SEPHAR

(Seʹphar).

One limit of the territory in which descendants of Joktan resided. The Bible says: “And their place of dwelling came to extend from Mesha as far as Sephar, the mountainous region of the East.” (Gen. 10:29, 30) One extremity was Mesha, apparently in N Arabia, making it probable that Sephar was in the S. (See MESHA No. 4.) One suggested location is the Yemenite city of Zafar (once the capital of the Himyarite kings), about a hundred miles (c. 161 kilometers) NE of the southern end of the Red Sea. Another is a coastal city in Mahra, on the Arabian Sea. But the exact location of ancient Sephar remains uncertain.