130
AQUILA'S VERSION
ARABAH
account of tome great danger tliey had run on Paul's behalf, the warmth of the apostle's greeting proving, further, the general esteem in which tliey were held (Ko W). Eight years later we lind them again at Ephesus (2 Ti 4'"). The frequency of these changes of abode has caused diliiculty, but, apart fronwthe fact that an itinerant life was strictly iu accord with all that we know of the Jews of that day, wliat more natural than that A. and Priscilla should again desire to revisit the city whence they had been driven, as soon as it was safe to do so, even supposing they were not specially sent by St. Paul to prepare for his own coming? (See Lightfoot, PAi/i/)/)s«n.s, p. 176 ; Sanday and Headlara, Romans, p. xxvii and p. 418 ff.).
After 2 Ti 4'^ A. is not again mentioned in Scripture, and the evidence of tradition regarding him is vei-y scanty. G. MiLLlGAN.
AQUILA'S VERSION.— See Greek Versions.
AR {I'i Dt 2', comp. tj,- ' citv,' or nx^D-ij; Nu 21^, Is 15'), on the south bank of the river Amon, on the northern border of the Moabite territory, situated in a pleasant valley where two branches of the river united ( Nu 21'-'' 22*^ ' the city of Moab ' = Ar of Rloab). It is possibly the same as Kerioth (Am 2^ Jer 48^-'"). It is also almost certainly referred to in Dt 2*° as ' the city that is by the river,' AV, or rather, 'in the valley,' RV (Heb. Sn:, LXX 4>apa.yi). The ruins of Ra\)l)ah, though often identified mth Ar, lie, not on the banks of the Arnon, but at least 10 miles farther S., and represent a later city built after the old Ar had been destroyed by an earthquake in B.C. 342.
LrrERA-nrRE. — Driver, Deut. p 36 (on 29) and p. 45 (on 23«) ; Dillmann on Nu 2115 ; Delitzsch on Is l.si ; Dietrich in Merx, Architt, i. 320 ff. ; Tristram, LaiuJ o/ Moab, p. Ill ; and see further under Arxon, Esriotu, Kabbah.
J. MACPHER.SON.
ARA (.tr»). — A descendant of Asher (1 Ch 7"). See Genealogy.
ARAB (3-;s 'ambush' (?)), Jos 15".— A city of Judah in the mountains near Dumah. Perhaps the ruin Er Babiyah near Domeh. SWP vol. iii. sheet xxi. C. R. Conder.
ARABAH (ijTvn). — This word occurs only once in the AV (Jos 1*?*) in the de.^cription of the border of the lot of Benjamin ; but in KV it has a more extended meaning, and is applied to at least a portion of the great valley (Wady el Arabah) which stretches from the tiulf of Akabah into the Jordanic basin. 1. In the former sense the name applies to the broad plain of alluvial land stretching from the N. shore of the Dead Sea along the right bank of the Jordan fur a distance of about 50 miles, and bounded on the W. by the broken line of steep slopes and precipitous dill's which close in the valley from its junction with the Wady el Joseleh south- wards to the heights of Kuruntftl and the shore of the Dead Sea itself. The surface is comnosed of suc- ctssive terraces of gypseous marl ami loam, rising by steps from the river's edge to a height of (idO ft., and marking the successive levels at which the waters stood when they were receding to their present limits. Nearly all authorities are now agreed that the plain we are considering was tlie site of the doomed cities Sodom and Gomorrah, and aft«nvards of the Jericho of Joshua and the more modem city in the time of our Lord. The climate is troi)ical and the soil rich ; and biung abundantly supplied with water from the Wady el Aujah, the Kelt, and the Makuk, with natural fountains such as the "Ain es Sultan and Ain Dftk, It may well have deserved the title bestowed apon
it even in the days of Lot, ' the garden of the Lord' (Gn 13'"). Near the banks of the Kelt is situated the miserable village of Er-Riha, probably the ancient Gil gal, surrounded by gardens producing lemons, oranges, bananas, figs, melons, and castor- oil trees. The copious .spring of Es Sultfln breaks out near the base of the limestone escarpment of Kuruntlil, and its waters are caught in a basin of solid masonry forming the ancient baths. The temperature of the water in the pool, taken on 15th January 1884, was 71° Fahr., but that of the spring itself is doubtless higher. The locality is rich in natural history objects, especially bii-ds, of which Tristram records the bulbul (Ixos xanthopygius), the hoppin^-thrush {Crateropns chalybeus), the Indian blue kingfisher (Alryon smymensis), the sun- bird (Cinnyris osea), Tristram's grakle (Amydrua trixtrami), besides innumerable doves, swallows, and commoner species.
2. In the latter sense the Wady el-Arabah corre- sponds to the ' WUdemess of Zin ' in part (Nu 34'), where it went up to the border of Edom on the E. Its limits are stated above ; and from the Gulf of Akabah to the Ghor the distance is about 105 miles. At its S. end the 'U'ady el-Arabah rises gradually from the shore of the Gulf of Akabah, lined by a grove of palms, for a distance of 50 miles, and with an average breadth of 5 miles ; and at this point, nearly opposite Mount Hor, it attains its summit level of (approximately) 723 ft. above that of the Red Sea, or 2015 ft. above that of the Dead Sea.*