SEPHARAD . A country in which was a community of exiles from Judah in the days of the prophet Obadiah ( Obadiah 1:20 ). It is probably to be understood as Sparda ( Çparda ), a Persian province of Asia Minor, not definitely treated in its earliest use, but in the time of the Seleucidæ employed for Asia Minor as a whole. Cf. Obadiah, p. 664 b .
J. F. McCurdy.