Arabah

“ The surface of the Wâdy el Arabah is variously covered by loam, gravel, and blown sands, which are often piled up in great dunes covering large areas, and form a great obstacle to travellers. Occasionally the limestone rock appears in isolated bosses or ridges, as is the case along part of the watershed about 45 miles north of Akabah. There are no continuous rivers throughout ”

“ Deu 10:6 and Deu 10:7 refers to the march in the fortieth year, when the Israelites went from Kadesh through the Wady Murreh into the Arabah to Mount Hor, and encamped in the Arabah first of all at the wells of the children, and then at Mosera, where Aaron died upon Mount Hor, which was in the neighbourhood, and whence they travelled still farther southwards to Gudgodah and Jotbathah. In the historical account in Num 20 and 21 the three places of encampment, Bene-Jaakan, Gudgodah, and Jotbathah, are not mentioned, because nothing worthy of note occurred there. ”

“ March of Israel through the Arabah. Plague of Serpents, and Brazen Serpent. - Num 21:4. As the Edomites refused a passage through their land when the Israelites left Mount Hor, they were obliged to take the way to the Red Sea, in order to go round the land of Edom, that is to say, to go down the Arabah to the head of the Elanitic Gulf.
verses 5-6verses 5-6
As they went along this road the people became impatient (“the soul of the people was much discouraged,” see Exo 6:9) , and they began once more to murmur against God and Moses, because they had neither bread nor water (cf. Num 20:4.) ”

“ And the limit of the north part of the land is from the inlet of the sea at the end of Jordan:
15:6 Then the line goes up to Beth-hoglah, past the north of Beth-arabah, and up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben ”

“ It is intersected by the Wady el Jerafeh, which commences at the foot of the northern slope of the mountains of Tih, and after proceeding at first in a northerly direction, turns higher up in a north-easterly direction towards the Arabah, but rises in its northern portion to a strong mountain fortress, which is called, from its present inhabitants, the highlands of the Azazimeh, and is bounded on both south and north by steep and lofty mountain ranges. The southern boundary is formed by the range which connects the Araif en Nakba with the Jebel el Mukrah on the east ”

“ Much more extensive are some of the great continental dislocations, often forming valleys of considerable width and length. The Upper Rhine flows in one of these great valleys of subsidence for about 180 miles, from Mulhausen to Frankfort, in a generally straight line, though modified by denudation. Vaster still is the valley of the Jordan through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, continued by the Wady Arabah to the Gulf of Akaba, believed to form one vast geological depression or fracture extending in a straight line for 400 miles. ”

“ These were hard terms according to the views of the Sheikhs, and in fact quite unprecedented. The reader who knows something of travellers' visits to the rock-hewn city will probably concur in thinking that they sere sufficiently liberal, and that the arrangement regarding the time of payment was not unnecessary.
Thus was the morning of wrangling and turmoil closed in, at least, outward harmony and peace. Our camp was pitched in the centre of a recess amongst the sandstone cliffs, and close by the pass which opens out on the Arabah plain. ”

“ AR OF MOAB Num. xxi. 28; Deut. ii. 9, 18, 29; Isa. xv. 1 Rabba 14 The ruin ‘Rabba,’ north of ‘Kerak,’ known in the time of Jerome as ‘Areopolis’ and Rabbath-Moab. ARAB Josh. xv. 52 Kh. er Rabîyeh* 14 The present ruin, er Rabîyeh, in the mountains of Judah, south of Hebron. (Mem. III. 311–360; Sh. XXI.) —Conder. ARABAH Josh. xviii. 18 The Ghôr and the ʾArabah — The great Jordan Valley. ARABATTINE 1 Macc. v. 3 Acrabbim — In Idumea. Akrabbim (ascent of) , which see. ARABIA 1 Kings x. 15; 2 Chron. ix. 14; Is. xxi. 13; Jer. xxv. 24; Ezek. xxvii. 21; Judith ii. 25; 1 Macc. xi. 16; 2 Macc. xii. 11 ”

