CEDAR (Heb. Qédhār = “sunburnt”). - Second son of Ismaele (Gen. 25, 13), after whom were named the Arab tribe descended from him and the region inhabited by II.
The Cedareni are mentioned together with the Nabatei (Gen. 25, 13; I Par. 1, 29; Is. 60, 7). In the prophetic books the bēnē-Qédhār are the principal representatives of the nomadic Arabs inhabiting the desert east of the Jordan. They were a pastoral people with black tents, like those of present-day Bedouins, made from goat or camel hair (Cant. 1, 4 [Heb. 5]). They also had villages (Is. 42, 11). Their flocks were their wealth (Is. 60, 7; Ier. 49, 28; Ez. 27, 21). Famous archers (Is. 21, 16 ff.) and cruel raiders (Ps. 119 [120], 5), they are mentioned together with the Nabatei by the cuneiform monuments (Qidri and Qadri) and by Pliny (Nat. Hist., V, 65).
The region inhabited by them (Assyr. māt-Qidri) lay east of the Jordan (Ier. 2, 10), between Galaad and the desert; more precisely, it occupied the present territory of the great tribe of the Seràrát, between the Wādi Sirhān and el-Feger, north-west of Teima.