Acts 9:19

Certain days] St. Luke makes no mention of the Arabian sojourn of St. Paul, which, according to Galatians 1:17, took place immediately after the conversion. Either St. Luke did not know of it, or thought it unimportant for his purpose. By 'Arabia' is probably meant the territory of the Nabatæans, which in the period of their greatest prosperity extended from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. To this race belonged king Aretas, whose ethnarch in Damascus endeavoured to arrest St. Paul (2 Corinthians 11:32).