Ophir

O'phir (Heb. Ophir', אוֹפַיר and אוֹפַר), the name of a man and of a country. "There is apparently no sufficient reason to doubt that the word Ophir is Shemitic, although, as is the case with numerous proper names known to be of Hebrew origin, the precise word does not occur as a common name in the Bible. See the words from אפר and עפר in Gesenius's: Thesaurus, and compare Α᾿φάρ, the metropolis of the Sabaans in the Periplus, attributed to Arrian. Gesenius suggests that it means a 'fruitful region,' if it is Shemitic. Baron von Wrede, who explored Hadhramaut, in Arabia; in 1843 (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 14:110); made a small vocabulary of Himyaritic words in the vernacular tongue, and among these he gives ofir as signifying red. He says that the Mahra people call themselves the tribes of the red country (ofir), and call the Red Sea bahr

ofir. If this were so, it might have somewhat of the same relation to aphar, 'dust' or 'dry ground' (א and ָע being interchangeable) that adorn, 'red,' has to adamah, 'the ground.' Still it is unsafe to accept the use of a word of this kind on the authority of any one traveler, however accurate."

1. (אוֹפֹר; Sept. Οὐφείρ; Vulg. Ophir.) The eleventh named of the thirteen sons of Joktan, the son of Eber, a great-grandson of Shem (Ge 10:26-29; 1Ch 1:23). B.C. post 2450, Many Arabian countries. are believed to have been peopled by these persons, and to have been called after their respective names, as Sheba, etc., and among others Ophir (Bochart, Phaleg, 3:15). See ARABIA.