Sheba

1. A Benjamite who headed a new revolt against David immediately alter the su|ipression of Absalom's rebellion. He was be- sieged by Joab in Abel-beth-maacah, whose in- haliitants were persuaded to procure their own safety by casting the head of the rebel from the battlements of the city (2 S 20"- «'■ '"■ "• ■"■ : B uni- fom.ly ^lit(, A occasionally "A/Sor). See, further, ■ LXX ' ion.' appljlnf; to Ahijah only. SHEBA 479 art. David, vol. i. p. 570\ 2. A Gadite, I Ch .'5" (B Z^;iei, A Z:;io.Oe, Luc. ::d;3«). SHEBA (k;;-), more correctly Snh'i (LXX rajSd, Jos. i:d;3as), the name of a race (the Sabaeans) several times mentioned in the OT. In the genealogical tables it is given three pedigrees (Gn 10' son of Ka'uiah, cf. Ezk 27-''', where these two names are juxtaposed ; Gn 10^ son of Yoktan, and juxta- posed with IJa^arniaveth [Hadramaut]; Gn 25' son of Yokslian). Ezekiel (27, ') mentions Eden (Aden), I.laran (I.Iirran), and Canneh (Kaniieh) as connected with it; and of these jdaces the first two are known to be in S. Arabia. At the time of Israel's highest prosperity, Solomon waa visited by the queen of Saba (1 K 10'""), an event which gave rise to a number of legends, none of them perhaps of high antiquity in the form wherein we possess them. The Saba'ans were known to the Israelites as exporters of gold (Is 60", Ps 72'"), precious stones (Ezk I.e.), perfumes (Jer 6-", Isaiah and Ezekiel), and perhaps slaves (Jl 4(3)'). In the Bk. of Job (6") there is an allusion to their trading caravans, with at least a suggestion that their capital was Tema (Tayma) ; and also to their raiding other Arab tribes (i"). Till the attention of Orientalists was called by Wellsted and Cruttenden to certain in.scriptions discovered by them in S. Arabia, our knowledge of Saba was confined to the meagre and often unintelligible matter collected by the Greek ge- ographers and Pliny. But since the middle of the century large finds of inscriptions have been made in various parts of Arabia, in the old Arabic character (of which a co^iy was given liy the Arabic bibliographer Al-rv.idini, in his Fihrist, A.D. 978), and dealing with Saba and various in- stitutions conne<tted with it. The attempt made in England to decipher these inscriptions was utterly incompetent ; but German .scholars were more successful, and the honour of having founded the study of Sahrpan is shared by Rodiger and Osiander, whose papers in the ZDMG, vols. xx. and xxi., laid the basis for the right understand- ing of these texts. A full and accurate account of the literature of the subject down to 1891 was given by Fr. Hommel in \\\s Siid-Araliische Clircs- tomathif, Munich, 1893. Next in importance to the collection published by Osiander was that brought back by Halevy, and edited by him in the Journal Asiatiijue, S6rie 6, vol. ix. ; since then great finds have been made by Glaser in his vari- ous journeys in S. Arabia, not many of which have as j-et been given to the public. In the fourth part of the CIS, edited by J. and H. Derenbourg, of which three fasciculi (containing 308 inscriptions) have as yet appeared (18S9-1'.I(I0), the material for the study will be eventuallj' re- corded in the most trustworthy form ; at present tiie works of the eight or nine .scholars who pur- sue it (esp. Derenbourg, Glaser, Halivy, Hommel, Mordtmann, I). H. Miiller, Proetorius, Winckler) are all indispensable. Besides inscriptions, considerable finds of coins have also been made. The first Sabiran coin ever interpreted was described in the lirrnc Numi.t. mntique, 1S68, pp. 169-176; but for this part of the subject the most important stage was marked by the work of Scliluniberger (Le trf.mr de Sun'n, Paris, 1880), who gave an account of some 200 coins that had been discovered at Sana'a, an<l pur- chased by him of a dealer in Constantinople. Many of these coins contained the monograms of kings whose names also figure in inscriptions ; whence, though these signs were puzzling at first, they lijive all since been interpreted : a list of the monograms, with their interpretations, is given by I I). H. Miiller in his Burgen u. SelUvsser, \\. p. 995. 