Seba

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(See Sheba .) Son of Cush, i.e. Ethiopia ( Genesis 10:7). A commercial and wealthy region of Ethiopia ( Psalms 72:10;  Isaiah 43:3;  Isaiah 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. Μeru means "an island" in Egyptian; Μeru-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.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

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,  Genesis 10:7;  1 Chronicles 1:9, there are but three notices of the nation -  Psalms 72:10;  Isaiah 43:3;  Isaiah 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.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

SEBA . The eldest son of Cush in   Genesis 10:7 (  1 Chronicles 1:9 ), named along with Sheba in   Psalms 72:10 , and with Egypt and Cush in   Isaiah 43:8;   Isaiah 45:14 . In the latter passage its people are referred to as of high stature. A comparison with   Isaiah 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.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The name of a country and nation ( Isaiah 43:3;  45:14 ) mentioned along with Egypt and Ethiopia, and therefore probably in north-eastern Africa. The ancient name of Meroe. The kings of Sheba and Seba are mentioned together in  Psalm 72:10 .

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Seba'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/s/seba.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Son of Cush, a son of Ham, and the territory where his descendants were located.  Genesis 10:7;  1 Chronicles 1:9;  Psalm 72:10;  Isaiah 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.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Seba ( Sç'Bah ), Man? A wealthy and commercial region of Ethiopia.  Psalms 72:10;  Isaiah 43:3;  Isaiah 45:14. Seba appears to have corresponded to the northern portion of Abyssinia. Its inhabitants are mentioned with Sheba.  Psalms 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.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

See Sabeans

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Seba', סְבָא ; Sept. Σαβά , occasionally Σοήνη , v. r. in Chronicles Σαβάτ ), the oldest son of Cush (B.C. cir. 2500), and hence a country and people among the Cushites ( Genesis 10:7;  1 Chronicles 1:9), named in connection with Egyptians, Cushites, and Arabians (Sabaeans) ( Isaiah 43:3;  Isaiah 45:14 :  Psalms 72:10) and in  Isaiah 45:14;  Ezekiel 23:42, as a rich and proud race. Much confusion has arisen between it and other similar names.

1. Name. Besides the singular form above, there is given the plural סְבָאִים (Sept.. Σαβαέιμ Ζαβαείυμ ; Vulg. Sabaim), incorrectly rendered "Sabeans" a name given in the A. V. with more probability to the שְׁבָאִים ( Joel 3:8 [Heb. text, 4: 8] ) ; and to Sheba, used for the people ( Job 1:15); but it would have been better had the original orthography been followed in both cases by such renderings as "people of Seba," "people of Sheba," where the gentile nouns occur. (See Sabaean); (See Sheba).

If Seba be of Hebrew or cognate origin, it may be connected with the root סָבָא , Saba, "he Drank to excess," which would not be inappropriate to a nation seated, as we shall see was that of Seba, in a well-watered country; but the comparison of two other similar names of Cushites, Sabtah ( סַבְתְּכָא ) and Sabtechah ( סַבְתְּכָא ), does not favor this supposition, as they were probably seated in Arabia, like the Cushite Sheba ( שְׁבָא ), which is not remote from Seba ( סְבָא .), the two letters being not unfrequently interchanged. Gesenius has suggested the Ethiopic Sabeay, "a man," as the origin of both Seba and Sheba, but this seems unlikely. The ancient Egyptian names of nations or tribes, possibly countries, of Ethiopia, probably mainly, if not wholly, of Nigritian race, Sahaba, Sabara (Brugsch, Geogr Inschr. ii, 9, tav,. 12:1), are more to the point; and it is needless to cite later geographical names of cities, though that of one of the upper confluents of the Nile, Astasobas, compared with Astaboras, and Astapus, seems worthy of notice as perhaps indicating the name of a nation. The proper names of the first and second kings of the Ethiopian 25th dynasty of Egypt, Shebek ( סוֹא ) and Shebetek, may also be compared. Gesenius was led by an error of the Egyptologists, to connect Sevechus a Greek transcription of Shebetek, with S Abk or Sbak the crocodile-headed divinity of Ombos ( Lex. S.V. סוא ).

