Bible Encyclopedias
Seba

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sē´ba ( סבא , ṣebhā' ; Σαβά , Sabá ( Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9 ); Greek ibid., but Codex Vaticanus has (Σαβάν , Sabán ):

1. Forms of Name, and Parentage of Seba:

The first son of Cush, his brothers being Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha. In Psalm 72:10 and Isaiah 43:3 (where the Greek has Σαήνη , Soḗnē ), Seba is mentioned with Egypt and Ethiopia, and must therefore have been a southern people. In Isaiah 45:14 we meet with the gentilic form, ( סבאים , ṣebhā'ı̄m ) (Σαβαείμ , Sabaeim ), rendered "Sabaeans," who are described as "men of stature" (i.e. tall), and were to come over to Cyrus in chains, and acknowledge that God was in him - their merchandise, and that of the Ethiopians, and the labor of Egypt, were to be his.

2. Position of the Nation:

Their country is regarded as being, most likely, the district of Saba, North of Adulis, on the west coast of the Red Sea. There is just a possibility that the Sabi River, stretching from the coast to the Zambesi and the Limpopo, which was utilized as a waterway by the states in that region, though, through silting, not suitable now, may contain a trace of the name, and perhaps testifies to still more southern extensions of the power and influence of the Sebaim. (See Th. Bent, The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland , 1892.) The ruins of this tract are regarded as being the work of others than the black natives of the country. Dillmann, however, suggests (on Genesis 10:7 ) that the people of Seba were another branch of the Cushites East of Napatha by the Arabian Sea, of which Strabo (xvi. 4, 8, 10) and Ptolemy (iv. 7, 7 f) give information. See SHEBA and HDB , under the word