Job 6:19 - Exposition

The troops of Tema looked . The Tema were an Arab tribe descended from Ishmael ( Genesis 25:15 ). They are generally conjoined with Dedan ( Isaiah 21:13 , Isaiah 21:14 ; Jeremiah 25:23 ), another Arab tribe, noted for carry-lug on a caravan trade. Both tribes probably wandered, and occupied at different periods different portions of the desert. The name, Tema, may linger in the modern city and district of Tayma on the confines of Syria, and upon the pilgrim-route between Damascus and Mecca. The "troops of Tema" probably looked for the "caravans" of Job 6:18 to arrive in their country; but they looked in vain. The desert had swallowed them up. The companies of Sheba waited for them . (On "Sheba," see the comment upon Job 1:15 .)