Nebaioth

{{Short description|Firstborn son of Ishmael in the Hebrew Bible}}

Nebaioth ({{Langx|he|נְבָיוֹת}} Nəḇāyōṯ; {{Langx|ar|نابت|Nābit}}) or Nebajoth is mentioned at least five times in the Hebrew Bible, according to which he was the firstborn son of Ishmael, and the name appears as the name of one of the wilderness tribes mentioned in the Book of Genesis 25:13, and in the Book of Isaiah 60:7.

Biblical occurrences

In the Book of Genesis, Nebaioth is listed as the firstborn son of Ishmael:

:...Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bore unto Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the first-born of Ishmael, Nebaioth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa; Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedem; these are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments; twelve princes according to their nations... (Book of Genesis 25:12-16)

Nebaioth is portrayed as the brother of Mahalath, one of Esau's wives:

:(1): ...and Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; so Esau went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives that he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife... (Book of Genesis 28:8-9)

:(2): ...Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, and Basemath Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth... (Book of Genesis 36:2-3)

Nebaioth is again mentioned as Ishmael's firstborn in the genealogies of the First Book of Chronicles:

:...These are their generations: the first-born of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, Mishma, and Dumah, Massa, Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedem. These are the sons of Ishmael... (1 Chronicles 1:29-31)

In the Book of Isaiah, Nebaioth is mentioned along with his brother Kedar:

:... All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify my glorious house... (Book of Isaiah 60:7)

Extra-biblical occurrences

Josephus, the Jewish historian of the Roman era, described the descendants of Ishmael as Arabs, linking them with the historical Nabataeans of Hellenistic and Roman times (Jewish Antiquities 1.12.4):

twelve sons in all were born to Ishmael, Nabaioth(es), Kedar, Abdeêl, Massam, Masma, Idum(as), Masmes, Chodam, Thaiman, Jetur, Naphais, Kadmas. These occupied the whole country extending from the Euphrates to the Red Sea and called it Nabatene. And it is these who conferred their names on the Arabian nation (to tōn Arabōn ethnos) and its tribes.{{Cite book| publisher = Brill| isbn = 978-90-04-18843-3| others = Martin Goodman, Geurt Hendrik van Kooten, J. van Ruiten (eds.)| title = Abraham, the nations, and the Hagarites: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic perspectives on kinship with Abraham| location = Leiden; Boston| series = Themes in biblical narrative| date = 2010|page=365}}

The identification of the Arabs as Ishmaelites has also been expressed by Apollonius Molon and Origen, and was later adopted by Eusebius and Jerome.{{Cite book| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0-19-872372-1| last = Jerome| first = Saint| title = Jerome, Vita Malchi| date = 2015|page=174}} Some modern historians reject any connection of the Nabataeans to the "tribe of Nebaioth".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FcAoBq4_EnEC|title=Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans |first= Taylor|last=Jane|page=14|year=2001|publisher=I.B. Tauris|location=London, United Kingdom|accessdate=8 July 2016|isbn=9781860645082 }}{{irrelevant citation|date=July 2020|reason=other sources use this same citation to claim the opposite; please provide citation that warrants claim historians reject this}} Classical Arab historians sometimes name Nebaioth as an ancestor of Muhammad. However the majority of traditions point to Kedar, another son of Ishmael, as his ancestor.

{{Sons of Ishmael2}}

style="border: darkblue 1px solid;text-align:center;"
colspan=100 style="background:white;color:darkblue;" align=center|Offspring of Ishmael (Book of Jasher)
colspan=10 style="background:darkgreen;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Nebaioth, the first born of Ishmael

|Mend

|Send

|Mayon

colspan=10 style="background:darkgreen;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Kedar

|Alyon

|Kezem

|Chamad

|Eli

colspan=10 style="background:darkgreen;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Adbeel

|Chamad

|Jabin

colspan=10 style="background:darkgreen;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Mibsam

|Obadiah

|Ebedmelech

|Yeush

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Mishma

|Shamua

|Zecaryon

|Obed

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Dumah

|Kezed

|Eli

|Machmad

|Amed

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Masa

|Melon

|Mula

|Ebidadon

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Chadad

|Azur

|Minzar

|Ebedmelech

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Tema

|Seir

|Sadon

|Yakol

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Yetur

|Merith

|Yaish

|Alyo

|Pachoth

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Naphish

|Ebed-Tamed

|Abiyasaph

|Mir

colspan=10 style="background:darkblue;color:white;" align=center|Sons of Kedma

|Calip

|Tachti

|Omir

References