Arpad; Arphad

ar'-pad; ar'-fad ('arpadh, "support"): A city of Syria, captured frequently by the Assyrians, and finally subjugated by Tiglath-pileser III in 740 BC, after a siege of two years. It is now the ruin Tell Erfad, 13 miles Northwest of Aleppo. Arpad is one of the conquered cities mentioned by Rabshakeh, the officer of Sennacherib, in his boast before Jerusalem (2Ki 18:34; 19:13; Isa 36:19; 37:13; the King James Version Arphad). Isaiah puts a boast about its capture in the mouth of the Assyrian king (Isa 10:9), and Jeremiah mentions it as "confounded" because of evil tidings, in the oracle concerning Damascus (Jer 49:23). On every occasion Arpad is mentioned with Hamath.

S. F. Hunter