tigris Summary and Overview

is used by the LXX. as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Hiddekel, and occurs also in several of the apocryphal books, as in Tobit, ch. 6:1, Judith, ch. 1:6, and Ecclesiasticus, ch. 24:25. The Tigris, like the Euphrates, rises from two principal sources in the Armenian mountains, and flows into the Euphrates. Its length, exclusive of windings, is reckoned at 1146 miles. It receives, along its middle and lower course no fewer than five important tributaries. These are the river of Zakko or eastern Khabour, the Great Zab (Zab Ala), the Lesser Zab (Zab Asfal), the Adhem, and the Diyaleh or ancient Gyndes. All these rivers flow from the high range of Zagros. We find but little mention of the Tigris in Scripture. It appears, indeed, under the name of Hiddekel, among the rivers of Eden, #Ge 2:14| and is there correctly described as "running eastward to Assyria;" but after this we hear no more of it, if we accept one doubtful allusion in Nahum #Na 2:6| until the captivity, when it becomes well known to the prophet Daniel. With him it is "the Great River." The Tigris, in its upper course, anciently ran through Armenia and Assyria.

TI'GRIS . Gen 2:14. See Hiddekel.

(See HIDDEKEL.) Genesis 2:14, "running eastward to Assyria." Daniel 10:4, "the great river." Rising in the Armenian mountains, not far from the sources of Euphrates, it flows N.E. of the latter for 1,100 miles, when at last they join and flow as one river into the Persian gulf. Its greatest breadth is more than 200 yards. For the last two hundred, miles before its confluence with the Euphrates the country was intersected with artificial watercourses and adapted river beds, such as the Shat-el-Hie, or river of Hie; and in this district are the ruins of old towns; some scarcely known, as Zirgul, "the city of the brilliant light"; others better known, as Ur (Mugheir). (See UR.) It ran through Armenia and Assyria, and then separated Babylonia from Susiana. Subsequently it was the boundary between the Roman and Parthian empires.