ARAM. — A region of western Asia, mentioned in the Bible, where A. also designates the people (v. ARAMEI). Aram Nahārajim (Gen. 24, 10 and Deut. 23, 5; Iud. 3, 8; I Par. 19, 6; Ps. 59 [60], 2) designated the plateau between the Tigris and the Euphrates in their northern course. The Septuagint (and the Vulgate) translate it sometimes as “Mesopotamia,” sometimes as “Mesopotamia of Syria,” and sometimes as “Syria of the Rivers.”
This region had its center at Harrān (v.), the city where Thare (Terah), the father of Abraham, settled after his migration from Ur of the Chaldeans with his family (Gen. 11, 32). Harrān remained the residence of Nachor, Abraham’s brother; relations were maintained between the descendants of Abraham, who had moved to Canaan, and the descendants of Nachor, who had remained in Harrān. In Gen., chap. 28, Harrān is called Padānu A.; since the Assyrian padānu, “road,” is synonymous with the Assyrian harrānu, both terms designate the same locality: the name “road” suited this important caravan junction between the Tigris and the Euphrates, between Assyria and the countries on this side of the Euphrates. The inhabitant of the place is called an “Aramaean” (Gen. 25, 20; 28, 5; 31, 20, 24).
Relations between HarrāUr (v.) of the Chaldeans must have been not merely commercial but also based on ethnic affinity, since in antiquity the inhabitants of these two centers appear to have been linked by similar social customs and, above all, by the identical worship of the moon. Gen. 22, 21 ff. derives from the lineage of Nachor Aram, perhaps the eponym of a group of Aramaeans, and Cased, the eponym of the Chaldeans, “Chaldeans.” Such correspondences presuppose an immigration of people from Ur into Harrān, either for commercial reasons or because of the wartime disturbances that convulsed the region and induced the inhabitants to seek a more peaceful dwelling place. The family of Abraham would have been part of one such migration.
The name A. also designated, in later times, certain territories on this side of the Euphrates: A. of Damascus (II Sam. 8, 5), A. Soba (ibid. 10, 6), northwest of Damascus, A. Beth Rohob (ibid.), at the beginning of the depression north of the Jordan, and A. Maacha (I Par. 19, 6, 7), north of Lake Hule.
Outside the Bible, A. occurs in an inscription of Naram-Sin (mid-third millennium B.C.), which states that he fought Haršamadki, lord of A. and Am, and struck him down on Mount Tibar. Tibar seems to refer to the region of the Tibareni, who, in addition to inhabiting the southern shores of the Black Sea, also lived in the region between Cilicia and Melitene: in his flight, the king may have reached some mountain of the Taurus, where he was defeated. His kingdom, therefore, should be located in the northern part of Mesopotamia and include the territory called A. in the Bible. Where Am should be placed is difficult to say; but it is unlikely that it refers to Ham (Gen. 14, 5), north of the Dead Sea on the left bank of the Jordan. There is thereafter no information about A. until the eleventh century; this may be explained by the fact that the region was invaded by several other peoples.