And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.
The genealogy of Joktan is traced to the fifth generation-further than in any instance in this chapter-and the whole family of Joktan, consisting of thirteen sons, are enumerated.
Their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest, unto Sephar, a mount of the east. "Sephar" still retains its old name. It is the mountain Sabber in Yemen, near the town Taas, and upon it grow, as the Arabians think, all the spices and vegetable productions in the world. Mesha, though unknown, must be looked for in the northeast of Arabia. Gesenius takes it to be Mesene, on the Persian Gulf, near Bassorah: and Knobel, to be the valley of Bisha, or Beishe, in the north of Yemen. Ptolemy places the Catanites to the south of the mountain of Zametas - i:e., in the south-east of Nejd; and, according to Burckhardt, this very district is still used every season by various sections of the Beni Kahtan as pasture land, while the great body of them inhabit the fertile hills and dales of Yemen. Saadias translates the clause, 'from Mecca until you come to Medina.' Gesenius separates "Sephar" from 'a mountain of the East,' translating thus: 'from Mesha even unto Sephar (and beyond, even) unto the mountains of Arabia' - i:e., the chain running across the middle of Arabia, from the vicinity of Mecca and Medina to the Persian Gulf, called the Nejd highlands.