ELATH. - A city on the Elamite gulf (Heb. 'Elath and 'Elâth). It is mentioned for the first time in Deut. 2:8 as a stopping place of the Hebrews, who, coming from Sinai, passed through it to avoid the hostility of the Edomites, who occupied the mountains of Seir. In the time of King Solomon the place took on a special importance, because in its vicinity, that is at Ezion-geber "on the shore of the Red Sea, in the region of Edom" (I Kings 9:26; cf. II Chron. 8:17), a naval base was established for trade with Arabia, and perhaps even as far as distant India. The experiment must have lasted only a short time.
Only in the time of King Azariah (769-738) was the base reconquered and reactivated (II Kings 14:22).
It is evident that in the meantime the city was occupied by the Edomites, perhaps immediately after the death of Solomon, who continued the supremacy established by David (II Sam. 13-14), or else during the revolt against King Jehoram (849-842 B.C.; cf. II Kings 8:20-23).
Given its strategic position, the region was afterward occupied by the Nabataeans, under whom the port does not seem to have been very efficient. The Romans garrisoned it; the presence of the X Legion Fretensis is documented. And as a naval base E. was still used in the Middle Ages by the Arabs and by the Crusaders. The ancient onomastica call it Aila or Aelana. At present some ruins can be pointed out near the end of the depression that begins at the Dead Sea, 1 km. west-northwest of 'Aqabah.
Bibliography3 works
Angelo Panna