Arabian Tribes. Arabia eventually became the home of many of the post-Flood families listed at Genesis chapter 10. In the Semitic branch, Joktan fathered the heads of some 13 different Arabian tribes; while three of Aram’s descendants, Uz, Gether, and Mash, appear to have settled in the area of N Arabia and the Syrian Desert. (Ge 10:23, 26-29) The tent-dwelling Ishmaelites ranged from the Sinai Peninsula, across N Arabia and as far as Assyria. (Ge 25:13-18) The Midianites were located mainly in the NW part of Arabia just E of the Gulf of ʽAqaba. (Ge 25:4) Esau’s descendants were based in the mountainous region of Edom to the SE of the Dead Sea. (Ge 36:8, 9, 40-43) From the Hamitic branch several descendants of Cush, including Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and his sons Sheba and Dedan, and Sabteca, seem to have occupied mainly the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.​—Ge 10:7.

Ancient Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions make mention of various tribes of Arabia. Shalmaneser III lists “Gindibuʼ, from Arabia.” Zabibe and Samsi are mentioned as Arabian queens in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III. Sargon II mentions “Samsi, queen of Arabia (and) Itʼamar the Sabaean.” Other cuneiform inscriptions refer to the Sabai, the Nabaiti, the Qidri, and the Idibaili, the Masai, and the Temai.​—Compare Ge 25:3, 13-15.

Biblical References. Hadhramaut, one of the four major ancient kingdoms of South Arabia, is usually identified with Hazarmaveth of Genesis 10:26. The Wadi Hadhramaut, a long valley running parallel to the S coast of Arabia, was the center of the kingdom with its capital at Shabwa. Other Biblical names occurring as places in Arabia are Dedan, Tema, Dumah, and Buz.​—Isa 21:11-14; Jer 25:23, 24.

Abraham skirted around Arabia in migrating from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan. When later obliged to go down to Egypt, he may have passed through part of Arabia by traversing the northern portion of the Sinai Peninsula (instead of following the route along the Mediterranean Coast), as also on his return trip. (Ge 12:10; 13:1) The drama of the book of Job has its setting in the land of Uz in northern Arabia (Job 1:1), and the Sabean raiders who attacked the property of this “greatest of all the Orientals” were an Arabian tribe perhaps descended from Joktan. (Job 1:3, 15; Ge 10:26-28) Job’s three “comforters” and Elihu also appear to have come from Arabian sectors. (Job 2:11; 32:2) Moses spent 40 years in Arabia when sojourning with the Midianite Jethro. (Ex 2:15–3:1; Ac 7:29, 30)

The Himyarite Kingdom, which gained control of South Arabia about 115 B.C.E., had its capital at Zafar (suggested by some to be the Sephar of Genesis 10:30). To the N the Nabataeans (possibly descended from Nebaioth of Genesis 25:13), with their capital at Petra in the rocky gorges of Edom, became powerful from the fourth century B.C.E. onward. In time they extended their control throughout the S part of the Negeb and up through Moab and the region E of the Jordan. During some years of the first century B.C.E. and again in the first century C.E. they ruled over Damascus. Their king Aretas IV (c. 9 B.C.E.–40 C.E.) is mentioned at 2 Corinthians 11:32 with regard to Paul’s escape from Damascus, described at Acts 9:23-25. Herod Antipas married the daughter of Aretas IV but divorced her in order to marry Herodias.​—Mr 6:17; see ARETAS.

A number of Arabian tribes were Semitic, descending from Shem through Joktan; others were Hamitic, descending through Ham’s son Cush. (Ge 10:6, 7, 26-30) Some of Abraham’s descendants by Hagar and Keturah also came to dwell in Arabia, as the sons of Ishmael who “took up tabernacling from Havilah near Shur, which is in front of Egypt, as far as Assyria.” (Ge 25:1-4, 12-18) Esau’s offspring, dwelling in the mountainous region of Seir, also came within the general classification of Arabian.​—Ge 36:1-43.

For the most part the Arabians were a wandering people who led a pastoral life, dwelling in tents. (Isa 13:20; Jer 3:2) Others, however, were traders, and some are mentioned as merchants for Tyre. (Eze 27:21) God’s servants had numerous contacts with them. The Midianite merchants on their way to Egypt to whom Joseph was sold were Arabian, as were the Sabeans from S Arabia who raided Job’s cattle and she-asses. (Ge 37:28; Job 1:1, 15) During their 40-year trek in the wilderness the Israelites came into calamitous contact with the Baal-worshiping Midianites (Nu 25:6, 14-18), and during the period of the Judges, hordes of camel-riding Arabians regularly raided Israel for seven years, until Judge Gideon severely defeated them.​—Jg 6:1-6; 7:12-25.