Abana

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 1min
2 Kings 5:12  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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One of the rivers of Damascus, which the proud Naaman declared were better than all the waters of Israel (2 Kings 5:1212Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. (2 Kings 5:12)); the other is Pharpar. These are probably the rivers now called Barada and Awaj; Barada being supposed to be Abana. This is the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients. Robinson says, “it rises in the high plain south of Zebdany on Anti-Lebanon, and rushes in a south-easterly course down the mountain till it issues at Mezzeh from its chasm upon the plain. Here it turns eastward, and flowing along the north wall of the city takes its way across the plain to the two northern lakes. It is a deep, broad, rushing mountain stream; and although not less than nine or ten branches are taken from it, some of them quite large, for the supply of the city and the plain, yet it still flows on as a large stream, and enters the middle lake by two channels.” It is judged that this river furnishes water to 14 villages, and 150,000 inhabitants. In the Arabic version Abana is translated Barda, which goes to confirm the conjecture that Barada is the Abana of Scripture.