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Sabaeans
(shebha’im (
1. Forms of the Word:
"Sabaeans" is also the translation of the name of the country itself (shebha’) in
2. Two Different Races:
As Sheba is said in
(1) a son of Raamah, the 4th son of Cush;
(2) the 10th son of Joktan, son of Eber;
(3) the 1st son of Jokshan, 2nd son of Abraham and Keturah, at least two nationalities of this name are implied. The former were identified by Josephus (Ant., II, x, 2) with the tall people of Saba in Upper Egypt, described by him as a city of Ethiopia, which Moses, when in the service of the Egyptians, besieged and captured.
3. Semitic Sabeans and Their Commerce:
It is the Semitic Sabeans, however, who are the best known, and the two genealogies attributed to them (Joktan-Eber and Jokshan-Abraham) seem to imply two settlements in the land regarded as that of their origin. As Ezekiel (27:23) mentions Haran (Hirran), Canneh (Kannah), and Eden (Aden) as being connected with Sheba, and these three places are known to have been in Southern Arabia, their Semitic parentage is undoubted. The Sabeans are described as being exporters of gold (
See Seba; Sheba; TABLE OF NATIONS.