CEDAR (Hebrew Qēdhār = "Bronzed by the Sun"). - According to Genesis 25:13, the second son of Ishmael, from whom the Arab tribe that descended from him and the region it inhabited took their name.

The Cedarenes are named together with the Nabateans (Gen. 25:13; 1 Chron. 1:29; Isa. 60:7). In the prophetic books the bēnē-Qédhār are the principal representatives of the Arab nomads dwelling in the desert east of the Jordan. They were a pastoral people with black tents, similar to those of present-day Bedouins, made from the hair of goats or camels (Song 1:4 [Heb. 5]). They also had villages (Isa. 42:11). Flocks were their wealth (Isa. 60:7; Jer. 49:28; Ezek. 27:21). Famous archers (Isa. 21:16 f.) and cruel raiders (Ps. 119 [120]:5), they are mentioned together with the Nabateans in the cuneiform monuments (Qidri and Qadri) and by Pliny (Nat. Hist., V, 65).

The region inhabited by them (Assyr. māt-Qidri) was east of the Jordan (Jer. 2:10) between Gilead and the desert; more precisely it occupied the present territory of the great tribe of the Seràrát, between the Wādi Sirhān and el-Feger to the northwest of Teima.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. Legendre, C., in DB, II, coll. 356-60; F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, I, Paris 1932, p. 266; A. Condamin, Le livre de Jérémie, 3rd ed., ibid. 1936, pp. 324 f., 328.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec3_cedar_ebr_qedhar_abbronzato_da, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Cedar (Ebr. QédhĀR = «Abbronzato» dal Sole)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1247}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cedar-ebr-qedhar-abbronzato-dal-sole} }

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