Seba, Saba, the Sabeans, and Sabaean
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
—ancient names of uncertain meaning, used in Scripture both of persons and of peoples. (1) Seba (Gen. 10:7), one of the sons of Cush and perhaps his firstborn. (2) Saba or Seba (Isa. 45:14), the name of a country, city, or people; in the latter sense the plural is rendered Sabeans. The source identifies an African Saba with Meroë in Ethiopia, a prosperous trading region watered by branches of the Nile, and mentions ruins near Shendi. The kings of Arabia and Saba occur together in Psalm 72:10, while Saba is linked with Ethiopia in the source’s Psalm citation. Isaiah 45:14 likewise joins the Sabeans with Egypt and Ethiopia, supporting the older interpreters who placed this Saba in northeastern Africa.