RIPHATH (rī'făth, Heb. rîphath). A son of Gomer (Gen.10.3; 1Chr.1.6).
RIPHATH rī’ făth (
רִיפַ֖ת , LXX
̔Ριφὰθ; meaning is unknown).
The second son of Gomer, and the brother of Ashkenaz and Togarmah (Gen 10:3). All of these names are non-Sem. and prob. Anatolian. The synoptic passage (1 Chron 1:6) reads “Diphath” but c. thirty MSS, LXX and Vul. read Riphath in both places supporting the reading in Genesis. The name has been identified with the Riphaean mountains (Knobel), the river Rhebas in Bithynia (Bochart), the Rhibii, a people living eastward of the Caspian Sea (Schulthess), and the Ripheans, the ancient name of the Paphlagonians (Jos. Antiq., I, vi, 1). This last view is favored by the contiguity of Ashkenaz and opinion in his time favored Togarmah. According to Bevan the weight of opinion in his time favored the Riphean mountains which Knobel identified etymologically and geographically with the Carpathian range in the NE of Dacia (A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. by W. Smith [1863], 1045).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
A son of Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet (Ge 10:3; 1Ch 1:6, where Massoretic Text and the Revised Version (British and American) read DIPHATH (which see)). Josephus (Ant., I, vi, 1) identifies the Ripheans with the Paphlagonians, through whose country on the Black Sea ran the river "Rhebas" (Pliny, NH, vi.4).
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