Telassar
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [1]
Telassar (‘Asshur’s hill or mound’). This city is mentioned with Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and is spoken of as a place inhabited by ‘the children of Eden’ ( 2 Kings 19:12 , Isaiah 37:12 ). The Assyrian inscriptions apparently mention two places so called, one being Til-ashshuri , mentioned by Tiglath-pileser iii., which had a renowned temple dedicated to Merodach, and is stated to have been a Babylonian foundation. The other, written Til-ashurri , is referred to by Esarhaddon as having been conquered by him (the people of Mihrânu, he seems to say, called it Pitânu ). It was inhabited by the people of Barnaku or Parnaku a name which Delitzsch points out as similar to the Parnach of Numbers 34:25 . This Till-ashurri is supposed to have lain near the land of Mitanni (Upper Mesopotamia), which would find support if Mihrânu be connected with the Mehru mentioned by Tukulti-Ninib (-Nirig) 1.
T. G. Pinches.
Easton's Bible Dictionary [2]
Isaiah 37:12 2 Kings 19:12
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
tḗ - las´ar ( תּלאשּׂר , tela'ssār ( 2 Kings 19:12 ), תּלשּׂר , telassār ( Isaiah 37:12 ); Codex Alexandrinus Θαλασσάρ , Thalassár ; Codex Vaticanus Θαεσθέν , Thaesthén ; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) Thelassar , Thalassar ):
1. The Name and Its Meaning:
This city, which is referred to by Sennacherib's messengers to Hezekiah, is stated by them to have been inhabited by the "children of Eden." It had been captured by the Assyrian king's forefathers, from whose hands its gods had been unable to save it. Notwithstanding the vocalization, the name is generally rendered "Hill of Asshur," the chief god of the Assyrians, but "Hill of Assār ," or Asari (a name of the Babylonian Merodach), would probably be better.
2. Suggestions as to the Geographical Position:
As Telassar was inhabited by the "children of Eden," and is mentioned with Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, in Western Mesopotamia, it has been suggested that it lay in Bit Adini, "the House of Adinu," or Betheden, in the same direction, between the Euphrates and the Belikh. A place named Til - Aššuri , however, is twice mentioned by Tiglath-pileser 4 ( Ann ., 176; Slab-Inscr ., II, 23), and from these passages it would seem to have lain near enough to the Assyrian border to be annexed. The king states that he made there holy sacrifices to Merodach, whose seat it was. It was inhabited by Babylonians (whose home was the Edinu or "plain"; see Eden ). Esarhaddon, Sennacherib's son, who likewise conquered the place, writes the name Til - Ašurri , and states that the people of Mihranu called it Pitānu . Its inhabitants, he says, were people of Barnaku . If this be Bı̄t Burnaki in Elam, extending from the boundary of Rǎŝu (see Rosh ), which was ravaged by Sennacherib ( Babylonians Chronicles , III, 10 ff), Til - Aššuri probably lay near the western border of Elam. Should this identification be the true one, the Hebrew form telassār would seem to be more correct than the Assyrian Til - Aššuri (- Ašurri ), which latter may have been due to the popular idea that the second element was the name of the national god Assur. See French Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? 264.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [4]
(Heb. Telassar', תְּלִשָּׂר [in Isaiah], fully תְּלִאשָּׂר . [in Kings], Assyrian Hill; Sept. Θαεσθέν , Θεεμάθ v.r. Θαλασσάρ , Θαιμάδ ; Vulg. Thelassar, Thalassar) is mentioned in 2 Kings 19:12 (A.V. "Thelassar") and in Isaiah 37:12 as a city inhabited by "the children of Eden," which had been conquered and was held in the time of Sennacherib by the Assyrians. In both passages it is connected with Gozan (Gauzanitis), Haran (Carrhae, now Harran), and Rezeph (the Razappa of the Assyrian inscriptions), all of which belong to the hill country above the Upper Mesopotamian plain, the district from which rise the Khabfr and Belik rivers. (See Gozan); (See Haran); (See Mesopotamia).
It is quite in accordance with the indications of locality which arise from this connection to find Eden joined in another passage ( Ezekiel 27:23) with Haran and Asshur. Telassar, the chief city of a tribe known as the Beni-Eden, must have been in Western Mesopotamia, in the neighborhood of Harran and Orfa. The name is one which might have been given by the Assyrians to any place where they had built a temple to Asshur, and hence perhaps its application by the Targums to' the Resen of Genesis 10:12, which must have been on the Tigris, near Nineveh and Calah. (See Resen). Ewald (Gesch. 3, 301, Note 3) identifies it with a heap of ruins called Teleda, southwest from Racca, the Theleda of the Peut. Tab. (11, c), not far from Palmyra. It is in favor of this that in that case the places mentioned along with it in the passages cited stand in the order in which they would naturally be' attacked by a force invading the territory from the east, as would the Assyrians (Thenius, Exeget. Hanldbuch; ad loc.). Havernick's identification (Ezekiel p. 476) with the Thalatha ( Θαλαθά ) of Ptolemy (5, 20, 4) would place it too far south. The Jerusalem Targum (on Genesis 14:1) and the Syriac take it from Ellassar (q.v.), in the territory of Artemitia (Ptolemy, 6:176; Strabo, 16:p. 744). Layard thinks (Nineveh, 1, 257) that it may be the present Tel Afer, or perhaps Arban (Nin. and Bab. p. 283), although no name like it is found there now.
