McClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Abimael

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McClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Abimael


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(Heb. Abimael', àֲáַéîָàֵì , father of Mael; Sept. Á᾿âéìáÝë , Á᾿âéìéåήë , Josephus Á᾿âéìÜçëïò ), one of the sons of Joktan in Arabia (Gen_10:28; 1Ch_1:22). B.C. post 2414. SEE ARABIA. He was probably the father or founder of an Arabian tribe called Maal ( îָàֵì , of unknown origin), a trace of which Bochart (Phaleg, 2:24) discovers in Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 9:4), where the name Mali ( ÌÜëé ) occurs as that of a spice-bearing region. Perhaps the same is indicated in Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo, 16:1112) and Eustathius (ad Dionys. Periegetes, p. 288, ed. Bernhardy) by the Mincei ( Ìåéíáῖ oi). So Diodorus Siculus (3, 42); but Ptolemy (6:7) distinguishes the Manitae ( Ìáíῖôáé ) from these, and at the same time refers to a village called Manialia ( ÌÜìáëá êώìç ) on the shore of the Red Sea. Hence Schneider proposes to read Mamali ( ÌáìÜëé ) in the above passage of Theophrastus; perhaps we should rather read Mani ( ÌÜíé ), a natural interchange of liquids; and then we may compare a place mentioned by Abulfeda (Arabia, ed. Gaguier, p. 3, 42), called Mlinay, 3 miles from Mecca (Michaelis, Spicileg. 2:179 sq.).