ARABAH ăr’ ə bə (הָֽעֲרָבָ֖ה LXX ἡ ̓́Αραβα; the waste land, the Arabah). When the word is used with the definite article, as it most frequently is, it refers to the great rift valley running S from the Sea of Galilee including the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea and extending all the way to the Gulf of Aqabah. As such, it forms a major geographical area of the land of the Bible and certainly the most important feature of the relief of the land. In the KJV, the region occurs only twice as “Arabah” (Josh 18:18), but frequently as “desert,” “plain” or “wilderness.” The RSV transliterates more frequently as “Arabah.”
The root ערב meaning “arid” or “dry” can be used also to refer to desert steppe land in general (e.g. Job 24:5; 39:6; Ps 68:6; Isa 33:9; Jer 17:6). In the pl. and without the article the word was used to refer to certain desert sections within the Arabah as a whole. Thus, for example, we have the “plains of Jericho” (Josh 5:10; 2 Kings 25:5; Jer 39:5) indicating a section of the Arabah near to Jericho; the “plains of Moab” (Num 26:3; 31:12; 35:1; 36:13) meaning those parts of the Arabah belonging to Moab; the “plains of the wilderness” (2 Sam 15:28; 17:16) meaning the sections of the Arabah which coincide with parts of the wilderness of Judah. The Dead Sea is sometimes also referred to as the “Sea of the Arabah” (Deut 4:49; Josh 3:16; 12:3; 2 Kings 14:25). The modern terms used are Ghôr (“depression”) for the Jordan Valley portion of the Arabah and ’Arabah or Wâdi el - ’Arabah for that portion S of the Dead Sea.
1. Geography. The Arabah as a whole is over 200 m. in length and falls naturally into three geographical regions, namely the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea region and the area S of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah.
The Arabah is well below sea level for much of its distance. Beginning at about 686 ft. below sea level at the Sea of Galilee it slopes down to about 1292 ft. below sea level at the Dead Sea. This is then the lowest spot on the face of the globe. The northern half of this part of the Arabah is about twelve m. wide, forming a fairly fertile and well-watered plain, the water being provided by a number of small streams, tributaries to the Jordan. The valley narrows for about five m. just S of the halfway mark and for this stretch is infertile. From here the valley widens again, descending between steep scarps which, at Jericho, are about twelve m. apart. Then it gradually narrows again to a width of about six m. at the N end of the Dead Sea. A number of fairly large streams contribute to the Jordan below the arid constriction, and it courses through fairly dense jungle at the bottom of a deep cut. The surrounding land is again very fertile and Pliny mentions that besides many other products, more than forty-nine varieties of figs grow there.
The Dead Sea region of the Arabah is some fifty m. in length and about ten m. wide. There is just sufficient room for a road on each side of the Sea directly below the steep escarpments. The famous sites of Khirbet Qumran and Masada are found on the W scarp, Qumran to the N and Masada some thirty m. S opposite the peninsula of salt which extends into the Sea. (See Dead Sea.)
The region to the S of the Dead Sea occupies a length of about 110 m. For six to eight m. immediately S of the Sea there are large mud flats deposited by a number of streams cutting their way down the steep slope from the S. The plain of mud is known as the “Sebkah” while the slope itself is prob. that referred to as the “ascent of Akrabbim” (Josh 15:3). The streams are esp. erosive during the rainy season, though considerable amounts of vegetation still flourish there. The floor of the valley continues to rise beyond the ascent of Akrabbim, reaching sea level at about thirty-eight m. from the Dead Sea. The highest point of the entire Arabah is reached about eighteen m. further to the S near the same latitude as that of the famous site of Petra to the E. By this time the valley has broadened considerably being twenty-five m. wide in some places. As the floor of the valley descends again toward Ezion-geber, its width also decreases averaging perhaps six m. A kind of funnel effect is thereby created for the winds which blow down the valley and were used in the blast furnaces of the copper smelters at the head of the gulf. This long southern slope is generally very arid with only an occasional oasis, but in Nabatean times it was partially irrigated and some agriculture was practiced there.
