The termSepharad appears in the BiblicalBook of Obadiah as the name of some now-unidentified location that was a destination of Jews exiled from Jerusalem. TheTargum Jonathan is the earliest known source of the interpretation of the name as referring to Spain; it translatesSepharad into Aramaic asIspamia.[6]
Obadiah 1:20 (trans. Judaica Press): "And this exiled host of the children of Israel who are [with] the Canaanites as far as Zarephath and the exile of Jerusalem which is in Sepharad shall inherit the cities of the southland"
Obadiah 1:20 (NKJV): "And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, that are among the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath, and the captivity of Jerusalem, that is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South."
Obadiah 1:20 (Vulgate): "et transmigratio exercitus huius filiorum Israhel omnia Chananeorum usque ad Saraptham et transmigratio Hierusalem quae in Bosforo est possidebit civitates austri".
Abdias 1:20 (Douay-Rheims): "And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, all the places of the Chanaanites even to Sarepta: and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south."
Jerusalem Bible (1966): "... and the exiles from Jerusalem now in Sepharad will occupy the towns of the Negeb." An editors' note in the Jerusalem Bible argues that "Sepharad is unknown".[7]
^William Smith (ed.)A Dictionary of the Bible, 1863
^Gerber, Jane S. (2021), Lieberman, Phillip I. (ed.),"The Jews of Muslim Spain",The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 5: Jews in the Medieval Islamic World, The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 5, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 170,ISBN978-0-521-51717-1, retrieved2025-07-13{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
Sefarad, Journal on Hebraic, Sephardim and Middle East Studies,ILCArchived 2008-12-17 at theWayback Machine,CSIC (scientific articles in Spanish, English and other languages)
