Seba (Hastings' Dictionary)

Son of Cush, Gn 10' = lCh 1». SincR Seba is mentioned in connexion with Cnsh in Is 43' and 45", it is probable that this genealogy is a gloss on the pas.sages of Isaiah, or, at any rate, based upon them.

Of Seba this author knows that its inhabitants were tall ; and since he prophesies that they should be brought in chains to Jerusalem, it seems reasonable to identify them with a race mentioned in the oracle of Is 18^- ', who were to be brought as an offering to the temple, who also were connected with a nation living bejond the rivers of Cush, and who are described as 'drawn out, clean, shaven, and of power from ancient times.' The rest of the description is at present unintelligible.

There is a further reference to tliem in I's 72'", where, however, they are merely typical of a distant race, and coupled with the familiar Slieba on the ground of the resemblance of their niimes. On this resemblance Glaser (Skizze, ii. 387 fl.)

bases his theory that they repre- sent the Sabajans of Jebel Shammir in Nejd — a theory which is to be rejected on the ground that the only autlior who knows an3'thing definite about tlieni keeps them carefully apart from the Sabi-eans, and mentions them in connexion with Cush and E^ypt. Since from the 8th cent. B.C.

Cush had played an important part in politics, it is probable that an educated man would have some idea of the locality of Cush, and therefore any attempt to seek for Seba anywhere but in the heart of Africa should be rejected. The researches of Mr. Theodore Bent (Ruined Cities of Mashona- Innd, 1892) have certified the existence in the heart of Africa of tlie vestiges of ancient States, the names of which are lost to history.

The description given by him of the ancient State of Mashonaland bears some resemblance to that given in Is 18, possibly on the ground of Egyptian de- spatches or the statements of Ethiopians then dominant in Egypt. ' There is,' says a Portuguese traveller quoted p. 207, ' a tower or edifice of worked masonry, which appears evidently not to be the work of black natives of the country, bat of some powerful and political nations'; p.

231 ' there is little doubt tliat the ancient builders 01 the ruins in Mashonaland, the forts and towns between the Zambesi and the Limpopo, utilized the Sabi river as tlieir road to and from the coast. This, like other African rivers, was in ancient times suitable for large craft, but, through silting, is no longer fit for it (p. 231). It does not api)ear that epigraphic research lias as yet thrown any light on this name. U. S. Margoliouth.