ARABAH, TORRENT VALLEY OF

At Amos 6:14 the prophet warns the kingdoms of Judah and Israel that the land will be oppressed by a foreign power all the way from “Hamath down to the torrent valley of the Arabah [desert plain].” (Compare 2 Kings 14:25.) While the term “Arabah” is applied to the entire Rift Valley region from the Sea of Galilee on down to the Red Sea, it has particular application to the area S of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Aqabah. Thus, while the expression “torrent valley of the Arabah” might have reference to a wadi emptying into the Dead Sea (“the sea of the Arabah,” Deut. 3:17), such as the torrent valley of Zered, which empties into the S end of the Dead Sea, it is notable that the expression used by Amos is the exact equivalent of the Arabic name applied to the region running from the S end of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqabah, namely “Wadi el-ʽArabah.” Amos’ prophecy indicated a complete overrunning of the entire land once controlled by Judah and Israel, from north to south. During the following century this prophecy saw fulfillment in the invasions of Assyrian kings, including Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmaneser, Sargon II and Sennacherib.