“ Rowlands in 1842. (See Williams’s Holy City, i. 463–468; Robinson’s Biblical Researches, ii. 201.) The name is not very close to the Hebrew, but is a possible corruption. ZIN, The Wilderness of Num. xiii. 21; xx. 1; xxvii. 14; xxxiii. 36; xxxiv. 3; Deut. xxxii. 51; Josh. xv. 1 — In Num. xxxiv. 4; Josh. xv. 3, simply Zin. A portion of the desert country west of the Wâdy Arabah containing Kadesh. ZION 2 Sam. v. 7; 1 Kings viii. 1; 2 Kings xix. 21; 1 Chr. xi. 5; 2 Chr. v. 2; Ps. ix. 11, 14; xiv. 7; xx. 2; xlviii. 12; l. 2; li. 18; liii. 6; lxix. 35; lxxvi. 2; lxxxiv. 7 ”

“ The Arab sits beneath the arcade of his house, protected from the rays of the sun, bathing his feet in the cool spring water, and blesses Allah and the Prophet for his existence; and well he may, for his days glide tranquilly on, like the brook at his feet. Doubts and inward struggles are unknown to him; the Arab has but one God, one sword, and one horse, and wants nothing more. ”

“ In the south of Arabia and along the sea-shore, where the land is fertile and inviting, they live much as other nations do, and when, a thousand years ago, Arabs conquered vast and wealthy countries both in Europe and Asia, and in Africa too, they not only became model husbandmen, but built some of the finest cities in the world, had wise and strictly enforced laws and took the lead in literature and science. Very different are the scattered nomadic tribes which still roam the steppes of Eastern Russia, of Siberia and Central Asia. ”

“ Distant mountain peaks stretch away beyond the city, in indescribable loveliness, and melt in the distance, like a veritable land of cloud. Upon the other hand lies the desert; become a sea of silver under the stern light of the stars. One stands impressed—oppressed and compelled to listen to the mighty, threatening silence. Small wonder is it that, to-day, in the interior of Arabia, like his forefathers during the time of Abimelech and Jethro, the lonely shepherd is a worshiper of the stars—poised, unchanging and serene, above the changing, tumultuous earth. ”

“ The people are the same in feeling and in manners, however much the true Ethiopians, such as the Bishareen, Hadendoa, and Beni-Ammer, may differ in language and descent from the true Arabs; I say from the true Arabs, because the term Arab has been at times too indiscriminately applied, and ought to be limited to the nomads in Arabia, as distinguished from the settlers. On both coasts the inhabitants follow the same character of life. They are people of the deserts, wandering shepherds, and procure whatever corn they may require from external sources. ”

“ The wandering habits of the Arabs are also preserved to the present day. ‘Even now,’ says Gerhard Rohlfs, [233] ‘this volatile people is engaged in constant wandering; the slightest reason is sufficient to make them pack up their little tents and seek another abode.’ Yet this experienced traveller appears somewhat to overdo it when he adds: ‘Their pleasure in roving has its root in the essence of the Mohammedan religion; wherever the Arab can carry his Islâm, he finds a home &c.’ But Islâm has, on the contrary, rather contributed to give the Arab a stable, political, state-building character. ”

“ There were many points of kinship between Jews and Arabians. The Bible hints this in making Abraham the father of both peoples through Isaac and Ishmael (Gen. xvii, 18-20) . This tradition the Arabs accepted from their Jewish neighbors. They certainly both belonged to the same race—the Semitic. The Semites included Assyrians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, Syrians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Arabs and Ethiopians. In spite of the religious divergence, the Jews adapted themselves—externally at least—to the Arabian mode of life. ”

“ The moment the Arab hears the call of the marabout he throws himself upon the earth, wherever he may chance to be, and touches the ground with his brow, then rising again he stretches his arms toward heaven with his face turned in the direction of Mecca. His white flowing bernouse and his long beard give him a venerable and patriarchal air. Thus, surely, did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worship their God. The Arab has no hesitation in performing his devotions in the presence of the crowd, and is totally without either the false shame or the religious hypocrisy of an European. ”

“ There was something very striking in the appearance of these untamed Arabs: I had never pictured to myself that anything so like a wild beast could exist in human form. The motions of their half-naked bodies were singularly free and light, and they looked as if they could climb, and run, and leap over anything. The appearance of many of the older Arabs, with their long white beard and their ample cloak of camel's hair, called an abba, is majestic and venerable. ”

