Sinim

Si´nim, a people whose country, ’land of Sinim,’ is mentioned only in Isa 49:12, where the context implies a remote region, situated in the eastern or southern extremity of the earth. Many Biblical geographers think this may possibly denote the Sinese or Chinese, whose country is Sina, China. This view is not void of probability, but objections to it are obvious and considerable. Some, therefore, think that by the Sinim the inhabitants of Pelusium (Sin) are, by synecdoche, denoted for the Egyptians. But as the text seems to point to a region more distant, others have upheld the claims of the people of Syene, taken to represent the Ethiopians [SYENE].

Isa 49:12, a people very remote from the Holy Land, towards the east or south; generally believed to mean the Chinese, who have been known to Western Asia from early times, and are called by the Arabs Sin, and by the Syrians Tsini.\par

Si’nim. A people noticed in Isa 49:12, as living at the extremity of the known world. They may be identified with the classical Sinoe, the inhabitants of the southern part of China.

Isa 49:12. The people of southern China. An inland commercial route connected the extreme East with the West very early. (See SILK.) The Sinims and the Scythians interchanged commodities as the Chinese and Russians do now. Sinae was the name of the "Chinese traders". Their town was Thinae, one of the great emporiums in western China, now Thsiu or Tin in the province of Schensi. In the eighth century B.C. the Sinae became independent in western China, their princes reigning there for 650 years before they attained dominion over the whole land; in the third century B.C. the dynasty of Tsin (from whence came "China") became supreme over the empire. The Chinese "came from far," (distinct from "the N. and the W."), namely, from the far East, answering the requirements of Isa 49:12. The western part becoming first known to India, the name of this part was given to the whole. The Chinese seldom call themselves so, being in the habit of giving themselves high sounding titles, or else naming themselves from the reigning dynasty.

A remote place from which some will be brought when in a future day God is blessing Israel. The LXX has "the land of the Persians." The land of the Sinae, who settled in Western China, has been suggested: this would not clash with ’north’ and ’west,’ which are also mentioned in the same passage. Isa 49:12.

See CHINA:

SINIM.—The ‘land of Sinim’ (Isa 49:12) must, from the context, have been in the extreme south or east of the known world. In the south, Sin (Pelusium, Eze 30:15 f.) and Syene (Eze 29:10; Eze 30:6) have been suggested. The latter is favoured by recent discoveries of papyri (cf. Seveneh). The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] favours the view that a country in the east was intended, and some modern commentators have identified Sinim with China, the land of the Sinæ.