LUD, LUDIM

(Luʹdim).

1. A son of Shem (Ge 10:22; 1Ch 1:17) whose descendants were identified by Josephus (and others) with the Lydians of SW Asia Minor. (Jewish Antiquities, I, 143, 144 [vi, 4]) Assyrian inscriptions of the seventh century B.C.E. referred to the Lydians as Luddu.

2. A descendant of Ham through Mizraim. (Ge 10:6, 13; 1Ch 1:8, 11) The people descended from this Hamitic Lud are evidently “the Ludim” noted for their proficiency with the bow who, together with Hamitic Put and Cush, were incorporated in Egyptian military forces. (Jer 46:8, 9; compare Eze 30:4, 5.) A similar allusion to the bow-drawing Lud at Isaiah 66:19 would seem to point to the Hamitic Lud, rather than to the Semitic one, as those included among nations far away from Israel. The Ludim who rendered military service for Tyre are more difficult to identify. (Eze 27:3, 10) Their being linked in the text with Put, however, may again point to the Hamitic Ludim.

The texts referred to would logically place the Hamitic Ludim in North Africa, but it is not possible to locate them more definitely. Some scholars situate them in the general vicinity of Libya, but they do so on the basis of an arbitrary alteration of the spelling of the name to Lub instead of Lud.