HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H5614
סְפָרַ֑ד
se.pha.rad — Sepharad
Sepharad = "separated" a place where Israelites were exiled Also named: Sardeis (Σάρδεις "Sardis" G4554)
1 tagged verse occurrence · see every occurrence →BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
Sepharad
Original Hebrew / Aramaic / Greek connected to this term
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
Historical dictionary entry
(Obad. 1:20), some locality unknown. The modern Jews think that Spain is meant, and hence they designate the Spanish Jews “Sephardim,” as they do the German Jews by the name “Ashkenazim,” because the rabbis call Germany Ashkenaz. Others identify it with Sardis, the capital of Lydia. The Latin father Jerome regarded it as an Assyrian word, meaning “boundary,” and interpreted the sentence, “which is in Sepharad,” by “who are scattered abroad in all the boundaries and regions of the earth.” Perowne says: “Whatever uncertainty attaches to the word Sepharad, the drift of the prophecy is clear, viz., that not only the exiles from Babylon, but Jewish captives from other and distant regions, shall be brought back to live prosperously within the enlarged borders of their own land.”
Scripture references
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.