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Dedan

Biblical
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A son of Jokshan and grandson of Abraham, also a trading people mentioned in prophets.

Detailed Definition
Dedan appears in genealogies and as a commercial partner in Ezekiel and Isaiah. In poetry, Dedan symbolizes distant kinship, the reach of trade, and the moral ambiguity of wealth, often used in oracles against nations or reflections on global interconnectedness.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dedan—descendant of Cush or Abraham—fuels trade poetry: “Dedan’s caravans carried myrrh from Sheba to Tyre”; A poem on commerce and faith: “Dedan knew the desert routes, but not the way to Zion”; In a prophetic oracle: “Dedan will fall with the merchants of Tarshish”; Genealogical verse: “Blessed Dedan, whose name echoes in the spice winds.”
Additional Notes
Dedan appears both as a grandson of Abraham (Genesis 25:3) and as a trading people (Isaiah 21:13; Ezekiel 25:13), associated with oases in northwest Arabia. In prophetic oracles, Dedan symbolizes commercial networks and geopolitical vulnerability. Poets may use Dedan to evoke desert caravans, ancestral dispersion, or the fragility of wealth in the face of divine judgment.
Also Known As
Arabian merchant Cushite descendant caravan trader
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