Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

23: 1-25: 18 GENESIS
before the Christian era, drove the Edomites out of Petra,
and constructed most of those rock tombs and temples
whose splendor astonish the modern traveler” (SIBG, 2 5 3 ) .
“The Nabataeans held possession of Arabia Petraea, with
Petra as their capital, and subsequently extended toward
the south and northeast, probably‘as far as Babylon; so
that the name was afterward transferred to all the tribes to
the east of the Jordan, and in the Nabataean writings
became a common name for Chaldeans (ancient Babylon-
ians), Syrians, Canaanites, and others” (BCOTP, 265).
(Cf. Gen. 28:9, 36:3; Isa. 60:7).
V. 16. Note “encampments”: that is, premises hedged
around, “then a village without a wall in contrast with a
walled town,” Lev. 2 5 : 3 1. “Twelve princes, according to
their nations.” (Note in connection also the twelve tribes
of Israel). The Ishmaelites (various Arabian tribes, the
Bedouins in particular) trace their beginnings to these
twelve princes. It is interesting to note that these peoples
are the foremost protagonists of Mohammedanism (even
as the twelve princes of Israel and their posterity are the
protagonists of Judiaism) .
Ishmael died at the age of 137, and his descendants
dwelt in Havilah, the area on the borders of Arabia Petraea
land Felix, as far as Shur, to the east of Egypt, “in the
direction of Assyria” (x. 29, 16:7), from which they ex-
tended their nomadic excursions into the northeast to the
land of the Euphrates: i.e., dwelling from the Euphrates
to the Red Sea (Josephus, Ant. I. 12, 4). Thus Ishmael
abode (settled) “over against all his brethren” (cf. 16:12,
also Judg. 7:12).
(For archaeological studies, look up material under
Mari, Nuzi, Ugarit, Amarna, Larsa, Alalakb, Boghazkoi,
Ur, Babylon, the Moabite Stone, the Code of Hammurabi,
etc. See The Biblical Vorld: A Dictionary of Archaeology,
edited by Pfeiffer, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,
Michigan. )
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