Massa (Arabia)

Massa appears in the catalog of Ishmael's twelve sons in Genesis 25:13-14: "Nebajoth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa." The same list reappears in 1 Chronicles 1:30. Each son became the ancestor of an Arabian tribal land scattered across the northern Arabian deserts. Massa is generally identified with the Mas'a confederation that Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III campaigned against in the 8th century BC, located in the desert north and east of Tema. The book of Proverbs 30:1 and 31:1 may also preserve the place-name as the home of the wisdom-teachers Agur and king Lemuel.