480 SHEBA SHEBA The date of the coins described by Schlumberger was fixed by him, on numismatic grounds (i.e. tlie evolution of the style from Attic, Seleucid, and Roman models), at from about B.C. 150 to A.D. 150, and, while he derived the style of the art from the sources named, he regarded the weight as fixed by Persian models. The purity of the silver and tlie accur.aey of the weight were greatly admired by this numismatist; other coins that liave been dis- covered are described by Mordtmann, ]l'iener N amis"mtische Zeitschri/t, 1S80, pp. 2S9-320. The researches of Glaser and others were also rewarded by the discovery of a variety of other objecbs, illustrative of Sabjean civilization, of which de- scri|itions have been given by Mordt mann (Himyar- uche Inschriften in den iconiglichen Museen zu Berlin, 1893) and others (e.g. Derenhourg, Les Monuments Sab6ens du Music d' Archfulogie de Marseille, 1899 ; D. H. Miiller, Siidarabische Al- terthiimer im Kunsthistorischen So/museum, Wien, 1899 ; Hommel, ' Die siidarab. Altertiimer des Wiener Hofmuseums,' in Aufscitze u. Ab/uind- langp.n, ii., 1900). Finally, the works of the S. Arabian geographer and archieologer Hamdani (Abu Muhammad Al- Hasan) have been brought to Europe, his Descrip- tion of the Arabic Peninsula in a number of copies, and his Iklil in portions ; both these works have been edited by D. H. Miiller, the former at Leiden, 1891, the latter in the Sitzungsberirhte der Wiener Akademie, Ph. -Hist. Kl. xciv.,xcvii., and in MUller's Sudnrab. Alterthumer, p. 8 ff. The lexicon of Neshwan the Himyarite, which is of some value for the interpretation of the texts, is as yet un- published. In the following paragraphs a few of the chief results of the study will be collected. [The following abbreviations recur below: A A =010861^3 Abegsiiver in Arabi>n (Munich, 1S95) ; HI = Uimyariache Inschriften ; MM = Mordtmann and Mtiller'a Sabaisrhe Deixk- mater ; M I'AS = Mittheil. d. vorderas. Gesetlschuft ; SA = MUller's Siidarabiscke Alterthumer]. i. History. — On this subject an authentic chronicle of a few pages could give ns more in- formation than all the inscriptions together ; it is, however, clear that they cover an enormous length of time — it can scarcely be made less than 1300 years. The dated inscriptions of the mound at Marib (published by Glaser, MVAS, No. 6) are of the 5th and 6th cents. A.D., one of them being Christian and another perhaps Jewish ; and the final destruction of the Saba.'an State is known to have taken place in the 6th cent. A.D. On the other hand, tlie name of Itharaara the Sabiean, occurring in the inscriptions of Sargon of B.C. 715 (ed. Winckler, p. 97), was identified with justice by Lenorniant with the Yetha'amixra of the Sab.tan inscriptions. That name belongs to no fewer than six Saba-an potentates (Glaser, AA p. 29) ; and there seems no probability that Sar- gon's contemporary Ls the first of these. The in- scriptions, however, are not divided equally over this vast expanse of time ; so far as tliey are at present accessible, it is only for the period just before and just after the commencement of our era that they render the writing of a continuous chronicle possible ; an attempt of this sort has been made by H. Winckler, ' Die Inscliriften des Alhan Nahfan ' (MVAS, No. 5), perhaps without conspicuous success. The greater number of the texts published are devoid of political interest, and indeed emanate from members of two fami- lies or clans, the Bakilites of '.Vmran, and their leaders the IBanu Marthad, and the Ilashidites of Na'it, and their leaders the Banu Haiudan. Tliese great families are said to exist still in S. Arabia m the neighbourhood of their ancestral seats ;Mordtmann in MM p 9). Saba is the name of a nation or political unit, not of a city, though the classical writers speak repeatedly ot a city Saba. The Arabic etymologists derive its name from .ifibCi, 'to take captive' ; but they might with greater probability have derived it from the Sabtean verb saba^a, ' he raided ' ; and indeed in CIS 84. 