(4) (
Hebrew characters) ([E] (Hebrew characters), G (Greek characters))] usually understood of the Lydians (Jos. Boch.
al.), but it has never been satisfactorily explained how a people in the
extreme W of Asia Minor comes to be numbered among the Shemites.
An African people, such as appears to be contemplated in v.13, would
be equally out of place here. A suggestion of Jen.'s deserves consideration:
that (Hebrew characters) is the Lubdu,—a province lying "between the upper
Tigris and the Euphrates, N of Mt. Masius and its western extension,"—mentioned
in KIB, i. 4 (l. 9 fr. below, rd. Lu-up-di), 177 (along with
Arrapḫa), 199. See Wi. AOF, ii. 47; Streck, ZA, xiv. 168; Je. 276.
In the remaining refs. (Is. 6619, Jer. 469, Ezk. 2710 305), the Lydians of
Asia Minor might be meant,—in the last three as mercenaries in the
service of Eg. or Tyre.
(5) (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters))] a collective designation of the Semitic
peoples speaking 'Aramaic' dialects,[1] so far as known to the Hebrews
(Nö. EB, 276ff.). The actual diffusion of that family of Semites was
wider than appears from OT, which uses the name only of the districts
to the NE of Palestine (Damascus especially) and Mesopotamia (Aram-Naharaim,
Paddan-Aram): these, however, were really the chief centres
of Aramæan culture and influence. In Ass. the Armaiu (Aramu, Arimu,
Arumu) are first named by Tiglath-pileser I. (c. 1100) as dwelling in
the steppes of Mesopotamia (KIB, i. 33); and Shalmaneser ii. (c. 857)
encountered them in the same region (ib. 165). But if Wi. be right
(KAT3, 28 f., 36), they are referred to under the name Aḫlāmi from a
much earlier date (TA Tab.; Ramman-nirari I. [c. 1325]; Ašur-rîš-*îši
[c. 1150]: see KIB, v. 387, i. 5, 13). Hence Wi. regards the second
half of the 2nd millennium B.C. as the period during which the Aramæan
nomads became settled and civilised peoples in Mesopotamia and Syria.
In 1 Ch. 117 the words (Hebrew characters) (v.23) are omitted, the four following
names being treated as sons of Shem:
(6) (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters))] is doubtless the same tribe which in 2221 ((Greek characters)) is
classed as the firstborn of Naḥor: therefore presumably somewhere NE
of Palestine in the direction of Ḥarran. The conjectural identifications
are hardly worth repeating. The other Biblical occurrences of the
name are difficult to harmonise. The Uz of Jb. 11 ((Greek characters)), and the
Ḥorite tribe mentioned in Gn. 3620, point to a SE situation, bordering
on or comprised in Edom; and this would also suit La. 421, Je. 2520
((Hebrew characters)), though in both these passages the reading is doubtful. It is
suggested by Rob. Sm. (KM2, 61) and We. (Heid. 146) that the name
is identical with that of the Arabian god 'Auḍ; and by the former
scholar that the OT (Hebrew characters) denotes a number of scattered tribes worshipping
that deity (similarly Bu. Hiob. ix.-xi.; but, on the other side, see
Nö. ZDMG, xl. 183 f.).
(7) (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters))] Del. (Par. 259) identifies with a district in the neighbourhood
of Mt. Masius mentioned by Asshur-nasir-pal. The word
(ḥu-li-ia), however, is there read by Peiser as an appellative = 'desert'
(KIB, i. 86 f., 110 f.); and no other conjecture is even plausible.
(8) (Hebrew characters) is quite unknown.
- ↑ (
Greek characters)—as Jos. correctly explains.
