Suph

SUPH soof (cuph; plesion tes eruthras (thalasses); the King James Version Red Sea):

As the verse stands, the place where Moses addressed the children of Israel is indicated as "beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph" (Deuteronomy 1:1). the King James Version, following Septuagint, takes the name as a contraction of yam cuph (see RED SEA). The abbreviation is not found elsewhere. The name of the sea was not derived from that of a city; so we need not look in that direction. Knobel suggested Naqb es-Safa, a pass about 25 miles West-Southwest of the Dead Sea. But it is "unsuitably situated; nor does the name agree phonetically (for @@ ... agrees with ..., not with ...)" (Driver, "Deuteronomy," ICC, 4). No identification is possible.

W. Ewing

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'SUPH'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.