Tema ("desert land".) Ishmael's ninth son (Genesis 25:15). Founder of an Arab tribe in the northern Arabia Deserta, on the border of the Syrian desert (Job 6:19); "the troops of Tema" are the caravans on the direct road anxiously "looking for" the return of their companions gone to look for water; the failure of it in the wady and the disappointment depict Job's disappointment at not finding comfort from his friends whose professions promised so much (Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23).
Teyma, a small town, preserves the name (Themme in Ptolemy 5:19, section 6); commanded by the castle El Ablak of a Jew Samuel (A.D. 550), attributed by tradition to Solomon, now in ruins; originally meant to protect the caravan route on the N. of Arabia. Compare Genesis 25:15, "sons of Ishmael, by their towns and castles." The Hebrew however for "castles" may mean "hamlets"; See Speaker's Commentary, Numbers 31:10; from tor "a row," namely, of rude dwellings, of stones piled one on another and covered with tent cloths, like the devars in Algeria.