Kir (Kir of Moab)

Two different places share this name. Kir of Moab, one of Moab's two chief cities alongside Ar, appears in Isaiah's oracle against Moab and is usually identified with Kerak, a fortress town east of the Dead Sea (Isa. 15:1). The other Kir was the original homeland of the Arameans; Amos says God brought Aram from Kir just as he brought Israel from Egypt (Amos 9:7), and elsewhere warns that the Arameans of Damascus would be sent back there in judgment (Amos 1:5), a threat fulfilled when Tiglath-pileser III deported Damascus's population after conquering it in 732 BC, an episode recorded in his own Assyrian annals. Isaiah pairs a Kir with Elam in a separate scene of soldiers preparing for battle (Isa. 22:6), though scholars debate whether it is the same place.