Kittim
Kittim is a body of water mentioned in the Old Testament, located in modern-day Cyprus. Known today as Cyprus. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Kittim (also rendered Chittim or Kition) first appears in the Table of Nations as a descendant of Javan, son of Japheth (Genesis 10:4; 1 Chronicles 1:7), representing the people who settled on the island of Cyprus and, by extension, the western Mediterranean coastlands. In prophetic literature, Kittim became a symbol for distant western maritime powers. Isaiah 23:1, 12 mentions the "coastlands of Kittim" in connection with the oracle against Tyre, describing ships of Tarshish receiving news of Tyre's destruction from Kittim. Jeremiah 2:10 invokes Kittim as a reference point for distant western lands, challenging Israel to consider whether any nation has ever exchanged its gods as faithlessly as Israel has abandoned the Lord. Ezekiel 27:6 notes that the oars of Tyrian ships were made from oaks of Bashan inlaid with ivory from the "coastlands of Kittim." Numbers 24:24, in Balaam's final oracle, prophesies that ships from Kittim will afflict Asshur and Eber. In later Jewish literature, particularly Daniel 11:30, Kittim came to represent Rome, reflecting the term's evolving application to successive western powers.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Kittim is identified with Cyprus, specifically with the ancient Phoenician colony of Kition (modern Larnaca) on the island's southeastern coast. Extensive archaeological excavations at Kition, led by Vassos Karageorghis from the 1960s onward, uncovered a major Phoenician temple complex, copper smelting workshops, and extensive harbor installations dating from the Late Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period. The site confirms strong Phoenician commercial presence on Cyprus, consistent with the biblical association between Kittim and Tyre. Cyprus was a major source of copper in antiquity (the word "copper" derives from the Latin Cuprum, meaning "from Cyprus"). The Dead Sea Scrolls use "Kittim" to refer to Rome, showing the term's later semantic expansion beyond Cyprus to western maritime powers generally.
Verse Appearances (2)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]