Who were the Nabateans?

It is well known that the Edomites pushed their successes as Israel and Judah decayed; so that they even took some of the southern districts and towns of Palestine. They became much mixed up with the Jews. Then came the people called Nabatheans, descended from Nebaioth the eldest son of Ishmael, who took possession of the land of Idumea, and turned the sons of Esau out to a great extent. In consequence of those men pushing up into Edom, the previous inhabitants thronged into the Holy Land, where some of them acquired considerable possessions, part of which they were obliged to give up before the time of our Lord, as is notorious. Yet it was an Idumean family which got the upper hand in the land. Antipater was the forefather of Herod the Great, who was reigning in Jerusalem when our Lord was born, and sought to kill Him. But this state of things is rather the converse of the prophecy than its accomplishment. In fact the close of our prophecy awaits the great future day of Jehovah for its fulfilment. It is a miserable idea that Obadiah predicted under such bright terms anything like the successes of the Maccabees for somewhat more than a century, followed by the Idumean family which reigned over the Holy Land. The days of Herod the king were far from the time when the kingdom should be Jehovah's.

During the captivity the Edomites extended their dominion in the West and possessed Hebron; and some 300 years B.C. the Nabatheans took Petra (which is supposed to be the same as Sela, q.v.), and established themselves in the district. They settled down and engaged in commerce, and formed the kingdom called by Roman writers Arabia Petraea. Under the Maccabees the Edomites in the west were conquered, and Hebron was recovered. After possession by the Romans, under the withering influence of Islamic rule the district came to ruin.

In vain has the sceptical Gibbon (Decline and Fall, chaps. 46 and 50) strained his ingenuity to get rid of their standing independence, felt alike by strangers and by natives. There it is to this day, as it has been through all history. Of whom else can it be pretended similarly? The overruling power of God, as always, has guarded His word. Ishmael, though in no way the line of covenant any more than Esau, has lived before Him. Other peoples, and conspicuously in their neighbourhood, have dwindled and disappeared, I do not say they are extinguished. Ishmael He made fruitful and a great nation. In this world as it is, no sane person denies checks or exceptions during the course of ages, when God was ignored or misrepresented. But even the infidel historian had to acknowledge that these exceptions were "temporary or local." "The body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia. The present sovereign of the Turks may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke and fruitless to attack."

The wilderness of Paran was the earliest seat of Ishmael; but his posterity extended completely across the northern parts of Arabia, including the district of Sinai on the west to the Euphrates. In this district the sons of Keturah also dwelt, and thus Ishmaelites or Hagarites got mixed up with Midianites, as we may see in Gen. 37:25-28, 36, Judges 8:22-26, 1 Chron. 5:20. Nebaioth, Ishmael's firstborn, gave his name to the large region of Arabia Petraea; where Josephus places all the other sons. But this is too limited; for they settled also south of what the ancients called Nabathea or Nabateus. They bred camels, and kept sheep, as they were also merchants in aromatics and other commodities. Like other rationalists, Gibbon imputes their love of independence to their accidental locality. It was rather their wild character which availed itself of rocks and deserts; and God so acted as to suit both to His word and will. Here too the Edomites, or sons of Esau, found their place in mount Seir.

The second of Ishmael's sons was Kedar (from whom Mohammed proclaimed his descent through the tribe of Koreish), the Cedrei of Pliny, Cadraitae or Kadranitae from time immemorial living in the Hedjaz; as the B'nei Kenaz dwelt and still dwell in the interior N.E. who are called in modern times the Aenezes, descendants of Esau, the largest (as Burckhardt says) of all the Bedouin tribes of Arabia, at constant feud with the Joktanites south of them, as their progeny are to this day. Some of the other sons of Ishmael may be more or less obscure; but this cannot be said of Dumah (who had also the characteristic title of B'nei Kalb, as the Kedarites were correspondingly styled B'nei Karb), and Tema, written large and deep in the northern part of the Negd, as the interior highlands of Arabia are called among themselves.

There is no intention at this point to give more than a general notion of the relation of the Ishmaelites and other Abrahamidae to the previous settlers in Arabia. But it is well to bear all in mind, as each race had its influence on the circumstances and history of a land remarkably divided.

The only subject of this short prophetical book is the nation of Edom whose hatred for Israel will eventually lead to their total destruction. Edom is the name of Esau’s descendants. The nation of Edom lived in the mountains of Seir south of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Akaba (Gen. 36:8-9). Esau was Jacob’s twin brother. Already before their actual birth God announced that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Out of despising his birthright rose Esau’s hatred against Jacob (Gen. 27).

