III. ARPHAXAD, a personal name in the Abra hamic line. The word, a remarkable compound, probably denotes Neighboring to the Chasdim, e., Chaldwans. The name appears in Arrhapa clzitis, a province in Northern Assyria, the primi tive seat of the Chasdim, and near to which, or in it, Abraham was born.
Children of Arphaxad are named below.
These are chiefly personal, and contribute to form the sacred pedigree which leads to the Mes siah. In this line are mentioned two grandsons : (r) Peleg, of whom we have treated before, and (2) Eber. The only circumstance that we can attach to him is the very important one (which seems therefore to imply something extraordinary in his personal history) of being the origin of the name Ebrew, or as it is commonly written, on account of the 2.1, Hebrew, the 'ancient and uni versal name of the nation, including Abraham himself (see Ewald's Hebr. Gramm., translated by Dr. Nicholson, p. 2, and our article HEBER).
Eber's son, Joktan, is recognized as the father of the numerous tribes of Arabs in Yemen, Arabia the Happy, so called on account of its spices and other rich products, and to distinguish it from the Rocky and the Desert. Of the founders of those tribes thirteen are specified. The first is evidently Modad, with the Arabic article ; the second is Shaleph; and Ptolemy mentions a people of in terior Arabia, the Salapeni. Hatzarmaveth is a fruitful district on the south coast, which still bears exactly the same name. That name signifies the Enclosure, Gate, or Court of Death, on ac count of its insalubrity, arising from the great abundance and mixture of powerful odors. Jerach signifies the moon; and on the west of this region is a gold-producing tract, in which are the Moun tains of the Moon, which yet must be distin guished from a group in East Africa, very imper fectly known, and called also by Orientals the Backbone of the World. Hadoram, the Adra mites of Ptolemy and Pliny, on the south coast.
Uzal, mentioned in Ezek. xxvii :19, which should be translated 'Vedan and Javan (perhaps Yemen ?) from Uzal.' The ancient name of a principal city of Yemen, now Sanaha. Obal (Ebal in Chron. i :22), unknown. Abimael, unknown ; the meaning is, my father Mael, and Bochart adduces the Mali of Theophrastus and the Minxi of Strabo, a tribe or tribes in Arabia, as possibly intended. Sheba, probably indicating an invasion of this tribe upon the Cushite Sheba and Dedan (Gen. x :7, and see xxv :3). From such mixtures much embarrass ment often arises in ethnography. Sheba and Seba (x :7) are often mentioned in the Old Testament as seats of great riches and traffic. Ophir, un doubtedly referring to the seaport in South Arabia so celebrated for its traffic in gold, jewelry, and fine woods. The same name was probably given to places in India and East Africa. to which the mercantile ships of this Arabian Ophir resorted. A part of the south coast of Arabia is called Oman, and in it is a town called El-Ophir, with the article, Havilah; perhaps the Cushite settlers were invaded by this Joktanite tribe. Jobab; Ptolemy mentions a people, Iobariter, on the east coast of Arabia. The r may be a mistake, or a dialectic variety, for b.
These thirteen tribes seem to have forined the confederacy of the independent and unconquer able Arabs, whose peninsular, desert, and moun tainous country defended them from invasion; Ishmael and his descendants were united with them.
Our text concludes with describing a boundary line for the country of these tribes 'from Mesha to Sephar.' The former is probably the country Is.laishon or Mesene, at the northwest head of the Persian Gulf ; and the latter, on the southwest coast of Arabia, where is found a Mount Sabber.
rv. LUD. From him the Lydians in Asia Minor derived their name.