3, the Sabaeans are mentioned aa normal raiders, somewhat as in Job 1'°. The Sabaean name for 'nation' is k/ttons, 'a fifth,' and it is ajjplied by them to other nations as well as to their own, e.g. ' the two Khums, Saba and Himyar' (MM 5). These nations or 'fifths' were divided into ' tribes ' (shi'b), which again were sometimes divided into 'thirds' (CIS 187, where Derenhourg gives us the names of two 'thirds' of the tribe .Sama'i), and sometimes perhaps 'tenths' (CIS 128). There might be some ground for su.specting that the word jifth implies the original existencb of five nations who shared S. Arabia between them ; at the latest period of the inscriiitions, Saba has swallowed the others up. In these the kings style them.selves kings of Saba, Dhu Ilaidan, yadramaut, and Yamanet. The earliest king who assumed this title was, according to Glaser (AA p. 31), Shammir Yuhar'ish, about A.D. 281 (others would place him some 200 years before). Before this he and his predecessors called themselves kings of Saba and Dhu Raidan, a title which implies the conquest of Raidan, which the combinations of Glaser and H. Winckler place about u.c. 70. Prior to this last date the kings style themselves sometimes malik (' king'), sometimes mukarrib, a word of uncertain meaning, but of a root which forms an element in many proper names, and is the source of Makorabah, the old name for Mecca. It is customary to place the Mukarrib period before the Malik period, and it is certainly noticeable that Sargon does not bestow the title ' king ' on his Sabaian contemporary, though the Assyrians are ordinarily rather lavish with the title. Naturally, such a point could not be settled without better documents than are at our disposal. The residence of the king was at Maryab or Marib (in Beled Al- Jihaf), and sometimes at Ghaiman. But Marib had also a king of its own, probably dependent on the kings of Saba, since in CIS 37. 7 the two are mentioned simultaneously ; and kings of Kamna (SA 12) and other places are mentioned. In the time of Eratosthenes (B.C. 240) Saba was one oifour nations which shared S. Arabia between them — Mina;ans with cajiital Kama, Sab;eans with capital Marjab, Kattabanians with capital Tamna, and yadramaut with capital Katabanon. The Greek writer adds that these were all monarchies, but that they were not hereditary, the succession falling to the first male bom to one of the leading families after a king's accession. How such a system would work it is impossible to conjecture; but a study of the texts makes it certain that Eratosthenes' account contains some truth, though he may have omitted important details. So about the time of the Aelius Gallus expedition (B.C. 24) we find kings of the Ilamdanide family preceded and followed by kings of another family. Alhan Nalifan seems to disclaim the title ' king of Saba ' himself, while giving it to his two sons (A A 42. 1), though he allows it to be given him by others (ib. 24), and in another inscription (III 2G98) appears as a subject of the then kin" of Saba, and in yet another (CIS 2, 10) is called simply Hamdanite and Bata'ite by the men who put up a votive tablet for help received in his service. Quite similarly Il-Sharh (Elisaros), who in some inscriptions figures as king of Saba and son of a king of Saba, in others is called Kabir of AVj'an, a title of which the import is not known, but • This name (tribe) Is also sometimeB applied to Sal)a (SA p. 17), The term 'fifth' is also found in other divi»'0D8 (ib. p. 38). SIIEBA SHEBA 481 which seems to have been coiiibine<l with fome- thinp like roynl functions (^/l S2 and 1(I5). What we slioulil infer from tliese facts is that the king- ship was held by the leading families in some sort of rotation. This inference is further supported by the nature of the kings' names, which Jo not appear to differ in form from those of other eminent men ; they are ordinarily, though not always, double, consisting apjiarently of a name and an epithet (rarely of a name and two epithets), and arc ordinarily retained unaltered by those persons fcho ligure in dillerent inscriptions as kings and in ifome other capacity. Finally, the fact that the in.icriptions otten speak of ' the kings of Saba," and tliat as many as three appear as Icings simul- taneously, implies that the sense which attached to the word 'king' in tliis community was different from that which attached to it elsewhere. And this not only explains the great number of the kings who hgure in the inscriptions, — Miiller (Burgcn, ii. p|). 