Put (biblical figure)
Third son of Ham in the biblical Table of Nations
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Phut or Put (Biblical Hebrew: פּוּט, romanized: Pūṭ; Koine Greek: Φουδ, romanized: Phoud) is the third son of Ham, son of Noah in the biblical Generations of Noah in the Book of Genesis, 10:6 and 1 Chronicles 1:8.
The name Put is used in the Bible for Ancient Libya, but some scholars propose that it refers to the Land of Punt known from ancient Egyptian annals.[1]
Biblical references
Genesis 10:6 and 1 Chronicles 1:8 refer to Put or Phut in the Table of Nations. Nahum 3:9 states that "Put and Lubim" were the helpers of Egypt. Other biblical verses consistently refer to the descendants of Put as warriors. In Jeremiah 46:9, they are again described as being supporters of Egypt. Ezekiel mentions them three times: in 27:10, as supporters of Tyre (Phoenicia), in 30:5 again as supporting Egypt, and in 38:5, as supporters of Gog. The Hebrew Bible substitutes Put in Ezekiel where the Septuagint Greek (LXX) refers to Libues. However, the Hebrew reads Pul in Isaiah 66:19, in place of Put in the Septuagint.
Historical records
Epiphanius writes: "Thus Mistrem was allotted Egypt, Cush, Aethiopia, Put, Axum, Ragman and Sabteka and [Dedan, also called Judad], the region bordering on Garama."[citation needed]
Josephus writes: "Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites (Phoutes), from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut (Phoute): but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mezraim, who was called Lybyos."[2]
Pliny the Elder[3] and Ptolemy[4] both place the river Phuth on the west side of Mauretania. Ptolemy also mentions a city Putea in Libya (iv.3.39). A Libyan connection has likewise been inferred from Nahum 3:9.
The Libyan tribe of pỉdw shows up in Egyptian records by the 22nd dynasty, while a Ptolemaic text from Edfu refers to the t3 n nꜣ pỉt.w "the land of the Pitu". The word was later written in Demotic as Pỉt, and as Phaiat in Coptic, a name for Libya Aegypti, northwestern Egypt.
A fragment of Nebuchadnezzar II's annals mentions his campaign in 567 BC in Egypt, and defeating the soldiers of Pu-ṭu-ia-a-man, i.e. Greek Libya (Cyrene). A multilingual stele from al-Kabrīt, dating to the reign of Darius I refers to the Put as the province of Putāya (Old Persian) and Puṭa (Neo-Babylonian), where the equivalent text written in Egyptian has tꜣ ṯmḥw "Libya".