Dictionary Summary: The giant’s backbone (so called from the head of a mountain which runs out into the sea), an ancient city and harbour at the north-east end of the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Akabah, near Elath or Eloth ([Num. 33:35](/num#Num.33.35); [Deut. 2:8](/deut#Deut.2.8)). Here Solomon built ships, “Tarshish ships,” like those trading from Tyre to Tarshish and the west, which traded with Ophir ([1 Kings 9:26](/1kgs#1Kgs.9.26); [2 Chr. 8:17](/2chr#2Chr.8.17)); and here also Jehoshaphat’s fleet was shipwrecked ([1 Kings 22:48](/1kgs#1Kgs.22.48); [2 Chr. 20:36](/2chr#2Chr.20.36)). It became a populous town, many of the Jews settling in it ([2 Kings 16:6](/2kgs#2Kgs.16.6), “Elath”). It is supposed that anciently the north end of the gulf flowed further into the country than now, as far as ‘Ain el-Ghudyan, which is 10 miles up the dry bed of the Arabah, and that Ezion-geber may have been there. ²