982-986) counted 33, and some have since been added to the number, — but har- monizes with the fact that Sargon does not give the Saba'an the title ' king.' Besides the kings, there were eponymous magis- trates, after whom the years were named, till the adoption of an era, which (ilaser fixes at B.C. 115 (AA p. 29 ; Ge.tch. i. 3), whereas others regard it as the Selcucid era (see CIS p. 18) ; the text CIS 46 seems to date ' in the year 386 from the year of Mubih son of Abu-IJubb,' an era of wliich nothin" is at present known. The tribes of which the Sabajan communitv consisted had sometimes their kings (as the Sam ai, CIS 37), but more often chieftains called haul (in .Arabic kail) ; another titl<» is fojfiir (' great '), which in one case appears lo be given to the eponymous magistrate (CIS 80), but is also held by the king Il-Sharh, probably before his accession (CIS 46). Since, however, this person.age has a 'minister' (muktawi, A A p. 10.5), while he is still hibir, we clearly (\annot yet settle the precise meaning of these terms. A dis- tinction which pervades the inscriptions is that between ' lords ' and ' men,' analogous to that be- tween ' royalties ' and ' men ' which is found in the I'hcenician inscriptions : probably the former were what Eratosthenes calls 'distinguished,' i.e. quali- lied to particinate in the sovereignty. In most of the votive tablets the author prays the god for the favour of his lords, who sometimes are the whole of a family, sometimes one or more members of it. A ditlicult constitutional term is that rendered ' heirs ' or ' coheirs ' (CIS 95. 5) in the same con- text in which ' lords ' usually ti^ures ; and indeed the number of terms which imidy some unknown status or caste is very considerable. The state of society seems in general to have borne some resemblance to that of feudal Europe. The great families possessed towers and castles, the building of which is commemorated in many inscriptions ; and the word hnit, which in ordinary Semitic means ' house,' would seem with this com- munity to have meant ' tower.' The Iklil of the archa'ologer Ilamdani contains a description of these feudal dwellings, portions of which are still to be seen. The right to build a castle was sometimes given by the head of a family (CIS 145, 1.53), sometimes bv a king (CIS 172) ; in some of the texts amjile details (not as a rule intelligible) are given of the manner in which the building was carried out (CIS 17, 29, 40), and these .seem to have involved measurements of land and technical distributions of it. In each case the building is put under the protection of a deity. Many of the texts also commemorate renewals, repairs, the digging of wells and other domestic operations, in all of which the deity had some sliare. Owing to a far larger portion of S. Arabia being Vol . IV. -31 under cultivation in ancient times than now, the extent of territory covered by these feudal estates was very great, and, as we have seen, ere the final extinction of the Salwan State bv the Abyssinians in the 6th cent, it had swallowed up the other States in its neighbourhood. Hence the inscriptions which tell of its former glories are found all over South Araliia, except perhaps in yadramaut, and some even in the far north of the peninsula. Many indeed have been transplanted from the buildings which they originally adorned to distant towns, but of the vast extent of the country which at certain times was subject to the Saba^ans there can be no doubt. Certain episodes of the reign of Alhan Nahfan, as mentioned above, have been enucleated from his inscriptions by Glaser (AA) and Winckler (I.e.); but even in these results there is much that is problematic, and little that is sharply defined ; while for the rest of Saba-an history the inscrip- tions which have as yet been published contain far less material. Arabic writers have only vague recollections of certain events of great importance, s\ich as the bursting of the dam at Marib, which they strangely fancy led to the ruin of the State, and of a few names and words of the old language ; even the Avell-informed Hamdani has only