Tarpelite
Tarpelite [1]
(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.
