Bible Encyclopedias
Zuph

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

zuf ( צוּף , cūph , "honeycomb"):

(1) According to 1 Samuel 1:1; 1 Chronicles 6:35 (Hebrew verse 20) = "Zophai" of 1 Chronicles 6:26 (11), an ancestor of Elkanah and Samuel. But Budde and Wellhausen take it to be an adjective, and so read צוּפי , cūphı̄ , in 1 Samuel 1:1 : "Tohu a Zuphite , an Ephraimite." It should probably be read also in 1 Samuel 1:1 : "Now there was a certain man of the Ramathites, a Zuphite of the hill-country of Ephraim," as the Hebrew construction in the first part of the verse is otherwise unnatural. The Septuagint's Codex Alexandrinus has Σούπ , Soúp ; Lucian has Σούφ , Soúph in 1 Samuel 1:1; 1 Chronicles 6:26 (11); Codex Vaticanus has Σουφεί , Soupheı́ ; Codex Alexandrinus and Lucian have Σουφί , Souphı́ ; 1 Chronicles 6:35 (20), Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus have Σούφ , Soúph ; Lucian has Σουφί , Souphı́ ; and the Kethı̄bh has ציף , cı̄ph .

(2) The Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus have Σείφ , Seı́ph ; Lucian has Σιφά , Siphá , "the land of Zuph," a district in Benjamin, near its northern border ( 1 Samuel 9:5 ).