The Empires of the Bible from the Confusion of Tongues to the Babylonian Captivity

THE SONS OF CUSH

4. Seba. The place of Seba is shown by the words of Isaiah just quoted, to be in the region of Ethiopia—Ethiopians and Sabeans, men of stature. It was, in fact, what is now Soudan, that is, the country that lies east of the main, or White Nile, and between the River Atbara and the Blue Nile. This country was first called Seba, or Saba, and its people Sabeans. Cambyses, king of Persia, in an attempt to invade Ethiopia, 523 B. C., reached the border of Saba, and bestowed upon it and its chief city the name of Meroe, after the name of his sister, who was also his wife; and by that name it was known for ages. From its being long an important commercial center, Meroe “became owner of the richest countries on earth,” and so powerful that at the beginning of the Christian era it ruled Ethiopia itself. For many years it was ruled by queens named Candace. “Pliny says that the centurions whom Nero sent to explore the country reported ‘that a woman reigned over Meroe, called Candace, a name which had descended to the queens for many years.’” ⁵ It was the chief treasurer of one of these queens Candace who had been to Jerusalem to worship; who while returning was reading the prophecies of Isaiah; to whom the Spirit of God sent Philip to preach the gospel; and who, when he had been baptized, went on his way rejoicing. ⁶ EB 25.2

5. All the rest of the sons of Cush settled in Arabia, and have of themselves no particular name or place in history. EB 26.1

6. Havilah dwelt in the modern Khawlan, the northwestern portion of Yemen on the Red Sea. EB 26.2

7. Sabtah dwelt east of Yemen in what in ancient times was Chatramotitae in southern Arabia, in the place called Sabota. EB 26.3

8. Sabtecha was in the eastern part of Arabia on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. EB 26.4

9. Raamah, with his two sons Sheba and Dedan, peopled the eastern coast of Arabia on the Persian Gulf. Raamah and Sheba traded in Tyre with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold; and the eastern shore of Arabia in all ages has been famed for its spices. “There can be little doubt that in the classical name Regma, which is identical with the Septuagint equivalent for Raamah, we have a memorial of the Old-Testament patriarch and of the country he colonized. The town of Regma was situated on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf, on the northern side of the long promontory which separates it from the ocean. It is interesting to note that on the southern side of the promontory, a few miles distant, was the town called Dadena, evidently identical with Dedan. Around Regma, Ptolemy locates an Arab tribe of the Anariti. Pliny appears to call them Epimaranitae, which, according to Forster, is just an anagrammatic form of Ramanitae, the descendants of Raamah.... Of Sheba, the other son of Raamah, there has been found a trace in a ruined city so named (Sheba) on the island of Awal belonging to the province of Arabia called El-Bahreyn, on the shores of the Gulf.... There can be no doubt that the original settlements of the descendants of Raamah were upon the southwestern shores of the Persian Gulf.” ⁷ The people of Dedan were caravan merchants from their coast to Palestine and to Tyre. EB 26.5

10. The last named but the greatest of the sons of Cush is— EB 26.6

Nimrod, the mighty hunter, who began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was the founder of the first kingdom on earth. “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” EB 26.7

11. It will thus be seen that there was a line of Cushite settlements extending from Ethiopia eastward across the whole southern part of Arabia to Babylon. Nor did they stop there, for traces of them have been found on the coasts of Carmania and Gedrosia, along the Indian Ocean; and they even penetrated to the mountainous region of central Asia, and the name of Cush still appears in the name of the mountains of Hindu Kush. EB 27.1