Bible Dictionary
Chilmad
Chilmad was a place or district that supplied merchandise to Tyre. Its exact location and identification remain uncertain.
Definition
Chilmad was a city or district that supplied merchandise to Tyre. Its precise identification is uncertain.
Biblical Usage
Chilmad appears in the description of the commercial connections of Tyre, alongside Sheba and Asshur.
Historical Background
Proposals have connected Chilmad with places near Baghdad, Media, or other readings of the text, but the supplied material regards these identifications as uncertain and probably unsatisfactory.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
A place or country unknown which, along with Sheba and Asshur, traded with Tyre (Ezek. 27:23).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(enclosure), a place or country mentioned in conjunction with Sheba and Asshur. (Ezekiel 27:23)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>kil'-mad (kilmadh; Charman): A city or district mentioned after Sheba and Asshur as supplying merchandise to Tyre (Eze 27:23). By changing "m" into "w" (common in Assytoprian-Babylonian) this has been compared with Kalwadha near Bagdad (G. Smith, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, I, 61; Delitzsch, Paradies, 206), but the identification seems improbable. Though regarded as the name of a country in the Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A. D.) (Charman; Chelmad), there is some doubt whether this view of the word is correct. The Targum substitutes Madhai, "Media," and on this account Mez (Stadt Harran, 24) amends to Kol Madhai, "all Media." The absence of the copula "and" has caused others to further modify the vocalization, and by reading kelimmudh instead of Chilmad, the sense "Asshur was as the apprentice of thy trading" (Qimchi, Hitzig, Cornill) is obtained, but is not satisfactory. Probably both text and translation are susceptible of improvement.</p><p>T. G. Pinches</p>