Sinim, The land of

The land of Sinim appears in Isaiah 49:12 in a prophecy of the worldwide regathering of scattered Israel: these shall come from far away, and these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim. The identification has been debated throughout history. The Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsa-a) read Syene (modern Aswan in southern Egypt) rather than Sinim, and most modern translations follow this reading as the land of Aswan or the region of Aswan. Older commentators often identified Sinim with China, pointing to the ancient name Qin. The Syene reading makes better geographical sense as a designation for the remote south (complementing north and west), referring to the Egyptian Jewish community at Elephantine near Aswan.