IAVAN (Hebrew Jâvân). — Hebrew transcription of the name of the "Ionians" ('Ιάνοιες') of Asia Minor (Gen. 10:2, 4; 1 Chron. 1:5, 7; Is. 66:19; Ezek. 27:13), as in Assyrian Jâvanu, Jân(α)nu, Sanskrit Jâvanâ, Persian Jâvanâ (cf. Aeschylus, Pers., 178, 563), Coptic Wejenin. Later, I. and its Eastern counterparts were used in the generic sense of "Greece" (Zech. 9:13; Dan. 8:21 ff.), and "sons of the Jâvanîm" refers to the Greeks (Joel 4:6).
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