THE ISRAELITES Israel traced its origin to Babylonia.

It was from "Ur of the Chaldees" that Abraham "the Hebrew" had come, the rock out of which it was hewn.
Here on the western bank of the Euphrates was the earliest home of the Hebrews, of whom the Israelites claimed to be a part.
But they were not the only nation of the ancient Oriental world which derived its ancestry from Abraham.

He was the father not only of the Israelites, but of the inhabitants of northern and central Arabia as well.

The Ishmaelites who were settled in the north of the Arabian peninsula, the descendants of Keturah who colonised Midian and the western coast, were also his children.

Moab and Ammon, moreover, traced their pedigree to his nephew, while Edom was the elder brother of Israel.