Dumah (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. Son of Ishmael (Gn 25", 1 Ch l"), representing some Arabian tribe or locality. There are many places of this name mentioned by the Arabian geographers, its signification in Arabic (daumun, nom. unit. dau!natun)hemg the branched wild nut, common in Arabia Deserta (Doughty, Travels in A. D., Index). The most important of the places called after it, Dutnat al-Jandal (also written Daumat and Daumd') was identified by the earlier Mohammedan arclijeologists mth the place mentioned in Gn (Yakut, s.v.) ; and it is probable that the same place is referred to by Pliny (HN vi. 32), who is acquainted with a Donuitha in the neigh- bourhood of the Thamudeni (as well as a Thumati), and Ptolemy, who mentions a city Aoviie$d or Aovfuudi in Arabia Deserta (v. 19, 7), as well as a city of importance of the same name in Arabia Felix (viii. 22, 3). Stephanus Byz. 3. v. quotes Glaucus in the second book of l\ia Arabian Anti- quities as mentioning a city of the name, and Porphyry, De Abstinent, ii. 56, asserts tliat an Arabian tribe named Dumathii sacrificed a boy every year, and buried him under the altar whicn they used aa an idol, probably with reference to the same place. Its site is fixed by tlie geograjiher Al-Bekri (i. 353) as 'ten daj-s' journey from Medina, ten from Cufa, eight from Damascuw, and twelve from Misr'; but by Mas'udi {Bibl Geog. Arab. vii. 248) aa 'five from Medina, and fifteen or thirteen from Damascus,' the hitter numbers being probably more correct. The ' suk Duma,' ■The one exception U Jo ISn 'dake of SIhon' (0'?'P^ RV ' prince "), and the other 1 Mao lO. where Jonathan Mao cabsus is said to have been made a ' duke ' by king Alexandei (rrpaniytff , KV captain ). DUMB DYEING 631 discovered by Burckhardt in the Janf {Travels in Syria, 662), Iiaa been identified witli it partly on the groand of the correspondence of the names of the surrounding villages with those mentioned by the geographers (cf. KitteT.Erdkundcvon Arabien, ii. 360-388). The only further reference to it in the Bible is perhaps to be found in the heading of Is 21", where an obscure oracle in a strange dialect is introduced with the words ' the massa' of Dumah ' ; for this the LXX substitutes Iduina;a, and many modem critics are inclined to interpret the name Dumah (in Heb. 'silence') allegorically. It is probable that more accurate knowledge of the purport of the oracle would show the geo- graphical interpretation to be right. 2. Name of one of the mountain cities of Judah (Jos 15'-) according to the readin" of most of the editions ; but in that of Ginsburg, Runiah (nDn)i8 substituted, and this reading is supported by the LXX ('Pe/ini or '?ovfid) and the Vulg. It is probable, however, that the ordinary reading Dumah is correct. In the Onomast. Aovfid is given as the name of a large \illage in the Daroma, seventeen miles from Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin) ; and it was identified by Robinson with Khirbet Daumah, in the neigh- bourhood of Beit Jibrin, where are to be seen the ruins of a village situated on two hills separated by a valley, with remains of many cisterns and caves excavated in the rock, belonging to the Canaanit« or Jewish epoch, as well as vestiges of Christian buildings. The 'seventeen miles' of the Onomast. is an overstatement, due to the tor- tuous routes followed in the mountain country (Gu^rin, Judie, ilL 359-361). D. S. MARaOLIOUTH.