HARA

(Haʹra).

A site to which Assyrian King Tilgath-pilneser (Tiglath-pileser III) transported Israelite captives. (1Ch 5:26) Similar references (2Ki 17:6; 18:11) to a later Assyrian exile tell of Israelites’ being taken to “the cities of the Medes” (Masoretic text) or “the mountains of the Medes.” (LXX) Many scholars feel that the Septuagint reading may be the correct one and suggest that at 1 Chronicles 5:26 “Hara” (Ha·raʼʹ, perhaps an Aramaic form of the Hebrew word for “mountain” [har]) became a proper name when the phrase “of the Medes” was inadvertently omitted. If this assumption is correct, “Hara” may have applied to “the mountains of the Medes” E of the Tigris River valley. However, some who consider the Gozan of 2 Kings 17:6 and 18:11 to be a place (as in JB, RS) and not a river believe that “Hara” possibly was a local designation for a mountainous region in Turkey.