SEPHARVAIM . 1 . A city mentioned in 2 Kings 18:34 ( Isaiah 36:19 ) and Isaiah 19:13 ( Isaiah 37:13 ) as among those captured by the Assyrians, all apparently in Syria. Probably it answers to the Shabara’in named in the Babylonian Chronicle as taken just before the fall of Samaria. Sibraim of Ezekiel 47:8 may then be the same city. 2 . A word of exactly the same form as the above occurs in 2 Kings 17:24-31 as the name of a place whose inhabitants were deported to Samaria. The context favours the supposition that the famous city Sippar in North Babylonia is intended. Probably the similarity between the words led some early copyist to write Sepharvaim by mistake.
J. F. McCurdy.