What is the…
Land of Shinar

Hebrew: שִׁנְעָר —transliteration: Shinar —occurrences: 8

Septuagint and Vulgate: Senaar

Inscriptions: Shumir

This name appears 8 times in Scripture and refers to the the southern region of Mesopotamia. It appears to be a synonym for Babylonia.

In this land the tower of Babel was built (Genesis 11:1-6), and the city of Babylon.

Biblical references to the name Shinar

The name Shinar occurs 8 times in Scripture:

1. Genesis 10:10 — “The beginning of his [Nimrod’s] kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.”
2. Genesis 11:2 — “And it happened as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.”
3. Genesis 14:1 — “…in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar…”
4. Genesis 14:9 — “…Amraphel king of Shinar…”
5. Joshua 7:21 — “I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar…”
6. Isaiah 11:11 — “… The remnant of His people, who will remain, grom Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, snd from the coastlands of the sea.”
7. Daniel 1:2 — “…he brought them to the land of Shinar…”
8. Zechariah 5:11 — “Then he said to me, “To build a house for her in the land of Shinar…”

Cities of Shinar

• Accad (aka Akkad)
• Babylon—the city (aka Babel / Babilu)
• Calneh (or Kulunu) (Genesis 10:10).
• Cuthah (Kutha, Cuth, Cuthah, Gudua, Tell Ibrahim)
• Erech (aka Uruk) (Genesis 10:10) (later called Warka), between Ur and Babylon
• Eridu, “the good city” (later called Abu-Shahrein), which originally lay on the shore of the Persian Gulf, but is now, owing to the silting up of the sand, about 100 miles distant from it.
• Larsa (later called Senkereh), the Ellasar of Genesis 14:1, a little to the east of Erech
• Nippur, aka Nipuraka Nippur (later called Niffer), southeast of Babylon
• Ur (later called Mugheir or Mugayyar), on the western bank of the Euphrates
• Sepharvaim (Sephar-vaim) (2 Kings 17:24), “the two Sipparas” (now Abu-Habba), considerably to the north of Babylon

History

The original inhabitants tilled the land and made bricks and built cities.

Later, tribes of Semites (descendants of Noah’s son Shem) invaded the land and settled in it, and became its rulers.

This was followed, in course of time, by an Elamite invasion; from which the land was finally delivered by King Hammurabi (Khammurabi), the son of Amraphel (Amarpel) “king of Shinar” (Genesis 14:1), who became the founder of the new empire of Chaldea.