JERAH (ITV% month, from the same root as ITT' the moon ; Sept. 'Iapix ; Alex. 'Iapd8; 'are), a son of Joktan (Gen. x. 26 ; Chron. 20). As he is placed next in succession to Hazarmaveth, we may conclude that the region colonized by him was in or near the province of Hadhramaut [HAZARMAVETH]. To determine it with greater precision requires a more accurate knowledge of Arabia than we possess at present. The conclu sions of Bochart (Phaleg, xix.) and Michaelis (Spied. p. r6r), although approved by emi nent critics, seem precarious. Bochart, looking to the Hebrew derivation of the word, considers Jerah to be the Hebrew translation of the name of the Alikei of the ancient geographers (Diod. Sic. iii. 45), whom he asserts to have been thus called on account of their worshipping the moon. In proof of this being their practice he appeals to the testimony of Herodotns (iii. 8) that the Arabs in their language call Bacchus Orotal, and Urania, Alilat.' The he further identifies with the Bene Helal (Niebuhr, Arabia, sec. xviii., c. v.),
Helal, in Arabic, signifying the ne-,,t, moon, a tribe dwelling in the north of Yemen, not far from Chaulan, and distinguished from the inhabitants of Djidda and Yemen by dialect and peculiar re ligious usages. But it seems fatal to this hypo thesis that Arabian writers themselves assign an Ishmaelitish origin to the Bene Heal (Knobel, Volkertaftl, p. 195). The view of Michaelis is less liable to objection. He also takes the word to be the Hebrew translation of an Arabic name ; and he finds traces of it in the mountain of the moon (kamarr and 'the coast of the moon (kamar),' localities mentioned by Edrisi as near Hadhmmaut (Winer, Realw. s. v.) However, there is no evi dence of the existence at any time of a people bearing this name. The most satisfactory identifi cation yet given seems to be that of Mr. E. S. Poole (Smith's Diet. s. v.) with the fortress of Yerakh, belonging to the district of the Nijjad.— H. C. G.