John Gill Bible Commentary

And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba. The first of these, Obal, or Aubal, as the Arabs pronounce, Bochart (t) is obliged to make his posterity pass over the straits of the Arabian Gulf out of Arabia Felix into Arabia Troglodytice; where he finds a bay, called by Pliny (u) the Abalite bay, which carries in it some trace of this man's name, and by Ptolemy (v) the Avalite bay; and where was not only an emporium of this name, but a people called Avalites and also Adulites, which Bishop Patrick believes should be read "Abulites", more agreeably to the name of this man, but Pliny (w) speaks of a town of the Adulites also: Abimael is supposed by Bochart (x) to be the father of Mali, or the Malitae, as his name may be thought to signify, Theophrastus (y) making mention of a place called Mali along with Saba, Adramyta, and Citibaena, in spicy Arabia, which is the only foundation there is for this conjecture: Sheba gave name to the Sabaeans, a numerous people in Arabia; their country was famous for frankincense; the nations of them, according to Pliny (z), reached both seas, that is, extended from the Arabian to the Persian Gulf; one part of them, as he says (a), was called Atramitae, and the capital of their kingdom Sabota, on a high mountain, eight mansions from which was their frankincense country, called Saba; elsewhere he says (b), their capital was called Sobotale, including sixty temples within its walls; but the royal seat was Mariabe; and so Eratosthenes in Strabo (c) says, the metropolis of the Sabaeans was Mariaba, or, as others call it, Merab, and which, it seems, is the same with Saba; for Diodorus Siculus (d) and Philostorgius (e) say, the metropolis of the Sabaeans is Saba; and which the former represents as built on a mountain, as the Sabota of Pliny is said to be, (t) Ut supra, (Phaleg. l. 2.) c. 23. (u) Nat. Hist. l. 26. c. 29. (v) Geograph. l. 4. c. 7, 8. (w) Nat. Hist. l. 26. c. 29. (x) Ut supra. (Phaleg. l. 2. c. 24.) (y) Ut supra, (Hist. Plant. l. 9.) c.4. (z) Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. (a) Ib. l. 12. c. 14. (b) Ut supra. (Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28.) (c) Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. (d) Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 180. (e) Hist. Ecclesiast. l. 3. p. 477.