place · also desert · plain
Arabah
עֲרָבָה
The Arabah, a desert plain extending from the Sea of Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba.
- verses
- 22
- first named
- Deuteronomy 1:1
- last named
- Zechariah 14:10
- feature
- region
- coordinates
- 30.42°N · 35.15°E
Arabah (OpenBible)
The gazetteer records one identification, and no competing one.
Description
Arabah in the text
The Arabah, also known as the desert or plain, is a geographic region mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. It refers to the elongated depression that runs from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south, including the Jordan Valley and the area south of the Dead Sea.
In the book of Deuteronomy, the Arabah is mentioned in the context of Moses' farewell address to the Israelites, recounting their journey from Horeb (Sinai) to the Promised Land (Deu.1.1, 7; 2:8). The Arabah is described as part of the route they took and as a region they passed through.
The Arabah is also mentioned in the book of Joshua as a reference point for the boundaries of the tribal allotments (Joshua 11:16; 12:1, 3, 8; 18:18). It served as a natural border between the territories of the tribes settling in Canaan.
In the historical books, the Arabah is associated with events such as David's flight from Absalom (2Sa.2.29; 4:7) and the escape of King Zedekiah from Jerusalem during the Babylonian invasion (2Ki.25.4; Jeremiah 39:4; 52:7).
The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel mention the Arabah in their prophecies. Isaiah speaks of the Arabah as a place of desolation (Isaiah 33:9), while Ezekiel envisions a future restoration where the waters flowing from the temple will bring life to the Arabah (Ezk.47.8).
The Arabah's arid climate and sparse vegetation make it a challenging environment. However, its strategic location along trade routes and its unique geological features, such as the Dead Sea, have made it a significant region throughout biblical history.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The pattern
Where Arabah is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
22 verses across 9 of 66 books; 57 write the name nowhere. Named in Deuteronomy (6), Joshua (7), 1 Samuel (1), 2 Samuel (2), 2 Kings (1), Isaiah (1), Jeremiah (2), Ezekiel (1) and Zechariah (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 22, across 9 books.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
What happened here
Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- Deuteronomy 1The Arabah was the wilderness setting for Moses’ words, opposite Suph.
- Deuteronomy 11The Arabah lies opposite Gilgal, among the Canaanites, near the Oak of Moreh.
- Joshua 8The king of Ai came out to battle at an appointed place overlooking the Arabah.
- 2 Kings 25The Arabah was the direction in which the fleeing men of war headed from Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 47The Arabah receives the river flowing east from the temple.
Sources