Abana
1:
ABANA (PLACE) [Heb ˒ăbānâ (אֲבָנָה)]. One of two rivers of Damascus, which Naaman the Syrian considered to be superior to the Jordan (2 Kgs 5:12). The Awaj and the Barada are now the chief streams that flow through the city of Damascus, the former representing the Pharpar of the Hebrew text and the latter the Abana. The Barada (Abana) has as its source a large pool of great depth on a high plain rising 1149 feet (383 m) in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Damascus. Making a rapid descent down the mountains, the stream flows through a picturesque gorge, across a plain, through Damascus, and loses itself in the marshy lake Bahret el-Kibliyeh about 18 miles (29 km) east of the city.
Ray Lee Roth
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1:6). New York: Doubleday.
2:
Abana — stony (Heb. marg. “Amanah,” perennial), the chief river of Damascus (2 Kings 5:12). Its modern name is Barada, the Chrysorrhoas, or “golden stream,” of the Greeks. It rises in a cleft of the Anti-Lebanon range, about 23 miles north-west of Damascus, and after flowing southward for a little way parts into three smaller streams, the central one flowing through Damascus, and the other two on each side of the city, diffusing beauty and fertility where otherwise there would be barrenness.
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
3:
ABANA Syrian river (modern Barada) running through the city of Damascus. Although Naaman thought the Abana would be more effective than the Jordan River in curing leprosy, he obeyed the prophet Elisha, washed in the Jordan, and was cured (2 Kgs 5:9–14; “Amana” is an alternate textual reading in 5:12).
See also Amana.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (2). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
4:
ABANA. One of two Syrian rivers mentioned by the leprous Naaman in 2 Ki. 5:12. Named Chrysorrhoas (‘golden river’) by the Greeks, it is probably identical with the modern Barada, which rises in the Anti-Lebanon mountains 29 km NW of Damascus, and then, after flowing through the city, enters a marshy lake, Bahret-el-Kibliyeh, some 29 km to the E. The fertile gardens and orchards which it waters may explain Naaman’s boast.
J. D. Douglas, M.A., B.D., S.T.M., Ph.D.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (2). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
5:
Abana (ah-bahʹnah), a river in ancient Syria. When Elisha told the Syrian commander Naaman he could cure his leprosy by washing in the muddy Jordan, he angrily replied, ‘Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?’ (2 Kings 5:12). His complaint was justified, for the Abana (modern Barada, Hellenistic Chrysorrhoas) is a swift, clean, abundant stream descending from the snows of Mt. Hermon, ‘the peak of Amana’ (Song of Sol. 4:8). It supplies the great oasis of Damascus through seven branches before finally disappearing in a desert marsh. The picturesque gorge provides the major route from Damascus westward into the Beqa‘a Valley. See also Damascus; Elisha; Hermon; Naaman; Pharpar. D.B.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (3). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
6:
Abana (Heb. ˒ăḇānâ)
A river, along with the Pharpar River to the south, that feeds the vast Ghouta oasis wherein Damascus is located. The modern name of the river is Barada; its source is in a large pool high in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains (usually identified with Mt. Amana; cf. Cant. 4:8). The river descends eastward down the mountain, flows through Damascus, and disappears into a marshy lake E of the city. The Abana and the Pharpar are largely responsible for the fertility for which the region of Damascus is famous; they provide a hedge against the encroachment of the eastern desert.
Naaman, the commander of the Aramean forces, compares the Abana (Q Amana) and the Pharpar to the Jordan River in which Elisha told him to wash seven times to cure his leprosy (2 Kgs. 5:12).
Ronald A. Simkins
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (2). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
