OSNAPPAR, ŏs năp’ ər (אָסְנַפַּר׃֙). The name is found only in Ezra 4:10, in a letter written in Aram., sent by Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates, to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to urge him to stop the building of the walls of Jerusalem by the Jews.

Osnappar is generally identified with Ashurbanipal (Akkad. Assur-bãn-apal = “Ashur has made a son”) who succeeded his father Esarhaddon as king of Assyria in 669 b.c. He captured Thebes in Egypt in 663 b.c., and made punitive raids against the Syrians, Phoenicians, and Arabs. In 641 b.c. Ashurbanipal sacked Susa, capital of Elam, and therefore is thought to be Osnappar, who, the Samaritans claimed, had brought natives of Elam and Susa to their area (Ezra 4:9, 10).