2. Biblical Notices. — Besides the mention of Seba as the first in the list of the Sons of Cush ( Genesis 10:7;  1 Chronicles 1:9), there are but three, or, as some hold, four, notices of the nation. In Psalms 72, which has evidently a first reference to the reign of Solomon, Seba is thus spoken of among the distant nations which should do honor to the king: "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts" ( Psalms 72:10). This mention of Sheba and Seba together is to be compared with the occurrence of a Sheba among the descendants of Cush ( Genesis 10:7), and its fulfilment is found in the queen of Sheba's coming to Solomon. There can be little doubt that the Arabian kingdom of Sheba was Cushite as well as Joktanite; and this occurrence of Sheba and Seba together certainly lends some support to this view. On the other hand, the connection of Seba with an Asiatic kingdom is important in reference to the race of its people, which, or at least the ruling class, was, no doubt, not Nigritian. In Isaiah 43, Seba is spoken of with Egypt, and more particularly with Cush, apparently with some reference to the Exodus, where we read, "I gave Egypt [for] thy ransom, Cush and Seba for thee" ( Isaiah 43:3). Here, to render Cush by Ethiopia, as in the A. V., is perhaps to miss the sense of the passage, which does not allow Us to infer, though it is by no means impossible, that Cush, as a geographical designation, includes Seba, as it would do if here meaning Ethiopia. Later in the book there is a passage parallel in its indications: "The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush, and of the people of Seba, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine" ( Isaiah 45:14). Here there is the same mention together of the three nations, and the same special association of Gush and Seba. The great stature and beauty of the Ethiopians are mentioned by Herodotus, who speaks of them as by report the tallest and handsomest men in the world (3:20; comp. 114); and in the present day some of the tribes of the dark races of a type intermediate between the Nigritians and the Egyptians, as well as the Caucasian Abyssinians, are remarkable for their fine form, and certain of the former for their height. The doubtful notice is in Ezekiel, in a difficult passage: "and with men of the multitude of Adam [were] brought drunkards [ סוֹבָאִים ; but the Keri reads סְבָאִים , 'people of Seba'] from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads" ( Ezekiel 23:42). The reading of the A.V. in the text Is, "With the men of the common sort," and in the margin, "With the men of the multitude of men." The first clause would seem to favor the idea that a nation is meant, but the reading of the text is rather supported by what, follows the mention of the "drunkards." Nor is it clear why people of Seba should come from the wilderness.

3. Identification. — The list of the sons of Cush seems to indicate the position of the Cushite nation or country Seba. Nimrod, who is mentioned at the close of the list, ruled at first in Babylonia, and apparently afterwards in Assyria: of the names enumerated between Seba and Nimrod, it is highly probable that some belong to Arabia. We may thus conjecture a curve of Cushite settlements; one extremity which is to be placed in Babylonia; the other, if prolonged far enough in accordance with the mention of the African Gush, in Ethiopia.

The other passages we have examined seem to show (if we omit the last) that Seba was a nation of Africa, bordering on or included in Cush, and in Solomon's time independent and of political importance. We are thus able to conjecture the position of Seba. No ancient Ethiopian kingdom of importance could have excluded the island of Meroe, and therefore this one of Solomon's time may be identified with that which must have arisen in the period of weakness and division of Egypt that followed the empire, and have laid the basis of that power that made Shebek, or Sabaco, able to conquer Egypt and found the Ethiopian dynasty which ruled that country s well as Ethiopia.

Josephus says that Saba ( Σαβά ) was the ancient name of the Ethiopian island and city of Meroe (Ant. ii, 10, 2), but he writes Seba, in the notice of the Noachian settle-nents, Sabas ( Ibid. i, 6, 2). So, too, Strabo and Diodous Siculus (see Mannert, Geogr. p. 199). But the name Meroe is more probably Ethiopic, meaning the watered land (see Tuch, Genesis p. 222; comp. Knobel, lsa. p. 122, who gives Seba a similar meaning). This view of Seba, is identical with Meroe, has been adopted by all the moderns as suited to every passage where it is mentioned (comp. Miehaelis, Spicil. i, 180 sq.). Certainly the kingdom of Meroe succeeded that of Seba; and the ancient city of the same name may have been the capital, or one of the capitals, of Seba, though we do not find any of its monuments to be even as early as the 25th dynasty. There can be no connection between he two names. According to Josephus and others, Meroe was named after a sister of Cambyses; but this is extremely unlikely, and we prefer taking it from the an-lent Egyptian Meru, an island, which occurs in the name of apart Of Ethiopia that can only be this or r similar tract, Meru-pet, "the island of pet (Phut ?) =the now," where the bow may have a geographical refer-nee to a bend of the river, and the word island to the country enclosed by that bend and a tributary. (See Phut). It may be remarked that it seems certain that, from a remote time, Ethiopia below Meroe could never have formed a separate powerful kingdom, and was probably always dependent upon either Meroe or Egypt.