Around 300 years later when the Israelites were on their journey from Egypt to Canaan the Edomites would not let them pass through their territory (Num. 20:14-21). Then 400 years later the Edomites became David’s servants (2 Sam. 8:13-14). During Jehoram’s reign however the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah (2 Kings 8:20). There were further fights between Edom and Judah under the reigns of Jehoshaphat, Amaziah and Ahaz (2 Chron. 20:10; 25:11; 28:17). Edom rejoiced over Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC (Ps. 137:7; Lam. 4:21). Only the Babylonians devastated a few years later Edom itself. This is when the Nabathean Empire arose in Edom. During the time of the Maccabees Edom was annexed with the Jewish state by John Hyrcanus. When the Romans conquered Judea the Idumeans ( Edomites) family of Herod reached the royal dignity. Since Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AC the Edomites disappeared from history.

[30] Damascus was at this time under Aretas, King of Arabia Nabatæa, granted to him, it is supposed, by the Emperor Caligula; for during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius it had been attached to the province of Syria. "The Jews of the dispersion," writes Lewin ( Life of St. Paul , vol. i., p. 47), "like oil sprinkled upon a waste of waters, were in daily contact with heathen society without commingling. They had their own religion and their own laws, their own places of worship and their own courts. Their eyes were ever turned towards Jerusalem; and their allegiance to the high priest was testified, not only by the annual remittance to him of a contribution towards the Temple service, but by making him the referee of all their local disputes. Thus the High Priest and Elders of the Holy City exercised the same sort of spiritual supremacy over the synagogues of the adjacent countries, as the pope and cardinals have since assumed over the Churches in communion with Rome. They promulgated edicts, and had a jurisdiction over their own people to the extent of excommunication, scourging, and imprisonment. When they had reason to put forth this authority, they despatched ambassadors, called apostles, with mandatory letters to the local synagogues." In Damascus Jews were very numerous, as is attested by the slaughter of ten thousand of them in the city in one hour's time in the days of Nero (Josephus, Wars , II. xx. 2). Their synagogues, therefore, must have been many.

The common appellation (like Pharaoh for Egyptian kings) of the Arabian kings of the northern part of Arabia. The deputy of Aretas in Damascus sought to arrest Paul. 2 Cor. 11:32. This king, who was father-in-law to Herod Antipas, made war against him for divorcing his daughter, and defeated him. Vitellius, governor of Syria was ordered to take Aretas dead or alive; but Tiberius died before this was accomplished. Caligula, who succeeded to the empire, banished Antipas. He made certain changes in the East, and it is supposed that Damascus was detached from the province of Syria and given to Aretas.

Eldest son of Ishmael and one of the chiefs of the Ishmaelites. Gen. 25:13; Gen. 28:9; Gen. 36:3; 1 Chr. 1:29. The rams of Nebaioth are mentioned, with the flocks of Kedar his brother, as ministering to the prosperity of Israel in the future day of blessing. Isa. 60:7.

Western Arabia, the same as the ancient Arabia Petraea, embraces Sinai and the desert of Petra, extending from Egypt and the Red Sea to about Petra.

The day came when Herod gave a birthday supper to his lords, chief captains and chief estates of Galilee. On this august occasion the daughter of Herodias danced before the assembled company, and so captivated Herod, that for a reward he offered her even to the half of his kingdom. Here was the occasion for Herodias to carry out her design of revenge. She instructed her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a charger. The King was exceedingly sorry, yet for his oath’s sake sent an executioner to carry out his gruesome order. When the head of this man of God, gory and dripping with blood, was handed on a charger to the daughter of Herodias, she carried it to her mother. However, this unhappy marriage soon reaped its sad fruit.

It was the occasion of a war between Herod and Aretas king of Arabia. Herod had married the daughter of Aretas but when he became infatuated with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, he sought to divorce the daughter of the king of Arabia. In the war that ensued Herod’s army was destroyed. Josephus commenting on this says, “Some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the people to exercise virtue, both as righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God” (Antiquities B. 18, C. 5).

Son of Herod the Great by Malthace a Samaritan. He succeeded his father in the tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea. This was he whom the Lord called 'that fox.' He heard John the Baptist 'gladly,' yet put him to death. He was present at Jerusalem when the Lord was before Pilate, and by the courtesy of Pilate they settled their difference; but he treated the Lord with brutal indignity. He had married a daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, but subsequently induced Herodias the wife of Philip, his own half-brother, to leave her husband and live with him. This led to the death of John the Baptist by her desire, as recorded in scripture; and also to his being attacked and defeated with great loss by Aretas. Prompted by Herodias, he sought from the emperor Caligula the title of king (which did not belong to him though so called in Mark 6:14), but this ambition led to his perpetual banishment, A.D. 39. Herodias voluntarily accompanied him.