Nodab

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Nodab The name of a tribe mentioned in   1 Chronicles 5:19 , along with Naphish and Jetur, as among the foes encountered and subdued by the Reubenites. A comparison with various readings of LXX [Note: Septuagint.] shows that the vowels of the word are uncertain. An Identification with the Nabatæans is excluded both on phonological grounds and by the fact that the latter, whose position was in any case too remote from Reuben, did not appear in history till long after the tribal period of the Hebrews had come to an end. Somewhat more plausible is a combination with a modern village Nudçbe in the Hauran.

J. F. M‘Curdy.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

No'dab. (Nobility). The name of an Arab tribe, mentioned only in  1 Chronicles 6:19, in the account of the war, of the Reubenites against the Hagarites.  1 Chronicles 6:9-22. It is probable that Nodab, their ancestor, was the son of Ishmael, being mentioned with two of his other sons , in the passage above cited, and was, therefore, a grandson of Abraham.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

An Arab tribe warred with by Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh ( 1 Chronicles 5:19-22). Sprung probably from Ishmael ( 1 Chronicles 1:31;  Genesis 25:15).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

We read of this place  1 Chronicles 5:19. Probably the name is derived from Nadab, prince or chief.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 1 Chronicles 5:18 Genesis 25:15 1 Chronicles 1:31

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A tribe on the east of the Jordan conquered by the two and a half tribes.  1 Chronicles 5:19 .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Nodab', נוֹדָב , Nobility; Sept. Ναδαβαῖοι ; Vulg. Nodab ) , the name of an Arab tribe mentioned only in  1 Chronicles 5:19, in the account of the war of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh against the Hagarites ( 1 Chronicles 5:9-22) ‘ And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, and Nephish, and Nodab" ( 1 Chronicles 5:19). In  Genesis 25:15, and  1 Chronicles 1:31, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah are the last three sons of Ishmael. and it has been therefore supposed that Nodab also was one of his sons. But we have no other mention of Nodab, and it has been surmised, in the absence of additional evidence, that he was a grandson or other descendant of the patriarch, and that the name, in the time of the record, was that of a tribe sprung from such descendant. The Hagarites, and Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab, were pastoral people, for the Reubenites dwelt in their tents throughout all the east [land] of Gilead ( 1 Chronicles 1:10), and in the war a great multitude of cattle-camels, sheep, and asses were taken. A hundred thousand men were taken prisoners or slain, so that the tribes must have been very numerous; and the Israelites "dwelt in their steads until the captivity." If the Hagarites (or Hagarenes) were, as is most probable, the people who afterwards inhabited Hejer, (See Hagarenes), they were driven southwards into the north-eastern province of Arabia, bordering the mouths of the Euphrates and the low tracts surrounding them. (See Ituraea); (See Jetur); (See Naphish). Calmet (after Jerome, Quaest. Heb. In Lib. 1 Paralip. ) has suggested that Nodab is another name for KEDEMAH, and this appears to derive some probability from the fact that the list in Genesis mentions in order "Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah;" while in Chronicles we have "Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab." Forster, who adopts this view, advances another argument in its favor. He says, "This Ishmaelitish tribe, agreeable to a very general Arab usage, being designated, in the one instance by its patronymic, in the other by its nom de guerre. For,

1. The signification of the word Nodab, in the Arabic idiom, is ‘ the vibration of a spear;'

2. The natives of the coast of the Persian Gulf, in the vicinity of Kadema, were famous for the manufacture of spears; and,

3. Nodab is expressly mentioned by the author of the Kamus, a Writer of the 15th century, as a then existing Arab tribe" ( Geogr. Of Arabia, 1:314 sq.). This reasoning is scarcely conclusive; but there is at least some probability in the theory. (See Arabia); (See Ishmael).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

nō´dab ( נודב , nōdhābh  ; Ναδαβαῖοι , Nadabaı́oi ): A H agrite clan which, along with Jetur and Naphish, suffered complete defeat at the hands of the trans-Jordanic Israelites ( 1 Chronicles 5:19 ). It has been suggested that Nodab is a corruption of Kedemah or of Nebaioth, names which are associated with Jetur and Naphish in the lists of Ishmael's sons ( Genesis 25:15;  1 Chronicles 1:31 ), but it is difficult to see how even the most careless copyist could so blunder. There is a possible reminiscence of the name in Nudébe , a village in the Ḥauran .