Bible Dictionary
Seba
Seba was a son of Cush and the name of a southern African people associated with Cush and Ethiopia. Biblical references describe Seba as a distant nation of political and commercial importance.
Definition
Seba was a son of Cush and the name of a southern people associated with Cush and Ethiopia. The nation was politically and commercially important and is mentioned with Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sheba.
Biblical Usage
Seba appears in genealogical lists and in prophecies or royal poetry concerning distant nations. Its people are described as a southern nation and as men of stature whose wealth and labor are mentioned with those of Egypt and Ethiopia.
Historical Background
Seba has been associated with northeastern Africa, the region of Meroe, or a district near the Red Sea. Meroe lay between tributaries of the Nile, the Atbara and the Blue River.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(1.) One of the sons of Cush (Gen. 10:7). (2.) The name of a country and nation (Isa. 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 Ps. 72:10.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(pl. Sebaim ; in Authorized Version incorrectly rendered Sabeans) heads the list of the sons of Cush. Besides the mention of Seba in the lists of the pens of Cush, (Genesis 10:7; 1 Chronicles 1:9) there are but three notices of the nation— (Psalms 72:10; Isaiah 43:3; 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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>se'-ba (cebha'; Saba (Ge 10:7; 1Ch 1:9); Greek ibid., but Codex Vaticanus has (Saban):</p><p>1. Forms of Name, and Parentage of Seba:</p><p>The first son of Cush, his brothers being Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha. In Ps 72:10 and Isa 43:3 (where the Greek has Soene), 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, (csebha'im) (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.</p><p>2. Position of the Nation:</p><p>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 Ge 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.</p><p>See SHEBA and HDB, under the word</p><p>T. G. Pinches</p>