AQABAH, GULF OF ă’ kă bă. The NE arm of the Red Sea bounded on the W by the Sinai Peninsula and on the E by the Land of Midian (Arabian Desert).

The term יַמ־סֽוּף (Red Sea, q.v.; Sea of Reeds) is used not only to refer to the Bitter Lakes region in the Nile Delta but also to refer to the Gulfs of Suez and Aqabah and possibly even the Red Sea as a whole. A number of Biblical references appear to refer to the Gulf of Aqabah under the name yam sup. Solomon’s seaport city of Ezion-geber (Elath) situated on the Gulf is said to be on the yam sup in 1 Kings 9:26. During the wilderness wanderings, the Israelites were ordered to go from Kadeshbarnea into the wilderness by the way to the yam sup (Num 14:25; Deut 1:40; 2:1). This would most naturally refer to the Gulf of Aqabah and the circumstance of the earth swallowing Korah and the other rebels fits with the geological phenomena of the Arabah stretching N of the Gulf (see G. Hort, Australian Biblical Review, VII [1959], 2-26). Similarly, after a second stay at Kadesh-barnea, Israel went by way of the yam sup to go around Edom which lay E of the Arabah (Num 21:4; Judg 11:16). The association of Teman in Edom with yam sup is prob. another usage of the term for the Gulf of Aqabah (Jer 49:21). Exodus 23:31 may provide another example.

Bibliography N. Glueck, Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Negev (1959), passim.