ARZARET (PLACE) . A land to which the ten tribes of Israel were deported; to reach this region required a journey of a year and a half from the Euphrates River (2 Esdr 13:45). No place with this name is attested. To understand this reference, one must appreciate that the original Heb or Aram of 2 Esdras no longer exists, and that all we have are Lat (and other) translations. Thus, some have suggested that the name retains a corruption of Heb *˒ereṣ ˒arat, -land of Ar(ar) en- (i.e. N Armenia). However, it is more likely that the lat here contains and conceals the Heb ˒ereṣ ˒ăḥeret, -another land- (cf. also 2 Esdr 13:40). This phrase appears in Deut 29:27 (-Eng 29:28), an addition from the exile which attributes to Moses the prediction about the dispersion and deportation of the Israelites sinf ul. It is noteworthy that the early Rabbis applied this phrase in their discussions of the dispersion of the Ten Tribes (m. Sanh. 10:3). Therefore, it is likely that the Semitic original of 2 Esdras did the same thing, and that the Lat translator corrupted the original and wrongly transformed it into a proper name -Arzareth- (see Wright 1871).
Bibliography
Wright, WA 1871. Note on the -Azareth- of 4 Esdr XIII.45. Journal of Philology 3: 113-14.
GARY A. HERION