The Ar Rulers

A fresco at Erebuni Fortress in Armenia (8th Century BC)

Alice C. Linsley

The original name for the Nile River was Ar, meaning "venerable". The Ar prefix appears in the names of many rulers and ruler-priests, suggesting that these are descendants of rulers who dispersed out of the Nile Valley. Examples include the Sumerian king Arwium of Kish; Artama, Archelaos, Artaxerxes, Ar-Shem, Artix, Areli, Araxes, Arviragus, a Jebusite named Araunah, and Arishen, a Horite who ruled a territory in the central Zagros between 2400-2301 B.C. Ariaramnes was the great uncle of Cyrus the Great. 

More recent historical figures identified with the Ar prefix include King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea, both connected to the British Isles.

Israelites associated with the Ar patrimony include Aroch (1 Chr 7:39, Ezr 2:5, Neh 6:18, Neh 7:10) and Ariel (Ezr 8:16, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:1, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:2, Isa 29:7). Ariel means “Scribe/Messenger of God.” 

The association of the Ar element with royal scribes is demonstrated by the discovery of multi-lingual scrolls from the satrap Arsames to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-Hor (A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117). The archives of Arsames offer valuable insight into the administration of Egypt at the end of Dynasty 27 (525- 404 BC).

The Arsames communiques tell of tensions between the Jewish priests and the priests of the Ram-headed HR resulted in the destruction of a magnificent Jewish temple at Elephantine in 410 BC, with the approval of the Persian governor Vidranga. In Horite Hebrew religion the Sun rose as a lamb in the east and set as a ram in the west. The solar arc spoke to them of the reign of the High God over earth. Horus was in his lamb state at sunrise and in his ram state as sunset. This symbolically speaks death and resurrection. The YHWH temple at Elephantine represented a different religion in which there was no son of God.

Royal scribes served the great kingdom builders of Genesis chapter 10, and they are to be thanked for preserving some of the oldest anthropological data available today.

The Ar rulers were served by scribes, masons, gardeners, and warriors. The royal metal workers fashioned weapons and symbols of authority such as staffs, crowns, flails, totems, and vellidoids. 

The Ar connection to rulers is reflected in the Arabic word arsh, meaning "throne", and to the word aryeh, meaning lion, the most widespread symbol of kings. A Hebrew ruler was named Areli, meaning "Lion of God".

On ancient monuments and stone reliefs, kings are often shown fighting a lion or subduing serpents. The ancient Egyptian word ar refers to the Sun serpent, the totem of smiths throughout the Ancient Near East. Ancient iconography shows Horus (Most High One) wearing the golden serpent of the Sun on his head. The serpent was a totemic symbol for the royal smiths. That sheds light on the narrative of Moses, the Horite Hebrew leader, who fabricated a bronze serpent and placed it on a staff.

One of the largest copper production sites of the Levant is in the Arava/Arabah region in what is now Israel. This hilltop site was the workshop of ironmongers as evidenced by furnaces and slag heaps. The smiths who worked at the Timna site venerated Hathor, the mother of Horus. 

The smiths were known by different names depending on the location of the kingdom in which they served. The smiths of Anatolia were called Nes. In Igboland, the metal-working priests, often dwarfs, were called Neshi. They are also credited with the early sacred script known to the Cross River indigenes as Nshi-biri (which in Igbo means ‘Written by Nshi’).

The Ar of Genesis 10

Genesis 10 speaks of the Ar who controlled the Red Sea and the Mediterranean kingdoms of Tyre and Arvad. This appears to be a 3-clan confederation, consisting of Ar, Arvd and Arkt. The last two clans are called “Arvadites” and “Arkites” in Genesis 10:15-18. The peoples living in Arvad had serpent imagery in their temples and shrines. 

Deuteronomy 2:9 states that Ar was given to the Moabites, the descendants of Lot whose homeland was in Mesopotamia.

The word “Arvadite” refers to residents of the Mediterranean island-city of Arvad (Arpah or Arphad in some ancient sources). Arvad is an extremely ancient city. Before the time of the Phoenicians, it was populated seasonally by peoples passing from North Africa to central Asia. 

