What is the connection or relationship between the two vocalizations of ערב?

Question

What is the connection between the two vocalizations of ערב?

This word ערב in Exodus 12:38 is latinized as "eirev" or "erev" or "eruv" and is the exact same Hebrew characters that are also latinized as "arav" or "arab".

For example in Jeremiah 25:24, two different vocalizations of this same word ערב are juxtaposed: וְאֵ֖ת כָּל־מַלְכֵ֣י עֲרָ֑ב וְאֵת֙ כָּל־מַלְכֵ֣י הָעֶ֔רֶב הַשֹּֽׁכְנִ֖ים בַּמִּדְבָּֽר:

What is the connection? Are Arabs also the "mixed multitude" in the Torah?

If they are not related, why then use the same Hebrew characters ערב?

Whether related or not, what do our pre-rabbinic or rabbinic authorities say?

I have looked at the main MiYodeya questions, as listed below, in regards to this word, and it does not address my above question.

What happened to the Mixed Multitude? What happened to the Mixed Multitude?

What happened to the Eirev Rav upon entering Israel? What happened to the Eirev Rav upon entering Israel?

Erev Rav and Modern Israeli Leaders Erev Rav and Modern Israeli Leaders

Answer 1

I think linguistically, the most probable answer is that ancient Hebrew had a 23^rd letter. Jeff Benner does a phenomenal job explaining this theory and even made a youtube presentation. I found an interesting article in The Curse of Ham - Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by David M. Goldenberg, pp. 146-47.

Whether or not it is related, at least one Rabbi has said that there is a letter missing in the Hebrew alphabet. See Sefer ha-Temunah, 62a; David ibn Zimra’s Magen David (Amsterdam, 1713), 47b. According to Lawrence Kushner, author of The Book of Letters: A Mystical Alef-Bait, Sefer HaTemunah teaches that "every defect in our present universe is mysteriously connected with this unimaginable consonant", and that as soon as the missing letter is given to us, our Universe will be filled with undreamed of new words, the words that will turn repression into loving. He says it is the shin, but I believe that ghayin is more logical.

So it is quite possible that this root was originally bifurcated as well: one meaning to enter and another meaning to mix. Balashon appears to allude to such, but never makes the connection, as does Mitchell First and Dr. Rabbi David J. Zucker. Menashe Har-El (citing Yechezkel Kutscher) is the only source I can find at the moment who writes that the the root arav is equal to the Arabic root gharb. Even the Zohar takes advantage of this multivariate linguistics. See From Metaphysics to Midrash - Myth, History, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbala by Shaul Magid, pp. 84 ff. In light of the following, then, there is no connection between the erev rav and Arabs.

This would explain why I cannot find any connection made by the Rabbi's (at least in my library). The Gra writes in Kol HaTor, Chapter 2:2, that the Erev Rav are heads of the Jews in exile. Rabbi Pinchas Winston writes about them on parshas Toldos and Behaaloscha. I also found this lengthy pdf that collects many sources. If anything, the Erev Rav mixes Edom/Esav and Yishmael (who are traditionally ascribed as the progenitors of the Arabs).