4. Description. — Meroe was a large island in Ethiopia, formed by the Astaboras, on the east (Atbara, Takazze), and Astapus (Bahr el-Asrak), on the west (alluded to in  Zephaniah 3:10;  Isaiah 18:1), the two arms that unite to form the Blue Nile (Strabo, 17:821). (See Nile). It is mountainous, but fruitful (Heliod. AEthiop. 10:5), and its chief city is also called Meroe. This has been from antiquity the seat of a priesthood with an oracle of Jupiter Ammon (Herod. it, 29), and a trading-place for the caravans of Africa and Arabia (Strabo, 16:771; 17:786 sq.; Pithy, it, 75; v, 10; 6:35; 37:15; Diod. Sic. i, 33; iii, 5 sq.; Ptolem. 4:8). It is noted by the ancients as remarkable for the fact that here the sun casts shadows part of the year southward and part northward (comp. Strabo, it, 135 sq.; Pliny, it, 75; Lucan, 10:300, 305, etc.: some think this is referred to in  Isaiah 18:1;  Zephaniah 3:10). The city lay in the northern extremity of the island (seventy thousand paces from the Entrance, i.e. the southern extremity — Pliny, 6:35), five thousand stadia from Syene (Strabo, it, 114; comp. Pliny, it, 75), and ten thousand from Alexandria (Strabo, i, 62; it, 114). The city of Meroe had gained control Of the whole island, and sent colonies of priests to Upper Egypt to settle Thebes and Ammonium. In its flourishing period this kingdom was exceedingly powerful (Pliny, 6:35), and was inhabited by farmers, shepherds, and hunters (Strabe, 17:821). Deserts of sand surrounded it (ibid.). The priesthood retained power until the third century before Christ, when it was overthrown by a king Ergamenes (under Ptolemy Philadelphus). Thenceforward the power of the city seems to have declined; it disappears from the view of Western writers, and not until the time of Augustus do we begin to hear sparse, and on some points contradictory, accounts of a city somewhere in that region, under queens who bear the common name of Candace (comp. Pliny, 6:35; Dion Cos. liv, 5; Eusb. H.E. it, 1). But Meroe was deserted, a few houses only remaining.

Modern travellers have striven to find its site, and it is identified with some probability as the ruins almost twenty miles north-east of the Nubian city Skendy, in the Dar el-Atbara, a district near Assur forming a peninsula, between the river Atbara, the Nile (Bahr As-rak), and the river Rahad. (See Russegger's Charte von Nubien, in his Reis., and it, 1,476, 480 sq.; Bruce, Tray-els, 4:542 sq.; Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, p. 273 sq.; Ruppell, Arab. p. 114, 383, with plate v; Calliaud, Voyage a Meroe au Fleuve Blanc [Paris, 1826], 4 vols. with plates; Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia, Exhibiting the State of the Country under the Dominion of Meroe [Lond, 1835], with plates.) This supposition is confirmed by the records of distances left by the ancients, for from Syene to Assur the caravan road is 534 English miles by Russegger's account, 560 by Hoskins's, while the ancient reckoning is equivalent to 568 or 590 English miles — an unimportant difference. So the distance from the beginning of the island to the city was 60 miles (see above), and Russegger found the distance from Assur to the mouth of the Atbara 55, Hoskins 60 miles. See Lnudolf, Comment. Hist. AEthiop. p. 88 sq.; Delisle, in the Histoire de l'Academie des Sciences in 1708, p. 365 sq.; Tzsehucke, Ad Mel. III, i, 256 sq.; Mannert, X, i, 182 sq.; Heeren, Ideen II, i, 352; For-biger, Handb, it, 814 sq.; Smith, Dict. of Class. Geog. s.v. "Meroe," (See Ethiopa).

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

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Seba was the eldest son of Cush , 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.