Editing Caphtor (section)

==Jewish accounts==
The Caphtorites are mentioned in the [[Table of Nations]], [[Book of Genesis]] ({{bibleverse|Genesis|10:13-14|KJV}}) as one of several divisions of [[Mizraim]] (Egypt). This is reiterated in the [[Books of Chronicles]] ({{bibleverse|1 Chronicles|1:11-12|KJV}}) as well as later histories such as [[Josephus]]' ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'' i.vi.2,<ref name="ethiopic">Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews - Book i, Chapter vi, Section 2, partial: Now all the children of Mesraim, being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt, though it retained the name of one only, the Philistim; for the Greeks call part of that country Palestine. As for the rest, Ludicim, and Enemim, and Labim, who alone inhabited in Libya, and called the country from himself, Nedim, and Phethrosim, and Chesloim, and Cephthorim, we know nothing of them besides their names; for the Ethiopic war,[*Antiq. b. ii. chap. x.] which we shall describe hereafter, was the cause that those cities were overthrown.</ref> which placed them explicitly in Egypt and the ''[[Sefer haYashar (midrash)|Sefer haYashar]]'' 10 which describes them living by the Nile.  A migration of the Philistines from Caphtor is mentioned in the [[Book of Amos]] ({{Bibleverse|Amos|9:7|ESV|Amos 9:7}}).

Josephus, (''Jewish Antiquities'' I, vi)<ref name="ethiopic" /> using extra-Biblical accounts, provides context for the migration from Caphtor to Philistia.  He records that the Caphtorites were one of the Egyptian peoples whose cities were destroyed during the [[Ethiopic War]].

Tradition regarding the location of Caphtor was preserved in the Aramaic [[Targums]] and in the commentary of [[Maimonides]] which place it at [[Caphutkia]] in the vicinity of [[Damietta]]<ref name="Lightfoot"/> (at the eastern edge of the [[Nile delta]] near classical [[Pelusium]]). This view is supported by the tenth century biblical exegete [[Saadia Gaon]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Saadia Gaon|author-link=Saadia Gaon|title=Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Commentaries on the Pentateuch|editor=Yosef Qafih|editor-link=Yosef Qafih|edition=4|year=1984|publisher=[[Mossad Harav Kook]]|page=33 (note 39) |location=Jerusalem|language=he|oclc=232667032}}</ref> and by [[Benjamin of Tudela]], the twelfth-century Jewish traveller from Navarre, who both wrote that Damietta was Caphtor.<ref name="Gill"/><ref>Yosef Kapach trans., ''Saadia Gaon Al-Hatorah'', Mossad HaRav Kook, 1963</ref>

The [[Midrash Rabbah]] on Genesis 37:5 (page 298 in the 1961 edition of Maurice Simon's translation) says that the "Caphtorim were dwarfs".<ref>[https://archive.org/details/midrashrabbahgen027557mbp Midrash Rabbah Genesis Volume I, Maurice Simon] (39.4M [[PDF]] page 346 of 560) Simon's footnote on the "dwarfs"[sic] says: "''Kaftor'' <nowiki>[</nowiki>{{langx|he|כפתור}}<nowiki>]</nowiki> is Hebrew for "button", and he probably interprets 'Caphtorim' as meaning "button-like — little and rotund people."</ref>