Hebrew word · H780

אֲרָרַט

'ararat

Ararat

The Hebrew name for Urartu, a kingdom in the highlands around Lake Van and the upper Euphrates and Aras rivers, a major power of the 9th to 7th centuries BC. 'Ararat' in the Bible is a region, not one peak (Gen 8:4 'the mountains of Ararat'; Jer 51:27 kingdom of Ararat).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Ararat = "the curse reversed: precipitation of curse"

a mountainous region of eastern Armenia, between the river Araxes and the lakes Van and Oroomiah, the site where Noah's ark came to rest

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 Isaiah 37:38

Range of meaning

The Hebrew name for Urartu, a kingdom in the highlands around Lake Van and the upper Euphrates and Aras rivers, a major power of the 9th to 7th centuries BC. 'Ararat' in the Bible is a region, not one peak (Gen 8:4 'the mountains of Ararat'; Jer 51:27 kingdom of Ararat).

Against the English

BSB, WEB and YLT have 'Ararat'. KJV has 'Armenia', following the Septuagint's Armenia (and partly Latin tradition), which is the later name for roughly the same region.

How it drifted

Modern readers connect 'Ararat' with Noah and with the single mountain now called Ararat (Ağrı Dağı). The biblical writers meant the whole kingdom. The mountain was named from the biblical region much later.

Used elsewhere in the period

Assyrian texts call it Urarṭu and record repeated wars with it. Esarhaddon's own inscription says his rebel brothers fled to an unnamed land after he defeated them in Hanigalbat (northern Mesopotamia). That fits flight north into Urartu.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 8:4 אֲרָרָֽט׃ Ararat

    On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 19:37 אֲרָרָ֑ט Ararat

    One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 37:38 אֲרָרָ֑ט Ararat

    One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

    Here: Urartu, the mountain kingdom north of Assyria around Lake Van, in what is now eastern Turkey and Armenia. It was Assyria's long-standing rival, and therefore a natural refuge for Assyrian fugitives.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 51:27 אֲרָרַ֖ט Ararat

    “Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.

    Here: The kingdom of Urartu, in the highlands around Lake Van in what is now eastern Turkey and Armenia. It is the name of a country, not of a single mountain.

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