fables and fictions. Hence for a history of Saba the materials are still wantin". ii. Civilization. — Tlie listof goods said to come from Saba in Is 60' bears a striking likeness to that given by Sargon (I.e.) : ' Gold, precious stones, ivorj', perfumes of all sorts, horses, camels,' and the gold and perf\inies were associ.ited with Saba liy classical writers also. It is remarkable that gold and perfume were called by the .same name in Saba; for the suggestion of IJ. H. Miiller, that dhahab meant perfume as well as gold, has been confirmed by a document brought to light by Count LanJberg (SA p. 30). The inscriptions reveal a lavish use of gold, if indeed the precious metal be meant thereby. AJhan Nahfan oilers thirty statues of gold at once (AA p. 42), and numerous inscriptions commemorate the employ- ment of this metal for images of gods and of animals (e.;]. camels and gazelles, MM 1). Other gifts were of .silver, called, in this language, sir/; and a variety of objects used for devotional pur- poses is enumerated by Alhan Nahfan (I.e.), not many of wliii'h can at present bo identified with certainty. l^erfumes are also mentioned with considerable frequency, and various sorts are enu- merated. D. H. Miiller has devoted many pages to the description of them (Burqi-n, ii. 975 ; MM 26 ; SA 48). The greater number of the texts deal not with the commercial side of the Saba'ans' life (though there may be allusions to that), but with the agricultural and military sides. Prayers for crops and vegetables are mixed « ith supplications for male children. The sorts of fruits which they desire to thrive are sometimes enumerated. In some we learn a little of the artilicial system of irrigation whereby the fertility of the fields was maintained. I5ut more cummemorate successful raids, or successful repulses of raids by other tribes ; and once it would .seem a disaster conse- quent on delay in the fiillilment of a vow is commemorated (C/5 81). The position of women would appear to have been little inferior to that of men, it we may judge by the number of texts in which they ligure as authors or joint-authors of inscriptions. One woni.an (CIS 179) appears to be called mistre.ss of a castle ; and, though a queen of Saba has not apparently been discovered in the inscriptions, queens of other Arabian tribes occur, both in Arabian and Assyrian texts (D. II. Miiller, E[)ir/raphische Denkmdlcr ini.i Arahien, p. 3). The honourable title ' consort,' by which they are often 482 SHEBA SHEBA called, confinns this. There are, however, texts which imply the practice of concubinage, though not, api)arently, of polygamy. It is observable that the women make oti'erings to the same gods as the men, describe themselves by similar family names, and profess to have received similar benefits. The Sabfean art, which in some respects is highly praised by experts, appears to have been greatly affected at dilFerent times by contemporaneous civilizations, i.e. those of Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, and Parthia ; and the formuliB of the inscriptions appear here and there to exhibit Assyrian influence. The caligraphy of the in- sciiptions, especially those first brought to Europe, has won much adniuation ; the alphabet in which they are written varies somewhat in different places (see especially D. H. Miiller, Epigraphische Denkmaler, ad fin.), but the present writer sees no reason to doubt that it represents the earliest form of the Semitic alphabet, whence the others are derived, partly by the suppression of a number of unnecessary signs. The excessive vigour with whieli the consonants are pronounced in S. Arabia, on which several writers nave commented, would make that the likeliest country for the invention of a S3stem of writing in which the consonant was the element. iii. Religion. — The nreater number of the tablets at present accessible are dedicated to two deities, IlMakkih and Ta'lab. The latter appears to have been a specially Hamdanite deity, and is ordinarily described as Ta'lab of Riyam. He is called not 'god,' but shayydm, 'patron' or 'pro- tector,' a title which is also given to Wadd [HI 7), who is sometimes ascribed to Kibab (ib. also in CIS 30) and