It is believed that the island state of Arvad was established by the Amorites around 2000 B.C. although its location on an ancient trade route suggests that it was a significant port long before that.

Tuthmosis III took control of Arvad in 1472 B.C. and the Arvadites paid tribute to the Pharaohs for protection from the Assyrians. 

The Philistines invaded the territory and established themselves as a thorn in the side of Abraham’s descendants. An Aramean king attempted to uproot the Philistines in aid of the Ammonites.

David had to contend with the Philistines on the west and the Ammonite-Aramean coalition on the east. Having dealt with the Philistines, David engaged Shoboch, the Aramean general and defeated him. (II Sam.10:18)

Ar Place Names

It was a common practice in the ancient world for a territory to take the name of its king or a name derived from the king's royal titles. The dispersal of Ar rulers may be traced by the identification of toponyms with the Ar prefix. Consider this partial list: Ar in Moab, Arabia, Arabah, Aram, Arvan, Arba, Arses, Arsamea, Arish, Aragon, Arles, Armagh (Ard Mhacha), Ararat, and Armenia. 

Erebuni Fortress in Armenia, known as Arin Berd ("Fortress of Blood") was founded in 782 BC by the Urartian King Argishti I (reigned 785-753 BC). Built on a hill overlooking the Arax River, it served as a military stronghold to protect the kingdom's northern borders.

The dye used in the Erebuni fresco (shown above) is composed of copper obtained from Armenia and which had been used in Mesopotamia since the 3rd millennium BC.

Another example is the place name Arrapha, a center of Hurrian/Horite culture. Ancient Arrapha was a part of Sargon of Akkad's Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC). Akkad was one of the principal cities of Nimrod's kingdom (Gen. 10).


Related reading: The Great Kingdom Builders of Genesis 10; Was King Arthur a Descendant of Nilotic Rulers?; The Priesthood in England; Horite and Sethite Mounds; What Abraham Discovered on Mount Moriah; Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b-L151; Y-DNA Haplogroup R2; Y-DNA Haplogroup J2; Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b-Z2103

The Serpent on Moses' Staff

Alice C. Linsley

The serpent in the Bible is a neutral symbol. In some references the serpent is an enemy to be trampled under foot (Gen. 3:15). In other references the serpent is to be lifted up (Num. 21 :4-9). The serpent in Eden is said to be wiser than all the other creatures and it tempts the woman to transgress. Jesus urges his disciples to be wise as serpents, yet gentle as lambs.

How can a single entity have two apparently opposite qualities, both good and evil? It is a mystery. Yet it is as real as a mobius strip, and as mysterious as the Biblical merisms of good-evil, night-day and male-female.

mobius strip

The Michelangelo painting above is found in the Sistine Chapel. The bodies poisoned by the snakes occupy the right side, and spread toward the center. The survivors on the left have their their eyes and arms posed imploringly toward the salvific image of the bronze serpent. The way the serpent wraps around the staff is an innovation based on the Greco-Roman portrayal of the rod of Asclepius, a symbol of healing. The staff with the bronze serpent held by Moses would have been a coiled bronze disk. It would have reflected the sun's brilliance.

Bone box of the high priest Joseph Caiaphas

The solar imagery that pertained to the Creator took various forms, as shown in these 2000-year bullae from Celtic Spain. The 6-prong solar rosette on the top right is the merkaba that appears on the ossuaries of the Hebrew ruler-priests, such as the one shown above.

The bronze serpent on the staff of Moses would have resembled the solar image at the bottom right.

(Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12% tin and often with the addition of other metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon.)

Some have cited the narrative of Moses raising the bronze serpent as an example of serpent worship (ophiolatry). While there is evidence that the serpent was venerated as a sacred animal 70,000 years ago, the Biblical writers deny that Moses tolerated any form of idolatry. The story in Numbers is better understood as the elevation of a symbol of the Creator. The coiled bronze serpent is a solar symbol and the sun was the emblem of the Creator among Abraham's Horite Hebrew people. In other words, the Israelites were urged to look to their Creator for salvation.

