John Gill Commentary Genesis 10:12

"and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great city)." — Genesis 10:12 (ASV)

And Resen, between Nineveh and Calah
This was another city built by Ashur, situated between those two cities mentioned: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem call it Talsar, or Thalassar, see (Isaiah 37:12) The conjecture of Bochart ^F2 is more probable, that it is the Larissa of Xenophon, situated on the Tigris; though Junius thinks it is either Bassora, or Belcina, which Ptolemy has

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the same is a great city :
which Jarchi interprets of Nineveh, called a great city, and was indeed one, being sixty miles in circumference, (Jonah 1:2) (3:3) but the construction of the words carries it to Resen, which might be the greatest city when first built; and, if understood of Larissa, was a great city, the walls of it being one hundred feet high, and the breadth twenty five, and the compass of it eight miles. Benjamin of Tudela says ^F4 , that in his time Resen was called Gehidagan, and was a great city, in which were 5000 Israelites;

But according to Schmidt, this refers to all the cities in a coalition, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, which all made that great city Nineveh; or were a Tetrapolis, as Tripoli was anciently three cities, built by the joint interest of the Aradians, Sidonians, and Tyrians, as Diodorus Siculus ^F5 relates.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Phaleg. l. 4. c. 23.
• F4: Itinerarium, p. 75.
• F5: Bibliothec. l. 16. p. 439.