Dumah

Dumah, 1

Du´mah, a tribe and country of the Ishmaelites in Arabia (Gen 25:14; Isa 21:11). It is doubtless the same that is still called by the Arabs Duma the Stony, and the Syrian Duma, situated on the confines of the Arabian and Syrian deserts, with a fortress.

Dumah, 2

Dumah was also the name of a town in the tribe of Judah (Jos 15:52), which Eusebius and Jerome place seventeen R. miles from Eleutheropolis, in Daroma.

A tribe and country of the Ishmaelites in Arabia, Gen 25:14 ; 1Ch 1:30 ; Isa 21:11 . This is doubtless the same which is still called by the Arabs "Duma the stony" and "the Syrian Duma," situated on the confines of the Arabian and Syrian desert, with a fortress.\par

Du’mah. (silence).

1. A son of Ishmael, most probably, the founder of the Ishmaelite tribe of Arabia, and thence, the name of the principal place of district inhabited by that tribe. Gen 25:14; 1Ch 1:30; Isa 21:11.

2. A city in the mountainous district of Judah, near Hebron, Jos 15:52, represented by the ruins of a village called ed-Daumeh, six miles southwest of Hebron.

("silence".) An Ishmaelite tribe and region (Gen 25:14; 1Ch 1:30; Isa 21:11). The name survives in Doomat el Jendel, "Dumah of the blocks of stone," namely, of which it was built. On the borders of Arabia and the Syrian desert. Put for all Idumea, to imply it should soon be put to silence, i.e. be destroyed. The name indicates its unhewn cyclopean masonry, like the gigantic buildings of Bashan. A town in the hills of Judah, near Hebron (Jos 15:52). Perhaps now Duweimeh, on the W. of the high district, N. of the Negeb or dry south land.

(Hebrews Dumah’, דּוּמָה, silence), the name of a (person and) district and also of a town.

1. (Sept. Δουμά, Ι᾿δουμά, Ι᾿δουμαία; Vulg. Duma.) The fourth son of Ishmael (BC post 2064), and the tribe descended from him, as hence of the region inhabited by them in Arabia (Gen 25:14; 1Ch 1:30). In Isaiah (Isa 21:11), the "burden of Dumah" is coupled with Seir, the forest of Arabia, and Kedar. It is doubtless the same called at this day Stony or Syrian Duma, situated on the confines of the Syrian desert and Arabia, with a fortified castle (Niebuhr, Arabien, page 344), marked on D’Anville’s map under lat. 291°, long. 580; the Dumath lying 5 or 7 days journey from Damascus, and 13 from Median, in the district Jof or Sirhan (Abulfeda, Tab. Arab. ed. Gagner, page 50); probably also the Dumaitha of Ptolemy (5:19). This identification (see Freytag, Hist. Falebi, page 53) with the name of a town in the north-western part of the peninsula is strengthened by Arab traditionists, who have the same belief (see the MS. hir-at ez-Zeman). The lexicographers and geographers of their nation expressly state that it is correctly "Dumat el-Jendel," or "Duma el-Jendel" signifying "Dumah of the stones or blocks of stone," of which it is said to have been built (MS. Sihah, Marasid, and Mushtarak, s.v.). El Jendel is said by some to mean "stones such as a man can lift" (see the Kamus), and seems to indicate that the place was built of unhewn or Cyclopean masonry, similar to that of very ancient structures. The town itself, which is one of the "Kureieyt" of Wady el ura (see the Marasid, s.v. Dumah), appears to be called Duma, and. the fortress which it contains to have the special appellation of "Marid.’" SEE ARABIA.

2. (Sept. Pεμνά v.r. Pουμά; Vulgate Ruma.) A town in the mountain district of Judah (Jos 15:52), in the group west by south of Hebron (Keil, Comment. in loc.). Eusebius and Jerome (Onomnast. s.v. Δουμά, Duma) say it was then a large village (κώμη μεγίστη), 17 miles from Eleutheropolis (Beit-Jibrin), in the district of Daroma (i.e., "the south," from the Hebrew דָּרוֹם). Dr. Robinson passed the ruins of a village called ed Daumeh, 6 miles south-west of Hebron (Res. 1:314), and this is probably the same place. (See also Kiepert’s Map, 1856; and Van de Velde’s Memoir, page 308) SEE RUMAH.