The coiled serpent in the hand of a ruler represents the ruler's appointment by God. It is analogous to the sun cradled in the long horns of the bull. Hathor, the mother of Horus, was divinely appointed to conceive the Creator's son when she was overshadowed by the sun, the emblem of the Creator. This is signified by her solar headdress. The coiled serpent conveyed the same idea. Moses was the ruler of the people and the people were to look to him as the Creator's representative.

The coiled serpent can also be found associated with rulers among the Celts. The spiral shape of the coiled serpent is the most widespread image carved on the dolmen of ancient Celtic rulers. This association with rulers appears to have persisted in England until the early 1590's.

This detail from a 400-year-old painting of Elizabeth I shows her grasping a coiled serpent. The coiled serpent is a symbol of the divine appointment of a ruler.

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I was painted by an unknown artist in the 1580s or early 1590s. The serpent was painted over as a bouquet of flowers, but with the passing of time and the deterioration of the painted surface the serpent has reappeared.

Related reading: Serpent Symbolism; The Archaic Nes People; The Deceiving Worm; The Ancient Tumuli of Nobles; Burial Practices of the Rulers of Old; What is Bronze?

Iron Seeds from Heaven

Alice C. Linsley


Nature reports on the a study of 3,300 year old meteoritic iron beads found in Gerzah, a prehistoric cemetery about 40 miles south of Cairo.The Gerzeh bead (top) has nickel-rich areas, 

colored blue on a virtual model (bottom), indicating a meteoritic origin. (Read more here.

At el Gerzah in northern Egypt around 300 graves were discovered in 1911-1912. Tombs 67 and 133 contained a total of nine iron beads. Analysis of the beads indicates that they were formed from surface iron deposited by meteorites.

Since both tombs are securely dated to Naqada IIC–IIIA, c 3400–3100 BC (Adams, 1990: 25; Stevenson, 2009: 11–31), the beads predate the emergence of iron smelting by nearly 2000 years, and other known meteoritic iron artifacts by 500 years or more (Yalçın 1999).

The news has led to much speculation about prehistoric religion in the Nile Valley. Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, said, “The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians.” Tyldesley, a co-author of the paper, goes on to make this unsubstantiated claim: “Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods.”

She is correct about the importance of the sky among prehistoric Nilotes and Afro-Arabians. However, she is unjustified in her claim that they were polytheists. This is an assumption, not a substantiated fact.

Campbell Price, a curator of Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester Museum, emphasizes that nothing is known for certain about the Egyptians’ religious beliefs before the advent of writing. Price is correct on this point. He then suggests that the significance of the iron beads might be understood in light of later Egyptian beliefs. He points out that during the time of the pharaohs, the gods were believed to have bones made of iron. This is referenced throughout the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid and Coffin Texts. Here Price slips into the same error as Joyce Tyldesley. They interpret prehistoric Nilotic religion through the lens of dynastic religion which blended elements from many traditions (syncretism).

It is exactly at his point where Biblical Anthropology can provide valuable insight by exploring antecedents, that is, pushing back the veil of time. Let us consider what is known and verified.

The ancient Egyptian rulers accessorized with meteorites. The material was associated with divine power, that is, power than comes down from heaven. King Tut's dagger had a tip made of meteoritic iron. The dagger had a gold sheath.

Commonly, iron artifacts are found in the graves of rulers. Diane Johnson says, "Iron was very strongly associated with royalty and power." The ancient Egyptians had a hieroglyphic sign for “iron of the sky" by the 13th century BC. 

Images from Nekhen, a 5800 year-old Horite shrine city, shown ruler-priests carrying flails and crooks and wearing iron beads around their necks. The flail and crook were the symbols of authority for the Pharaohs as the knob stick was a symbol of the authority of other rulers.

Given this information it is logical to conclude the religious context of those who wore these beads is reflected in the religion at Nekhen. At Nekhen in Sudan votive offerings were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose.