“ In this way had the Arabs lived for long ages, unnoticed by the world; a people of great qualities, unconsciously waiting for the day when they should become notable to all the world. Their Idolatries appear to have been in a tottering state; much was getting into confusion and fermentation among them. Obscure tidings of the most important Event ever transacted in this world, the Life and Death of the Divine Man in Judea, at once the symptom and cause of immeasurable change to all people in the world, had in the course of centuries reached into Arabia too ”

“ The Arabs love to sit and swing back and forth as they chant its chapters. And lastly is something that looks very much like an amulet, but which is a traveller’s bag for bread and dates, often fastened to the camel saddle by leather thongs. Bread or dates kept in such a receptacle will keep moist for many, many hours in the hot, dry climate of Arabia.
The Arabs are not skilled as the Japanese and Chinese are with tools, nor are they much given to art of any kind, but you must admit that such every-day things are many of them artistic and some of them really beautiful. ”

“ The faithfulness of a guide is a virtue innate amongst the Arabs.”—Carette.
[100] “If any people can be justly called happy, the Arabs on the borders of the Sahara are so. Confident in the power of their religion to gain them paradise, creating for themselves no artificial wants, and perfectly satisfied with what nature provides for them, they calmly resign themselves to the will of Providence, and are strangers to all cares. They are more wild in their appearance, but far more cultivated than the Arabs of Asia: nearly all of them can read, and a great many write.”—Davidson’s Journal. ”

“ It is believed that the chief abode of the Jinn is in the Mountains of Ḳáf, which are supposed to encompass the whole of our earth. But they are also believed to pervade the solid body of our earth, and the firmament; and to choose as their principal places of resort or of occasional abode, baths, wells, ovens, ruined houses, market-places, the junctures of roads, the sea, and rivers. The Arabs, therefore, when they pour water on the ground, or enter a bath, or let down a bucket into a well, and on various other occasions, say "Permission!" ”

“ There is no land in the world and no people (with the exception of Palestine and the Jews) which bear such close relation to the Theocratic covenants and Old Testament promises as Arabia and the Arabs. The promises for the final victory of the Kingdom of God in Arabia are many, definite and glorious. These promises group themselves around seven names which have from time immemorial been identified with the peninsula of Arabia: Ishmael, Kedar, Nebaioth, Sheba, Seba, Midian and Ephah. ”

“ Now Rabîah was feeble.
“Some months before he had borne away from the tents of the Otèbah, Selma, the pearl of the tribe; her form was like the Egyptian willow, her face like the full moon in its brightness, her eyes were those of the antelope, and her teeth pearls set between two cushions of rose-leaves, her neck was a pillar of camphor, [43] and her breasts two pomegranates rivalling each other in rounded beauty. ”

“ They were cousins of another mighty race, the Jews, their neighbours, for both traced their descent from Abraham—the Jews through Isaac and Jacob, the Arabs through Ishmael, and also through Esau who married the daughter of Ishmael. In a marvellous way have the Arabs all through their history been fulfilling the old prophecy of the sons of {5} Ishmael: 'He shall be as a wild ass among men: his hand shall be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren.' [1] How better could we describe the Arab to-day? ”

“ The wealth and political power of the Jews; their intimate association with the nomadic tribes of the Peninsula; a close similarity of traditions, customs, and language, [50] produced no perceptible effect upon the prehistoric literature of the Arabs. The Hebrews of Arabia, nevertheless, had their poets, whose productions, on the other hand, exhibit a marked coincidence of thought and style with those of their Arab kinsmen. Their sentiments are lofty and admirable, their language pure, and their merit, while inferior to that of the Moallakat, is still far from contemptible. ”

“ They are always sought after to do the tinkering for the Arabs of all other tribes. They have no camels or horses but ride little donkeys and dress in gazelle skins. Some people think that this tribe is a remnant of the Christian population of Arabia; they have many curious beliefs and their name means, "Those-of-the-Cross." Perhaps some day a missionary will bring them back to a true knowledge of the Crucified One.
The nomads of Arabia are happy in springtime when there is enough grass for their flocks and the wells of the desert are full of water. ”

“ But, still, to Moses the Jews owe their nationality, as the Arabs owed theirs to Muhammad. The former found a weak people, united to a certain extent, but quite unaccustomed to fighting and hardship, and he welded them sufficiently together to enable them, under his successors, to establish themselves in the promised land. The latter found Arabia inhabited by a quantity of tribes, more or less hostile to each other, but brave to a degree; fond of fighting and plundering, and always at it ”