Dumah (dû’mah), silence. 1. A son of Ishmael. Gen 25:14; 1Ch 1:30. 2. A town in Judah, near Hebron, Jos 15:52; now ed-Dômeh, ten miles southwest of Hebron. 3. A region, perhaps near Mount Seir. Isa 21:11.

[Du’mah]

1. Son of Ishmael and founder of a tribe in Arabia. Gen 25:14; 1Ch 1:30.

2. city or district prophesied against; probably in Edom, and perhaps connected with No. 1. Isa 21:11.

3. Town in the highlands of Judah. Jos 15:52. Identified with ed Domeh, 31° 26’ N, 34° 59’ E.

(= "silence").

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Solomon Schechter, Kaufmann Kohler

—Biblical Data:

1. Son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 14; I Chron. i. 30). Suḳ ("marKet") Dumah has been found in Dumat al-Jandal in Arabia, called "Jauf" to-day (Yakut, s.v.; Burkhardt, "Travels in Syria," p. 662), and compared with Domatha (Pliny, "Historia Naturalis," vi. 32; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v.). The Dumathii are mentioned in Porphyry, "De Abstinentia" (ii. 56), as an Arabian tribe which sacrifices a boy every year and buries him under the altar of its idol. The name "Dumah" seems to point, like the name "Hadramaut (, Gen. x. 26), to some legend of Hades (compare Glaser, "Skizze der Gesch. und Geographie Arabiens," 1890, p. 440).

2. Name of a land probably identical with the territory of the tribe of Ishmael (Isa. xxi. 11). The Septuagint substitutes "Idumea" (see commentaries ad loc., and comp. Abu al-Walid's "Dictionary," s.v. ).

3. Name of a city of Judah (Josh. xv. 52). The Ginsburg MS., the Vulgate, and the Septuagint have "Rouma," but Jerome's and Eusebius' Onomastica, s.v., mention a village of the name of "Dumah," which has been identified with "Khirbat Daumah" in the neighborhood of Bait Jibrin.

4. Name for the nether world (Ps. xciv. 17 [the Septuagint has Αδης], cxv. 17).

E. G. H.—In Rabbinical Literature:

"Dumah" is the name of the angel who has charge of the souls of the nether world. According to Dozy ("Die Israeliten in Mecca," p. 95, note), the name was adopted also by the pre-Islamic Arabs (compare Wolff, "Mohammedanische Eschatologie," 1871, Arabic text, p. 39; German trans., p. 69, where "Ruman" seems a corruption [another reading is "Dhudat"] of "Dumah," as the name of the angel who has charge of the souls). The angel of death has to deliver all souls to Dumah, both the righteous, who are led to the place of eternal bliss, and the wicked, who are to meet their doom (Ḥag. 5a; Shab. 152b). He also announces the arrival of newcomers in the nether world (Ber. 18b). Dumah takes the souls of the wicked and casts them down "in the hollow of a sling" into the depth of Hades, and this is repeated every week at the close of the Sabbath, when the souls, after the day's respite, must go back to their place of torment (Shab. 152b, after I Sam. xxv. 29; Pesiḳ. R. 23; She'eltot, Bereshit i.). According to Midr. Teh, to Ps. xi. (see ed. Buber, 102, note), Dumah leads the spirits every evening out of Hades into Ḥaẓarmavet (the Courtyard of Death), a walled place with a river and a field adjoining, where they eat and drink in perfect silence. Many authorities, such as Jacob Tam and Solomon b. Adret, have the word "Sabbath" added, so as to refer only to Sabbath evening (see Demonology; compare Tan. Yelamdenu, Ha'azinu: "Prayer is said for the dead that they may not have to return to Gehinnom"). Dumah was originally, according to the (Cabalists, the guardian angel of Egypt; but when fleeing before the Lord's decree (Ex. xii. 12), he was placed in the nether world over the spirits of the dead (Zohare ii. 18a). Mashḥit, Af, and Ḥemah are the officers of execution under Dumah (Recanati, Wayera). The name of Dumah is found also on a Judæo-Babylonian vase in the Louvre (see Schwab, "Vocabulaire de l'Angélologie," 1897, p. 707).

