arphaxad Summary and Overview

son of Shem, born the year after the Deluge. He died at the age of 438 years (Gen. 11:10-13; 1 Chr. 1:17, 18; Luke 3:36). He dwelt in Mesopotamia, and became, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, the progenitor of the Chaldeans. The tendency is to recognize in the word the name of the country nearest the ancient domain of the Chaldeans. Some regard the word as an Egypticized form of the territorial name of Ur Kasdim, or Ur of the Chaldees.

(stronghold of the Chaldees). 1. The son of Shem and ancestor of Eber. #Ge 10:22,24; 11:10| 2. Arphaxad, a king "who reigned over the Medes in Ecbatana," Judith 1:1-4; perhaps the same as Phraortes, who fell in a battle with the Assyrians, 633 B.C.

ARPHAX'AD (stronghold of the Chaldees), a son of Shem, ancestor of Eber, and also, according to Josephus, of the Chaldaeans. Gen 10:22, Jud 6:24; Gen 11:10-13; 1 Chr 1:17, 1 Sam 30:18, Jud 6:24.

(Genesis 10:21-24. Professor Rawlinson translates: "unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japhet, were children born, Arphaxad": Genesis 11:10) ("the stronghold of the Chaldees".) Shem's descendants are mentioned last, because the subsequent sacred history concerns them chiefly. His being forefather to Eber or Heber is specified, to mark that the chosen people of God, the Hebrew, sprang from Shem: Arphaxad was father of Salah. There was a portion of Assyria called Arrapachitis, from Arapkha, "the city of the four sacred fish," often seen on cylinders; but the affinity is doubtful.