Shinar

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Shinar

Shinar (Hebrew Šin`ar, Septuagint Se??aa? Sennaar) is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
, occurring eight times in the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
. Possible derivations from Semitic that have been suggested include Shene nahar "two rivers" and Shene or "two cities", but neither is certain.

In the Book of Genesis 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod

Nimrod

Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations. The term Nimrod when vague or general is applied to the means of hunter, normally to a person....
's kingdom is said to have been "Babel

Babel

Babel is the name used in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an for the city of Babylon , notable in Book of Genesis as the location of the Tower of Babel....
, and Uruk

Erech

Erech was an ancient city in the land of Shinar, the second city built by king Nimrod after the destruction of the Tower of Babel. The Sefer haYashar 11:3 records that this city was built in the place where God deported people of various new language groups to different parts of the world, and Nimrod therefore named the city Erech....
, and Akkad, and Calneh

Calneh

Calneh was said to be one of the four cities founded by Nimrod , according to Genesis 10:10 in the Bible. Its identity is uncertain, and remains a mystery....
, in the land of Shinar." The following chapter, 11:2, states that Shinar was a plain settled after the flood, where mankind, still speaking one language, built the Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel according to chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built at the city of Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon ....
.

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Shinar (Hebrew Šin`ar, Septuagint Se??aa? Sennaar) is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Hebrew Bible

Nimrod

Babel

Babel is the name used in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an for the city of Babylon , notable in Book of Genesis as the location of the Tower of Babel....
, and Uruk

Erech

Calneh

Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel according to chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built at the city of Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon ....
. In Genesis 14:1,9 Shinar is the land ruled by king Amraphel

Amraphel

In the Tanakh or Old Testament, Amraphel was a king of Shinar in Genesis xiv.1 and 9, who invaded the west along with Chedorlaomer, king of Elamite Empire, and others, and defeated Sodom and the other Sodom and Gomorrah in the Battle of the vale of siddim....
, who reigned in Babylon. "Shinar" is further mentioned in Joshua
Book of Joshua

The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christianity Bible. This book stands as the first in the Former Prophets covering the history of Kingdom of Israel from the possession of the Promised Land to the Babylonian Captivity....
7:21; Isaiah
Book of Isaiah

The Book of Isaiah is a book of the Bible traditionally attributed to the Prophet Isaiah, who lived in the second half of the 8th century BC. In the first 39 chapters, Isaiah prophesies doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God....
11:11; Daniel
Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Originally written in Hebrew language and Aramaic language, it is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon following the Siege of Jerusalem of 597 BC....
1:2; and Zechariah
Book of Zechariah

The Book of Zechariah is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh attributed to the prophet Zechariah ....
5:11, as a general synonym for Babylonia.

If Shinar included both Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
("Babel") and Erech, then "Shinar" broadly denoted southern Babylonia. Any cognate relation with Šumer
Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and a historical region located in Southern Iraq , known as the Cradle of civilization. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period through the Uruk period and the Dynastic periods until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC....
, an Akkadian name used for a non-Semitic people who called themselves Kiengir, is not simple to explain and has been the subject of varied speculation. The Egyptian term for Babylonia / Mesopotamia was Sngr (Sangara), identified with the Sanhar of the Amarna letters

Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Ancient Egypt administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom....
by Sayce.

Some scholars have suggested that Shinar must have been confined to the northern part of Mesopotamia (plain of Sinjar, immediately south of Mount Judi

Mount Judi

Mount Judi or Mount Cudi , according to the Qur'an , is the resting place of the Noah's Ark built by the Prophets of Islam Noah at God's command....
and west of Mount Nisir), based on Jubilees

Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees , sometimes called the Lesser Genesis , is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the Pseudepigrapha by most Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians....
9:3 which allots "Shinar" (or in the Ethiopic text, "Sadna Sena`or") to Asshur. However, 10:20 states that the Tower was built with bitumen

Bitumen

Bitumen is a mixture of organic compounds liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons....
from the sea of Shinar. Other scholars such as David Rohl

David Rohl

David M. Rohl is a United Kingdom Egyptology and historian who has put forth several controversial theories concerning the chronology of Ancient Egypt and History of ancient Israel and Judah....
, however, have proposed that the Tower was actually located in Eridu

Eridu

Eridu , from the Sumerian for 'mighty place', is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq. Eridu was the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, founded c 5400 BCE....
, once located on the Persian Gulf, where there are ruins of a massive, ancient ziggurat worked from bitumen.

This is where the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth went after they tarried in the highlands of Armenia, after the flood (Vuibert, Ancient History, 25).

Shinar

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