Reference: Havilah
American
The Scripture mention a Havilah descended from Ham, Ge 10:7, and another from Shem, Ge 11:29. We must assume a double Havilah, corresponding to each of these.
1. The location of one Havilah is connected with that of the Garden of Eden. According to one theory, it is to be sought on the southeastern extremity of the Black Sea; according to another, at the head of the Persian Gulf. See EDEN.
2. The other Havilah seems to have in Arabia. From the statement in 1Sa 15:7, that "Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah unto Shurm that is over against Egypt," it would seen to have been somewhere in the north-western part of Arabia; since, from the circumstances of this campaign, we cannot well suppose that it extended over a great tract of country.
Easton
(3.) the sand region. (1.) A land mentioned in Ge 2:11 rich in gold and bdellium and onyx stone. The question as to the locality of this region has given rise to a great diversity of opinion. It may perhaps be identified with the sandy tract which skirts Babylonia along the whole of its western border, stretching from the lower Euphrates to the mountains of Edom.
(4.) (2.) A district in Arabia-Felix. It is uncertain whether the tribe gave its name to this region or derived its name from it, and whether it was originally a Cushite (Ge 10:7) or a Joktanite tribe (Ge 10:29; comp. Ge 25:18), or whether there were both a Cushite and a Joktanite Havilah. It is the opinion of Kalisch, however, that Havilah "in both instances designates the same country, extending at least from the Persian to the Arabian Gulf, and on account of its vast extent easily divided into two distinct parts." This opinion may be well vindicated.
(5.) (3.) One of the sons of Cush (Ge 10:7).
Fausets
1. Ge 10:7.
2. Descendants of Havilah, son of Cush, probably intermingled with the descendants of Havilah the Joktanite Havilah. So one people was formed, occupying Khawlan, the fertile region in the N.W. portion of Yemen or Arabia Felix. The Joktanite settlement was probably the earliest, the Arabs tracing the name Khawlan (which is another form of Havilah or Chavilah, with the ending n) to a descendant of Kahtan or Joktan. The region is fertile, abounding in myrrh, well watered, and populous. The Havilah bordering on the Ishmaelites "as thou goest to Assyria" (Ge 25:18), also on Amalek (1Sa 15:7), seems distinct. This Havilah is not as the former Havilah in the heart of Yemen, but on the border of Arabia Petrea toward Yemen, between the Nabateans and the Hagarites; the country of the Chauloteans.
Hastings
A son of Cush according to Ge 10:7; 1Ch 1:9, of Joktan according to Ge 10:29; 1Ch 1:23. The river Pison (see Eden [Garden of]) is said to compass the land of Havilah (Ge 2:11-12), and it formed one of the limits of the region occupied by the sons of Ishmael (Ge 25:18) in which also Saul smote the Amalekites (1Sa 15:8). It has been suggested that it formed the N.E. part of the Syrian desert, but it may with greater probability be identified with central and N.E. Arabia.
L. W. King.
Morish
Havi'lah
1. Son of Cush, a descendant of Ham. Ge 10:7; 1Ch 1:9.
2. Son of Joktan, a descendant of Shem. Ge 10:29; 1Ch 1:23.
3. Land compassed by the river Pison, where there was fine gold and precious stones. Ge 2:11. It has not been identified.
4. District near or connected with that of the Amalekites, on the south of Palestine, reaching towards Shur 'that is over against Egypt.' Ge 25:18; 1Sa 15:7. It was probably named from No. 2.
Watsons
HAVILAH, the son of Cush, Ge 10:7. There must have been other, and perhaps many, Havilahs beside the original one, a part of the numerous and wide-spread posterity of Cush. By one and the first of these, it is probable that the western shores of the Persian Gulf were peopled; by another, the country of Colchis; and by another, the parts about the southern border of the Dead Sea and the confines of Judea, the country afterward inhabited by the Amalekites.