Sephar

Se´phar, ’a mountain of the east,’ a line drawn from which to Mesha formed the boundary of the Joktanite tribes (Gen 10:30).

"A mountain of the East," a boundary of the Joktanite tribes, Gen 10:30 . It is perhaps the same as Mount Sabber in Southwestern Arabia.\par

Se’phar. (a numbering). It is written, after the enumeration of the sons of Joktan, "And their dwelling was from Mesha as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east." Gen 10:30. The Joktanites occupied the southwestern portion of the peninsula of Arabia. The undoubted identifications of Arabian places and tribes, with their Joktanite originals, are included within these limits, and point to Sephar, on the shore of the Indian Ocean, as the eastern boundary. The ancient seaport town called Zafar represents the biblical site or district.

Gen 10:30. Zafar or Dhafari, a seaport on the coast of Hadramaut. Pronounced by Arabs Isfor. A series of villages near the shore of the Indian Ocean, not merely one town. El Beleed or Hark’am, consisting of but three or four inhabited houses, on a peninsula between the ocean and a bay, is the ancient Zafar (Fresnel).

[Sephar’]

A mountainous district, the boundary of the descendants of Joktan. Gen 10:30. Probably Dhafar (pronounced Zafar) or Dhafari (pronounced Zafari ) in Hadramaut, part of Southern Arabia.

SEPHAR.—Mentioned as a boundary of the descendants of Joktan in Gen 10:30. The most probable identification is that with Zafar, the ancient capital of the Himyarites, which is probably the seaport of Hadramaut of the same name (See Hazarmaveth).

J. F. McCurdy.

sē´far: Only in Gen 10:30 ספרה, ṣ^ephārāh, “toward Sephar”), as the eastern limit of the territory of the sons of Yoktan (Joktan). From the similarity between the names of most of Yoktan’s sons and the names of South Arabian towns or districts, it can hardly be doubted that Sephar is represented by the Arabic Ẓafār. The appropriateness of the site seems to outweigh the discrepancy between Arabic ẓ and Hebrew ṣ. But two important towns in South Arabia bear this name. The one lies a little to the South of Ṣan‛ā’. According to tradition it was founded by Shammir, one of the Sabean kings, and for a long time served as the royal seat of the Tubbas. The other Ẓafār stands on the coast in the district of Shiḥr, East of Ḥaḍramaut. The latter is probably to be accepted as the Biblical site.