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(Heb. Tel-me'lach, úֵּìàּîֵìִç , salt hill; Sept. ÈåëìåëÝ÷ and ÈåëìåëÝè , v.r. Èåëìå÷Ýë and Èåñìåëåèá ; Vulg. Thelmala) is joined with Tel-harsa and Cherub as the name of a place where the Jews returned who had lost their pedigree after the Captivity (Ezr_2:59; Nehemiah 3:61). It is perhaps the Thelme of Ptolemy (5, 20), which some wrongly read as Theane ( ÈÅÁÌÇ for ÈÅËÌÇ ), a city of the low salt tract near the Persian ‘Gulf,' whence probably the name (Gesen. Lex. Heb. s.v.). Cherub, which may be pretty surely identified with Ptolemy's Chiripha ( ×éñéöÜ ), was in the same region. Herzfeld (Gesch. Tsr. 1, 452) insists that it designates the province of Melitene according to Ptolemy (6,3), adjoining Susiana west of the Tigris; but Ptolemy (5, 7, 5) and Pliny (6, 3) know only a Melitene on the border of Cappadocia and Armenia Major.