Jeremiah 25:22-24 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And all the kings of Tyrus and Zidon The nobles, or chief men of each city, seem to be meant by kings here, for neither of these cities had more than one king. And the kings of the isles, which are beyond the sea Cyprus, &c., which Nebuchadnezzar subjected. Or, as the Hebrew, האי בעבר הים, is rendered in the margin, The region by the sea-side. For that אי, rendered isle in the text, does not always signify an island, properly so called, is manifest from many passages. Dedan, and Tema, and Buz A person called Dedan was descended from Abraham by Keturah, Genesis 25:3. Probably he founded the city Dedan; which, however, in process of time, seems to have been annexed to Edom: see Jeremiah 49:8; Ezekiel 25:13. Tema was one of the sons of Ishmael, Genesis 25:15, and a city, or district, called after him, was situate near the mountains which separate Arabia from Chaldea. An. Univ. Hist., vol. 7. p. 230, fol. Buz was the brother of Uz, Genesis 22:21, and settled most probably, in his neighbourhood. Elihu, the wisest of Job's friends, was a Buzite, Job 32:2. And all that are in the utmost corners Or, all that have the coast insulated, as Blaney translates it: see note on Jeremiah 9:26. These, he supposes, to be the inhabitants of the peninsula of Arabia, especially those situate toward the bottom, or narrow part of it. And all the kings of Arabia “The whole country to which we give the general name of Arabia seems to have been thrown, in Scripture, into two great divisions, one of which is called properly ערבה, Arabah, the other קדם, Kedem, according to their respective situations; Arabah, signifying the west, as Kedem does the east. Each of these had their subdivisions; the first, comprehending that which geographers have distinguished by the name of Arabia Petræa, and also, perhaps, those parts along the western coast of the Red sea bordering upon Egypt. The other part, called Kedem, comprehended Arabia Felix, and Arabia Deserta; the former of which the Scripture seems to have distinguished by the name of קצוצי פאת, those that have their coast insulated, mentioned in the preceding verse; and the latter in this verse, by the mingled race of those that dwell in the desert, meaning such as inhabited the great desert country, lying between Mesopotamia and Palestine. These may have been so called from the manner of inhabiting the desert promiscuously and in common, without any fixed property or abode, settling, for a time, where they found pasture, and then removing with their flocks to another place; or, from their being made up of people of different descents.” Blaney.