Soph

One of the expressions used in Dt 1^ to (IcfiiKf the locality of Moses' address to Israel [?; on the difficulty of this interpretation see Driver] is ' in the Arabah, over against Suph ' (iiiD >": [i.e. by di.ssimil., for Si';], AV 'over against the Red Sea'). If the MT be correct, Suph is a place- name, possibly identical with SfPIIAIl of Is'u 21'-', but, upon the whole, it appears more probable that e)iD^i-: is a textual error for I'D'e^c (cf. LXX TrXriulov T^s ipvdpas [floXdtrcTTjs], A^ulg.

contra mare rubrnm). Yam ,sf(;)ft t means probably ',sea of reeds,' and appears to have been originally a title given to the upper end of the Gulf of Suez, which would be shallow and marshy, and abounding in reeds (W. M. Miiller, As. u. Kurop. 42 f.) In the OT this designation is usually confined to the W. (Suez) arm of the Ked Sea: Ex in''^ (J) 13's LV 2^ 2331 (all four E), Nu 3:3'i'i' (P), l)t IIS .;os2i» (J) 4-8 (D), Neh 99, Ps 100"i>-22 13(i"i''.

It stands, how- ever, for the Gulf of 'Akabah not only in Dt 1' (if the above suggestion is correct), but in Nu 21* (E) and I K 9-«; prob. also in Nu U^s (E), Dt l'" 2i; and perhaps Jg ll'", Jer 4'J-'. J. A. SKLRIE.