Sheleph (Hastings' Dictionary)

Son of .loktan, On 'lO-», 1 Ch P°. The word is evi- dently identical with the Arabic salaf, salif, etc., which figure as the names of several places in Arabia ; Yakut mentions a place called ' the two Salafs,' quoting for it a ver-se of a pre-Moham- medan poet ; places called Salf, Salif, and Salnfah are noticed in the S. Arabian geography of Ham- dani ; and a province called Salif is. mentioned by Mukaddasi among those of Yemen (p. 'JO).

The Arabic genealogists further discovered a sub- division of the Himyarites which had the name Sulaf, and which they identified with the son of Joktan (Taj al-arus, vi. 143). The Arabic salaf means simply ' ancestor,' while salif or silf means ' a sister's husband ' ; there would therefore be no improbability in the name in the text being not geographical but personal. Some further guesses are "recorded by DQlmann (Genesis, ad luc). D. S. Makgoliouth. SHELESH (»'?!> ; B Se/xiJ, A 2eXX^s, Luc.

^iXen). —An Asherite, 'l Ch 7".