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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume II

Book Fifteen — the multiplication of mankind after the flood

{And the sons of Chus: Saba, and Heuila, and Sabatha, and Regma, and Sabathacha.}

LatineEnglish

{And the sons of Chus: Saba, and Heuila, and Sabatha, and Regma, and Sabathacha.}1

Filii autem Chus: Saba, Heuila, Sabatha, Regma, Sabathacha.

E quatuor filiis Cham trium tantummodo progenies hic describitur a Mose; omittitur autem Phut, quod eius posteritas ignobilis et obscura fuerit, vel diversam a patre appellationem sibi non asciverit. Primus filiorum Chus nominatur Saba: et quanquam paulo infra inter filios Regma unus eorum nominetur Saba, nullo discrimine appellationis apud Latinos et Graecos; Hebraice tamen plurimum inter ea nomina differt. Namque Saba filius Chus prima litera scribitur per Samech, quod est s exile; at Saba filius Regma primam literam habet Scin, quod est s crassum. Verum de hoc paulo post; nunc de illo dicamus qui originem et nomen dedit Sabaeis Felicem Arabiam incolentibus.
Of the four sons of Cham, the progeny of only three is here described by Moses; Phut is omitted, because his posterity was ignoble and obscure, or did not adopt for itself an appellation different from the father's. The first of the sons of Chus is named Saba: and although a little below, among the sons of Regma, one of them too is named Saba, with no distinction of appellation among the Latins and Greeks; in Hebrew, however, these names differ greatly. For Saba the son of Chus is written in its first letter with Samech, which is a slender s; but Saba the son of Regma has for its first letter Scin, which is a thick s. But of this a little later; now let us speak of him who gave origin and name to the Sabaeans, the inhabitants of Arabia Felix.2
SABAEI, ait Plinius, Arabum populi propter thura clarissimi, ad utraque maria porrectis gentibus habitant. Et apud Isaiam Chus et Saba iunguntur, ut qui vicinas sedes habuerint: Chus quidem ad Isthmum, quo mare Syriacum et Aegyptiacum summoventur a Sinu Arabico sive a Mari Rubro; Saba autem ad ipsum Arabicum Sinum. Quod autem Plinius dixit Sabaeos ad utraque maria porrectis gentibus habitare, intelligitur de mari Persico et de Arabico seu Rubro, et de utraque gente Sabaeorum, qui et ab hoc Saba filio Chus et ab illo filio Regma genus duxerunt. Verum profani scriptores tam Graeci quam Latini hanc Sabaeorum distinctionem minime noverunt, sed utrosque tanquam unam gentem descripserunt.
„The Sabaeans,“ says Pliny, „the most renowned of the peoples of the Arabs on account of their frankincense, dwell as nations extended to both seas.“ And in Isaiah, Chus and Saba are joined, as having had neighboring seats: Chus at the Isthmus by which the Syrian and Egyptian seas are kept off from the Arabian Gulf, that is, from the Red Sea; and Saba at the Arabian Gulf itself. As for Pliny's saying that the Sabaeans dwell as nations extended to both seas, it is understood of the Persian Sea and of the Arabian or Red Sea, and of both nations of Sabaeans, who drew their stock both from this Saba son of Chus and from that son of Regma. But the profane writers, Greek as well as Latin, by no means knew this distinction of the Sabaeans, but described both as a single nation.3
Hos certe contiguas habuisse sedes, licet longe lateque fusas, ex Psalmo septuagesimo secundo perspicitur, cum in eo dicitur: „Reges Arabum et Saba dona adducent.“ Nam pro illo „Reges Arabum“ Hebraice est „Reges Scheba et Saba,“ denotando utramque gentem Sabaeorum tam ex Chus quam ex Regma originem ducentium: apparet igitur eos contiguas sedes tenuisse; et posteri quidem Regma ad Sinum Persicum, posteri autem Chus ad Sinum Arabicum magis vergebant. Sabaeorum porro, de quibus nunc agimus, mentionem facit Isaias quadragesimo quinto capite: „Labor,“ inquit, „Aegypti et negotiatio Aethiopiae (Hebraice Chus) et Sabaim viri sublimes ad te transibunt, et tui erunt.“ Ubi duo animadvertere convenit: alterum, iungi tanquam vicinas gentes Chus et Mesraim et Saba, id est Aegyptios, Arabes seu Aethiopes orientales atque Sabaeos; alterum autem, pro eo quod posuit Latinus interpres „viri sublimes,“ Hebraice esse „viri mensurae,“ id est procerae staturae. Recte igitur vertit interpres „viri sublimes.“
