Bible Dictionaries
Abana, and Pharpar

　　Rivers of Damascus, 2 Kings 5:12 . The Abana, (or, Amana), was undoubtedly the present Barada, the Chrysorrhoas of the Greeks. It is a clear, cold, and swift mountain stream, rising in Anti-Lebanon, north east of Hermon, flowing south east into the plain, and near Damascus turning eastward, skirting the northern wall of the city, and terminating 20 miles east in one of three large lakes. It is a perennial river, and so copious, that though no less than nine or ten branches or canals are drawn off from it to irrigate the plain and supply the city and the villages around it, the stream is a large one to the end.

　　The only other independent river of any size in the territory of Damascus is the Awaj, which crosses the plain south of Damascus, and enters the southernmost of the three lakes above referred to. This is supposed to be the Pharpar of the Bible. As these rivers of Damascus were never dry, but made the region they watered like the Garden of Eden for fertility and beauty, Naaman might well contrast them with most of "the waters of Israel," which dry up under the summer sun. See AMANA .