Dumah

Du'mah (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 (Ge 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.