pharpar Summary and Overview

swift, one of the rivers of Damascus (2 Kings 5:12). It has been identified with the 'Awaj, "a small lively river." The whole of the district watered by the 'Awaj is called the Wady el-'Ajam, i.e., "the valley of the Persians", so called for some unknown reason. This river empties itself into the lake or marsh Bahret Hijaneh, on the east of Damascus. One of its branches bears the modern name of Wady Barbar, which is probably a corruption of Pharpar.

(swift), the second of the "two rivers of Damascus" --Abana and Pharpar --alluded to by Naaman. #2Ki 5:18| The two principal streams in the district of Damascus are the Barada and the Awaj, the former being the Abana and the latter the Pharpur. The Awaj rises on the southeast slopes of Hermon, and flows into the most southerly of the three lakes or swamps of Damascus.

PHAR'PAR (swift), a river of Damascus named by Naaman. 2 Kgs 5:12. It is about 8 miles from Damascus, and is the modern Awaj, while the Abana is the modern Barada. The Pharpar, or Awaj, rises high up on the eastern side of Hermon, near the mountain-village of Beit Jann. There are several other small streams, which unite near Sasa, and the river flows eastward in a serpentine course through a deep glen and thickets of poplars and willows, and through green meadows rendered fertile by its waters. It empties into a lake or marsh called Bahret Hijaueh, about 4 miles south of the lake into which the Barada falls, and about 16 miles south of Damascus. In spring and summer these so-called "meadow-lakes" are of considerable size, but in autumn and winter they are mere morasses. The Awaj flows across the plain of Damascus, but its waters are diminished by canals constructed to irrigate the fields and gardens almost up to the walls of the city. Its length is from 30 to 40 miles, and it is a much smaller stream than the Barada, for it is described as a little and lively stream, often dry in the lower part of its course, while the Barada is perennial and is a copious stream in the hottest season. The traveller from Banias to Damascus now crosses a deep ravine east of Hermon, through which runs the Nahr Barbar, a name in which the ancient Pharpar survives, according to Baedeker, but it no longer falls into the el-Awaj.

("swift" or else "crooked"). One of the chief rivers of Syria, eight miles from Damascus 2 Kings 5:12); the Awaj, as the Abana is the Baruda. The ridge jebel Aswad separates Pharpar from Damascus. Pharpar rising on the S.E. side of Hermon ends in the bahret Hijaneh, the most southern of the three lakes or swamps of Damascus, due E. 40 miles from its source. Smaller than the Barada, and sometimes dried up in its lower course, which the Barada never is.