 | Chayey Sarah |  |
|
| | 25:14 |
Mishma, Duma, Masa,
UMishma veDumah uMasa. |
| 25:15 |
Chadad, Tema, Yetur, Nafish and Kedmah.
Chadar veTeyma Yetur Nafish vaKedmah. |
| 25:16 |
Last Reading
These were Ishmael's sons, and these names were given to their towns and encampments. There were twelve princes for their nations.
Eleh hem beney Yishma'el ve'eleh shmotam bechatsreyhem uvetirotam shneym-asar nesi'im le'umotam. |
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Commentary:
Duma
See Isaiah 21:11 (Radak, Ibn Ezra, ad loc., but see Rashi). Josephus renders it Idumas, perhaps relating it to Idumia. There was a place on the Syrian-Arabian border known as Duma or Dumath Algandel. There is also a Duma in Syria, some 10 miles east of Damascus. Domita is mentioned by Ptolemy (5:19).
| Masa
See Genesis 10:30, Exodus 17:7. The name is found in ancient Assyrian writings.
| Tema
It is associated with Arabia (Isaiah 21:14), especially with Dedan and Buz (Jeremiah 25:23). This was also a people who had caravans associated with Sheba (Job 6:19). It was a nation that lived in the northern Arabian desert. It may be associated with the present city of Tayma in Saudi Arabia. The Targum on 1 Chronicles 1:30 renders it Adroma, literally 'the south.' There is an area known as Hadramut in southern Arabia.
| Yetur
Yetur and Nafish were driven out of the area east of the Jordan by Reuben, Gad and Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:19; Rashi ad loc.). This is in the exact area of Ituraea, northeast of Lake Hula (see Strabo 16:755; Pliney 5:19). They originally came from another area named Ituraea in the Arabian Desert (Strabo 16:756). They then settled in the mountain range to the north and south of Damascus, in regions where it was difficult to reach them. During the time of the Second Temple, the Hasmonean King Aristoblus forced the people of Ituraea to convert to Judaism and annexed their territory to Judea (Josephus, Antiquities 13:11:3). The area was later annexed to Syria by the Romans (Tacticus, Annals 12:23).
| Nafish
See note on Genesis 25:15, 'Yetur', from 1 Chronicles 5:19.
| twelve princes
See Genesis 17:20.
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