Horus was regraded as the Seed of Ra, conceived by Hathor when she was overshadowed by the Sun. The Sun was the emblem of Ra, the supreme creator. For the prehistoric Nilotes, the Sun was the source of insemination and the iron beads were called beja (bija in Sanskrit), meaning seed or semen. In other words, there is no evidence of polytheism at Nekhen or any other Horite site. Horus was the Lord of all the divine powers or lesser deities. This is called henotheism. Henotheism is a conception of the heavenly realm as a pyramid or hierarchy with a supreme God served by lesser ranked divine powers, angelic beings, or subordinate deities.

Hathor's totem was a cow and she is shown at Nile shrines holding her infant in a manger. Here we have elements of the Proto-Gospel and evidence that Messianic expectation is based on the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15) made to Abraham's Proto-Saharan and Nilotic ancestors. 

Aspects of the prehistoric Nilotic solar symbolism are found in the Bible and in historical texts. Psalm 92:2 describes the Lord as “a sun and a shield.” The Victory Tablet of Amenhotep III describes Horus as “The Good God, Golden [Horus], Shining in the chariot, like the rising of the sun; great in strength, strong in might…” (Tablet of Victory of Amenhotep III, J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, p. 854).

Blood and the Impulse to Immortality

Nobles were buried with red ocher at Nekhen. Red ocher symbolized blood and the hope of bodily resurrection. Abraham's Horite ancestors believed in the resurrection of the body and awaited a deified king who would rise from the grave and deliver his people from death. Horus was said to die and rise on the third day as the sun rises. 

Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars. (Utterance 667)

Horus was the guardian of the ancient Egyptian and Kushite kings from as early as 4000 B.C. The kings were perceived to be the representatives on earth of the Ruler of the universe, the “sons” of God. From the earliest Dynastic Period, the king's name was written in the rectangular device called a serekh, which depicted a falcon perched on a palace façade. Horus as guardian and deity was manifest within the palaces and the shrines as the king himself. The king’s “horus name” was associated with gold and the sun which is the meaning of the title “Golden Horus” in which a falcon appears on the hieroglyphic sign for gold.

Horus was sometimes shown with the sun as his right eye and the moon as his left. This reflects the binary distinctions that characterize prehistoric Nilotic religion. With the right eye Horus sees all things. His left eye is shown blood red, having been injured in combat. To gain salvation for his people, Horus sacrifices one eye.

Belief in bodily resurrection

Nekhen was a Horite shrine city dedicated to Horus whose totem was the falcon or hawk. Early dynastic Egypt adopted the Horite religion and never practiced cremation, as in the religions that seek to escape physical existence (samsara).

The oldest known painted tomb (Tomb 100) with plaster walls. It dates to between 3500 and 3200 BC. Pillared chapels also have been discovered. The pillar or benben was a symbol of resurrection. Benben is formed by the redoubling of the root bn, meaning to "swell forth" as the sun swells on the eastern horizon. The ancient Egyptian word for the rising sun is wbn.

Benben have been found from Nigeria to India, the length of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion, which is older than the Vedic Age.

Recently discovered tombs of officials from the 4th Dynasty were surmounted by conical mounds or benben. These tombs, along with the royal tombs at Giza, indicate that the ancient rulers hoped to rise from the place of death as the sun rises.

The sema sign of ancient Egyptian rulers (shown right) is a type of benben and expressed the hope of bodily resurrection.

Likewise, the vav sign among Horite ruler-priests (Yaqtan, Yisbak, Yismael, Yacob, Yosef, Yeshua, etc.) also indicated the hope of bodily resurrection.

Circumcision

The largest flint knives, dating to ca. 3200 BC. These were for ritual use, including circumcision. The name Ne-Khen relates to the practice of circumcision. The Egyptian word for phallus was khenen (hnn). It is related to khenty, meaning "before" or "in front."

Tel Gezer relief (12th century BC)

Both males and females were circumcised, as is still the custom in Sudan. This reflects the binary framework of Nilo-Saharan thought. Male circumcision was seen as enhancement of maleness by the removal of the flabby foreskin. Female circumcision was seen enhancement of femaleness by the removal of the penis-like clitoris.

Flint or obsidian knives were used to perform circumcisions. These often had edges sharper than modern surgical steel. Flint workshops have been found throughout the Negev, suggesting that even after the production of iron tools, the flint knife was preferred for circumcision. Infection was less of a risk given the high saline composition of the flint.

