Haran, and Canneh, and Eden. — The description now turns from Arabia to the Tyrian trade with Mesopotamia. Haran, important in the story of Abraham (Genesis 11:31-32; Genesis 12:4), the Charræ of the Romans, was in north-western Mesopotamia, at the junction of two great caravan routes, the one along the Tigris, the other along the Euphrates. Canneh, a contraction for the Calneh of Genesis 10:10, was the most important commercial city on the former, and was later known as Ctesiphon. Eden was an unknown town on the Euphrates (2 Kings 19:12; Isaiah 37:12), and is to be distinguished from the Syrian Eden.
Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad. — Sheba is still the same Sheba before mentioned; for Pliny (Hist. Nat., xii. 40) says that the Sabœans brought their goods from the spice country to Carrhæ, where they held markets, and went thence to Syria and Phœnicia. They were, therefore, traders between Mesopotamia and Phœnicia. Asshur is here not the country of Assyria, but the commercial city Sura (modern Essurieh), on the banks of the Euphrates, above Thapsacus. Chilmad is supposed to be the Charmande of Xenophon (Anab., i. 5, 10), “a great city beyond the Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of the desert.” Others identify it with Kalwada, near Bagdad. It is mentioned only here.