ARIOCH

ARIOCH (Heb. אַרְיוֹך). (1) A king of an unknown region, Ellasar, allied with *Chedorlaomer, king of Elam (Gen. 14:1 ff.). (2) A captain of the guard in Babylon in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel (Dan. 2:14 ff.). (3) A king of the Elymaeans (Elamites) in Judith 1:6. (4) An angel in ii Enoch (the Slavonic Enoch) 33:11. While the first three cannot be identified with any independently attested persons, the name Arioch is probably identical with those of Arri(w)uk(i), a vassal of King Zimrilim of Mari (c. 1700 b.c.e.), and possibly related to Awariku king of the Danunians, and superior of Azatiwadda the author of the Phoenician-Hieroglyphic Luwian bilingual inscriptions of Karatepe (Adana, Turkey; first half of the first millennium b.c.e.).

bibliography:

Koehler-Baumgartner, 87, 1054; H. Donner and W. Roellig, Kanaanaeische und aramaeische Inschriften, 2 (1963), 39; W. Baumgartner, Hebraeisches und aramaeisches Lexikon zum Alten Testament, 1 (1967), 85. add. bibliography: K. Younger, in: cos, 2, 148.

[Harold Louis Ginsberg]

Arioch

Demon of vengeance, according to some demonologists. Arioch differs from Alastor and occupies himself only with vengeance in particular cases where he is employed for that purpose.