Khatban (CIS 293), and ^Jajar ('stone'; CIS 49-69).' The former of these 'pat- rons ' also figures in pre-Islamic antiquity. If we may judge by the honours lavished on Ta'lab, the position of ' patron ' can have been little inferior to that of god. The god of the Bakil was II- JIakkih, probably ' the hearing god,' whose name seems connected with a verb WKH, which figures often in the votive tablets. Dili'erent forms of Il-Mal>kili were worshipped in dirterent sanctuaries. The places with which he is most frequently associated are Awam in Aiwa {on which see especially A A p. 16 tl'.), IJirran, and 'Irran. Next in importance to him was probably Athtar, the male form of Ashtoreth, often called Sharljan, which is thought to mean 'Oriental.' He had a divided person- ality : in CIS 293 no fewer than four forms of him are mentioned simultaneously — Athtar lord of Thanain, Athtar lord of Ta'aUulf (?), Athtar lord of Jnmdan, and Athtar Shar^an. Two other deities whose names are of interest are Saini (CIS 282) and JCawim (CIS 194), which seem to be per- petuated in the epithets 'the Hearing' and 'the Sustaining,' which the Koran gives to Allah. Con- siderable popularity was also enjoyed by Ramnian (who figures in the Bible as Rimmon), sometimes called lord of "Alam of Ashkur (CIS 140, by a ^imyarite). The sun was also much worshipped, and IS a-scribed to a number of places (e.g. Barrat, CIS 293. 2; other places 40, 132, 294), and also to particular tribes and persons, e.g. ' Il-Ma^tih and their sun' (CIS 143. 5), and indeed the plural ' their suns ' is of occasional occurrence, implying that the sun was regarded as of divided person- ality, like Athtar. The Sab.T?an worship of the gun was sufficiently famous to be known to the author of the Koran (xxvii. 24). A similar deity is Dhu Samai, ' lord of Heaven,' ascribed to Bakir (MM 1); and there are some goddesses whose names are similarly formed — Dhat Hima, Dhat Badan (CIS 41 etc.). Other gods are called Bashir (' bringer of good tidings,' CIS 41. 3], Uauhas (172, etc.), Rahman {'merciful,' perhaps of monotheistic times, CIS 6), Hainan (8) and others whose nam is thought to signify water-nymphs (153, etc.). This pantheon appears to resemble that of the Italians before Greek influence : the gods were to some extent hypostases of operations or objects, and there was supposed to be some special merit in enumerating them. Of this last process the terminations of many inscriptions offer illustra- tions. The more important of their temples had names, after which the god was often called. The oti'erings to them consisted, as we have seen, of lavish gifts to the temples; but sacrifices of tin ordinary sort (CIS 290) and offerings of incense (194) also form the subject of allusions. Sometimes it took the form of self-presentation on the part of the worshipper, whatever may have been the import of that act. The earliest instance is said to be in a bustrophedon inscription (ZD3IG xxii. 425), and the most elaborate, that contained in the inscription of Hadakan (CIS 37), in which the author declares that he puts the god in possession of himself, his famUy, his and their property, and all the property belonging to his clan. If the inscription HI 2678 (p. 26) be rightly interpreted by Mordtmann, this act could be performed re- peatedly ; and the inscr. CIS 126 would probably explain it more clearly, if we knew the meaning of the words. The plan of erecting stones ia honour of the gods also finds illustration (CIS 100); and most of the texts we have are musnads, or tablets dedicated to the gods, sometimes with other oti'erings. The office of priest (iiym) seems some- times to have been united with that of tribal head (CIS 41. 