The meaning of Ivvah in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
iv'-a ('iwwah; Aba (= Ava), Aua, II Kings 18:34, Oudou, II Kings 19:13, apparently due to a misreading): The name is wanting in the Massoretic Text and Septuagint of Isaiah 36:19.
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 II Kings 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 II Kings 18:34; but II Kings 19:13 : "Where is the king .... of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?" and II Kings 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
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