Nabari'as (SaiSaplnc, Vulg. Xiihiirids), appar- cntlv a ciirruption (1 Esdr. x, 44) for the ZiitiiAiiiAii of Xeh.viii.4.
Nabathaeans (Sa(3ara7oi. [but ATroraToi, Ptol. vi, 7 ; see below], XabuUei), mentioned in Isa. Ix, 7, un- der the name " Nebaioth," as a pastoral tribe of Arabia, in coiniection with Kedar (comp. Pliny, v, 12), but with no definite specification of locality. See Nebaioth. lu the period after the exile, the Maccabican captains Judas and .Jonathan found the Nabathasans after press- ing for\vard beyond the Jordan three days' journey into the Arabian Desert (1 JIacc. v, 24; ix,35), and it sec ins dear that they were then in the district adjoin- ing (iilead, near the cities of l$ozrah and Carnaim. .losoplais (.4 nt. i, 2, 4) and Ammianiis Marcellinus (xiv, 8) calls the whole region between the Euphrates and the IJed Sea Xdbtitate (N«/3«r?ji'i;); and the latter makes the Nabatlutans the immediate neighbors of Koman Arabia, i.e. of the district containing Bozrah and Philadelphia. Other writers, after the Christian icta, place this people on the .Elanitic gulf of the Ked Sea (Strabo, xvi, 777), but extend their territory far into Arabia Petnca, and make Petra.inWady Musa, their capital city (Strabo, xvi, 770; xvii, 803; Pliny, v, 12; vi, 32; Diod. Sic. ii, 48; iii, 43; xix, !t4). The Na- bathaeans were considered a rich people (Dionys. PfriW/. 955) ; most of them lived a nomadic life, but many pros- ecuted a regular and important carrying trade through this region (Diod. Sic. xix, 94; Apul. Flor. 1, (>). They were governed by kings. Pompey, wlicn in Syria, sent an army against them and subdued them (.Joseph. Ant. xiv, 3, 3; 6, 4). They submitted formally to the Romans in the time of Trajan (Dio. Cass. Ixviii, 14 ; Ammian.
Marcel, xiv, 8). The chief cities of the Nabathjeans may have stood in the vicinity of Bozrah (q. v.), in Edom ; and the accounts which Greek and Ki)man writers give respecting the Nabathicans do not perhaps refer exclusively to this particular tribe, but the name with them may include other Arabian tribes, as the Edomites; yet it is probable that a branch of the no- madic Nabathajans at an early period wandered eastward as far as the Euphrates, in the neighborhood of wliich lie the Naijathiuan morasses {Xubat, ''paludes Xab<tlh(E- oi-um ;" Golius, cited by Forster, Genrj. of A rabia, i, 214, note ; comp. Strabo, xvi, 7(57). Ptolemy (vi, 7, 21) men- tions Nabathaeans in Arabia Felix (comp. Steph. Byz. s. V. p. 578), unless, with recent editions, we read in this place 'ATTorfiToi, which, however, some suppose to be simply another form of the name (but comp. Keland, Palast. p. 90 sq. ; Cless, in Pauly's Reakncykl. 'ill sq.). In Genesis (xxv, 13; xxviii, 9; xxxvi, 3; comp. 1 Chron. i, 29) the Nabathaeans are mentioned in genea- logical connection with Nebaioth ((i- v.), the first-born son of Ishmael and brotlier of Kedar; and a son of Ish- mael named Xobat appears in Arabian tradition (Abid- fed. Anncd. i, 22), but not as the ancestor of this tribe, who are said to be descended from another Nabat, a son of Mash, and a descendant of Shcm. On these traditions the supposition has been based that the Nabathasans were not Arabians, but Aramieans; and Beer believed that remnants of their Arama'an language were con- cealed in the inscriptions at Sinai (Kobinson, Bibl. Re- search, i. 544 ; comp. Quatremere, Memoires sur Its Xaba- teem, Par. 1835; Kitter, Krdk. xii. 111 sq.), but the un- broken Biblical genealogy cannot be set aside on behalf of the fragmentary and uncertain traditions of Arabia (Winer, ii, 129). The name of the Nabathaians occurs on the cuneiform inscriptions (q. v.). See Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Geog, s. v. Nabatai; the duke of Luy- nes, in the Revue XumismaiiqHe (new series. Par. 1858, vol. iii) ; the count de Vogue, in tlie Melum/es d\l rvhe- olofjie Orientnle (Par. 1808) ; Vincent, Commerce of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean (Lond. 1807), ii, 275 sq. ; Niildcke, in the Zeitschr. der deutsch. morgeid. Gesell- schaft, xxv, 113 sq. See Petra.
Nab'athites (No/3arra7o(, 'Savaraloi v. r. No)3«- Ttoi: ^'ulg. XidHithwi), another form (1 Mace, v, 25; ix, 30) for the Nabatii.eaxs (q. v.).
Nable is the ecclesiastical term for a stringed in- strument with a triangular, sonorous box. It only dif- fered from the psaltery in form and having shorter strings (Walcott, /^acicd Archaol. s. v.).
Na'both (Hcb. Xuboth', tS'2^, fruits, according to Gesenius, but pre-eminence according to Fiirst; Sept, yiajiovi, V. r. Na/3oi'5a(', Na/?oSaf ; Josephus, No/3ov- doc, Ant. viii, 13,7), an Israelite of the town of Jezreel in the time of Ahab, king of Israel. B.C. cir. 897. " He was the owner of a small portion of ground (2 Kings ix, 25, 26) that lay on the eastern slope of the hill of Jez- reel. He had also a vineyard, of which the situation is not quite certain. According to the Hebrew text (I Kings xxi, 1) it was in Jezreel, but (he Sejit. renders the whole clause differently, omitting the words ' which was in Jezreel,' and reading instead fif "the palace,' 'the threshing -foor of Ahab, king of Samaria.' This points to the view, certaiidy most consistent with the subsequent narrative, that Naboth's vineyard was on the hill of Samaria, close to tlic ' threshing-iloor' (the word translated in A. V. 'void jilace") whidi undoubt- edly existed there, hard by tlie gate of the city (1 Kings xxiv). The royal palace of Ahab was close upon the city wall at Jezreel. According to both texts, it im- mediately adjoined the vineyard (1 Kings xxi, 1, 2, Heb.; 1 Kings xxi, 2, Sept.;" 2 Kings ix, 30, 3G), and it thus became an object of desire to the king, who offered an e([uivalent in money, or another vineyard, in exchange for this. Naboth, in the independent spirit of a Jewish landholder (comp. 2 Sam. xxiv ; 1 Kings xvi), refused. Perhaps the turn of his expression im-