Hebrew word · H1746

דּוּמָה

dumah

Dumah

(1) A proper name: an Ishmaelite tribe and oasis in north Arabia (Genesis 25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30), very likely Dumat al-Jandal (modern al-Jawf), called Adummatu in Assyrian records. (2) A town in Judah (Joshua 15:52).

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man of the Arabs living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.25.14;

son of: Ishmael (H3458);

brother of: Nebaioth (H5032), Kedar (H6938), Adbeel (H0110), Mibsam (H4017), Mishma (H4927), Massa (H4854), Hadad (H2301), Tema (H8485), Jetur (H3195), Naphish (H5305), Kedemah (H6929) and Mahalath (H4258)

§ Dumah = "silence"

1) son of Ishmael and most probably the founder of the Ishmaelite tribe of Arabia

2) a town in the mountainous district of Judah, near Hebron

3) a mystical name of Edom indicating death and ruin

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 21:11

Range of meaning

(1) A proper name: an Ishmaelite tribe and oasis in north Arabia (Genesis 25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30), very likely Dumat al-Jandal (modern al-Jawf), called Adummatu in Assyrian records. (2) A town in Judah (Joshua 15:52). (3) As a common noun from the root דמם 'be silent': 'silence', especially the silence of death and the grave (Psalm 94:17; 115:17).

Against the English

Most English versions keep the name 'Dumah'. NASB (1995) renders it 'Edom' and footnotes the Hebrew, following the Septuagint's 'Idumea'. NLT also makes Edom explicit.

Used elsewhere in the period

Assyrian royal inscriptions of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon name Adummatu as a centre of the Arabs, from which Assyria carried off divine images. This shows the oasis was caught up in Assyrian campaigns in Arabia (see I. Eph'al, The Ancient Arabs). The Septuagint reads 'Idumea' (Edom).

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 25:14 וְדוּמָ֖ה and Dumah

    Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 1:30 וְדוּמָ֔ה and Dumah

    Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema,

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 21:11 דּוּמָ֑ה Dumah

    This is the burden against Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”

    Here: A north-Arabian oasis named after a son of Ishmael (Genesis 25:14). As a common noun the same word means 'silence', the silence of death in Psalms 94:17 and 115:17. Because the speaker calls from Seir (Edom), the title is very likely a pun: 'the oracle of Silence' heard as a play on 'Edom'.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.