Paddan, Paddan-Aram

PADDAN, PADDAN-ARAM pă’ dən, pă’ dən âr’ əm (פַּדַּ֖ן אֲרָ֑ם, field or plain of Aram) KJV PADAN, PADAN-ARAM. The area of Upper Mesopotamia around Harran, upstream of the junction of the Rivers Euphrates and Harbur (Gen 25:20; 28:2; 31:18). The tribes called Arameans are first mentioned by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I about 1300 b.c. and they continued to occupy the territory from Aleppo to the Euphrates and beyond, into the Christian era. The strategic importance of this sector of the Fertile Crescent is given some mention in the OT. Here Abraham dwelt before his emigration to Canaan. He sent his servant to it, to procure a bride for his son, Isaac, and to the same area Jacob fled and dwelt with Laban. Originally, the word padanu in Assyrian cuneiform tablets signified a unit of measurement and later a measure of land.