Nabatheans

Isai. lx. 7.NABATHEANS, or Nabathenians, Arabians Descendants from Nabajoth. Their Country is called Nabathæa, and extends from the Euphrates to the Red- Sea¹. Not that the Nabatheans are the only Inhabitants of this vast Tract of Land, but they are the principal. Their chief Cities are, Petra the Capital of Arabia Deserta, Medaba, and some others. For the Country may be said to be intirely Desart, and the Nabatheans are at no Trouble in building Houses, or dwelling in Cites, nor any of the other Inhabitants of Arabia Deserta. They look upon this as a kind of Servitude and Baseness, to be tied down to the Earth. The wandering Manner of Life that they lead, with their Wives, Children and Cattle, and the Liberty they enjoy without being accountable to any Body, appears to them to be one of the greatest Blessings of Life. Their chief Substance consists in Cattle. Isaiah promises Jerusalem, that the fat Rams of Kedar and Nebaioth should be brought into the Temple of the Lord, and offered upon his Altar.

The Nabatheans are hardly known in Scripture, but from the Time of the Maccabees. During the several Wars that the Jews maintained against the Syrians, and while almost all the other Nations about them were against the Hebrews, the Nabatheans alone shewed them Friendship. Judas Maccabæus going to the Assistance of his Brethren in the Country of Gilead, was very well received by the Nabathites². Some Time after³ Jonathan Maccabæus sent his Brother John to the Nabatheans, to conduct and deposite with them the heavy Baggage of his Army, which was an Incumbrance to him; but the Inhabitants of Medaba, or Nadabatha, took John as he went, slew him, and seized his Carriages. Diodorus Siculus⁴ places among the Nabatheans the Lake Asphaltites, the Palm-trees and Gardens of Balm that are near there, and the City of Petra. Their Country extended Northward as far as Libanus. Dionysius the Geographer places the Nabatheates at the Foot of Libanus. Josephus says⁵ that Jonathan Maccabæus being in the Country of Emath, and having drove his Enemies beyond the River Eleuthera, he penetrated into Arabia, beat the Nabatheans, and came to Damascus. Epiphanius⁶ says, that the Ebionites came chiefly out of the Country of the Nabatheans, and from Paneas.

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