2. A city of Benjamin (Josh, xviii, 18), elsewhere (Josh, xv, CI ; xviii, 22) called more fully Betii-Ara- haii (q. v.).
Arabatti'nS (1 Mace, v, 3). See Acrabattixe.
Ara'bia (Ileb. Arab', -■?".. 2 Chron. ix, 14; Isa. xxi, 13 ; Jer. xxv. •_' I ; Kzek.'xxvii, 21 ; 'Apa/3i'o, Gal. i, 17; iv, 23; also 2 K-dr. xv. 29; 1 Mace, xi, 16; 2 Mace, xii, 11), the name of an extensive region occu- pying the south-westem extremity of Asia, having on
the west the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea (called from it the Arabian Guff), which separate it from Africa; on the south the Indian Ocean; and on the east the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates. The boun- dary to the north has never been well denned, for in that direction it spreads out into interminable deserts, which meet those of Palestine and Syria on the west, ! and those of Irdk-Arabi (i. c. Babylonia) and Meso- potamia on the east; and hence some geographers in- clude that entire wilderness in Arabia. The form of the peninsula is that of a trapezoid, whose superficial area is estimated at four times the extent of France. It is one of the few countries of the south where the descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants have neither been extirpated nor expelled by northern invaders. They have not only retained possession of their an- cestral homes, but have sent forth colonies to all the adjacent regions, and even to more distant lands, both in Africa and Asia (Ritter, Erdkunde, ii, 172).
With the history of no country save that of Pales- tine are there connected so many hallowed and im- pressive associations as with that of Arabia. Hero lived and suffered the holy patriarch Job ; here Moses, " when a stranger and a shepherd," saw the burning, unconsuming bush; here Elijah found shelter from the rage of persecution ; here was the scene of all the marvellous displays of Divine power and mercy that followed the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian yoke, and accompanied their journeyings to the prom- ised land ; and here Jehovah manifested himself in visible glory to his people. From the influence of these associations, combined with its proximity to Palestine, and the close affinity in blood, manners, and customs between the northern portion of its in- habitants and the Jews, Arabia is a region of peculiar interest to the student of the Bible ; and it is chiefly in its relation to subjects of Bible study that we are now to consider it. See Asia.
I. Names. — 1. In early times the Hebrews included a part of what we call Arabia among the countries they vaguely designated as DTJT1, Ke'dem, " the East," the inhabitants being numbered among the Beney'- Ke'dem, " Sons of the East," i. e. Orientals. But there is no evidence to show (as is asserted by Rosenmiil- ler and some other Bible geographers) that these phrases are ever applied to the whole of the country known to us as Arabia. They appear to have been commonly used in speaking of those parts which lay due east of Palestine, or on the north-east and south- east ; though occasionally they do seem to point to tracts which lay indeed to the south and south-west of that country, but to the east and south-east of Egypt. Accordingly we find that whenever the ex- pression kedem has obviously a reference to Arabia, it invariably points to its northern division only. Thus in Gen. xxv. 6, Abraham is said to have sent away the sons of Hagar and Keturah to the E'rets-Ke'dem — Kedmah, i.e. the "East country, eastward;" and none of them, so far as we know, were located in pen- insular Arabia ; for the story which represents Ish- mael as settling at Mecca is an unsupported native tradition. The patriarch Job is described (Job i, 3) as "the greatest of all the men of the east," and though opinions differ as to the precise locality of the land of Uz, all are agreed that it was in some part of Arabia, but certainly not in Arabia Felix. In the Book of Judges (vi, 3; vii, 12; viii, 10) among the allies, of the Midianites and Amalekites (tribes of the north) are mentioned the " Bene-Kedem" which Jo- sephus translates by "Apa/3ac, the Arabs. In Isa. xi, 14, the parallelism requires that by " sons of the east" we understand the nomades of Desert Arabia, as cor- responding to the Philistines "on the west ;" and with these are conjoined the Edomites, Moabites, and Am- monites, who were all northern Arabians. The com- mand was triven (Jer. xlix, 28) to the Babylonians " to smite the Bene-Kedem," who are there classed
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with the Kedarenes, descendants of Ishmael (eomp. 1 Kings iv, 30). In more modern times a name of similar import was applied to the Arabs generally; they were called Saracens (Sharakiyun, i. e. Orient- als), from the word shaj'k, "the east," whence also is derived the term sirocco, the east wind. The name of Saracens came into use in the West in a vague and undefined sense after the Roman conquest of Pales- tine, but does not seem to have been adopted as a general designation till about the eighth century. It is to be remarked here that though in Scripture Kedem most commonly denotes Northern Arabia, it is also used of countries farther east, e. g. of the native coun- try of Abraham (Isa. xli, 2 ; comp. Gen. xxix, 1), of Balaam (Num. xxiii, 7), and even of Cyrus (Isa. xlvi, 11); and, therefore, though the Magi who came to Jerusalem (Matt, ii, 1) were c'nro avarokwv, " from the cast," it docs not thence follow that they were natives of Arabia. See Bexe-Kedem.