Ivvah standard
Ivvah was a city apparently conquered by the Assyrians, and is mentioned by them, in the verses quoted, with Hamath and Arpad, Sepharvaim and Hena.
Where is Ivvah in the Bible?
Ivvah was a city in ancient Syria that was conquered by the Assyrian Empire and is mentioned in the biblical accounts of Assyrian military campaigns. The city appears in 2 Kings 18:34, 2 Kings 19:13, and Isaiah 37:13, where it is listed alongside other conquered cities such as Hamath, Arpad, and Sepharvaim. After its conquest, the Assyrians resettled people from Ivvah into Samaria as part of their policy of relocating conquered populations, as recorded in 2 Kings 17:24. The exact modern location of Ivvah remains uncertain, though scholars have proposed various identifications in the Euphrates region, but none definitively confirmed. Ivvah's mention in Scripture illustrates the widespread Assyrian conquests and the geopolitical upheaval that affected the ancient Near East during the late 8th century BC.
In Scripture1 biblical book; 1 with study content
- Isaiah
Ivvah
ISBE 1915 (Public Domain)Ivvah was a city apparently conquered by the Assyrians, and is mentioned by them, in the verses quoted, with Hamath and Arpad, Sepharvaim and Hena. It has been assimilated with the Avva of 2Ki 17:24 as one of the places whence Sargon brought captives to Samaria, and identified with Hit on the Euphrates, between Anah and Ramadieh, but this seems improbable, as is also the suggestion that it is Emma, the modern `Imm, between Antioch and Aleppo. Hommel (Expository Times, April, 1898, 330) upholds the view that Hena and Ivvah, or, as he prefers to read, Avvah, are not places at all, but the names of the two chief gods of Hamath, Arpad and Sepharvaim. This would be consistent with 2Ki 18:34; but 19:13: "Where is the king .... of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?" and 17:31, where the gods of Sepharvaim are stated to be Adrammelech and Anammelech, raise serious difficulties. In all probability, the identification of Ivvah depends upon the correct localization of the twofold Sepharvaim, of which Hena and Ivvah may have been the names. The identification of Sepharvaim with the Babylonian Sip(p)ar is now practically abandoned.
See SEPHARVAIM.
T. G. Pinches
i'-vi (kissos): The only mention of the word in all the sacred writings is in 2 Macc 6:7 in connection with the oppression of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes: "On the day of the king's birth every month they were brought