Sepharad: (Obadiah 1:20) some locality unknown. The modern Jews think that Spain is
meant, and hence they designate the Spanish Jews "Sephardim," as they
do the German Jews by the name "Ashkenazim," because the rabbis call
Germany Ashkenaz. Others identify it with Sardis, the capital of
Lydia. The Latin father Jerome regarded it as an Assyrian word,
meaning "boundary," and interpreted the sentence, "which is in
Sepharad," by "who are scattered abroad in all the boundaries and
regions of the earth." Perowne says: "Whatever uncertainty attaches
to the word Sepharad, the drift of the prophecy is clear, viz., that
not only the exiles from Babylon, but Jewish captives from other and
distant regions, shall be brought back to live prosperously within
the enlarged borders of their own land."
