SEPHARAD (seph'a-rad), (Heb. sef-aw rawer ; Sept. 'EopaOci, efihratha), a region to which the exiles from Jerusalem were taken (Obad. 2o).
Most of the Rabbins regard Sepharad as Spain, interpreting the whole passage with reference to their present captivity or dispersion ; and so we find it in the Syriac and Chaldee. Jerome informs us that the Hebrew who was his instructor told him that Bosphorus was called Sepharad, whither Adrian is said to have sent the Jews into exile. Its precise situation has lately been made known to us by a cuneiform tablet, published by Dr. Strassmaicr (Zeitschrift fuer Assyriologie, vi :3, pp. 235, 236). . . . It is dated in 'the thirty seventh year of Antiochus and Seleucus the kings,' that is to say, in B. C. 275. In the previous year it is stated that the king had collected his troops and marched to the country of 'Saparda. . . . Classical history informs us that the campaign in 'Saparda here referred to, was a campaign in Bithynia and Galatia. Here, then, was the land of Sepharad, to which the captives of Jerusalem were brought (Sayce, Higher Crit., p. 482).
sef-ar-vah'yim ; Sept. leroapovatp., sepfarouaim), a city of the Assyrian empire, whence colonists were brought into the territory of Israel, afterwards called Samaria (2 Kings xvii:24; xviii:34; xix:13; Is. xxxvi:19; xxxvii:13).
The place was supposed to be represented by Sipphara in Mesopotamia, situated upon the east bank of the Euphrates above Babylon.
"This identification is, however, fraught with great difficulty, and may, indeed, be regarded as practically impossible. Sepharvaim has a different form from Sippara ; it is mentioned always in connection with Hatuath, as though it were located in the vicinity ; it was recently conquered by the Assyrians while Sippara was an ancient city in Babylonian territory. For these and other reasons scholars have with practical unanimity ceased to connect Sepharvaim with the ancient Babylonian city of Sippara. Instead of this the identification proposed by Halevy has received common accept ance, viz., that Sepharvaim is the same as the city Sibraim (Ezek. xlvii :16), and that this is the city mentioned in the Babylonian chronicle under the name of Shabrain, which lies in the Hamath dis trict, and was conquered by Shalmaneser IV. In these particulars it exactly suits the requirements of the Biblical Sepharvaim. The proof is, how ever, not positive, though the case is at least plausible" (Dr. R. W. Rogers, Barnes' Bib. Diet.). The sun was the chief object of worship; hence we find in 2 Kings xvii:31 that the inhabitants "burnt their children in fire to Adrammelecli and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim."