GOZAN: The name of a country mentioned five times in the Old Testament (II Kings xvii. 6, xviii. 11, xix. 12; I Chron. v. 26; Isa. xxxvii. 12). The passage in Chronicles refers to the deportation of a part of the inhabitants of Naphtali by Tiglathpileser IV., but the parallel passage (
As early as Bochart (Gegraphica Sacra, Caen, 1646) Gozan was correctly identified with the Gauzanitis of Ptolemy, situated between the Chaboras (the modern Khabur, Biblical "Habor") and the Saocoras, which can no longer be identified. The modern name of Gauzanitis is Kaushan. The Assyrian literature gives numerous references to a city Guzana, which was first attacked in 809 B.C. by Adad-nirari III. From that time it may be regarded as a part of Assyria, for it supplied eponyms to the realm, though it had to be reduced to subjection by Asshurdon III. in 759-758 B.C. An Assyrian geographical list mentions Guzana and Nasibina side by side (II Rawlinson, 53, 43a) and it has been inferred (by Alfred Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, Leipsic, 1906, p. 545, note 1) that Guzana and Nasibina (i.e., Nisibis) are the same place. It is extremely interesting to find Samaria and Guzana named together in an Assyrian letter or report (K. 1366; cf. Bezold's catalogue and Jeremias in Hauck-Herzog, RE, vi. 767). All the allusions to Guzana as a city and a district in Assyrian texts are satisfied by the location in the valley of the Euphrates between the Khabur and the Balikh, and this location also exactly fits the requirements of the Biblical passages. The country was well watered, and in ancient times doubtless fertile and well tilled.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Besides the literature named in the text, consult: F. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? p. 184, Leipsic, 1881; Schrader, KAT, pp. 48, 168, 269, 273; DB, ii. 253; EB, ii. 1916.
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