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SHINAR

(Heb. šinʿār)

A place name (Akk. Šanhara; Egyp. Sngr) referring to Babylonia (“the land of Sumer and Akkad”), particularly by peoples dwelling west of the Euphrates, when Babylonia was under Kassite rule during the second half of the 2nd millennium b.c.e.

Shinar is first mentioned in Egyptian documents (Thutmose III, 1457) and also in the Amarna Letters (the Hurrian letter sent from Ittanni [EA 24:95] and that sent from Alašia [Cyprus] to Egypt [EA 35:39]).

In the Table of Nations (Gen. 10:10) Babel, Akkad, Erech, and Calneh were located in “the land of Shinar.” However, according to Gen. 11:2, 9 Shinar is parallel to Babel (cf. Isa. 11:11; Zech 5:11). Nebuchadnezzar placed some of the vessels from the Jerusalem temple in his own temple in “the land of Shinar” (Dan. 1:1-2; cf. 2 Chr. 36:6-7). A Neo-Hittite document reports the campaign of Muršili I against “Babylon,” while the Babylonian account uses the name Shinar (^uruŠa-an-ha-ra).

Amraphel king of Shinar was one of the four kings who defeated Abraham (Gen. 14:1, 9). According to Josh. 7:21 Achan had stolen from the booty of Ai “a beautiful mantle from Shinar.”

Bibliography. I. Kalimi, “History of Interpretation: The Book of Chronicles in Jewish Tradition — from Daniel to Spinoza,” RB 105 (1998): 5-41, esp. 8-10; R. Zadok, “The Origin of the Name Shinar,” ZA 74 (1984): 240-44.

Isaac Kalimi

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SHINAR

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)