KIR

[Heb., qir; wall].

The place from which the Aramaeans came to Syria, although not necessarily their original home. (Amos 9:7) Through his prophet Amos (1:5), Jehovah indicated that the Aramaeans would return to Kir, but as exiles. This prophecy was fulfilled when Tiglath-pileser III, after having been bribed by Judean King Ahaz to do so, captured Damascus, the Aramaean capital, and led its inhabitants into exile at Kir.—2 Ki. 16:7-9.

Isaiah 22:5, 6 depicts Kir as readying itself against the “valley of the vision” (thought to represent Jerusalem). This prophecy is generally understood as having been fulfilled at the time of Assyrian King Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah. Because Kir is associated with Elam in this text, some have suggested that it must have been located in the same general area as Elam, E of the Tigris River. (Compare Isaiah 21:2, where Elam’s known geographical neighbor Media is similarly coupled with Elam.) Others, on the basis of similarity in names, place Kir in the region of the Kur River in northern Armenia. The true location thus remains uncertain. The Septuagint Version does not use “Kir” in any of the previously cited texts but employs several different words for the Hebrew qir.