Calneh
CALNEH
CALNEH (Heb. כַּלְנֵה, כַּלְנֶה). (1) Mesopotamian city mentioned together with Babel, Erech, and Akkad as cities in the land of Shinar which constituted the beginning of the kingdom of *Nimrod (Gen. 10:10). At present there is no acceptable identification of Calneh, although the other cities mentioned together with it in Genesis are known from Akkadian inscriptions. No identification of Calneh can be made on the basis of the "land of Shinar," which serves in this instance, as elsewhere in the Bible, as a synonym for Babylonia (cf. Yoma 10a, which identifies Calneh with נופר, i.e., the modern Tell Nuffar, ancient Nippur, connecting this name with נינפי, i.e., nymphe; the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew כַּלָה, kallah, "bride"). Some revocalize the word to read kullaneh, "all of them," i.e., "all of the aforementioned cities are in Shinar."
(2) Calneh, Calno (כַּלְנוֹ, כַּלְנֶה), a city in northern Syria identified with Kullāni or Kulania, which is mentioned in connection with *Tiglath-Pileser iii's conquests in his annals of the third year of his reign. The references to the city in Amos 6:2 and Isaiah 10:9 (as Calno) allude to Tiglath-Pileser's conquest in 740–732 b.c.e.
bibliography:
em, 4 (1962), 184 (includes bibliography).