ARKITE

Name of a clan descended from Ham’s son Canaan (Gn 10:17; 1 Chr 1:15). The Arkites were probably residents of Arqa, a Phoenician town north of Tripolis in Syria. According to an early inscription, Arqa was captured by the Assyrian Tiglath-pileser III in 738 BC. Possibly another branch of the tribe settled near Ataroth, a town on the border between Ephraim and Benjamin (Jos 16:2).