Ellasar
El'lasar (Hebrews Ellasar', אֶלָּסָר Furst suggests [Hebrews Handwb. s.v.] that it may be compounder of אֶל=תֶּל and אָסָר=אשׁוּר; Sept. Ε᾿λλασάρ), a territory in Asia, whose king, Arioch, was one of the four who invaded Canaan in the time of Abraham (Ge 14:1,9). The association of this king with those of Elam and Shinar indicates the vicinity of Babylonia and Elymais as the region in which the kingdom should be sought; but nothing further is known of it, unless it be the same as THELASAR mentioned in 2Ki 19:12, the TELASSAR of Isa 37:12. Symmachus and the Vulg. understand Pontus. The Jerusalem Targum renders the name by Telasar. The Assyro-Babylonish name of the king Arioch (q.v.) would seem to point to some province of Persia or Assyria (compare Da 2:14). Colossians Rawlinson thinks (see Jour. Sac. Lit.
October 1851, page 152 note) that Ellasar is the Hebrew representative of the old Chaldaean town called in the native dialect Larsa or Larancha, and known to the Greeks as Larissa (Λάρισσα) or Larachon (Λαράχων). This suits the connection with Elam and Shinar (Ge 14:1), and the identification is orthographically defensible. Larsa was a town of Lower Babylonia or Chaldaea, situated nearly half way between Ur (now Mugheir) and Erech (Warka), on the left bank of the Euphrates. It is now Senkereh. The inscriptions show it to have been one of the primitive capitals, of earlier date, probably, than Babylon itself; and we may gather from the narrative in Genesis 14, that in the time of Abraham it was the metropolis of a kingdom distinct from that of Shinar, but owning allegiance to the superior monarchy of Elam. That we hear no more of it after this time is owing to its absorption into Babylon, which took place soon afterwards. SEE ABRAHAM.
