in Babylonia, and is, probably, identical with the modern Hit , on the Euphrates.
Morrish Bible Dictionary [3]
District or city that had been conquered by Assyria. 2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13; Isaiah 37:13 . Supposed to be the same as AVA in 2 Kings 17:24 and AHAVA in Ezra 8:15,21 .
Easton's Bible Dictionary [4]
2 Kings 18:34 19:13 Ezra 8:15
Holman Bible Dictionary [5]
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [6]
(Heb. Ivvah', עַוָּה , for עִיָּה , Avvah', an Overturning or ruin, as in Ezekiel 21:32; Sept. Ἀουά , but in Isaiah 37:13, unites with the preced word into Ἀναεγγουγανά ), a city of the Assyrians Whence they brought colonists to re-people Samaria ( 2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 19:13; Isaiah 37:13, where it is mentioned in connection with Hena and Sepharvaim; also in the cognate form "Ava," 2 Kings 17:24, where it stands in connection with Babylon and Cuthah). Sir H. Rawlinson thinks that the site must be sought in Babylonia, and that it is probably identical with the modern Hit, which is the Hit of Herodotus (1, 179), a place famous for bituminous springs (see Rich, First Memoir on Babylon, p. 64, and Chesney, Euphrates Expedition, 1, 55). This town lay on the Euphrates, between Sippara (Sepharvaim) and Anah (Hena), with which it seems to have been politically united shortly before the time of Sennacherib ( 2 Kings 19:13). He also regards it as probably the Ahava ( אְִִהוָא ) of Ezra (8:15). He believes the name to have been originally derived from that of a Babylonian god, Ιυα , who represents the sky or Ether, and to whom the town is supposed to have been dedicated (Rawlinson, Herodotus, 1, 606, note). In the Talmud the name appears as Ihih ( יהיא ), whence might possibly be formed the Greek Ιχ , and the modern Hit (where the t is merely the feminine ending), if we might suppose any connection between the Greek and the Talmud. Isidore of Charax seems to intend the same place by his Ἀεί - Πολις (Mans. Parth. p. 5). Some have thought that it occurs as Ist in the Egyptian inscriptions of the time of Thothmes III, about B.C. 1450 (Birch, in Otia Eggyptiaca, p. 80). But these conjectures are destitute of any great probability, as the form of the Heb. name does not well correspond. See AVA.
