Chapter 27. Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites
Phoenician mythology recounts a Lebanon mountain; the mountain range it is part of was patrial named after Libanus, an Aboriginal Lebanon giant whose skin was pale white.
Regarding many Canaanite families Josephus said: “we have nothing in the sacred books but their names, for the Hebrews overthrew their cities.” The Canaanite families associated with the Phoenician stock were known as ruddy, white-skinned people, versus the more olive-colored stock of most Semitic peoples, including the Hittites. The Canaanite families listed in Genesis 10:17–18 were northern tribes closely affiliated with the Sidonians and Phoenicians geographically, culturally, politically, and religiously.
Arkites were commonly understood by historians as a people of Lebanon. According to Josephus, the Arkites/Arucas were a nation that occupied Arce city in the Libanus/Lebanon region. Arkites were known as the Arkantu in Egypt during Thutmose III’s reign (c. 1479–1425 BC), and later as Irkata in the Armana Letters. Some historians believe Arkites belong within Sidon’s lineage (likely via daughter intermarriage) because Arkites dwelled alongside Sidonians and Tyrians. Josephus confirmed Arkites were closely aligned with the Sidonians, as were the Amathites and Aradians: “But the parts about Sidon, as also those that belonged to the Arkites, and the Amathites, and the Aradians, were not yet regularly disposed of.”
Scripturally, Arkite/`Arqiy in its Hebrew singular patronymic format is defined as patrial from an unused name, and unexpectedly as an inhabitant of Erech in Shinar. One deduces the Arkite patriarch was similarly named to `Arqiy or `Erek. Similarly, ʼArkevay istranslatedasArchevites in Ezra: 4:9, which is also patrial of Erek meaning a native of Erech/Uruk, just as ʼArkiy is also translated as Archi and Archite meaning the same.
Erech/Erek was a city Nimrod restored after Babel; Uruk city was later reigned over by giant kings Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh had ties to Ugarit city, which connects `Arqiy to giants by patrial and perhaps patronymic implications.