That these certainly had adjoining seats, though spread far and wide, is perceived from the seventy-second Psalm, when it is said therein: {The kings of the Arabs and of Saba shall bring gifts.} For in place of that ‘kings of the Arabs’ the Hebrew has ‘kings of Scheba and Saba,’ denoting both nations of Sabaeans deriving origin both from Chus and from Regma. It appears, therefore, that they held adjoining seats; and the posterity of Regma inclined rather toward the Persian Gulf, the posterity of Chus toward the Arabian Gulf. Of the Sabaeans, moreover, of whom we now treat, Isaiah makes mention in the forty-fifth chapter: {The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia (in Hebrew, Chus) and of the Sabaim, tall men, shall pass over to thee, and shall be thine.} Where two things are worth noting: one, that there are joined, as neighboring nations, Chus and Mesraim and Saba — that is, the Egyptians, the Arabs or eastern Ethiopians, and the Sabaeans; the other, that in place of what the Latin translator put as ‘tall men,’ the Hebrew has ‘men of measure,’ that is, of lofty stature. Rightly therefore did the translator render ‘tall men.’4
HORUM Sabaeorum apud scriptores prophanos frequens et luculentum est encomium propter regionis quam colunt nobilitatem. Est enim odorum et rerum pretiosarum feracissima, unde Felicis seu Beatae cognomentum invenit. „Alterum latus,“ inquit Mela, „ambit plaga qua inter utrumque pelagus excurrit Arabia, dicta cognomine Eudaemon, angusta, verum cynamomi et thuris aliorumque odorum maxime ferax. Maiorem Sabai tenent partem, Ostio proximam et Carmanis.“ Sed distinctius et expressius Strabo ita scribens: „His proxima est Sabaeorum terra, quae maxima natio est. Apud hos thus et myrrha ac cynamomum nascitur; in ora etiam balsamum, et alia quaedam herba valde odorata, cito tamen odorem deperdens; habent praeterea palmas odoratas et calamum. Homines propter maximam fructuum copiam otiosi segnesque vivunt, in radicibus arborum cubant, et ex eis incidunt, tradentes proximis incolis, qui aliis consequenter tradunt, et sic deinceps usque in Syriam atque Mesopotamiam. Ab odoribus autem stupefacti, bituminis suffitu et hirci barba stuporem tollunt. Mediaba, Sabaeorum urbs, in monte iacet arboribus pleno. Illi vero partim agriculturam, partim aromatum mercaturam exercent, quorum tanta est illis copia ut pro fructibus et cetera combustibili materia cynamomo, casia aliisque rebus pretiosissimis atque odoratissimis utantur. Suppellectilem ex auro et argento multam habent, ut vasa, lectos, tripodas, crateras cum operculis, domorum portas; et parietes et tecta ebore, auro, argento, lapidibusque incrustatis. Supra Syriam autem Nabathaei atque Sabai Felicem Arabiam incolunt. Hi saepe in Syriam excurrebant, priusquam Romani et ipsis et Syris dominarentur.“ Hactenus ex Strabone. Ergo manifestum sit ex narratione Mosis Sabaeos ditissimam orbis gentem, eoque celeberrimam, ortos esse ex ipso Chus, qui cum Arabum seu Aethiopum parens fuerit, necesse est Sabaeos ex Arabibus seu Aethiopibus (namque utrum horum vocabulo Chus proprie significetur, supra disputatum est) genus et originem habuisse. Externi scriptores dictos putant Sabaeos ἀπὸ τοῦ σέβειν, quod est colere seu venerari, quod eorum thure aliisque odoramentis Deum colere ac venerari in more sit apud plerasque gentes.
