ARPAD; ARPHAD

ar'-pad; ar'-fad ('arpadh, "support"): A city of Syria, captured frequently by the Assyrians, and finally subjugated by Tiglath-pileser III in 740 BC, after a siege of two years. It is now the ruin Tell Erfad, 13 miles Northwest of Aleppo. Arpad is one of the conquered cities mentioned by Rabshakeh, the officer of Sennacherib, in his boast before Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:34; 19:13; Isaiah 36:19; 37:13; the King James Version Arphad). Isaiah puts a boast about its capture in the mouth of the Assyrian king (Isaiah 10:9), and Jeremiah mentions it as "confounded" because of evil tidings, in the oracle concerning Damascus (Jeremiah 49:23). On every occasion Arpad is mentioned with Hamath.

S. F. Hunter

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.