Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/268

 The mountain range of Idumea was later known as Gebalene, and thus the Septuagint places Job’s land of ʻÛṣ in the same region in which Eusebius locates Teman (Têmân), i. e. in the northern part of eastern Edom. Geographically this region can be divided into two halves: the eastern, which is flat, and the western, which is uneven. The center of the eastern half was the ancient city of at-Twâne (Têmân), while the western half is dominated today by the large settlement of aṭ-Ṭefîle, fifteen kilometers northwest of at-Twâne (see Musil, op. cit.). At a distance of three kilometers south-southeast of this settlement extends a heap of ruins known as ʻÎṣ. We may regard the word ʻÎṣ as equivalent to the Hebrew ʻÛṣ (just as Fênân, which is not far off, is the Hebrew Pûnôn), and we may therefore say that this was the center of the Biblical land of ʻÛṣ, from which Job came.

Aš-Šera’ forms the southern half of the mountain range and region of Seʻîr, to which the Bible frequently refers.

The allied kings of Babylon marched eastward from the Dead Sea to the south (Gen., 14: 6), slew the Horites in their mountains of Seʻîr, and reached Êl Pârân.

Êl Pârân is identical with the later harbor of Elath, or the present settlement of al-ʻAḳaba, at the northern extremity of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba of the Red Sea. It is thus obvious that we must expect to find Seʻîr to the south or southeast of the Dead Sea. But even if we did not identify Êl Pârân as Elath, it would be extremely probable that the Seʻîr mountain range stretched to the south of Moab and thus to the south-southeast of the Dead Sea.

We are brought to the same regions in Genesis, 32: 4, where it is narrated that Jacob, returning southward from Laban and while still north of the River Jabbok, “sent messengers to Esau his brother unto the land of Seʻîr, the country of Edom.” Esau had already heard of Jacob’s return, was marching against him, and met him east of the Jordan (Gen., 32: 23). Having become reconciled with him, Esau returned to Seʻîr (Gen., 33: 16), while Jacob proceeded in a westerly direction, reaching Sukkôt and crossing the Jordan.

From the context it is clear that Esau dwelt to the south or southeast of the Dead Sea and that he marched against his brother along the transport route leading from Arabia in the south to Damascus in the north. If we were to locate his dwelling place southwest of the Dead Sea and south of Palestine, we should also have to discover the reason why Jacob sent his messengers to him when he was still far to the east of Jordan and to the north of the Jabbok, and why the reconciled brothers