Joktan

Joktan was the son of Eber and the brother of Peleg, in whose days the earth was 'divided' (Genesis 10:25; 1 Chronicles 1:19). He fathered thirteen sons whose names correspond to the tribal peoples of ancient Arabia, from Almodad to Jobab, and his descendants 'extended from Mesha toward Sephar, the hill country of the east' (Genesis 10:30). Joktan thus stands as the eponymous ancestor of the southern Arabian peoples in the biblical ethnographic tradition, while his brother Peleg heads the line leading to Abraham.