Seba

Seba was the eldest son of Cush (Gen 10:7; 1Ch 1:9), and gave name to the country of Seba or Saba, and to one of the tribes called Sabeans, not, however, the Shebaiim, but the Sebaiim. There seems no reason to doubt that their ultimate settlement was in that region of Africa which was known to the Hebrews as the land of Cush, and to the Greeks and Romans as Ethiopia; and the Scriptural notices respecting them and their country have been already anticipated in the articles Cush and Ethiopia.

See SABEANS\par

Se’ba. (plural, Sebaim; in Authorized Version, incorrectly rendered, Sabeans). Seba heads the list, of the sons of Cush. Besides the mention of Seba, in the lists of the sons of Cush, Gen 10:7; 1Ch 1:9, there are but three notices of the nation -- Psa 72:10; Isa 43:3; Isa 45:14.

These passages seem to show that Seba was a nation of Africa bordering on or included in Cush, and in Solomon’s time, independent and of political importance. It may perhaps be identified with the island of Meroe. Josephus says that Saba was the ancient name of the Ethiopian island and city of Meroe, but he writes Seba, in the notice of the Noachian settlements, Sabas. The island of Meroe lay between the Astaboras, the Atbara, the most northern tributary of the Nile, and the Astapus, the Bahr el-Azrak, "Blue River", the eastern of its two great confluents.

(See SHEBA.) Son of Cush, i.e. Ethiopia (Gen 10:7). A commercial and wealthy region of Ethiopia (Psa 72:10; Isa 43:3; Isa 45:14 "men of stature".) The Macrobian Ethiopians were reported to be the tallest and comeliest of men (Herodotus 3:20). Meroe, at the confluence of the Astaboras and Astapus, was called Seba, until Cambyses called it Meroe from his sister (Josephus, Ant. 2:10). Seba is distinct from Sheba, which is Semitic; Seba is Hamitic. The Sebaeans were an Ethiopian, ruling race, which dwelt about Meroe the capital, and were physically superior to the rest of the people. Shebek, or Sabacho or So, founded here an Ethiopian kingdom which ruled Egypt. Meru means "an island" in Egyptian; Meru-pet is "the island of Pet," the "bow", or else "Phut." The Astaboras is the Atbara, the most northern tributary of the Nile, and the Astapus and Astasobas unite to form the Blue river; these bound the island Meroe.

Seba (sç’bah), man? A wealthy and commercial region of Ethiopia. Psa 72:10; Isa 43:3; Isa 45:14. Seba appears to have corresponded to the northern portion of Abyssinia. Its inhabitants are mentioned with Sheba. Psa 72:10, the trading people of the other side of the Red Sea. The inhabitants of both Sheba and Seba were called Sabæans by Greek and Latin writers, but the Hebrew words are distinct.

[Seba’]

Son of Cush, a son of Ham, and the territory where his descendants were located. Gen 10:7; 1Ch 1:9; Psa 72:10; Isa 43:3. The descendants have been traced to Meroe, on the west of Abyssinia, and Josephus says that Meroe was at one time called Saba, or Seba. Its ruins lie between lat. 16° and 17° N. It is, however, believed by some that this tribe first settled near the Persian Gulf (probably along with the descendants of SHEBA, another descendant of Ham), and afterwards migrated into Africa. See SABEANS.

SEBA.—The eldest son of Cush in Gen 10:7 (1Ch 1:9), named along with Sheba in Psa 72:10, and with Egypt and Cush in Isa 43:8; Isa 45:14. In the latter passage its people are referred to as of high stature. A comparison with Isa 18:2 points to a supposed connexion with the tall Cushites or Nubians, though there is no evidence which directly associates either the people or the country with Nubia proper, in the region of the Nile. More specific seem to be the references by Strabo and Ptolemy to a seaport Saba and Sabat, near the modern Massowa on the west of the Red Sea. This location, nearly opposite the ancient Sheba, gives some colour to the hypothesis that Seba is an African differentiation of Sheba (wh. see), the latter being naturally the parent community.

J. F. McCurdy.

sē´ba (סבא, ṣ^ebhā’; Σαβά, Sabá (Gen 10:7; 1Ch 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 Psa 72:10 and Isa 43:3 (where the Greek has Σαήνη, Soḗnē), Seba is mentioned with Egypt and Ethiopia, and must therefore have been a southern people. In Isa 45:14 we meet with the gentilic form, (סבאים, ṣ^ebhā’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 Gen 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