EUPHRATES ū frā’ tēz (Heb. פְרָֽת; Assyrian, Purattu; Old Pers., Ufrâtu; Gr. Εὐφράτης, G2371; modern names, Fra Su, Shatt el Fara) is the longest river of Western Asia. It rises in the mountains of Armenia in modern Turkey, heads W as if to reach the Mediterranean, then swings in a wide bow in Syria, and eventually joins the Tigris to become the Shatt el Arab, and empties into the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates is some 1780 m. long, considerably longer than its companion stream, the Tigris, with which it is often linked in discussion of Mesopotamia, “the land between, or in the midst of, the rivers.” Among its tributaries are the Balikh and the Khabur, which are associated with the Euphrates in locating Aram Naharaim (cf. Gen 24:10), where Laban lived and the city of Haran was situated (Gen 11:31). The ruins of many ancient cities are found along the river in Iraq; among them are Sippar, Babylon, Kish, Nippur, Uruk (modern Warka, Biblical Erech) Larsa, Ur, and Eridu. Geological and archeological investigations leave the problem of the ancient coastline unsettled.
Euphrates and the Bible. In the Bible the Euphrates is called “the river Euphrates,” “the great river, the river Euphrates,” or simply “the River.” The Euphrates is named as one of the four streams into which the river of the Garden of Eden divided (Gen 2:14). In the covenant which God made with Abraham, the river Euphrates was designated one of the boundaries of the Promised Land (Gen 15:8; cf. Deut 1:7; 11:24). Before the conquest of Canaan the Lord again referred to the Euphrates as one of the borders of the Land of Promise (Josh 1:4). In his final address to Israel (Josh 24), Joshua stated that the fathers of Israel had lived “beyond the Euphrates” (v. 2), where they served other gods (v. 2; “beyond the River,” vv. 14, 15), but God took Abraham “from beyond the River” and brought him to Canaan (v. 3). During the monarchy David defeated Hadadezer the king of Zobah, “as he went to restore his power at the river Euphrates” (2 Sam 8:3; 1 Chron 18:3). Isaiah refers to Assyria as an instrument of judgment against Israel, “a razor which is hired beyond the River” (Isa 7:20), and speaks of a threshing and ingathering of Israel from the river Euphrates to the brook of Egypt (27:12). It was to Carchemish on the river that Pharaoh Neco went to aid the Assyrians in an unsuccessful battle against the Babylonians (2 Kings 23:29; 24:7; 2 Chron 35:20). In the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning Egypt (Jer 46) the Euphrates is mentioned three times in connection with this defeat of Egypt (vv. 2, 6, and 10). The Euphrates is referred to by name four times in an acting prophecy which Jeremiah was commanded to perform against the pride of Judah and Jerusalem (Jer 13:4, 5, 6, 7). The prophet was instructed to have Seraiah throw into the Euphrates a stoneweighted document of a prophecy against Babylon, as a symbol that Babylon was to sink and never rise again (51:63). The genealogical section of 1 Chronicles states that a descendant of Reuben “dwelt to the east as far as the entrance of the desert this side of the Euphrates” (1 Chron 5:9). The river was the boundary between Mesopotamia and Syria-Pal. in the Per. period and the satrapy of the region of Syria-Pal. was called “Beyond the River” (Ezra 4:10, 11; 5:3; 6:6; Neh 2:7). In the NT the Euphrates is mentioned in Revelation 9:14 and a command was given to release “the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates,” and the sixth angel poured out his bowl of wrath on “the great river Euphrates” (16:12).
Bibliography S. F. Langdon, “Early Babylon and its Cities,” CAH (1924), I, 357-361; E. Techen, Euphrat und Tigris (1934); M. G. Ionides, The Regime of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris (1937); M. A. Beek, Atlas of Mesopotamia (1962); C. J. Gadd, “The Cities of Mesopotamia,” CAH2, I, Chap. XIII (1962).