Tarpelites

TARPELITES (tar'pĕl-īts, Heb. tarpelāyē’). These people were transported into the region around Samaria by Ashurbanipal (Ezra.4.9-Ezra.4.10 niv; Asnappar neb; Asnapper kjv, mlb; Osnappar nasb, rsv). He was probably Esarhaddon (Ezra.4.2) or a general under him.

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TARPELITES tär’ pə līts. The KJV, ERV, ASV rendering of the Aram. word טַרְפְּלָיֵ֣א in Ezra 4:9 (RSV OFFICIALS). The reference may be to a people, who have not been identified, settled by the Assyrians in the district of Samaria, in which case it is an ethnic name; or, the reference may be to the title of certain Pers. officials.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(Tarpelaye’ (Ezr 4:9)): Various theories have been advanced as to the identity of the Tarpelites. Rawlinson suggested the Tuplai, which name appears in the inscriptions as equivalent to the Greek Tibarenoi, a tribe on the coast of Pontus. Hitzig located them in Tripolis in Northern Phoenicia. The latest theory emends the text to Tiphceraya’, "tablet-writers" (from the Assyrian dup sarru); compare Schrader, Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, on Jer 51:27.