SPECIAL TOPIC: THE MEN OF THE EAST

This descriptive phrase can refer to different people groups. The phrase seems to have three distinct meanings.

Semitic people who migrated from the east
1. from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 10-11)
2. the migration of the second millennium B.C. involving Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (from Ur to Canaan)
people of Mesopotamia, also known as the Fertile Crescent or the Land Between the Rivers
1. famous for their wisdom literature (cf. 1 Kgs. 4:30)
2. merchants bringing goods from Mesopotamia
3. practioners of magic (cf. Isa. 2:6)
people of the desert who lived east of Canaan (i.e., Gen. 29:1; Jdg. 6:3,33; 7:12; 8:10; Job 1:3; 18:20; Isa. 11:14; Jer. 49:28; Ezek. 25:4,10