Arpad
Ar'pad (Isa 36:19; Isa 37:13) or Ar'phad (Heb. Arpad', אִרפָּד, perhaps a support; but see below; Sept. in 2 Kings Α᾿ρφάδ, elsewhere Α᾿ρφάθ, in Isa 10:9 undistinguishable), a Syrian city, having its own king (2Ki 19:13; Isa 37:13), in the neighborhood of Hamath (2Ki 18:34; Isa 10:9; Isa 36:19) and Damascus (Jer 49:23), with both of which it appears to have been conquered by the Assyrians under Sennacherib. Michaelis and others seek Arphad in Raphance or Raphanee of the Greek geographers (Ptol. v, 15; Steph. Byzant. in Ε᾿πιφάνεια; Joseph. War, 7:1, 3; 7:5, 1), which was a day's journey west of Hamath (Mannert, VI, i, 431). Paulus (Comment. in Isa 10:9) thinks it was a city in the neighborhood of the Tigris and Euphrates. Some, however, are content to find this Arphad in the A rpha (Α᾿ρφᾶ) which Josephus (War, iii, 3, 5) mentions as situated on the north-eastern frontier of the northernmost province of Herod Agrippa's tetrarchy; also called A rtha (Α᾿ρθᾶ) or Arfa by other ancient writers (Reland, Palcest. p. 584). But it seems best (with Doderloin and others) to refer it to the Phoenician island city Arvad or Aradus (q.v.), which was opposite Hamath (the interchange of פ and ו being very natural).
