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What is the Arabah?
        AR'ABAH
        (burnt up), a word of frequent use in the Hebrew, though found only once in the English, version. Josh 18:18. It is the name applied to the deep sunken valley which extends from Mount Hermon to the Elamitic Gulf of the Red Sea. This remarkable depression is about 250 miles long, and includes the Sea of Galilee and the Salt, or Dead, Sea, In some passages in Deuteronomy, the plain or "the Arabah" refers to the southern portion of the valley, between the Salt Sea and the Red Sea, Deut 1:1; Deut 2:8; in other passages the word doubtless refers to the northern portion of that valley along the Jordan, which the Arabs now call el-Ghor. See Jordan. Arabah is now applied only to that portion of the valley which stretches from the chalk-cliffs below the Dead Sea southward to the Gulf of Akabah-- Elanitic Gulf. It is about 100 miles long and from 4 to 16 miles wide. The limestone walls on the west of the valley are from 1500 to 1800 feet in height; the mountain-wall on the east side of the valley rises from 2000 to 2300 in height, and in Mount Hor to 5000 feet, and is chiefly composed of granitic and basaltic rock. The surface of the valley is covered with loose gravel, blocks of porphyry, and is furrowed with torrents, with scarcely a trace of vegetation. It is oppressively hot, is swept with burning winds, the Sirocco blowing at some seasons without intermission, a region dreary and desolate. The theory that the Jordan once ran through this valley into the Red Sea is now held to be untenable. Arabah in Josh 18:18 has also been mistaken for the name of a city, and confounded with Beth-arabah of Josh 15:61; Josh 18:22; but in v. 1 Sam 30:18 the word has the article before it in the Hebrew, and hence refers to the plain, as elsewhere. See also Zin, Wilderness of, and Salt Sea.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'arabah' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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