Elishah

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ELISHAH

ELISHAH (Heb. אֱלִישָׁה), one of the sons of Javan, a grandson of Japheth (Gen. 10:4; i Chron. 1:7), and also the name of the island from which the Tyrians obtained blue and purple dyes (Ezek. 27:7). Elishah is usually identified with the name Alašiya (= *Cyprus, or a part of the island) which occurs in document form in Alalakh, Tell el-Amarna, Ugarit, and in Hittite sources. The copper of Alašiya was already well-known in *Mari in the Old Babylonian period. Other forms of Elishah are Ugaritic, Alty ("from Alṯt"), and Egyptian ʾ á-la-sá.

bibliography:

G.F. Hill, A History of Cyprus, 1 (1940), 42–50; C.F. Schaeffer, Enkomi-Alasia (1952); em, 1 (1955), 52–3 (incl. bibl.); J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the Old Testament (1959), 28–29; H.W. Catling, in: cah2, vol. 1, ch. 9 (1966), 58–62; Ugaritica, 5 (1968), index.