Apharsachites
Aphar'sachites (Chald. Apharsekaye', אֲפִרסכָיֵא; Sept. Α᾿φαρσαχαῖοι, Ezr 5:6; Ezr 6:6) or Aphar'sathchites (Chald. Apharsathkaye', אֲפִרסִתכָיֵא; Sept. Α᾿φαρσαθαχαῖοι, Ezr 4:9), the name of the nation (or one of the nations) to which belonged one portion of the colonists whom the Assyrian king planted in Samaria, in place of the expatriated northern tribes, and who violently opposed the Jews in rebuilding Jerusalem. Schulthess (Parad. p. 362) identifies the "Apharsachites" with the Persian, or rather Median Parataceni of Greek geography (Strabo 11, 522; 15, 732; Herod. 1:101; Plin. 16:29), the A being prosthetic (as in Strabo, 15:764, Mardi and Amardi are interchanged). They, together with the Apharsites (q.v.), for whose name this would seem only another form, appear to have been some foreign tribe of Eastern Asia, conquered by the Assyrians, and removed (according to well-known usage, see 2Ki 18:32 sq.) to another region for security and political extension. Ewald (Isr. Gesch. 3, 375), following Gesenius, regards the name as only. another for the Persians, themselves, adopted out of hostility to the Jews (ib. p. 120), and in a three-fold form to enhance their own importance.
