Third among Ham's sons (Genesis 10:6; 1 Chronicles 1:8). The Coptic for Libya is Phaiat. Jerome (Traditional Hebrew) mentions a river of Mauritania and the adjoining region as called Phut. It is generally connected with Egypt and Ethiopia; in Genesis the order is, from the S. advancing northwards, Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim, Phut (a dependency of Egypt), Canaan (Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5; Nahum 3:9; Isaiah 66:9 where "Phut" should be read for "Pul"). But in Ezekiel 27:10; Ezekiel 38:5, Phut is associated with Persia, Lud, and Ethiopia; however this is no proof of geographical connection, it is merely an enumeration of regions from whence mercenaries came.
        The people of Phut dwelt close to Egypt and Ethiopia,and served in Egypt's armies with shield and bow. The Egyptian monuments mention a people, "Pet," whose emblem was the unstrung bow, and who dwelt in what is now Nubia, between Egypt and Ethiopia. Herodotus (iii. 21-22) narrates that the king of Ethiopia unstrung a bow and gave it to Cambyses' messengers, saying that when the king of Persia could pull a bow so easily he might come against the Ethiopians with an army stronger than theirs. The Naphtuhim are distinct, living W. of the Delta; the IX Na-petu, or "nine bows". (See NAPHTUHIM.) Phut is To-pet or Nubia; and To-meru-pet "the island of the bow," answering to Meroe. The bow of Libya was strung, that of Ethiopia unstrung.