ARPACHSHAD was, according to Gen_10:22, the third son of Shem, and, according to Gen_11:10, he was the second in the line of descent from Shem to Abraham. Gen_10:22 is an enumeration of peoples (or countries) descended from Shem, from which Babylonia or Chaidæa is absent in the present text. The latter portion of the word furnishes Chesed (cf. Gen_22:22), which is the singular form of Chasdim (Chaldees). Probably two words in the original of Gen_10:22 were combined into one, the latter being Chesed and the former Arpach, which is a region south-west of Assyria, possibly the same as the Arrapachitis of Ptolemy. The mistaken reading in Gen_10:22 was then taken as the basis of Gen_11:10 ff.
J. F. McCurdy.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
ar-pak?shad. See ARPHAXAD.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.