Kir

Kir, a people and country subject to the Assyrian empire, to which the conquered Damascenes were transplanted (2Ki 16:9; Isa 22:6; Amo 1:5), and whither also the Aramaeans in the east of Syria once wandered (Amo 9:7). 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.

1. A strong city of Moab; called also Kir-hareseth, Kir-haresh, and Kir-heres, Isa 15:1 ; 16:7,11; Jer 48:31 . It was once nearly destroyed by Joram king of Israel, 2Ki 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.\par 2. A region to which Tiglath-pileser transported the captive people of Damascus, 2Ki 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.\par

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

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

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

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. 2Ki 16:9; Amo 1:5; Amo 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.

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

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Bernhard Pick

A people and country subject to the Assyrian empire. In II Kings xvi. 9 and Amos i. 5, ix. 7, Kir is mentioned as the place whither the Syrians went before they settled in the regions north of Palestine, and to which Tiglath-pileser sent the prisoners after the conquest of Damascus. In Isa. xxii. 6 Kir is mentioned in connection with Elam: "And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield." The Septuagint translates the last clause συναγωγή παρατάξηως, omitting "Kir" altogether and taking for , hence συναγωγή. Hitherto it has not been possible to identify the place.

KIR (of Moab).—Coupled with Ar of Moab (Isa 15:1), possibly identical with it. Following the Targum, Kir of Moab has long been identified with the modern Kerak, a place of great importance in the times of the Crusades. Kerak is situated on a lofty spur between the Wady el-Kerak and the Wady ‘A in Franji, about 4000 feet above the Dead Sea level. The hills behind rise much higher, so that it is commanded on every side by higher ground, which explains 2Ki 3:25-27. It was surrounded by a wall of great thickness, and there are remains of ancient rock-hewn cisterns. The gates were to be reached only through long tunnels in the solid rock.

C. H. W. Johns.

A wall

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 2Ki 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 Amo 1:5 the prophet announces that the people of Syria (Aram) shall go into captivity unto Kir, and in Amo 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 (2Ki 16:9), it is never rendered in the Septuagint as a place-name. Thus the place whence the Syrians were brought (Amo 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 Isa 22:5:

In Isa 22:5 occurs the phrase, “a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains” (m^eḳarḳar ḳı̄r w^e-shō^a‛ ’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 Eze 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 (Isa 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.