Nophah
No'phah (Heb. No'phach, נֹפִח; the Samar. has the article, הנפִח; Sept. αἱ γυναῖκες, v. r. αἱ γ. αὐτῶν; Vulg. Nophe), a place mentioned only in Nu 21:30, in the remarkable song apparently composed by the Amorites after their conquest of Heshbon from the Moabites, and therefore of an earlier date than the Israelitish invasion. It is named with Dibon and Medeba, and was possibly in the neighborhood of Heshbon. A name very similar to Nophah is Nobah, which is twice mentioned; once as bestowed by the conqueror of the same name on Kenath (a place still existing more than seventy miles distant from the scene of the Amoritish conflict), and again in connection with Jogbehah, which latter, from the mode of its occurrence in Nu 32:36, would seem to have been in the neighborhood of Heshbon. Ewald (Gesch. 2:268, note) decides (though without giving his grounds) that Nophah is identical with the latter of these. In that case the difference would be a dialectical one, Nophah being the Moabitish or Amoritish form. SEE NOBAH.