Of these Sabaeans there is among the profane writers a frequent and splendid encomium, on account of the renown of the region they inhabit. For it is most fruitful in spices and precious things, whence it found the surname ‘Felix’ or ‘Blessed.’ „The other side,“ says Mela, „is bordered by the tract along which, between the two seas, runs Arabia, called by the surname Eudaemon, narrow, but most fertile in cinnamon and frankincense and other spices. The Sabaeans hold the greater part of it, nearest to the Strait and to the Carmanians.“ But more distinctly and expressly Strabo, writing thus: „Nearest to these is the land of the Sabaeans, which is a very great nation. Among them frankincense and myrrh and cinnamon are born; on the coast also balsam, and a certain other very fragrant herb, which yet quickly loses its scent; they have besides fragrant palms and sweet cane. The men, owing to the very great abundance of produce, live idle and sluggish, recline on the roots of trees, and cut from them, handing on to the nearest inhabitants, who pass them on in turn to others, and so on right up to Syria and Mesopotamia. Stupefied by the odors, they dispel the torpor with a fumigation of bitumen and goat's beard. Mediaba, a city of the Sabaeans, lies on a mountain full of trees. They practice partly agriculture, partly the traffic in aromatics, of which they have so great an abundance that in place of fuel and other combustible material they use cinnamon, cassia, and other most precious and most fragrant things. They have much furniture of gold and silver — vessels, couches, tripods, bowls with lids, house-doors; and their walls and roofs are incrusted with ivory, gold, silver, and precious stones. Above Syria the Nabataeans and the Sabaeans inhabit Arabia Felix. These often used to make raids into Syria, before the Romans held dominion over both them and the Syrians.“ Thus far from Strabo. It is therefore manifest from Moses's narrative that the Sabaeans, the richest nation of the world and on that account the most famous, sprang from Chus himself; and since he was the parent of the Arabs or Ethiopians, the Sabaeans must have had their stock and origin from the Arabs or Ethiopians (for which of these two is properly signified by the word Chus has been disputed above). Foreign writers think the Sabaeans are so called from σέβειν, which is to worship or venerate, because it is the custom among most nations to worship and venerate God with their frankincense and other perfumes.5
ALTER filius Chus nominatur Heuila. Heuilaeos facit Beatus Hieronymus, Iosephum (ut in his solet) secutus, Getulos in parte remotioris Aphricae eremo cohaerentes. Verum ex sacris literis videtur posse colligi Heuilaeos fuisse populos Ismaelitis et Amalecitis non longe remotos. Siquidem in vigesimo quinto cap. Geneseos legitur Ismaelem habitasse ab Heuila usque Sur, quae respicit Aegyptum; et in primo libro Regum capite decimo quinto, Saulem percussisse regem Amalec ab Heuila donec venias Sur, quae est e regione Aegypti. Heuilaei igitur terras coluerunt versus Sinum Persicum, nec procul Ismaelitis et Amalecitis.
