(Chald. only in the plur. emphat. Tarpelaye', טִרְפְּלָיֵא; Sept. Ταρφαλαῖοι v.r. Ταρφαλλαῖοι; Vulg. Tharphalcei), the Aramsean designation of a race of colonists who were planted in the cities of Samaria after the captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel (Ezra 4:9). Junius and others have found a kind of resemblance in name to the Tarpelites in the Tapyri (Ταπουροί, Ptolemy, 6:2, 6; Arrian, Alex. 3, 8, 7; Τάπυροι, Strabo, 11:511,515, 520, 523), a tribe of Media who dwelt eastward of Elymais, but the resemblance is scarcely more than apparent. Others, with as little probability, have sought to recognize the Tarpelites in the Tarpetes (Ταρπῆτες, Strabo, 11:495),a Maeotic race. In the Peshito-Syriac the resemblance is greater, for they are there called Tarpoye. First (Handwb. s.v.) says in no case can Taspel, the country of the Tarpelites, be the Phoenician Tripolis; although Schwarz (Palest. p. 62) assumes this.