'ARABĀH (Heb. “sterile and uninhabited territory”: as a common noun in this sense it is frequent in Job, Is., Jer.). - Biblical geographical name (with the article: ha-'arābhāh, or in the plural: 'arēhāth). It designates (in opposition to the “mountain” har, the “low plain” šēfēlāh, the “south” nēgēbh: Josh. 11, 16; 12, 8) the depression (or stretches of it) extending from the south of Hermón to the Gulf of Elanitic (e.g.: Josh. 8, 14; 11, 2. 16; 12, 1. 3. 8; 18, 18) along the valley of the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and from this to the Red Sea. This latter stretch alone (never mentioned in the Bible) is today called wādi el-'Arabah, “valley of A.”
Present-day A. is the desert depression extending for 180 km. between the oasis of Gōr eş-Šāfīje on the Dead Sea and the oasis of 'Aqaba on the Red Sea (Gulf of Elanitic). It is divided into three successive valleys, now called (from north to south) Wādi el-Grib, W. el-Gamr, W. el-Gerāft. It is flanke-
