Asnapper

Asnap'per (Chald. Osnappar', אָסנִפִּר; some MISS. א סנִפִּר, Asenappar', whence Sept. Α᾿σσεναφάρ v. r. Ναφάρ; Vulg. Asenaphar), the name of an Assyrian king or satrap who is said to have planted colonies (probably from some distant conquered territory) in Samaria, or perhaps other parts of Palestine and Syria (Ezr 4:10). On the supposition that a king of Assyria is meant, and by comparison with 2Ki 17:24, many (with Grotius) identify him with Shalmaneser; others (as Rosenmuller, Alterth. I, ii, 109; Hengstenberg, Authent. Dan. p. 178) understand Esarhaddon (comp. Ezr 4:2; so Michaelis; but' see on the contrary Herzfeld, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, i, 473); while most of the Jewish interpreters assume Sennacherib to be meant. He was probably, however, only a satrap of some of the Assyrian provinces (B.C. cir. 712), and the epithet applied to him in the passage in Ezra רִבָּא ויִקִּירָא, the great and the excellent, i.e. most eminent [comp. κράτιστος, Lu 1:3]; Auth. Vers. "the great and noble") is apparently the usual title of persons in that capacity, being indeed perhaps the translation of the official title Osnapper itself ( אָס=Sanscrit osna, great; פִּר = Sanscrit para, noble; see Luzath, Le Sanscritisme de la lngue Assyrienne, p. 38-40). Bohlen, on the other hand, compares Sanscrit Senapa, leader of an army ; according to which the name would become merely a designation of an Assyrian general.