2. Geology. Geologically, the Arabah is but a portion of an enormous fault in the crust of the earth which extends from northern Syria southward between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains, through the Red Sea and to the southeastern coast of Africa. For the portion of the Arabah which is below sea level, the western side is bordered more or less continuously with limestone cliffs rising 2,000 or 3,000 ft. above sea level. On the eastern side, however, sandstone and granite rocks border the valley to a height of 2,000 or 3,000 ft. and are then capped with limestone corresponding to that on the western side. Thus, a shift of from 2,000 to 3,000 ft. has occurred between the geological strata on opposite sides of the Arabah for this distance. (For more on the Geology of the Arabah, see G. F. Wright, “Arabah” ISBE, I [1939], 212, 213.)
3. Trade and commerce. The portion of the Arabah N of the Dead Sea was crossed by a number of roads, esp. in the N half where the tribe of Manasseh held territory on both sides of the Jordan. The N-S roads in this area tend to run on the hills above the Arabah rather than in the valley itself. South of the Dead Sea, the Arabah was important commercially chiefly because of its port city, Eziongeber. This was the main entrance to the land of Canaan and allowed trade with Arabia, India and Africa. The road went N from Eziongeber and had branches to the main highways of Canaan as well as to the King’s Highway to the E.
While, as already noted, several parts of the Arabah did have some agricultural potential, its main economic asset was the presence of iron and copper, the only such deposits in all of Canaan. (For the locations, see Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The MacMillan Bible Atlas [1968], 18, 19.) It must have been the Arabah which the writer had more particularly in mind when he spoke of “a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper” (Deut 8:9). F. Frank and N. Glueck have discovered the ruins of a number of mines and refineries in the Arabah S of the Dead Sea. Many of the slag heaps are still discernible. While the refineries are impressive for the advanced engineering which they display, the majority of the work was done by slave labor for at least part of the time. The mines were evidently operational as early as the time of Abraham though their real wealth seems not to have been exploited until Solomon’s time. The copper smelter and manufacturing center built by Solomon at Ezion-geber is the largest so far discovered.
4. History. While the geographical features of the Arabah would seem to make it a natural border it did not ever serve as a genuine social or political boundary. The territory of Edom stretched across the Arabah into the area S of the Negeb proper and was the scene of constant conflict with Israel, most prob. because of the wealthy mines. In later times (i.e. after 3rd cent. b.c.), the Nabateans controlled both sides of the Arabah. Rome’s Palestina Tertia included Areopolis, Rabbath-moab and Petra to the E and Beorsaba (Beersheba) and Elusa to the W.
The southern Arabah figures largely in the accounts of Israel’s wanderings before entering the Promised Land. The Israelites seem to have journeyed from Kadesh-barnea down to Ezion-geber through a considerable portion of the Arabah and then turned N again to skirt the holdings of Moab and Edom (Deut 2:8), having been refused passage through these domains (Num 20:14ff.; Judg 11:17). On the other hand, the list of desert stations given in Numbers 33:37-49 refers to a direct route right through Edom and Moab and the implication is that the Israelites crossed the Arabah some twenty m. S of the Dead Sea. This may possibly refer to an earlier route.
The Arabah N of the Dead Sea included Abel-shittim, the place of Israel’s harlotry with the daughters of Moab (Num 25). In this area also, Moses did his final work (Deut 1:1; Num 32-36) and Joshua crossed the Jordan and set up the first Israelite sanctuary in Canaan at Gilgal, a town in the Arabah.
In later times too, Abner fled through the Arabah N of the Dead Sea to Mahanaim (2 Sam 2:29); the murderers of Ishbosheth went by way of the Arabah to bring the victim’s head to David at Hebron (2 Sam 4:7); and when Zedekiah was taken by the Babylonians, he was fleeing toward the Arabah from Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:4; Jer 39:4).
The Arabah also figures somewhat in the promises of the prophets. Thus Ezekiel (47:1-12) declares that a stream will flow from the temple E and S and will make both the Dead Sea and the Arabah fresh and highly productive (cf. Joel 3:18; Zech 14:8).
Bibliography N. Glueck, The Other Side of the Jordan (1940), 50-88; D. Baly, Geography of the Bible (1957), 198-216; N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Negev (1959), 153-163 and passim.