Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
valley about 10 miles south of the Dead Sea. From their summits, southward to the Gulf of Akabah,
the valley changes its name, or, it would be more accurate to say, retains old name of Wady el-Arabah
.
Arabia
(desert, barren), a country known in the Old Testament under two designations:—
•The East Country, (Genesis 25:6) or perhaps the East, ((Genesis 10:30; Numbers 23:7; Isaiah 2:6)
and Land of the Sons of the East, (Genesis 29:1) Gentile name, Sons of the East, (Judges 6:3;
7:12; 1 Kings 4:30; Job 1:3; Isaiah 11:14; Jeremiah 49:28; Ezekiel 25:4) From these passages it
appears that Land of the East and Sons of the East indicate, primarily, the country east of Palestine,
and the tribes descended from Ishmael and from Keturah; and that this original signification may
have become gradually extended to Arabia and its inhabitants generally, though without any strict
limitation.
•’Arab and ’Arab, whence Arabia. (2 Chronicles 9:14; Isaiah 21:13; Jeremiah 26:24; Ezekiel 27:21)
(Arabia is a triangular peninsula, included between the Mediterranean and Red seas, the Indian
Ocean and the Persian Gulf. Its extreme length, north and south, is about 1300 miles, and its
greatest breadth 1500 miles. -Encyc. Brit.) Divisions .—Arabia may be divided into Arabia Proper,
containing the whole peninsula as far as the limits of the northern deserts; Northern Arabia (Arabia
Deserta), constituting the great desert of Arabia; and Western Arabia, the desert of Petra and the
peninsula of Sinai, or the country that has been called Arabia Petraea, I. Arabia Proper, or the
Arabian penninsula consists of high tableland, declining towards the north. Most of it is well
peopled, watered by wells and streams, and enjoys periodical rains. The moist fertile tracts are
those on the southwest and south. II. Northern Arabia, or the Arabian Desert, is a high, undulating,
parched plain, of which the Euphrates forms the natural boundary from the Persian Gulf to the
frontier of Syria, whence it is bounded by the latter country and the desert of Petra on the northwest
and west, the peninsula of Arabia forming its southern limit. It has few oases, the water of the
wells is generally either brackish or unpotable and it is visited by the sand-wind called Samoom
. The inhabitants principally descended from Ishmael and from Keturah, have always led a
wandering and pastoral life. They conducted a considerable trade of merchandise of Arabia and
India from the shore of the Persian Gulf. (Ezekiel 27:20-24) III. Western Arabia includes the
peninsula of Sinai [Sinai, Or Sinai] and the desert of Petra; corresponding generally with the limits
of Arabia Petraea. The latter name is probably derived from that of its chief city, not from its stony
character. It was mostly peopled by descendants of Esau, and was generally known as the land of
Edom or Idumea [Edom, Idumaea Or Idumea], as well as by its older appellation, the desert of
Seir or Mount Seir. [Seir] Inhabitants .— (Arabia, which once ruled from India to the Atlantic,
now has eight or nine millions of inhabitants, about one-fifth of whom are Bedouin or wandering
tribes, and the other four-fifths settled Arabs.—Encyc. Brit.)
•The descendants of Joktan occupied the principal portions of the south and southwest of the
peninsula, with colonies in the interior. The principal Joktanite kingdom, and the chief state of
ancient Arabia, was that of the Yemen.
•The ISHMAELITES appear to have entered the peninsula from the northwest. That they have
spread over the whole of it (with the exception of one or two districts on the south coast), and that
the modern nation is predominantly Ishmaelite, is asserted by the Arabs.
•Of the descendants of Keturah the Arabs say little. They appear to have settled chiefly north of
the peninsula in Desert Arabia, from Palestine to the Persian Gulf.
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William Smith