Sephar

Sephar was a mountain in the east that marked the boundary of the territory of the sons of Joktan (Gen. 10:30), the Arabian branch of the Semitic peoples. The text describes their dwelling as extending "from Mesha as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east." Sephar's exact identification is uncertain; it has been variously located in the Hadramaut region of southern Arabia or in the Dhofar mountains of Oman. Its appearance in the Table of Nations (Gen. 10) places it within the ethnographic framework of the ancient biblical world as understood by the author.