Page:Light and truth.djvu/110

108 most interesting events in the history of man. Horeb and Sinai were within its bounds. In the south-western part of it now stand the famed cities of Mecca and Medina, so much visited by Mahometan pilgrims. The people of this part are called "Men of the east." (Gen. xxv. 6; Judg. vi. 3.)

, which lay eastward of Canaan, and comprehended the land of Uz, of Ammon, Moab, Midian, with the country of the Itureans, Hagarenes, &c. The inhabitants have in all ages dwelt in tents, and led a wandering life. It was an exceedingly fruitful land. They claim their descent from Shem. This was also the country of the Ishmaelites, and is now inhabited by the modern Bedouins.

, or the happy, on the south of the two former, between the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Scarcely any part of Arabia is well watered, but Arabia Felix is the most so, and is famed for its opium, myrrh, and other drugs, as well as for fine spices and fruits.

The Arabians are, in general, the descendants of Ishmael. The descendants of Abraham by Keturah, as well as those of Lot and Esau, dwelt also in this land.

, or Hagar. (Gal. iv. 25.) The history or condition of Hagar is used allegorically in this passage to illustrate the nature of the dispensation from Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is called Agar by the Arabians.

, a country somewhere near or in Arabia Petræa, so called from a son of Ishmael. (Isa. xxi. 11.

. (Jer. xxv. 23; xlix. 8; Ezek. xxv. 13.) A district of Arabia Petræa, south of Idumea, or Edom, settled by the descendants of Dedan, son of Jokshan, son of Abraham and Keturah. (Gen. xxv. 3.)

, or. (Num. xxxiii. 35; 1 Kings ix. 26.) A city of Arabia, at the head of the eastern or Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea, adjoining Elath. It was here that Solomon's vessels were built, which were intended to trade with Ophir and Tarshish. It derives its name [Ezion-Geber, or the back bone of a man,] from a reef of rocks at the entrance of the harbor resembling that part of the human frame.

. (Gen xxv. 13.) A son of Ishmael, whose descendants settled in the southern part of Arabia.