Hebrew word · H7449

רֶ֫סֶן

resen

Resen

A proper name. The Bible names this city only here.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Resen = "bridle"

a place in Assyria between Nineveh and Calah

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 10:12

Range of meaning

A proper name. The Bible names this city only here.

Against the English

All English versions transliterate it as 'Resen'.

Used elsewhere in the period

No securely identified Assyrian city matches it. A common proposal links it to Akkadian rēš ēni, 'head of the spring/fountain'. Names of that type appear in Assyrian royal inscriptions, including some tied to Sennacherib's waterworks, but none has been firmly placed between Nineveh and Calah. The Septuagint reads 'Dasem', probably from a misread letter.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 10:12 רֶ֔סֶן Resen

    and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

    Here: A city in the Assyrian heartland that the Bible names only here. Its location is unknown. The name may come from an Assyrian phrase meaning 'head of the spring', a name that would suit a place at a water source.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.