Ephah (, ''ʿĒp̄ā'',

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

Γαιφα, ''Gaipha'') was one of

Midian Midian (; ; , ''Madiam''; Taymanitic: 𐪃𐪕𐪚𐪌 ''MDYN''; ''Mīḏyān'') is a geographical region in West Asia, located in northwestern Saudi Arabia. mentioned in the Tanakh and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was ...

's five sons as listed in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

, was the father of Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida, and Eldaah by his wife Keturah
Genesis 25:4

. These five were the

progenitor In genealogy, a progenitor (rarer: primogenitor; or ''Ahnherr'') is the founder (sometimes one that is legendary) of a family, line of descent, gens, clan, tribe, noble house, or ethnic group.. Ebenda''Ahnherr:''"Stammvater eines Geschlec ...

s of the Midianites.Charles B. Williams, "Ephah." ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'' (1906). Ephah is mentioned again i
Isaiah 60:6
as a transporter of gold and frankincense from

Sheba Sheba, or Saba, was an ancient South Arabian kingdoms in pre-Islamic Arabia, South Arabian kingdom that existed in Yemen (region), Yemen from to . Its inhabitants were the Sabaeans, who, as a people, were indissociable from the kingdom itself f ...

, who shall thus bring enlargement to Judah and praise to

Yahweh Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom ...

. Ephah is described as a land whence dromedaries would come to Israel: "A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah." The tribe of Ephah is mentioned in inscriptions of the 8th-century BC

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n kings Tiglath-Pileser III and

Sargon II Sargon II (, meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is generally believed to have be ...

, making it the only tribe of the Midianites to be attested outside of the Bible.Wayne T. Pitard, "Midian", in Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan (eds.), ''The Oxford Companion to the Bible'' (Oxford University Press, 1993). Tiglath-Pileser's inscription calls them ''Ḫa-a-a-ap-pa-a-a'', Sargon's ''Ḫa-ia-pa-a''. This is consistent with the original Hebrew implied by the Septuagint, , ''Ghaiphah''. Alongside the Adbeel, Massa, Tema and Sheba, they submitted to Tiglath-Pileser and paid tribute after a military campaign in southern Palestine. In the '' Annals of Sargon II'', they are mentioned alongside the Thamūd, Marsimani and Ibadidi as those defeated by the Assyrians and exiled to

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

in 716. Ephah is the only name common to both lists. Since the tribes mentioned by Sargon lay at a greater distance from Palestine than those in Tiglath-Pileser's inscription, it can be surmised that the Ephah were the closest to Palestine of these

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

n tribes. Presumably, they lived along the

incense trade route The incense trade route was an ancient network of major land and sea trading routes linking the Mediterranean world with eastern and southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across the Levan ...

, hence the reference to trade in Isaiah. Their land cannot be pinpointed but it may have been Yathrib (Medina) or Ḥismā.Israel Ephʻal, ''The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile Crescent, 9th–5th Centuries B.C.'' (Magnes Press, 1982), pp. 216–217.

Other uses

In the Bible, the name Ephah is also used of a concubine of Caleb
1 Chronicles 2:46
and a son of Jahdai, a descendant of Judah

.

References

{{Authority control Book of Genesis people Midian Ancient peoples of the Near East History of the Arabian Peninsula 8th-century BC in Assyria