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Tuesday, November 4th, 2025
the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Halah
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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hā´la ( חלח , ḥălaḥ ; Ἁλάε , Haláe , Ἁλλάε , Halláe , Χαάχ , Chaách , for Χαλάχ , Chalách , Χαλά , Chalá ; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible , 390-405 ad) Hala ):
1. Many Identifications
Mentioned in 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 18:11; 1 Chronicles 5:26 , as one of the places to which the kings of Assyria sent the exiled Israelites (see GOZAN; HABOR ). Various identifications have been proposed, all of them except the last more or less improbable for philological reasons: (1) The Assyrian Kalah̬ (Nimrūd , the Calah of Genesis 10:11 ); (2) The Assyrian H̬ilakku (Cilicia); (3) Chalkitis in Mesopotamia (Ptol. v.18, 4), adjoining Gauzanitis (Gozan) - a good position otherwise; (4) The Calachene of Strabo, in the North of Assyria. Equally unsuitable, also, is (5) The Chalonitis of Pliny and Strabo, Northeast of Assyria, notwithstanding that this was apparently called Halah by the Syrians. An attractive identification was (6) with the river Balı̄kh (by change of "H" into "B") - compare Septuagint "in Halae and in Habor, rivers of Gozan" - but even this has to be abandoned in favor of (7) The Assyrian H̬alah̬h̬u , which (except the doubling and the case-ending) is the same, letter for letter.
2. The Most Probable of Them
It is mentioned in the W. Asia Inscr , II, plural 53, l. 35, between Arraph̬a (Arrapachitis) and Raṣappu (Reseph). According to the tablet K. 123, where it is called mat H̬alah̬h̬i , "the land of H̬alah̬h̬u ," it apparently included the towns Še - bisê , Še - ı̂rriši , Lu-ammu(ti?), and Še - Akkulani , apparently four grain-producing centers for the Assyrian government. The first quotation implies that Halah was near or in Gauzanitis, and had a chief town of the same name. Of the 8 personal names in K. 123,5 are Assyrian, the remainder being Syrian rather than Israelite.
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Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Halah'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/h/halah.html. 1915.
