Asshur
City · Asshur → Ash-Sharqat, Iraq
The first city of Assyria, on the Tigris, that gave the empire its name.
People
- Asshur
- Nimrod
At a glance
- Realm
- Assyria (its first capital)
- Role
- Original city and namesake of Assyria
- Peoples
- Assyrians
- First mention
- Genesis 10 (Asshur)
The story
Asshur stood on a bluff above the Tigris and was the first capital of Assyria and the source of its very name. From this land, Scripture says, went out the building of Nineveh and the other great cities of the north.
In the pages that follow, the name Asshur comes to mean the whole Assyrian power, the rod the LORD would raise against the nations and then break. Balaam saw Asshur leading captives away, and the prophets watched this power grow out of the Tigris cities to become the terror of the age before its own fall.