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Bible Dictionaries
Tema
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or ("desert land".) Ishmael's ninth son (Genesis 25:15). Founder of an Arab tribe in the northern Arabia Deserta, on the border of the Syrian desert (Job 6:19); "the troops of Tema" are the caravans on the direct road anxiously "looking for" the return of their companions gone to look for water; the failure of it in the wady and the disappointment depict Job's disappointment at not finding comfort from his friends whose professions promised so much (Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23).
Teyma, a small town, preserves the name (Themme in Ptolemy 5:19, section 6); commanded by the castle El Ablak of a Jew Samuel (A.D. 550), attributed by tradition to Solomon, now in ruins; originally meant to protect the caravan route on the N. of Arabia. Compare Genesis 25:15, "sons of Ishmael, by their towns and castles." The Hebrew however for "castles" may mean "hamlets"; see Speaker's Commentary, Numbers 31:10; from tor "a row," namely, of rude dwellings, of stones piled one on another and covered with tent cloths, like the devars in Algeria.
These files are public domain.
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Tema'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/t/tema.html. 1949.
