Enemessar

ENEMESSAR en’ ə mes’ ər (Ενεμσσάρος, meaning uncertain). The name given to the king of Assyria (Tobit 1:2, 15, 16). It is found only in the LXX. Shalmaneser appears instead of Enemessar in the Heb., Aram., and Lat. MSS.

Several explanations have been given for this variation in name: (1) Some have tried to identify Enemessar with Senemessar. (2) Rawlinson feels that the Shal in Shalmaneser has been mistaken for a genitive. He transposes the m and n. Identification between Enemessar and Shalmaneser is virtually eliminated, for in Tobit 1:15 Shalmaneser is made the father of Sennacherib, whereas the father of Sennacherib was Sargon. (3) Others feel it is an unrecorded private name for Sargon. (4) In more recent times the name has been looked upon as an Assyrian compound SARRU-KINU, “the legitimate king,” an epithet for Sargon.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(Enemessar, Enemessaros):

Generally allowed, since Grotius, to be a corruption, though occasionally defended as an alternative form, of Shalmaneser ( Tobit 1:2,15, etc.) who carried Israel captive to Nineveh, as related in 2 Ki. Among the captives was Tobit, taken from Thisbe in Gilead, where the prophet Elijah was born and for a time lived. The writer of Tobit makes Sennacherib the son (1 15), as well as the successor of Enemessar, whereas, according to the Assyrian inscriptions, Sennacherib was the son of Sargon. This is only one of several serious historical difficulties in the narrative of Tobit. The corruption of the name is variously explained. Rawlinson supposes the first syllable of the word "Shal" to have been dropped, comparing the Bupalussor of Abydenus for Nabopolassar. Dr. Pinches takes Enemessar for Senemessar, the "sh" being changed to "s" and then to the smooth breathing, though the rough breathing more commonly takes the place of a dropped "s"; both scholars admit the easy transposition of the liquids "m" and "n". Shalman-asharid is the Assyrian form of Shalmaneser.