Tarpelites

Ezr 4:9. Colonists planted in Samaria after Israel’s deportation by Assyria. Conjectured to be the Tapyri, a Median tribe E. of Elymais (Ptolemy vi. 2, section 6), or the Tarpetes, a Maeotic race (Strabo, 11:495).

[Tar’pelites]

Colonists placed in Samaria from some unknown district. Ezr 4:9.

TARPELITES.—One of the peoples settled in the cities of Samaria (Ezr 4:9); text doubtful.

tar´pel-ı̄ts (טּרפּליא, ṭarp^elāyē’ (Ezr 4:9)): Various theories have been advanced as to the identity of the Tarpelites. Rawlinson suggested the Tuplai, which name appears in the inscriptions as equivalent to the Greek Tibarēnoı́, a tribe on the coast of Pontus. Hitzig located them in Tripolis in Northern Phoenicia. The latest theory emends the text to טפסריא, ṭı̄phṣ^erayā’, “tablet-writers” (from the Assyrian dup sarru); compare Schrader, Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, on Jer 51:27.