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Lehabim

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

The Lehabim (Hebrew: להבים, Lehâbı̂ym) are the descendants of Lehab one of the sons of Mizraim according to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. The Egyptians recorded this name as rbw, although it is uncertain where they settled. Some authorities (including Josephus) give Libya as their country. They were, however, destroyed in the Ethiopic War.

There can be no doubt that they are the same as the Rebu or Lebu of the Egyptian inscriptions, and that from them Libya and the Libyans derived their name. These primitive Libyans appear to have inhabited the northern part of Africa to the west of Egypt, though latterly driven from the coast by the Greek colonists of the Cyrenaica.

Ethnologists and anthropologists are puzzled as to the origin of the Fulbe but they acknowledge that they are traceable back to the Sudan. The arguments for their origin range from southern Tripoli, Arabia, Persia, or Egypt (as the dispersed army of Cambyses c. 500 BC). In common with the pastoral East Africans and their many taboos and rituals concerning cattle, some of these have found their way into the culture of the Fulbe. Fulbe is the German term for them, but they call themselves Pullo, the French Peuls, to the peoples of Chad as Felaata amd to the Gambians as Fula.

It is very likely that the Lehabim (shortened to "Lubim" in Biblical times - 2 Chron. 12:3; 16:8; Neh. 3:9) were their ancestors and the name eventually evolved into Lebu, then Fulbe. Many of them still lived in Libya today; from them the name "Libya" is derived. The 22nd dynasty of Egypt was of Libyan origin.

At one time they were associated with the Sukkiim (2 Chron. 12:3); and not surprisingly their capital was at Sokoto in Nigeria.