The Nations Around Judah and Israel^[1] 

Judah & Israel's southeastern and southwestern borders were hedged by the ancestral blunders of Abraham (Midianites via Ishmael), Lot (Ammonites & Moabites via his younger and older daughter, respectively) and Jacob (Edomites via his duplicity toward his brother Esau).

Ammon 

• Descendants of Lot and his younger daughter (Gen.19:38; c.f. Moab); 
• Ordered by God to leave them alone during the conquest, Deut. 2 
• Located east of southern Israel

Arabia 

• A general term for the nomads living in the deserts of Arabia^[2]  or a general term for peoples living east of Israel (Judges 6:3). 
• Included the following tribes: Amalekites, Buzites, Dedanites, Harites, Ishmaelites, Kadmonites, Kedarites, Kenites, Meunim or Meuites, Midianites, Maamathites, Sabeans, and Shuhites.

Aram (a.k.a. Syria) 

• Descendants of Shem, son of Noah (Gen.10:22-23) 
• Located north & east of Israel 
• Damascus was the capital city of the Aramean territory

Assyria 

• An early kingdom of Mesopotamia; prominent from 900-600 BC  
• Bounded on the west by the Syrian desert, south by Babylonia and on the north and east by the Armenian and Persian hills 
• Language: Assyro-Babylonian (aka Akkadian) 
• Their history is very bound up in the history of Babylon

Babylon (a.k.a. Chaledea) 

• Civilization can be dated in this region from 5000 BC 
• Located south of Assyria between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and bounded at its southern border by the Persian Gulf 
• The city of Babylon is located in the land of Shinar (Gen.10:10); modern Iraq; According to Genesis the city was founded by Nimrod 
• The nation of Babylon waxed and waned in power from its inception until its destruction by the Medo-Persian Empire in 539 BC; it's final period of ascendance was between 626-539 BC.

Caananite (c.f. Phoenecians) 

• Refers to the area west of the Jordan and Syria 
• The people called Caananites were those in this land area from various people groups including Hittites, Ishmaelites, Amorites, Edomites, etc.

Cush (a.k.a. Kush or Ethiopia) 

• South of Egypt 
• Founded by Cush, a son of Noah

Edom 

• Descendants of Esau (Gen.36:9) 
• Ordered by God to leave them alone during the conquest, Deut. 2 
• Located south and southeast of Judah

Ephraim 

• One of the largest tribes of Israel...sometimes the title is used to mean Israel.

Egypt 

• One of the ancient kingdoms of the near east; it's prominence waxed and waned from 3000 BC to 332 BC when it was defeated by Alexander the Great; up to the Greek conquest, it consisted of 30 dynasties. 
• Located in the north east corner of Africa 
• Bounded by the deserts of Sinai, Paran, Shur and Zin and the Red Sea on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the North 
• It surrounds the Nile valley

Israel 

• During the time of the division of the Hebrew peoples this term designated the northern tribes 
• The first king was Jereboam 
• The capital city was Samaria 
• Samaria fell to Shalmaneser V of Assyria, December 722  
• The contemporary status of these peoples is unknown although Revelation 7:7 indicates that 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes are sealed against the coming doom...Apparently God has not lost track of them.

Judah 

• During the time of the division of the Hebrew peoples, this term designated the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin 
• See notes on the tribe of Simeon 
• The first king was Reoboam, son of Solomon 
• The capital city was Jerusalem 
• Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadezzar of Babylon, 597 BC 
• Around 10% of the captured Jews or their offspring emigrated back to the land in one of three waves of migration under the Medo-Persians

Midianites 

• A nomadic people generally located to the south and west of Judah 
• Sometimes lumped together with the Ishmaelites; Gen.17:20; Jgs.8:22-24; a people located to the south and east of Judah & Israel; the Bedouin peoples

Meunites 

• A desert tribe of uncertain origin 
• Lived in an area around the southeastern part of the Dead Sea near the Edomites. 
• Their chief city was Ma 'an (not to be confused with Maon in Judah) 
• They harrassed Judah during the time of Uzziah, were defeated and enslaved to the temple priests then. They appear among the temple servants (Nethinim) after the exile (Ez.2:50, 8:20, Neh.7:52).

Moab 

• Descendants of Lot and his older daughter (Gen.19:37; c.f. Ammon) 
• Ordered by God to leave them alone during the conquest, Deut. 2 
• Located east of the southern half of the Dead Sea

Philistia 

• A people living in an area corresponding to modern Lebanon
• Phoenecia (a.k.a. Sidonians (Josh.13:6, Jgs.3:3) 
• Located on a strip of land between the Mediterranean and the Lebanese mountains

Simeon 

• One of the tribes of Israel 
• This tribe bears mentioning in a study of Isaiah b/c many maps place it squarely in Judah and so the question becomes, if Judah consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, why is Simeon not included? 
  • This tribe and Levi, by means of deception, executed vengeance upon Shechem (Gen.34:25-31). This angered Jacob so much (34:30) that he predicted their descendants would be scattered throughout the land 49:5-7 b/c of their progenitor's violence. 
  • Over half of this tribe was killed during the wanderings after the Exodus, It was not given a separate inheritance in the land after the return from the wanderings Josh.19:1-9; it was given several border cities in southern Judah. This group may have migrated or been absorbed into Judah...it is not mentioned as a separate tribe in Judges, Kings or Samuel; 
  • 1 Chronicles 4:29 indicates that they lived in their cities until the reign of David. 
  • During Hezekiah a group migrated to a region southwest of Bethlehem - Gedor and another group migrated to Edom (1Chron. 4:39-43) 
  • In 2 Chronicles 15:9 and 34:6 the tribe appears to be lumped with Ephraim and Manasseh as typifying the Northern Kingdom v. Judah and Benjamin typifying the Southern Kingdom.

Notes:

^[1]  Most of this material is quoted or paraphrased from The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volumes 1-4, Zondervan Press. Return to Text

^[2]  Present day Saudi Arabia. Return to Text