place
Shinar
שִׁנְעָר
Shinar was an ancient region in Mesopotamia, associated with the cities of Babylon and Uruk, and the site of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 10:10; 11:2; 14:1, 9; Josh. 7:21; Isa. 11:11; Dan. 1:2; Zech. 5:11).
- verses
- 8
- first named
- Genesis 10:10
- last named
- Zechariah 5:11
- feature
- region
Description
Shinar in the text
Shinar was an ancient territory first mentioned in Genesis as the location of several important cities including Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh (Genesis 10:10). This region became historically significant immediately after the Flood when people migrated to a plain in Shinar and built the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:2).
The area was ruled by powerful kings from an early period. Amraphel, king of Shinar, appears among the coalition of kings who fought against the cities of the plain during Abraham's time (Genesis 14:1,9). This demonstrates the region's significant political influence in the ancient Near East.
Shinar's wealth and craftsmanship were renowned. During the conquest of Canaan, Achan coveted and stole a beautiful robe from Shinar among other valuable items (Joshua 7:21). The quality of its goods made them highly desirable as plunder.
The region maintained its importance throughout biblical history. Isaiah mentioned Shinar among the places from which God would recover the remnant of His people (Isaiah 11:11). During the Babylonian exile, King Nebuchadnezzar took vessels from Jerusalem's temple to "the land of Shinar," to the house of his god (Dan.1.2).
In a prophetic vision, Zechariah saw wickedness being transported to Shinar, where a house would be built for it (Zechariah 5:11), suggesting the region's enduring association with rebellion against God.
Probably corresponds to ancient Sumer and Babylonia, encompassing the southern portion of modern Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The pattern
Where Shinar is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
8 verses across 5 of 66 books; 61 write the name nowhere. Named in Genesis (4), Joshua (1), Isaiah (1), Daniel (1) and Zechariah (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 8, across 5 books.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one.
Where they appear
What happened here
Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources