V • 1089 SEPHARAD

of fighting, finally defeated and Merodach-baladan even­tually disappeared.

Sennacherib's invasion of the kingdom of Judah, as stated earlier, presents problems to modern historians since the Assyrian records and the biblical narratives do not seem to be very close in detail. Both concern an invasion of Palestine by Sennacherib during the reign of Hezekiah and both mention an Assyrian siege of Jerusalem but apart from these essentials they have little in common. According to Sennacherib's annals (ANET, 287-88), this king directed his third campaign (701 B.C.) against Syria. After Sidon and Ashkelon were taken by force a large number of other cities and states submitted without a fight and paid tribute. However, the people of Ekron (Amqar-runa) were afraid of the Assyrians since they had sent their former king, an Assyrian vassal, as a prisoner to Hezekiah at Jerusalem. Egypt and Ethiopia now came to the aid of Ekron. The allied forces met the Assyrians at Eltekeh and the Assyrians claimed a victory. The king of Ekron was released by Hezekiah but nevertheless Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem. During the siege various surrounding towns were plundered.

Surprisingly, the Assyrian records do not tell us the result of the siege but simply go on to say that Hezekiah sent a large amount of booty to Sennacherib at Nineveh. This concludes the relevant narrative for the campaign of 701 B.C. The only other pertinent Assyrian information is the portrayal of the sack of Lachish on sculptured reliefs found at Nineveh (and now in the British Museum), which is undated, and a broken text in which reference is made to the capture of the Palestinian town Azekah.

C. Historical Reconstruction It seems that the biblical and Assyrian narratives are so

different that they represent two different events. The first was the campaign of 701 B.C. and the second probably took place late in the reign (688-681 B.C.), a period for which no Assyrian annals are preserved. Sennacherib's first Palestinian campaign could have taken place more or less as he described it in his annals. The siege of Jerusalem came to an end when Hezekiah paid a huge tribute to Sennacherib (see 2 Kgs 18:14-16). In subsequent years, Hezekiah, encouraged by the absence of the Assyrian army, must have allied himself to Egypt. At the same time he took the precaution of fortifying Jerusalem to face a siege as narrated in 2 Chronicles. Sennacherib, late in his reign after he had dealt with other problems, was in a position to deal with Hezekiah. Thus, he probably led a second campaign into Palestine which involved among other things the siege of Lachish. It was possibly on this occasion that the Rabshakeh made his vain efforts to persuade Hezekiah to give up without a fight. Tirhakah led an Egypto-Ethiopian force into Palestine to raise the siege. Before the two armies met however a catastrophe befell the Assyrian camp and Sennacherib retreated in haste (cf. Herodotus 2.141). This is a hypothetical recon­struction of the events but it accepts the biblical narrative as essentially accurate while at the same time reconciling it with the Assyrian records. See also Cogan and Tadmor 2 Kings AB; CAH 3/2/23.

Bibliography Clements, R. E. 1980. Isaiah and the Deliverance of Jerusalem. Shef­

field. A. KIRK GRAYSON

SENTENCES OF SEXTUS. TENCES OF (NHC Xll.i).

See SEXTUS, SEN,

SEORIM (PERSON) [Heb se'orim]. Head of a priestly family appointed to service by David according to 1 Chr 24:8. Aside from this mention, nothing is known of Seo-rim. In 1 Chr 24:1-19 twenty-four families of priests are chosen by lot for temple service. They were chosen from the descendants of the sons of Aaron, Ithamar and Elea­zar. According to the passage, David was assisted by rep­resentatives of the family lines. One of these was the priest, Zadok. The other was Abiathar. The lots were chosen without discrimination, however, Zadok's lineage (Eleazar) contained more heads of families. For this reason, sixteen of the families came from Zadok's side and only eight from Abiathar's. Seorim was elected to the fourth course. Priestly duties rotated among the families according to the order of election.

DONALD K. BERRY

SEPHAR (PLACE) [Heb sipar\. One of the boundaries, described as the mountain or hill country of the E, to which the territory of the sons of Joktan extended (Gen 10:30). The other boundary, Mesha, is usually located somewhere in N Arabia. Because of similarities between the names of most of Joktan's progeny and the names of many towns and regions in S Arabia, a location for Sephar in that area has been sought. Two places bearing the name Zafar, one, the site of the Himyarite capital near Sana in the interior of Yemen, the other, in the Hadramaut on the coast near Shihr, have been proposed. While some scholars are dubious about either equation because of the discrep­ancy in the initial sibilants of the Arabic and Hebrew names, others have felt that the appropriateness of the equation outweighs that discrepancy. Cohen (IDB 4: 272) has noted that in post-biblical Hebrew separ has the mean­ing "border country" and suggests that perhaps the phrase in Genesis does not refer to a locality but could better be rendered as: "as far as the border country, that is, the hill country of the east." Without a firm location for Mesha or additional evidence, no conclusive identification is possible.

GARY H. OLLER

SEPHARAD (PLACE) [Heb separed]. The place where some inhabitants of Jerusalem were exiled (Obad 20). The biblical text gives no indication of the location of Sepharad, but at least three possible locations have been suggested: a city in Spain, possibly Sefarad; a city located in Media; and the city Sardis, located in Lydia of Asia Minor.

The least plausible suggestion originates from the Tar-gum of Jonathan which placed Sepharad in Spain. Neiman (1963) suggests that there were at least two cities with the name Sepharad: one designated Sardis in Asia Minor and

SEPHARAD 1090 • V

one called Sefarad in Spain. Jewish tradition preserves the name by calling the Jews from Spain (Sepharad) the "Se­phardim" and thereby distinguishing them from the Ash­kenazim Jews of Central Europe.

The second possibility comes from several Assyrian in­scriptions which record a city named Saparda. One locates this city to the E of Assyria in Media. This location has been determined from a mention of Saparda in the Assyr­ian annals which record the campaign of Sargon II along the Lower Zab. Other Mesopotamian inscriptions, however, indicate that Saparda was located in Asia Minor. Saparda is mentioned as an ally of the Cimmerians, Medes, and the Minni in their attack on Assyria during the reign of Esarhaddon. This would then locate Saparda, if it is near its allies, to the NW of Assyria. More evidence of a possible Asia Minor location comes from the Behistun inscription which notes that Saparda is between Egypt and Ionia. While another inscription from the same period found at Naksh-i-Rustam, locates it between Cappadocia and Ionia.

The location of Sepharad is also identified with the capital city of Lydia, Sardis, which is located in Asia Minor and is near the modern village of Sart in Turkey (38°28'N; 28°02'E). An Aramaic-Lydian inscription was found at Sardis which preserves the Aramaic name of the city as the same four letters, sprd, as the text of Obadiah 20. The date of the inscription is debated (455, 394, or 349 B.C.), but it certainly attests that Sardis is a good candidate for Se­pharad. Some have argued that Sardis was too distant to be a possible location of an early Jewish settlement. The city was, however, an important center of trade which would have far reaching contacts. If Sardis is Sepharad it would certainly indicate an early settlement of Jews in Asia Minor. Archaeological evidence at Sardis demonstrates a significant Jewish population in the 2d century A.D. as attested by a large synagogue.

Bibliography Neiman, D. 1963. Sefarad: The Name of SpainJA^S 22: 128-32.

JOHN D. WINELAND

SEPHARVAIM (PLACE) [Heb separwayim]. Sephar-vites. One ofthe places from which the Assyrians, perhaps under Sargon II (722-705 B.C.E.), brought settlers to the cities of Samaria according to 2 Kgs 17:24. The taunting messages from Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.E.), king of As­syria, to the people of Jerusalem in 2 Kgs 18:34 (= Isa 36:19) and 2 Kgs 19:13 (= Isa 37:13) emphasize that the gods and the king of Sepharvaim were unable to resist the Assyrian onslaught.

Albright (ARI, 220), among others, located it at Sabar-ain, a city conquered (ca. 722 B.C.E.) by Shalmaneser V according to the Babylonian Chronicle 1:28 (TCS 5:73). However, Tadmor (cf. Cogan and Tadmor 2 Kings AB, 199) argues that this place should be transcribed as samard'in, and is to be identified with Samaria. Citing the dual ending on Sepharvaim, Driver (1958: 18*) proposed identification with Sippar, an ancient Mesopotamian city (modern Abu Habbah some 20 miles SW of Baghdad, Iraq) which appar­ently consisted of two towns. The fact that Sippar did not have a king during the Assyrian period and other difficul­ties militate against Driver's suggestion. Zadok (1976: 115)

argues for identification with Sipraani, the Chaldean name of a city mentioned in the Murashu documents (5th cen­tury B.C.E.) from Nippur in S Mesopotamia, but more data is needed to render this conclusive. Identification with Sepharad by Astour (IDBSup, 807) has met with little acceptance. Albright (ARI, 220) and other scholars view the Sibraim mentioned in Ezek 47:16 as a variant spelling of Sepharvaim, while others (e.g., Zadok 1976: 116) argue that these were two distinct places.

A related problem is the identification of the gods wor­shiped by the Sepharvites. According to 2 Kgs 17:31, the people of Sepharvaim worshiped Adrammelech and An-ammelech by burning children. Following A. Ungnad, Deller (1965) made the strongest case for equating Adram­melech with Adad-milki, a deity associated with the burn­ing of children in texts from, among other places, Tell Halaf, an ancient town near the Turkish-Syrian border. However, Kaufman (1978) argues that the cuneiform signs read as Adad-milki may also have other interpretations. Anammelech has been identified with the enigmatic Anat-melek by some scholars (e.g., Weinfeld 1972: 149), and with An(u), the Mesopotamian sky-god, by others (e.g., Cogan and Tadmor 2 Kings AB, 212).

Bibliography Deller, K. 1965. Review of Les sacrifices de I'Ancien Testament, by R.

deVaux. Or 34: 382-86. Driver, G. R. 1958. Geographical Problems. EI 5: 16*-20*. Kaufman, S. A. 1978. The Enigmatic Adad-Milki. JNES 37: 101-

9. Weinfeld, M. 1972. The Worship of Molech and of the Queen of

Heaven and its Background. UF 4: 133-54. Zadok, R. 1976. Geographical and Onomastic Notes. JANES 8:

113-26. HECTOR AVALOS

SEPPHORIS (M.R. 176239). Sepphoris was one ofthe leading cities of Lower Galilee from the early Roman period. Yet much of its history extended back into the OT period. It lay scarcely 4 miles NW of Nazareth on a high hill in a mountainous plain at an elevation of 286 m above sea level. The territory of Sepphoris extended 10 miles NW to the territory of Acco-Ptolemais and 9 miles SE to Mt. Tabor, which suggests that Nazareth belonged to the territory of Sepphoris. ,

The rabbis believed that Sepphoris was founded by Joshua the son of Nun, and some identified Sepphoris as biblical Kitron (Judg 1:30) or even Rakkath (Josh 19:35; A. Meg. 6a). The name of the city means "bird," and one rabbi explained that it got its name because it perched on a hill like a bird (b. Meg. 6a).

Pottery sherds of the Iron Age II and perhaps earlier appear on the surface at Sepphoris. A beautifully molded rhyton or drinking vessel of the Persian period found at Sepphoris may hint at the importance of the city during that period. The priestly family of Amok may have settled there after the return from the Exile (Neh 12:7 and 20; Mishmaroth 2). Scant remains of the Hellenistic period are known, but the city clearly reached its peak beginning in the Early Roman period.

Sepphoris entered recorded history for the first time in