Genesis 10:25 names him as a son of Ever (עבר), the [supposedly] eponymous founder of the "Hebrews", and as a grandson of Shem. Arab genealogies name him Kahtan. His brother was Peleg (פלג).
The name means "small"; but again we must ask what is the prefictual Yud (י) doing: future tense, which here is meaningless, or an abbreviated Yah (יה)?
The geographical area of Saudi Arabia is essentially that of the Yoktanite Arabs.
I have placed his name at the top of this page with Nekudot because, as you will see if you follow the link under Nekudot, there is much dispute between the Ashkenazim of western Europe and the Sephardim of Spain and the Levant, as to whether the Qamats (which appears here under the first letter, Yud; but the problem is generic, not specific), should render the pronounciation of the name Yoktan, or Yaktan. My only useful contribution to the debate is to note that the problem cannot be generic, despite the two sides being in agreement that it is, because the appearance of the Kamats (yes, Ashkenazi and Sephardi phoneticisers also argue about this one) under the third letter (Tet) is not disputed: all agree that the pronunciation is "tan", not "ton".
Yoktan's "children" were Almodad (אלמודד), Shaleph (שלף), Chatsar-Mavet (חצרמות), Yerach (ירח), Hadoram (הדורם), Uzal (אוזל), Diklah (דקלה), Oval (עובל), Avi-Ma-El (אבימאל), Sheva (שבא), Ophir (אופר), Chavilah (חוילה) and Yovav (יובב). These tribes, we are told in the same verse, inhabited the region from Mesha (משא) to Sephar (ספר), a mountain of the east.
These tribes number thirteen, which is surprising - there is one too many, surely? Ancient tribal maps always reflected the cosmological map, constellation by constellation, so one of these must be female, and the goddess has been mixed up with the "sons". Which one? Yerach, self-evidently - the moon!
The list is an important reference point for the work of Bible scholars - one of the provable examples of the use of the word "children" in its widest context, for each of these "children" is without argument amongst archaeologists, historians, geographers or anthropologists a tribe, whose geographical territory in every case bore the same name (to understand this in modern terms, imagine finding a list of "the sons of Europa", which included Frank, Pruss, Russ, Brit, Scot...)
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