A binary worldview

The prehistoric Nilotic worldview was binary, not dualistic. In a binary view one of the entities in a binary set is regarded on the basis of empirical observation to be superior in some way to the other. The sun is greater than the moon because it is the source of light whereas the moon's light is reflugent. Males are larger and stronger than females. The binary view pertains to gender, the distinction between heaven/sky and earth, and even to living organisms such as trees.

In Genesis 12:6 we read that Abraham sought guidance from the “moreh” or prophet when he pitched his tent at the Moreh’s Oak. Male prophets sat under firm upright trees such as oaks. These represent the masculine principle. Female prophets sat under soft trees with more fluid motion such as date nut palms. These trees are called "tamars" and they represent the feminine principle. Judges 4:4-6 says, “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Genesis 12 places the Moreh’s Oak at the sacred center between Ai and Bethel, on an east-west axis. Deborah's Palm was between Bethel and Ramah, on a north-south axis. Note the reversal of cardinal points and gender associations. This is typical of the binary system of the prehistoric Nilo-Saharans.

Related reading: The Sun and the Sacred; The Sun and the Moon in Genesis; The Origins of Christianity; Gerzah, a prehistoric Egyptian meteroite; Circumcision and Binary Distinctions; Solar Imagery of the Proto-Gospel; Ancient Egyptians accessorized with meteorites; The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun's iron dagger blade

The Judges Deborah, Samuel and Huldah

Alice C. Linsley


When it comes to Samuel and Deborah, the place called Ramah always comes up. These two judges share Ramah as a point of reference. The region of Ramah-Dedan-Sheba was ruled by Ramah, the Kushite grandson of Noah. His brother Nimrod ruled in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Kush and his sons Ramah and Nimrod ruled between BC 2417-2215. Sheba and Dedan were the ruling sons of Ramah, each ruling over his own region in Arabia. Dedan controlled the eastern coastline of the Reed Sea (Yam Suph).

Ramah was also a population center in Canaan. Other population centers in Judges 4–9 can be identified with reasonable certainty. These include Hazor, Bethel, Kedesh-Naphtali, Taanach, Ophrah, Tabbath, Succoth, Shechem, Arumah, and Thebez. However, only Hazor, Bethel, Taanach, Succoth, Shechem, and Thebez have been thoroughly excavated.

Judges 4:4-6 tells us, “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Though Deborah had great authority, she didn’t rule over all of Israel. She lived before the monarchy in Israel, a time which according to the book of Judges, had at least a dozen judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jain, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon and Samson. Though they are presented in what appears to be chronological order, some of these judges were contemporaries, each with his or her tribal jurisdictions.

Deborah's duties would have been like those of other judges. She helped to settle disputes, gave direction to people from God, and upheld the religious traditions of her Horim (Horite Hebrew ancestors). She also deliberated about and launched a counterattack against her enemy Jabin of Hazor and his military commander Sisera. Afterwards, the land had peace for forty years under Deborah's rule, according to Judges 4 and 5.

Deborah's Palm was halfway between Ramah (high of lifted up) and Bethel (House of God). Ramah and Bethel are on a north-south axis. Mircea Eliade, a Romanian sociologist of religion, wrote about the significance of the sacred center in his book "Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return." Archaic cultures regarded their most sacred places as the center of the cosmos. The ancient Incas regarded Cuzco as the "ombligo" or "omphalos" (navel) of the earth. In the Psalms, Mount Zion is portrayed as the sacred center to which all the peoples would come to worship.

The sacred center or cosmic axis is the place of connection between God and Man, between Heaven and Earth. It is where the four compass directions meet. That is the significance of the north-south axis for Deborah and the east-west axis for Abraham. Abraham set up his tent at the the moreh's tree (the prophet's oak) between Bethel and Ai, on an east-west axis. (Gen. 18)  Here God visited Abraham and Abraham deliberated with the Lord about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Here Abraham received the promise that Sarah would bring forth a son. So Abraham, like Deborah, deliberated with the Lord as a judge and prophet at the sacred center marked by a sacred tree.

