1. Yam, W1 (Coptic, iom; Arabic, yamm), signifies " the sea," or any sea. It is also applied to the Nile (ex- actly as the Arabic bahr is so applied) in Neh. iii, 8, "Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers (yeorlm), [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea (yam), and her wall was from the sea (yam) '?" See also Isa. xix, 5.
2. Yam-Suph, r^O'E^; in the Coptic version, phiom nshajn; A. V. "Red Sea." The meaning of suph, and the reason of its being applied to this sea, have given rise to much learned controversy. Gesenius renders it rush, reed, sea-weed. It is mentioned in the Old Test, almost always in connection with the sea of the Exodus. It also occurs in the narrative of the exposure of Moses in the "IN"^ (yeor) ; for he was laid in suph, on the brink of the year (Exod. ii, 3), where (in the suph) he was found by Pharaoh's daughter (ver. 5) ; and in the " bur- den of Egypt" (Isa. xix), with the drying-up of the waters of Egypt, " And the waters shall fail from the sea (yam), and the river (nahdr) shall be wasted and dried
-up. And thev shall turn the livers (nahdr, constr. pi.) VIII.— P P p
far away; [and] the brooks (yeor) of defence (or of Egypt?) shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags (suph) shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks (year), by the mouth of the brooks (yeor), and everything sown by the brooks (yeor) shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more]. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks (yeor) shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover, they that work in fine flax, and they that weave net works (white linen ?) shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices [and] ponds for fish" (ver. 5-10). Suph only occurs in one place besides those already referred to. In Jon. ii, 5 it is written, "The waters compassed me about, [even] to the soul; the depth closed me round about, the weeds (sujjh) were wrapped about my head." With this single exception, which shows that this product was also found in the Mediterranean, suph is Egyptian, either in the Red Sea or in the yeor, and this yeor in Exod. ii was in the land of Goshen.
The signification of r^O, suph, must be gathered from the foregoing passages. In Arabic, the word with this signification (which commonly is "wool") is found only in one passage in a rare lexicon (the Mohham MS.). The author says, " Suf-el-bahr (the suf of the sea) is like the wool of sheep. And the Arabs have a proverb, 'I will come to thee when the sea ceases to wet the suf} " i. e. never. The ClIO of the Z*1, it seems quite certain, is a sea-weed resembling wool. Such sea-weed is thrown up abundantly on the shores of the lied Sea. Fiirst says, s. v. TflD, "Ab .Ethiopibus herba qusedam sttpho appellabatur, qure in profundo Maris Rubri crescit, quae rubra est, rubrumque colorem continet, pannis tin- gendis inservientem, teste Hieronymo de qualitate Maris Rubri" (p. 47, etc.). Diodorus (iii, c. 19), Artemidorus (ap. Strabo, p. 770), and Agatharchides (ed. Miiller, p. 136, 137) speak of the weed of the Arabian Gulf. Ehrenberg enumerates Fucus latifolius on the shores of this sea, and at Suez Fucus crispus, F. trinodis, F. tur- binatus, F. papillosus, F. diaphanus, etc., and the spe- cially red weed Trichodesmium erythraum. The Coptic version renders suph by shari (see above), supposed to be the hieroglyphic sher (sea?). If this be the same as the sari of Pliny (see next paragraph), we must con- clude that shari, like suph, was both marine and fluvial. The passage in Jonah proves it to be a marine product, and that it was found in the Red Sea the numerous pas- sages in which that sea is called the sea of suph leave no doubt.
3. The " Red Sea," 7) IpvSpd SdXaacra. The origin of this appellation has been the source of more specula- tion even than the obscure suph, for it lies more within the range of general scholarship. The theories advanced to account for it have been often puerile and generally unworthy of acceptance. Their authors may be divided into two schools. The first have ascribed it to some natural phenomenon, such as the singularly red appear- ance of the mountains of the western coast, looking as if they were sprinkled with Havana or Brazil snuff, or brick-dust (Bruce), or of which the redness was reflected in the waters of the sea (Gosselin, ii, 78-84) ; the red color of the water sometimes caused by the presence of zoophytes (Salt; Ehrenberg) ; the red coral of the sea; the red sea-weed; and the red storks that have been seen in great numbers, etc. Reland (De Mare Rubra, /lis.-;. Miscell. i, 59-117) argues that the epithet raZwas applied to this and the neighboring seas on account of their tropical heat; as, indeed, was said by Artemidorus (ap. Strabo, xvi, 4, 20), that the sea was called red be- cause of the reflection of the sun. The second have en- deavored to find an etymological derivation. Of these the earliest (European) writers proposed a derivation from Edom, " red," by the Greeks translated literally. Among them were Fuller (Miscell. Sacr. iv, c. 20); be-