arvad Summary and Overview

wandering, (Ezek. 27:8), a small island and city on the coast of Syria, mentioned as furnishing mariners and soldiers for Tyre. The inhabitants were called Arvadites. The name is written Aruada or Arada in the Tell-el-Amarna tablets.

(wandering) #Eze 27:8,11| The island of Ruad, which lies off Tortosa (Tartus), two or three miles from the Phoenician coast. In agreement with this is the mention of "the Arvadite, in #Ge 10:18| and 1Chr 1:16 as a son of Canaan, with Zidon, Hamath an other northern localities.

AR'VAD (wandering), a small island 2 or 3 miles off the coast of Phoenicia, related closely to Tyre. Eze 27:8, Rev 1:11. See also Gen 10:18; 1 Chr 1:16. Ruins of a huge wall are still found, and Greek inscriptions graven on black basaltic columns. The stones are so immense as to puzzle the best engineers how to move them. The place is now called Ruad, and has about 3000 population. It appears to have been a city since the time of Arvad, son of Canaan, and is probably the same as Arpad and Arphad.

("wandering".) "The Arvadite" was a descendant of Canaan like Zidon, Hamath, etc. (Genesis 10:18; 1 Chronicles 1:16.) In Ezekiel 27:8; Ezekiel 27:11, "the men of Arvad" are among the mariners of the ship, namely, Tyre. Arvad is the isle Ruad, off Tortosa, two or three miles from the Phoenician coast, at the N. end of the bay above Tripoli. It is elevated and rocky, but hardly a mile round. Strabo mentions Arvad's likeness to Tyre, and the superior seamanship of its people. The inhabitants still, to the number of a thousand, are employed as pilots, shipbuilders, sponge divers, and sailors. There are remains of the sea walls, some of the stones 12 feet long by 10 high, not beveled, but indented with deep grooves on the upper surface, one groove square, three semicircular.