1), but at other times was probably dele- gated to humbler individuals. That pUgilmages were made in honour of the gods appears from the month Dhu Hijjat or Mahajjat ; the former of which is the only month-name which the Saba;ans share with the Moslems (the Sakean twelve are enumerated by Midler in MM 51). Prayers are ordinarily designated by the common Semitic word for petition, but the other word (amid), which occurs often, perhaps implies stereotyped formulae. From the inscr. CIS 126 it would appear that the gods were also appeased |by certain forms of per- sonal abstinence, and from one of those edited by Winckler (I.e.) it might appear that they had some share in the administration of justice. The Sah:eans also had certain ideas of ceremonial purity, violation of which had to be atoned for by public acknowledgment on tablets placed in temples : some curious specimens of these are given in SA pp. 20-25. iv. Language. — Of the S. Arabian inscriptions, a few are couched in a dialect scarcely distinguish- able from classical Arabic. This is the case with the texts dealing with ceremonial purity, to which reference has been made. The Sabaean texts seem to resemble most closely the dialect known as Ethiopic ; and indeed Ethiopic may be regarded as the form of Saba^an first given literary shape by Christian missionaries, altuough, unless the dates on the Marib inscriptions (Glaser, MVAS 6) are absolutely misleading, Sabajan must have con- tinued in use for a centmy or two after the com- mencement of Ethiopic literature. Owing to the absence of vowels, we know little of the pronun- ciation or the grammatical finesse of Saba^an ; but it clearly differed from the classical Arabic idiom in many particulars ; in some of which it pre- served what classical Arabic lost, while more often it seems to represent a later stage of development tlian the latter. Its alphabet retains a sioilant lost to Arabic ; and in certain cases the weak letters have still consonantal value in Sabsean (as in Ethiopic) where they have lost it in Arabic Instead of the prefixed article which govenu SHEBA SHEBNA 483 Arabic syntax, Sabsean has an affix, similar to that in ase in Aramaic ; both of which bear a curious likeness to the Armenian system. For the nunation which in Arabic supplies, to some ex- tent, the place of an indefinite article, Sabacan has miinnticm. Probably in this matter Arabic retains the older termination, whereas the two languai:es may have developed or borrowed their definite articles independently. The emploj-ment of the dual would appear to have been as regular in Sabxan as in ^Vrabic, though the mode of express- ing it differed somewh.at. The Salxpan syntax has also some remarkable peculiarities, to which nothing in Arabic corresponds, thouyh they might be illustrated from Helirew. We have already seen (in art. Language of the OT) that, like Ethiopic, Sabsan occasionally agrees in its vocabu- lary with Canaanitish against Arabic ; and there are also cases in which it agrees remarkably with the Aramaic vocabulary, although in the most striking of these (see CIS 79) the common words are perhaps borrowed from Aramaic, since the in- scription shows signs of having been written by a foreigner. Though there is still much about both grammar and vocabulary that is obscure, the progress made in the study since Osiander's time compares favourably with that achieved in other regions of epigraphy. D. S. Maegoliouth. SHEBA (MP ; B ^i/ica, A Zd;3ef ; Sal)ee).—A town, according to AV, wliich was allotted to Simeon (Jos 19-), and is mentioned between Beersheba and ^Ioladah. This was apparently the view of Euse- bius and Jerome (Onom. s. Za^t). RV, however, and the edition of 1611, read ' Beersheba or Sheba' ; and this is in agreement with the number of towns (13) said to have been allotted to Simeon (Jos 19^"), and with the omission of Sheba from the list in 1 Ch 4. It is not unlikely that yjy] is due to dittograpby from vzv ixn, or it may be a corruption of PDPi (cf. LXX B) of Jos W\ So Dillm. ad loc. C. W. Wilson. 8HEBANIAH {.t»i? ; in 1 Ch 15"'' ?.i;;av)— 1- The name of a Levite or a Levitical family that took part in the religious services which followed the reading of the Law, Neh 9^ (B Zapa^id, A Zaxavid, K 2o/)o5id)'(LXX om.). The name appears in Neh 10'" amongst those who sealed the covenant (B Zafiani, XA 2f^and, Luc. [in both verses] Sexfylas). 2. A priest or Levite who sealed the covenant, Neh 10»(B'E,3oi'W, A 2«;3aW, Luc. Bo^ofos) 12"(BsA om., N°- • ilfxf XtoiS, Luc Sexf'aj). See SheCANIAH, No. 8. 3. Another Levite who sealed the cove- nant, Neh 10'^ (BA Xepavid, Luc. Sa/JaWas). 4. A priest ia David's time, 1 Ch IS'* (]i Zofwid, K Zoftyftd, A Zapertd, Luc. Za/Soyid).