Ararat

Ararat is a region of mountains and a kingdom in the Armenian highlands, north of Mesopotamia. It appears in the UPDV at three turning points: the resting place of Noah's ark after the flood, a kingdom summoned to fight Babylon, and the refuge of the assassins of Sennacherib.

The Resting Place of the Ark

After the waters of the flood begin to recede, the chronology fixes the ark's landing point: "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat" (Gen 8:4). The plural "mountains" places the resting point in a range rather than at a single peak.

A Kingdom Against Babylon

In Jeremiah's oracle against Babylon, Ararat is named alongside two neighboring northern powers as part of the coalition Yahweh musters: "Set⁺ up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough cankerworm" (Jer 51:27). The grouping with Minni and Ashkenaz places Ararat as one of the trans-Tigris kingdoms enlisted against Babylon.

Refuge of Sennacherib's Assassins

The same region appears as the destination to which the sons of Sennacherib flee after killing him: "And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead" (Isa 37:38). Here Ararat is the political territory beyond Assyrian reach where the regicides take cover.