And the name of the third river is Tigris: Tigris is the first of the rivers whose name is familiar, and is the river that flows out of eastern Turkey and northern Iraq to cross modern Iraq and join the Euphrates before emptying into the Persian Gulf. (See the map on page 18.) The ancient Hebrew name for Tigris is chiddeqel, which is found elsewhere in Dan 10.4.

Which flows east of Assyria: what this means is not certain. Some interpreters hold that Hebrew ashur refers to the country and not to the city, since the other two verses are said to refer to countries. However, many modern translations retain ashur as the capital city of the country called Assyria, and say “east of Ashur.” Assyria proper lay to the east of the Tigris river, but the capital was on the west bank of that river. Accordingly Bible en français courant and others translate “east of the city of Ashur,” and this is recommended to translators.

And the fourth river is the Euphrates: nothing is said regarding the location of the Euphrates. If this river is to be identified with the Euphrates known today, it flows for part of its course on the west side and parallel to the Tigris, then joins the Tigris north of Basra, Iraq.

In translation “Ashur” should be identified as a city. Both Tigris and Euphrates are identified as rivers, and translators will want to adapt the spelling of these to that used in a major language spoken by readers. In Arabic, the language of Iraq, the Tigris is called “Dijlah,” and the Euphrates is called “Al Furaat.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .