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• But we find several other important points from these two verses:
• Asshur is Assyria, which would become the mighty Assyrian Empire.
• Their capital city was Nineveh. Nineveh is famous. It was the city that Jonah preached to, when he was swallowed by a great fish, and told to preach that in 40 days Nineveh, that great city, would be overthrown.
• We find that Asshur was a descendant of Shem, one of the sons of Noah, after the flood. In other words, ethnically and culturally, they were a Semitic people, like the Jews. This is a critically important point. Just as the Jews used Hebrew (a Semitic language), so the Assyrians used Aramaic - another Semitic language.
• We also find that Aram was a descendant of Shem, with Asshur. From the name Aram, we get Aramit, which is the Hebrew/Aramaic word for Aramaic. In fact, in the word Aramaic, we can hear the ancient Hebrew word Aram. Aram, Aram-aic.