Arabia Petraea

— occupies the region of the former land of Midian. Here dwelt the Idumeans and the Amalekites, as well as the powerful and independent tribe of the Ishmaelites. It was the land of shepherds, and the setting of several of the most important events in the history of the Old Testament Church. Here, in the Arabian wilderness — that is, in Arabia Petraea — the Hebrews, after crossing the Red Sea, wandered forty years; here, on the Sinai Peninsula, are the biblical mountains Sinai, the mount of the giving of Moses’s law, and Horeb (see these names).

It is thought that many of the precious items mentioned in chapter 30 of the Book of Exodus (23, 24), especially the balsam, were exported from Arabia, and even at the present time merchant caravans, of the descendants of the Cushites, Ishmaelites, and Midianites, often travel across this same wilderness, with almost the same articles of trade and in exactly the same manner as in the days of Moses.