I. Name
The city of Arvad (modern Ruad) is the most northern of Phoenician cities, situated on an island two miles off-shore. Less illustrious than Tyre and Sidon, Arvad and its inhabitants are mentioned only a few times in the Bible (Gen. 10.18//1 Chr. 1.16; Ezek. 27.8, Ezek. 11). It has been said that the city is homonymous with an Assyrian deity (Lewy 1934).
II. Identity
In Neo-Assyrian annals, the city of Arvad is sometimes referred to as Ar-ma-da (S. Parpola, Neo-Assyrian Toponyms [AOAT 6; Neukirchen-Vluyn…