133 ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 



Egyptians. Antiochus the Great reduced part of the 

 northern tribes to submission, and his son Hyrcanus 

 was occupied several years in chastising their incur- 

 sions and depredations. At that period (B. C. 170) 

 the Nabathajans were ruled by a prince named Aretas 

 (Hareth), whose dominions extended to the confines 

 of Palestine, and included part of the land of the 

 Ammonites. Having made peace with the Jews, 

 they permitted Judas Maccabeus and his brother 

 Jonathan to pass through their territories ; but, not- 

 Avithstanding the amity subsisting between them, 

 they could not resist the temptation of pillaging 

 even their friends when an opportunity offered ; and, 

 accordingly, they fell upon a detachment of their 

 forces while on their march, seized their carriages, 

 and plundered the baggage. Zabdiel, another of 

 their princes, afforded protection to Alexander, kmg 

 of Syria, when defeated by Ptolemy Philomater (B. 

 C. 146) ; but the influence of money induced him to 

 violate the laws of hospitality, by delivering up the 

 royal fugitive mto the hands of Tryphon. Aristo- 

 bulus, according to Prideaux, forced a tribe of the 

 Ishmaelites to become proselytes to the Mosaical 

 religion. Josephus mentions an Arab prince, whom 

 he calls Obodas (Abd-Waad), who defeated the Jews 

 (B. C. 92), by drawingthem into an ambuscade, where 

 their king and the greater part of his army were cut to 

 pieces. We learn from the same author that Aretas, 

 ruler of Arabia Petraea, overthrew Antiochus Diony- 

 sius, the sovereign of Damascus ; and some years 

 afterward, having advanced to Jerusalem with an 

 army of 50,000 men, he defeated Aristobulus ; but 

 returned home on finding that the Romans had es- 

 poused the interests of that prince.* 



The repeated inroads of the Arabs into Syria pro- 



♦ Josephus, Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 1, 9, 19, 23. De Bell 

 Jud. lib. i. cap. 4, 5. 1 Maccab. chap. v. ver. 24-36 ; c^^P- " 

 ver. 15-lS, fito. Prideaux's Connex. vol. i. j?. U ; vol. n. p. 18«. 



