Sheleph
“Drawing forth”
Summary
The second son of Joktan, whose descendants settled in Southern Arabia where the tribe of Shelif or Shulaf has been traced by historians.
☩Genealogy and Settlement
Sheleph was the second of thirteen sons of Joktan, a descendant of Shem through Eber. The Joktanites colonized Southern Arabia, and Sheleph's descendants have been satisfactorily identified both in classical and Arabian sources. The tribe bearing his name—Es-Sulaf or Beni es-Silfan—inhabited the Yemen region, with the district of Sulaf about sixty miles south of San'a.
☩Historical Identification
The classical geographer Ptolemy mentions the 'Salapeni' among the ancient inhabitants of Arabia Felix. The Arabian geographer Yakut explicitly states that the Sulaf were 'children of Yuktan [Joktan], son of Eber son of Salah son of Arphaxad son of Shem.' The traveler Niebuhr found descendants still in Yemen under the name 'Salfie.' This convergence of evidence confirms Sheleph's location near other identified Joktanite settlements like Hazarmaveth (Hadramaut) and Sheba.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Sheleph," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. IX (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.George Morrish, "Sheleph," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Sheleph," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).