Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Does anyone have thoughts on the significance of this verse 
which talks of ships coming from Kittim to afflict Asshur 
and Eber, (given that Assyria was a landlocked country -- at 
least until the ninth century BCE)?

Could, for example, this Asshur be related not to Assyria 
(the evil empire we know and love), but to Syria? There 
does seem to be some alternation between the two: Josephus 
calls the Seleucids kings of Assyria and Lucian from the 
northern Syrian city of Samosata calls himself an Assyrian. 


Is there any way to make sense of the verse as it was 
written, given the problem of ships afflicting a landlocked 
state?


Ian