A'ra (Heb. Ara ', !>OX, perhaps lion; Sept. 'Apa), the last named of the three sons of Jether of the tribe of Asher (1 Chron. viii, 38) ; apparently the same with the Ulla whose three sons are named in the ensuing verse. B.C. ante 1017.
A'rab (Heb. Arab', a^N, ambush; Sept. 'Epj/3 v. r. Alpep), a city in the mountains of Judah, men- tioned in connection with Golon and Dumah (Josh. xv, 52), whence probablv the Gentile Arbite (2 Sam. xxiii, 35). According to Jerome (Onomast. s. v. Ereb) it lay south of Daroma, and was then called En mitty- thi i Euseb. 'Epspiv&a). Schwarz (Palest, p. 105) says it is the village al-Arab, situated on a mountain four English miles south-east of Hebron ; but other author- ities make no mention of such a place, and the asso- ciated names require a locality rather to the west of Hebron (Keil, Comment, on Josh, in loc), possibly the ruined site el-IIadb at the foot of a hill south-west of Dura (Robinson, Researches, iii, 5). See Judah
Arab. See Raven.
ARABA
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ARABAH
Araba (Apavd, prob. for Ar abaft), a city mention- ed by Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. s. v.) as ly- ing near DiocEesarea (now Sefurieh), apparently the same mentioned by Josephus (Life, 51, where the text now has Vdjiapa instead of "Apafia, by a conjecture of Reland, Pattest, p. 1021 ; see Robinson, new ed. of Researches, iii, 83) as lying 20 stadia from Sogane ; now the village Arrabeh, about four hours north of Nazareth (Schultz, in Ritter, Erdk. xvi, 7G8), contain- ing Jewish graves, with other remains of antiquity (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 287).
Ar'abah (Heb. Arabah', Sli*!?, desert; Sept. tptuoc;, also afiaToc, airttpog, and y/J ci^wva, but in Josh, xviii, 18, Bat^dpa/Sa; Auth. Vers, elsewhere "plain"), the name of a region or tract and of a town.
1. This word, with the article (!l2"i"rt, (he Arabah), is applied directly (Deut. i, 1 ; ii, 8 ; iii, 17 ; iv, 49 ; Josh, iii, lb*; xii, 1, 3; 2 Kings xiv, 25; Am. vi, 14) as the proper name of the great valley in its whole extent lying between the Dead Sea and the gulf of Akabah. Indeed it may be said to reach, with a par- tial interruption, or rather contraction, from Banias, at the foot of Mount Hermon, to the Red Sea. It thus includes toward the north the lake of Tiberias; and the Arboth (plains) of Jericho and Moab form parts of it. The surface of the Arabah proper is said to be al- most uninterruptedly a frightful desert. The north- ern continuation is watered by the Jordan, which, during its course, expands into the lakes el-Huleh and Tiberias, and is at length lost in the bitter waters of the Dead Sea ; this latter occupying the middle point of the great valley nearly equidistant from its two ex- tremities. The Scriptures distinctly connect the Ara- bah with the Red Sea and Elath ; the Dead Sea itself is called the sea of the Arabah. In the Auth. Vers, it is rendered " plain." The Greek name of this tract was AvXiiiv, Aulon, described by Eusebius (Onomast. s. v.) as extending from Lebanon to the desert of Par an. Abulfeda speaks of it under the name el- Ohm; and says correctly that it stretches between the lake of Tiberias and Ailah or Akabah (Tab. Syr. p. 8, 9). At the present day the name el-Ghor is ap- plied to the northern part, "from the lake of Tiberias to an offset or line of cliffs just south of the Dead Sea ; while the southern part, quite to the Red Sea, is call- ed Wady el- Arabah, the ancient Heine w name. The extension of this valley to the Dead Sea appears to have been unknown to ancient geographers, and in modern times was first discovered by Rurckhardt (Travels in .Syria, p. 441 ; Robinson's Palest, ii, 594-600). The importance of this great medial valley to the topog- raphy and natural features of Palestine (q. v.), as well as in the history of the Exode (q. v.), requires a full discussion of its peculiar designation and charac- teristics. Sec Topographical Terms.
1. Name. — 1. If the derivation of Gesenius (Thes. p. 1066) is to be accepted, the fundamental meaning of tin- term is "arid" or "waste," and thence "sterile," and in accordance with this idea it is employed in va- rion • poetical parts of Scripture to designate generally a barren, uninhabitable district, "a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby" (Jer. Ii, !::; Bee a Btriking remark iii Martineau, p.* 395; and, anion,' other passages, Job xxiv, 5; xxxix, 6- Isa. xxxiii, 9; xxxv, 1 I. See DESERT.
2. Rut within this general signification it is plain, from even a casual examination of the topographical
records in the earlier 1 ks of the Bible, that the word
lias also a more special and local force. In these cases it is found with the definite article (na^yi"!, ha- Arahah), "the Arabah." ami is also so mentioned as clearly to refer to some spot or district familiar to the then inhabitants of Palestine. This district, although nowhere expressly so defined in the Bible, and al- though the peculiar force of the word "Arabah" ap-