The second son of Chus is named Heuila. Blessed Jerome makes the Heuilaeans — following Josephus, as he is wont in these matters — to be the Getulians, bordering the desert in a part of the more remote Africa. But from the sacred letters it seems it may be gathered that the Heuilaeans were peoples not far removed from the Ishmaelites and Amalekites. For in the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis it is read that Ishmael dwelt from Heuila as far as Sur, which faces Egypt; and in the first book of Kings, chapter fifteen, that Saul smote the king of Amalek from Heuila until you come to Sur, which is over against Egypt. The Heuilaeans, therefore, inhabited lands toward the Persian Gulf, and not far from the Ishmaelites and Amalekites.6
TERTIUS filius appellatur Sabatha. Sabathenos Iosephus ait fuisse eos qui dicti sunt Astabari. Verum quaenam ista gens fuerit Astabarorum, aut ubinam terrarum sedem habuerit, equidem nec scio, nec memini legere apud quenquam qui se scire dixerit. Non me fugit apud Strabonem libro decimo sexto et decimo septimo, Melam libro primo capite nono, Plinium libro quinto capite nono, mentionem fieri Astabarae amnis, qui unus est de duobus alveis in quos Nilus circa…
The third son is called Sabatha. Josephus says the Sabathenes were those who are called Astabari. But what that nation of the Astabari was, or in what part of the world it had its seat, I for my part neither know, nor do I remember reading in anyone who professed to know. It does not escape me that in Strabo, books sixteen and seventeen, in Mela book one chapter nine, and in Pliny book five chapter nine, mention is made of the river Astabaras, which is one of the two channels into which the Nile, around…7
…Meroën insulam, omnium quas ipse facit maximam et clarissimam, finditur. „Nilus,“ inquit Mela, „circa Meroën late patentem insulam in Aethiopiam diffinditur; alteraque ex parte Astaboras, altera Astapus dictus est.“ Et Plinius: „Nilus,“ inquit, „circa clarissimam suarum insularum Meroën Astabores laevo alveo dictus“ — hoc est, ramus aquae venientis e tenebris — „dextro vero Astusapes,“ quod latentis significatione adiicit. Sed quia Ptolomaeus in Arabia Felici Metropolim quandam nominat Sabatha, ex eo coniici posset Sabatheos populos fuisse Arabiae Felicis incolas, scilicet permixtos cum Chusaeis et Sabaeis.
…divides the island of Meroë, the greatest and most famous of all that it forms. „The Nile,“ says Mela, „around Meroë, a widely-spreading island, is divided into Ethiopia; and on the one side it is called Astaboras, on the other Astapus.“ And Pliny: „The Nile,“ he says, „around Meroë, the most famous of its islands, is called in its left channel Astabores“ — that is, the branch of water coming from darkness — „but in the right Astusapes,“ which he adds with the meaning of ‘lurking.’ But because Ptolemy names in Arabia Felix a certain metropolis Sabatha, it could from this be conjectured that the Sabatheans were inhabitants of Arabia Felix, namely intermingled with the Chusaeans and Sabaeans.8
QUARTO filio Chus nomen est Regma. Et quoniam apud Ezechielem capite vigesimo septimo Regma iungitur cum Seba, existimare licet Regmaeos vicinos et socios fuisse Sabaeorum, eandemque aut certe vicinam regionem coluisse. Namque Ezechiel facit eos aurum, lapides pretiosos et aromata varii generis ad Tyriorum mercatum deferre. Beatus Hieronymus in Traditionibus Hebraicis in Genesim ait Regma et Sabathaca paulatim antiqua vocabula perdidisse, et quae nunc sint pro veteribus habeantur ignorari. In eadem ignoratione fuisse videtur Iosephus, quippe qui eorum qui ex istis orti sunt nomina, quae tunc essent, plane tacuit. Quintum igitur filium Chus Sabathaca eiusque posteros satis credibile est longius profectos, in extremas Arabiae Felicis oras Oceanum versus recessisse, atque ob eam causam nec Iudaeis nec Syris fuisse notos.