In many Bibles, oak tree is rendered as terebinth, which is the word that appears in Hebrew. This might indicate the Pistacia terebinthus, also called turpentine tree, a small deciduous tree related to the pistachio and the earliest known source of turpentine. However, it is more likely that in the original telling of this story, terebinth meant the "tree of the priest's the daughter." In Arabic bint (بنت) means "daughter of" and tera is an ancient Ainu word for priest.  All the leading figures of the Pentateuch met their future wives at wells or river shrines maintained by priests.  In the more arid Palestine, the trees were at oases.

Caesarius of Arles explains that since Isaac, Jacob and Moses are all types of Jesus Christ, "for this reason they found their wives at wells, because Christ was to find His church at the waters of baptism." (Sermon 88:1) The church is symbolized by Photini, the Samaritan Woman at Jacob's Well, who asked the Lord for the Living Water.

In Africa and Arabia, the fronds of Tamars (date nut palms) are cut and used at the installation of a sovereign or a priest of high rank. This is the custom that stands behind the greeting of Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Other trees are also regarded as having sacred uses, such as the Cotton Tree and the Baobab. Jude Adebo Adeleye Ogunade writes in his memoir about growing up Ijebu. He was warned not to touch the leaves of the Igi-Ose tree, because as his Mama Eleni explained: "That tree is the tree whose leaves are used to install Chiefs and Kings of Ijebu and as your grandfather was a custodian of the rites of chieftaincy and kingship you must not play with its leaves."


Samuel's Ramah

Ramah is where the prophet Samuel resided. The word Ramah is associated with the oldest priestly lines. The root is RM. One of Shem's sons was named A'ram (Gen. 10:22) and the priestly lines of Aaron and his half-brother Korah are traced through their Horite priest father Am'ram. David was of the priestly line of Ram. (Ruth 4:19) Samuel was the son of the priest Elkanah. Elkanah had 2 wives, Hannah and Peninnah (1 Samuel 1:2), as was the custom for Horite priests.

The elders of Israel came to Ramah to demand that Samuel appoint a king to rule over them. David fled to Ramah for Samuel's help when Saul sought his life.

The ancient priesthood was associated with the number seven. The number seven is the Priestly Writer's tag in the book of Genesis. God created in six days and rested on the seventh. God commanded Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals (as contrasted with the other version in which he takes only one set). Jeremiah warned that the priests of Israel would not be spared. “The mother of seven will grow faint and breathe her last. She will die, ashamed and humiliated, while it is still daylight” (Jeremiah 15:9).

In ancient Israel, seven sons was as a proverbial expression to describe a family whose future in Israel was guaranteed, but often only one son was born, and this foreshadows the Son of God. When Hannah miraculously conceived and gave birth to Samuel, she said: “The barren has borne seven” (1 Samuel 2:5). After Ruth married Boaz and gave birth to Obed, the women of Bethlehem acclaimed the Moabite mother, telling Naomi that Ruth was better “than seven sons.” (Ruth 4:15)


Huldah, a Judge in Israel

Not all prophets lived at well or oases. Some lived in cities.  II Kings 22:14 reports that King Asaiah sent his priests to consult the “prophetess” Huldah. Her name indicates that she belonged to the tribe of Hul, a son of Aram (Gen. 10:23). Huldah, who lived approximately 655 years after Deborah, resided in Jerusalem, in the "new section." Jerusalem, which was called "Urusalim" in Akkadian, was an important shrine city in David's time, exhibiting typical characteristics of ancient shrine cities. It had flowing water from a perennial spring and was built on a precipice, as was the shrine city Nekhen at El-Kab on the eastern bank of the Nile in Sudan. The region around Amman in Jordan (Gen. 36:35) was likewise famed for its springs and high citadel. By Huldah's time, Jerusalem had expanded and the temple precinct was regarded as the sacred center.


Related reading: Where Abraham Spent His Old Age; The Jerusalem that David Knew; Cousin Brides and their Ruler Sons; The Sacred Center in Biblical Theology; Deborah, Warrior Bee