A place in Asia Minor near the Bosphorus, to which Jewish captives were conveyed, Ob 1:20.

(Ob 1:20), some locality unknown. The modern Jews think that Spain is meant, and hence they designate the Spanish Jews "Sephardim," as they do the German Jews by the name "Ashkenazim," because the rabbis call Germany Ashkenaz. Others identify it with Sardis, the capital of Lydia. The Latin father Jerome regarded it as an Assyrian word, meaning "boundary," and interpreted the sentence, "which is in Sepharad," by "who are scattered abroad in all the boundaries and regions of the earth." Perowne says: "Whatever uncertainty attaches to the word Sepharad, the drift of the prophecy is clear, viz., that not only the exiles from Babylon, but Jewish captives from other and distant regions, shall be brought back to live prosperously within the enlarged borders of their own land."

Jerusalem's citizens, captives at Sepharad, shall return to occupy the city and southern Judaea (Ob 1:20). Jerome's Hebrew tutor thought Sepharad was on the Bosphorus. Jerome derives it from an Assyrian word "limit," i.e. scattered in all regions abroad (so Jas 1:1). The modern Jews think Spain. As Zarephath, a Phoenician city, was mentioned in the previous clause, Sepharad is probably some Phoenician colony in Spain or some other place in the far West (compare Joe 3:6, to which Obadiah refers). C Pa Rad occurs before Ionia and Greece in a cuneiform inscription giving a list of the Persian tribes (See also Niebuhr, Reiseb. 2:31). Also in Darius' epitaph at Nakshi Rustam, 1:28, before Ionia in the Behistun inscription (i. 15). Thus, it would be Sardis (the Greeks omitting the -ph) in Lydia. In favor of Spain is the fact that the Spanish Jews are called Sephardim, the German Jews Ashkenazim.

A country in which was a community of exiles from Judah in the days of the prophet Obadiah (Ob 1:20). It is probably to be understood as Sparda (

Sepha'rad

Place where the Jews were in captivity, but from whence they would be brought to possess 'the cities of the south.' Ob 1:20. The LXX has 'as far as Ephratha'; and the Vulgate 'in Bosphoro.' Jerome considered the word signified 'boundary,' and referred to the dispersion of the Jews in any region.

Seph'arad

(separated), a name which occurs in

Ob 1:20

only. Its situation has always been a matter of uncertainty.