Heshbon at Nippur

 

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer Avondale College

Australia

 

Most of us, hearing the city or region name Heshbon or the modern Arabic name Hesban, think of an area or location in Transjordan.

That is the more conventional place to look for the city. And it still is the place to look for it.

 

An interesting comment is made by V. Hilprecht and mentioned by Stephen Langdon in his article "Babylon at the time of the Exile," The Expositor 8 (1909): 82-96, especially 85 cites some interesting information by Hilprecht, Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania vol. 9, page 27.

 

Hilprecht indicated that Hebrews settled in the vicinity of Nippur during the Babylonian exiles (597 BCE) and they named their towns after ancient cities in their own lands: 

 

Hešbān as a-aš-ba-[an]

Askalon as Iš-ķal-lu-nu.

 

In fact, these town names continued to be used in that area during the times of Artaxerxes I (465 BCE) and Darius [II] (423 BCE).

Biblical names like Haggai, Ananias, Samson, Benjamin are used in contracts from this period.

 

End item. 

Response from Emeritus professor Alan Millard
Prof. Alan Millard of the University of Liverpool wrote to me (2 June 2009) saying:

Dear dr van Wyk,
A lot of work has been done on Jews in Babylonia, their names and the names of places, in recent years, especially by Ran Zadok, e.g. The Jews in Babylonia during the Chaldean and Achaemenian Periods, Haifa (1979) You should consult up-to-date research on such matters. Hilprecht and Langdon were good in their day, but much more has been discovered since they were working. Recent publications show there was a place called 'Judah' in Babylonia, see essays by W. G. Lambert and by K. Abraham in M. Lubetski, ed. New Seals and Inscriptions, Sheffield, Phoenix Press (2007).

Alan Millard. Emeritus Rankin Professor of Hebrew & Ancient Semitic Languages,
The University of Liverpool.
5, Saxon Court, Guys Cliffe Avenue, Leamington Spa, Warwicks. CV32 6LY
England.