The fourth son of Chus has the name Regma. And since in Ezekiel, chapter twenty-seven, Regma is joined with Seba, one may judge that the Regmaeans were neighbors and allies of the Sabaeans, and inhabited the same or at least a neighboring region. For Ezekiel makes them carry gold, precious stones, and aromatics of various kinds to the market of the Tyrians. Blessed Jerome in the Hebrew Questions on Genesis says that Regma and Sabathaca gradually lost their ancient names, and that what they now are, in place of the old ones, is unknown. In the same ignorance Josephus seems to have been, since he plainly kept silent about the names — whatever they then were — of those descended from these. It is therefore quite credible that the fifth son of Chus, Sabathaca, and his posterity, having traveled farther, withdrew to the farthest shores of Arabia Felix toward the Ocean, and for that reason were known neither to the Jews nor to the Syrians.9

Translator’s notes

  1. Gen 10:7a (verse lemma). ↩
  2. §46. Moses lists the posterity of only 3 of Cham's 4 sons (Phut omitted as obscure). Chus's first son Saba: distinct in Hebrew from the later Saba son of Regma (first letter Samech = slender s, vs Scin = thick s), though identical in Latin/Greek. This Saba gave name to the Sabaeans of Arabia Felix. Margins: Saba; Sabaei. ↩
  3. §47. The Sabaeans (Pliny bk. 6 ch. 28: famed for frankincense, dwelling to both seas); Isaiah joins Chus and Saba as neighbors (Chus by the Isthmus/Red Sea, Saba by the Arabian Gulf). ‘Both seas’ = Persian and Red/Arabian, and both Sabaean nations (from Saba son of Chus and Saba son of Regma) — a distinction the pagan writers missed. Margins: Pliny bk. 6 ch. 28; Isa 45. ↩
  4. §47 (cont.). Ps 72:10 (‘kings of Scheba and Saba,’ Hebrew) and Isa 45:14 join the two Sabaean nations as neighbors (Regma's line toward the Persian Gulf, Chus's toward the Arabian); Isa joins Chus/Mesraim/Saba = Egyptians/Arabs (eastern Ethiopians)/Sabaeans, and the Hebrew ‘men of measure’ (tall stature) justifies the Vulgate's ‘tall men.’ ↩
  5. §47 (concl.). The fame of Arabia Felix/Eudaemon: Mela (bk. 3 ch. 8) and a long Strabo passage (bk. 16) on Sabaean spices (frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, balsam), idle luxury, gold/ivory furnishings, raids into Syria. The Sabaeans, world's richest nation, sprang from Chus (parent of Arabs or Ethiopians — see above). Pagan etymology: ‘Sabaei’ from Gk σέβειν, ‘to worship,’ from incense-worship. Margins: Mela bk. 3 ch. 8; Strabo bk. 16; fertility of the Sabaeans' land. ↩
  6. §48. Chus's 2nd son Heuila: Jerome (after Josephus) = the Getulians of remote Africa; but Scripture (Gen 25; 1 Sam 15 — Ishmael, and Saul-Amalek ‘from Heuila to Sur facing Egypt’) suggests the Heuilaeans dwelt toward the Persian Gulf, near the Ishmaelites and Amalekites. Margins: Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; Josephus, Antiquities bk. 1. ↩
  7. §49. Chus's 3rd son Sabatha: Josephus equates the Sabathenes with the ‘Astabari,’ but Pererius can find no such nation in any author; he notes the river Astabaras (Strabo bks. 16–17, Mela bk. 1 ch. 9, Pliny bk. 5 ch. 9), a branch of the Nile around Meroë (continues p. 420). Margins: Josephus, Antiquities bk. 1; Astabari; Strabo; Mela; Pliny. ↩
  8. §49 (concl.). The Nile's channels at Meroë: Astaboras/Astapus (Mela), Astabores (‘from darkness’)/Astusapes (‘lurking’) (Pliny). Since Ptolemy names a city Sabatha in Arabia Felix, the Sabatheans may have lived there, mixed with the Chusaeans and Sabaeans. Margin: Ptolemy. ↩
  9. §50. Chus's 4th son Regma: joined with Seba in Ezek 27 (carrying gold, gems, aromatics to Tyre), so the Regmaeans neighbored the Sabaeans. Jerome notes Regma and Sabathaca lost their ancient names; Josephus likewise silent. The 5th son Sabathaca and his line probably withdrew to the far shores of Arabia Felix toward the Ocean, hence unknown to Jews/Syrians. Margins: Regma; Jerome. ↩