Nebaioth

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NEBAIOTH

NEBAIOTH (Heb. נְבָיוֹת, נְבָיֹת), a tribe or a group of tribes of nomads in the border deserts of Israel, identified with the Nabaiāte mentioned in the Assyrian documents from the time of Ashurbanipal. The Nebaioth are not to be connected with the *Nabateans, as some classical authors mistakenly did (cf. Jos., Ant. 1:221; 12:335, et al.; Jerome in his commentary to Gen. 25:13–18). According to Genesis 25:13 and i Chronicles 1:29, Nebaioth was the firstborn of Ishmael and according to Genesis 36:3 he was also the brother of Esau's wife Basemath, daughter of Ishmael. In Isaiah 60:6–7 Nebaioth is mentioned with Kedar, another son of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13), among the nomadic tribes on the border of Israel.

bibliography:

em, 5 (1968), 744–6 (incl. bibl.).

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