Sinim

SINIM (sī'nĭm, Heb. sînîm). A country cited in a prophecy by Isaiah (49:12) to illustrate God’s promise that the dispersed Israelites would some day be gathered from the farthest regions of the earth. It is obviously not west or north, since both are mentioned in the prophecy. It must, therefore, be south or east, and apparently very far away. The most widely held view is that China is meant, either because some Israelites were already living there, or would live there. There is evidence that the Jews traded with the Chinese as early as the third century b.c.