And they made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, and Nephish, and Nodab.
The Hagarites - or Hagarenes, originally synonymous with Ishmaelites (cf. Genesis 21:14; Genesis 21:21; Genesis 37:25), but afterward applied to a particular tribe of the Arabs (cf. Psalms 73:6).
Jetur. His descendants were called Itureans, and the country Auranitis, from Haouran, its chief city. These, who were skilled in archery, were invaded in the time of Joshua by a confederate army of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, who, probably incensed by the frequent raids of those marauding neighbours, took reprisals in men and cattle, dispossessed almost the whole of the original inhabitants, and colonized the district themselves. In fact, these four powerful Arabian nations entered into a great Bedouin alliance, at the head of which were the Hagarites and the Itureans, the descendants of Jetur, the tenth son of Ishmael, whose possessions lay in the Iturea of the Romans, the modern Jedur, to exterminate the trans-Jordanic tribes of the Hebrews.
Nephish - or Naphish (Genesis 25:15; 1 Chronicles 1:31) [Septuagint, Nafisaioon]. They were descended from the second-last son of Ishmael, but have not been identified with any existing Arab tribe.
Nodab - sprang, according to Jerome, from Kedehmah, the 12th son of Ishmael; but Poole inclines to think, from Nodab not being in the list of Ishmael's sons, that a grandson is referred to. The name Kedehmah is preserved in that of a town, Kedehma, on the gulf of the same name, situated in Hijron, on the Persian Gulf. Nodab is thought by some to be a nom de guerre from nadab (Arabian) jaculatio, vibramen teli, et nomen tribes Arabicoe, because the inhabitants of the district Kademah, on the Persian Gulf, were celebrated for their manufacture of spears. The distance need not appear too great to admit of their joining in the alliance; because even in the present day the remoteness of Syria from the Euphrates does not prevent the AEneze tribe from feeding off, every winter, the eight extensive wadys which lie between Ana and Tadmor, where a century ago they maintained a continual struggle with the Muwah, who were driven back into the desert near Aleppo (see further in Foster's 'Historical Geography of Arabia'). Divine Providence favoured, in a remarkable manner, the Hebrew army in this just war.