ARAMEANS
Semitic ethnic group between Syria and the Euphrates, mentioned in the Amarna letters and in an inscription of Tiglath-pileser I.
The Old Testament gives the name “Aram Naharaim”, “Aram of the two Rivers”, to the territory included between the upper reaches of the Euphrates and the Tigris (Gen. 24:10; Paddan-aram, Gen. 25:20, etc. .). There was Haran, Abraham’s homeland.
Tradition links Jacob with this region, which in Deut. 26:5 is called the Arameans. In the time of David and Solomon there existed, among others, the following Aramaic states: Samal, in northern Syria;
Zobah, between Anti-Lebanon and the Syro-Arabian desert and in the upper valley of the Leontes (2 Sam. 8:3 ff.);
Beth-rehob (2 Sam. 10:6), Maacah, Geshur and Damascus.
The Assyrians put an end to the independence of these tribes and states, also that of the kingdom of Damascus in the year 732 BC. The Arameans achieved great influence in Assyria.
Their language became the language of commerce, and later the common language. Meanwhile, the Aramean people of the Chaldeans had settled in the region of the mouth of the Euphrates and the Tigris and had increased more and more in power. This group Aramaized the kingdom and, starting with the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, also achieved political power.