Saadias interprets ; and, if so, it is doubtless none other than the chain running across the middle of Arabia from the region of Mecca and INIedina as far as the Persian Gulf, now called Nesjd, the highlands (sec Jomard, No- tice sitr le pays de IW rubie cent rale, Paris, 1 823). Sephar would then be the modern Sephr, the chief city of the district Shehr in the province of Iladramant. See Sei'HAU. Bochart {Phakg, ii, 20) thinks that Mesha, from which the boundary extends, is the Musa or Muza (MoDffa, Ptol. vi, 8; Movja, Arrian, Per'qil.; Muza, I'liny, vi, 23) spoken of as a maritime city on the west- em coast of iVrabia, not far from Mocha, where ^fu- zaa (Niebuhr, Arabien, p. 223; Janaen, Hist. Jcmame, p. 286), or rather Mausij (Niebuhr, p. 224, 225 ; Mannert, Geoff7: vi, 1, p. 63), now stands. It was a town of note in classical times, but has since fallen into decay, if the modern Musa be the same place. The latter is situated in about 13° 40' N. lat., 43° 20' E. long., and is near a mountain called the Three Sisters, or Jebel Musa, in the Admiralty Chart of the Ked Sea, drawn from the sur- veys of captain Pullen, K.N. But as neither of these Arabic names can well be compared with that of Mcsha, it may be better (with J. D. ^Micliaclis, Sjiicilir/. ii, p. 214; i»'(/7j;j/. No. 1501) to understand .\/is,i,i or .Ucisaii, situated among the mouths of the Tigris (in the Shat el-Arab) on the Persian Gulf — a place described by Philostogius (iii, 7; comp. Dion Cass. Ixviii, 28; A'sseman. Bibl. Orient, iii, 2, p. 430, 603; Abulfcda in Tub. Iracce ap. Michael, in Spicil. 1. c. ; D'Anville, rEuphixite et le Tigre, p. 135), the name perhaps signi- fj'ing the river island, from its being enclosed by the branches of the Tigris, as often alluded to by the Greek geographers (see Steph. Byz. s. v. Orathra and Mes- sene ; Pliny, v, 27, 31 ; Cellar. Notit. ii, p. 749 ; D'Anville, p. 130, 131). The sacred writer would thus in his de- scription begin with the eastern limits of the Joktanida;, and end with the western and northern, Sephar being sought between them. " But it is very doubtful whether the island, which has been formed by the deposits of the river, was in existence in the days of Moses; and it is still more doubtful whether such a s]iot could at that ear- ly period have attained to any jiolitical or geographical notoriety. Besides, it is not likely that an accurate writer would describe a purely Arabian territory as com- mencing on the east side of the Tigris. The theory of Mr. Porster is much more probable than either of the preceding, lie identities Mcsha with a mountain-range called Zames by Ptolemy (vi, 7), which commences near the Persian Gulf, and runs in a south-western direction nearly across the peninsvda. It is an undoubted fact that the various Joktanitic tribes, or Beni-Kahtan, as they are called by Arab writers, are still found, and have been from tlie earliest period, in the wide region extend- ing from jMount Zames to the Indian Ocean and Ked Sea; and that this range separates them from the Ish- maelitish Arabs (Forster, Geography of A rahia,\,SSh sq.). Porster further conjectures that the name Zames is radi- cally identical with ^Slesha, the syllables being inverted, as is very common in AraVuc words — thus Mesza = Mesha. The Zames range is now called by the general name of the 'Nejd ilountains,' and the country extend- ing thence to the Indian Ocean on the east, and the Ked Sea on the south, embraces the most fertile part of Ara- bia— the classic Arabia Pelix, now called Yemen (Kitter, Erdkundv, xii, 708 sq.). The moinitains of Nejd arc famous for their pastures and for their horses, which are considered the best in Arabia (Kitter, p. 918-lii;)5; Fresnel, Lettres sur la Giog. de V Arable, in .lourn. Asiat. vol. v" (Kitto). "The position of the early Jok- tanitic colonists is clearly made out from the traces they have left in the ethnology, language, and monuments of Southern Aral)ia ; and, without ])utting too precise a limitation upon the possible situation of ^Mesha and Sephar, we may supjiose that these places must have fallen within the south-western quarter of the i>enin- sula; including the modern Yemen on the west, and the districts of 'Oman, Jlahrch, Shihr, etc., as far as
Iladramant, on the east. These general boundaries are strengthened by the identitication of Sephar with the port of ZafAri, or Dhafari ; though the site of Se- phar may possibly be hereafter connected with the old liimyeriiic metropolis in the Yemen, but this would not materially alter the question. In Sephar we be- lieve we have the eastern limit of the early settlers, whether its site be the sea-port or the inland city ; and the correctness of this supposition appears from the Bil> lical record, in which the migration is apparently from west to east, from the probable course taken by the im- migrants, and from the greater importance of the known western settlements of the Joktanites, or those of Ye- men" (Smith).
2. (Uch.Meysha'.^'O'^^^ deliverance; Sept. Mapivag V. r. Mapiffa, Vulg. A/esa.) The eldest son of Caleb or Chclubai (brother of Jerahmeel and son of Ilezron), and the father (founder) of Ziph, of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron. ii, 42). B.C. cir. 1618.