AHAVA

(A·haʹva).

The name given to a river or canal located in Babylonia, NW of Babylon, where Ezra gathered together certain Jews and held a fast during the trek toward Jerusalem. (Ezra 8:15, 21, 31) It evidently was about eight or nine days’ journey from Babylon. (Compare Ezra 7:9; 8:15, 31.) Herodotus (The History of Herodotus, Book I, p. 67) speaks of a small stream called the Is, which flows into the Euphrates, and states that it is about eight days’ journey from Babylon. The city by the same name has been identified with the modern Hit, and some suggest this as the probable location of Ahava.

Concerning the town of Hit, The Encyclopædia Britannica (1910, 11th ed., Vol. XIII, p. 533) says: “From time immemorial it has been the chief source of supply of bitumen for Babylonia, the prosperity of the town depending always upon its bitumen fountains. . . . In the Bible (Ezra 8:15) it is called Ahava; the original Babylonian name seems to have been Ihi, . . . ” This source of bitumen may correspond with the Biblical account of the construction of the Tower of Babel, in which bitumen served for mortar.—Gen. 11:3.