Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/452

 1. Ḳĕṭûrāh, called a 'concubine' in 1 Ch. 1$32$ (cf. v.$6$ below), is here a wife, the death of Sarah being presupposed. The name occurs nowhere else, and is probably fictitious, though Arabian genealogists speak of a tribe Ḳaṭūra in the vicinity of Mecca (Kn.-Di.). There is no 'absurdity' (De.) in the suggestion that it may contain an allusion to the traffic in incense which passed through these regions (see Mey. INS, 313).—2-4. The Ḳeṭurean stock is divided into 6 (G 7) main branches, of which only one, Midian, attained historic importance. The minor groups number 10 (G 12), including the well-known names Sheba and Dedan.

2. (,, etc.) has been connected with the [ ?] of Ptol. vi. 7. 5, W of Mecca (Kn.); and with the Zamareni of Pliny, HN, vi. 158, in the interior; but these are probably too far S. The name is probably derived from = 'wild goat,' the ending ān (which is common in the Ḳeṭurean and Ḥorite lists and rare elsewhere) being apparently gentilic: cf. , Nu. 25$14$, 1 Ch. 2$6$ 8$36$ 9$42$. A connexion with (S ), Jer. 25$25$ is very doubtful. On (,, etc.) see on v.$3$— ] unknown. Wetzstein instances a Wādī Medān near the ruins of Daidan.— ] The name appears as =  in Ptol. vi. 7. 2, 27 (cf. Jos. Ant. ii. 257; Eus. OS, p. 276), the Madyan of Ar. geogr., a town on the E side of the Gulf of Aḳaba, opposite the S end of the Sinaitic peninsula (see Nö. EB, 3081). The chief seat of this great tribe or nation must therefore have been in the northern Ḥiǧāz, whence roving bands ravaged the territory of Moab, Edom (Gn. 36$35$), and Israel (Ju. 6-8). The mention of Midianites in the neighbourhood of Horeb may be due to a confusion between J and E (see Mey. INS, 3 f.); and after the time of the Judges they practically disappear from history. "As to their occupations, we sometimes find them described as peaceful shepherds, sometimes as merchants [Gn. 37$28. 36$, Is. 60$6$], sometimes as roving warriors, delighting to raid the more settled districts" (Nö.).— and have been identified by Frd. Delitzsch (ZKF, ii. 91 f., Par. 297 f.) and Glaser (ii. 445 f.), with Yasbuḳ and Sûḫu of Ass. monuments (KIB, i. 159, 33, 99, 101), both regions of northern Syria. Del. has since abandoned the latter identification (Hiob, 139) for phonetic reasons.—3. and ] see on 10$7$. As they are there bracketed under, so here under , a name otherwise unknown. The equation with (10$25ff.$), proposed by Tu. and accepted by Mey. (318), is phonologically difficult. Since the Sabæans are here still in the N, it would seem that this genealogy goes farther back than that of the Yokṭanite Arabs in ch. 10. Between Sheba and Dedan, G ins. (=, v.$15$).—3b. The sons of Dedan are wanting in 1 Ch., and are probably interpolated here (note the pl.). G has in addition (cf. 36$10$)  (cf. v.$13$).—] certainly not the Assyrians, but some obscure N Arabian tribe,—possibly the mentioned on two