SUPHAH

soo'-fa (suphah, for wahebh becuphah; Septuagint reads ten Zoob ephlogise; the King James Version Rea Sea): Suphah is the region in which Vaheb is situated (Numbers 21:14). It is probably identical with Suph of Deuteronomy 1:1. Tristram (Land of Moab, 50 f) suggested identification with Ghor es-Safiyeh], a small oasis East of the mud fiats of Es-Sebkhah], South of the Dead Sea; but "the sibilants do not correspond, and Safiyeh is a specifically Arabic term (Wetzstein in Delitzsch, Gen4, 586, note 2) which does not seem to be a likely explanation of Suphah" (Gray, "Nu," ICC, 285 f). This, and other questions of identification, must wait for solution until a more thorough exploration of the whole district has been accomplished.

W. Ewing

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