Reference: Sephar

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

numbering, (Ge 10:30), supposed by some to be the ancient Himyaritic capital, "Shaphar," Zaphar, on the Indian Ocean, between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

Ge 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).

Mentioned as a boundary of the descendants of Joktan in Ge 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.

Sephar'

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

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."

Ge 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.