Sepharad
(Obad. 1:20), some locality unknown. The modern Jews think that
Spain is meant, and hence they designate the Spanish Jews
"Sephardim," as they do the German Jews by the name
"Ashkenazim," because the rabbis call Germany Ashkenaz. Others
identify it with Sardis, the capital of Lydia. The Latin father
Jerome regarded it as an Assyrian word, meaning "boundary," and
interpreted the sentence, "which is in Sepharad," by "who are
scattered abroad in all the boundaries and regions of the
earth." Perowne says: "Whatever uncertainty attaches to the word
Sepharad, the drift of the prophecy is clear, viz., that not
only the exiles from Babylon, but Jewish captives from other and
distant regions, shall be brought back to live prosperously
within the enlarged borders of their own land."
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