Reference: Tema
American
Easton
south; desert, one of the sons of Ishmael, and father of a tribe so called (Ge 25:15; 1Ch 1:30; Job 6:19; Isa 21:14; Jer 25:23) which settled at a place to which he gave his name, some 250 miles south-east of Edom, on the route between Damascus and Mecca, in the northern part of the Arabian peninsula, toward the Syrian desert; the modern Teyma'.
Fausets
("desert land".) Ishmael's ninth son (Ge 25:15). Founder of an Arab tribe in the northern Arabia Deserta, on the border of the Syrian desert (Job 6:19); "the troops of Tema" are the caravans on the direct road anxiously "looking for" the return of their companions gone to look for water; the failure of it in the wady and the disappointment depict Job's disappointment at not finding comfort from his friends whose professions promised so much (Isa 21:14; Jer 25:23).
Teyma, a small town, preserves the name (Themme in Ptolemy 5:19, section 6); commanded by the castle El Ablak of a Jew Samuel (A.D. 550), attributed by tradition to Solomon, now in ruins; originally meant to protect the caravan route on the N. of Arabia. Compare Ge 25:15, "sons of Ishmael, by their towns and castles." The Hebrew however for "castles" may mean "hamlets"; see Speaker's Commentary, Nu 31:10; from tor "a row," namely, of rude dwellings, of stones piled one on another and covered with tent cloths, like the devars in Algeria.
Hastings
In Ge 25:15 (1Ch 1:30), a son of Ishmael. The country and people meant are still represented by the same name
Morish
Smith
Te'ma
(a desert), the ninth son of Ishmael,
whence the tribe called after him, mentioned in
and also the land occupied by this tribe.
(B.C. after 1850.) The name is identified with Teyma, a small town on the confines of Syria.