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Naimathite

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(Heb. Naamathi', נִעֲמָתַי, a Gentile from some unknown place, Naamah; Sept. ὁ Μιναῖος, but in Job 2:11, ὁ Μιναίων βασιλεύς; Vulg. Naamathites), the epithet applied to Zophar, one of the three friends of Job (Job 2:11; Job 11:1; Job 20:1; Job 42:9). B.C. cir. 2200. Some commentators have thought that he was so named as being a resident of the above NAAMAH (See NAAMAH) (q.v.), in the tribe of Judah (Joshuar 15:41); but this is not at all probable from the locality and age of Job (see Spanheim, Hist. Job, 14:11). Job's country, Uz, was in Arabia; his other two friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuite, were Arabians; and hence we may conclude that Naamcah was likewise in Arabia (Cellarius, Geogr. 2:698). See JOB. "If we may judge from modern usage, several places so called probably existed on the Arabian borders of Syria. Thus in the Geographical Dictionary (Marasid el-Ittalia) are Noam, a castle in the Yemen, and a place on the Euphrates; Niameh, a place belonging to the Arabs; and Noami, a valley in Tihameh. The name Naanzan (of unlikely derivation, however) is very common. Bochart (Phaleg, cap. 22), as might be expected, seizes the Sept. reading, and in the 'king of the Minaei' sees a confirmation to his theory respecting a Syrian, or northern Arabian settlement of that well-known people of classical antiquity. If the above Naamah could be connected with the Naamathites, these latter might perhaps be identical with the Mehunim or Minaeans, traces of whom are fouind on the south-western outskirts of Judah;'onel such at Minois, or el- Minyay, a few miles below Gaza. But this point is too hypothetical for acceptance." (See ZOPHAR).