"Dumah" is also the name of one of the seven departments of Gehinnom, and those who have been guilty of slander and the like are "silenced" there (Midr. Teh. and Yalḳ., Makiri, to Ps. xi.; compare, however, 'Er. 19a, where Dumah is not mentioned). It is identified by R. Levi with Ḥaẓarmavet (Gen. x. 26; see Gen. R. xxxvii.). "When the soul has been drawn out of the body by the angel of death, it remains seated above the nostrils until decay sets in; then it breaks out into wailing, and it cries to God, saying: 'Whither am I brought?'Instantly Dumah takes it and brings it to the Courtyard of Death [Ḥaẓarmavet, seemingly the purgatory mentioned in the Testament of Abraham, xiv.], where the spirits are gathered, and if the soul be that of a righteous one, the call goes forth: 'Make room for this N N, the righteous!' Then it ascends from department to department, according to its merit, until it beholds the face of the Shekinah. If the soul be that of a wicked one, it descends from department to department according to its demerit" (Midr. Teh. l.c.; Jellinek, "Bet ha-Midrash," v. 43 et seq.).

DUMAH.—1. Cited in Gen 25:14 (1Ch 1:30) as among the twelve tribes of Ishmael. The region thus indicated is supposed to be the oasis formerly called by the Arabs Dûmat el-Jendel and now known as el-Jôf, about three-fourths of the way from Damascus to Medina. The same place may be referred to in the obscure oracle Isa 21:11, but the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] has ‘Idumæa,’ and it is possible that Edom is meant. 2. The name of a town in the highlands of Judah (Jos 15:52). The reading is not certain. The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] and Vulg. [Note: Vulgate.] indicate Rumah, and not all editions of the Hebrew agree. If the received text is correct, an identification may be plausibly made with ed-Daumeh 10 miles S.W. of Hebron.

J. F. McCurdy.

dū´ma (דּוּמה, dūmāh, “silence”): This word occurs in the Old Testament with the following significations: (1) The land of silence or death, the grave (Psa 94:17; Psa 115:17); (2) a town in the highlands of Judah between Hebron and Beersheba, now ed-Daume (Jos 15:52); (3) an emblematical designation of Edom in the obscure oracle (Isa 21:11, Isa 21:12); (4) an Ishmaelite tribe in Arabia (Gen 25:14; 1Ch 1:30). According to the Arabic geographies this son of Ishmael rounded the town of Dūmat-el-Jandal, the stone-built Dūmah, so called to distinguish it from another Dumah near the Euphrates. The former now bears the name of the Jauf (“belly”), being a depression situated half-way between the head of the Persian Gulf and the head of the gulf of Akaba. Its people in the time of Mohammed were Christians of the tribe of Kelb. It contained a great well from which the palms and crops were irrigated. It has often been visited by European travelers in recent times. See Jour. Royal Geog. Soc., XXIV (1854), 138-58; W. G. Palgrave, Central and Eastern Arabia, chapter ii. It is possible that the oracle in Isa (number 3 above) concerns this place.

Isa 21:11 (a) The meaning of this word is "the burden of silence." Since there is no sound from Heaven, no voice from GOD, no expressions from eternity except what we find in the Bible, the prophet was troubled about it. His trouble made him ask the question, "What of the night?" Few ever ask, "What of the light?", or "What of Heaven?" Many ask, is there a hell? but no one asks, is there a Heaven? This silence is not broken by audible sounds, but is certainly broken by the Word of GOD.