Genesis 10:7

7. Sons of Cush The Cushite Ethiopians and Arabians .

Seba Inhabitants of Meroe of the Upper Nile, situated on the peninsula (called an island by Herodotus) formed by the Astaboras and the Nile, about eight hundred miles south of Syene. It is often mentioned by the classic writers, and by the Hebrew poets and prophets, as a land of precious woods and metals, the thoroughfare of caravans that traded between Egypt and Ethiopia, and between both of these countries and India. Queen Candace, mentioned in Acts 8:27, seems to have reigned here . Heeren and others consider Meroe the mother of Egyptian civilization, but Rawlinson considers it the daughter . ( Herod . , 2: 46 . )

Havilah The Macrobian Ethiopians, who dwelt in what is now Abyssinia. There was also a Shemitic Havilah (Genesis 10:29) in Arabia. The two families probably intermingled, and thus bore a common name. See note on Cush.

Sabtah Ethiopians of Hadramont, in South Arabia, whose chief city was Sabta, Sabota, or Sabotha. Arrian mentions inhabitants of South Arabia, distinguished from true Arabs by stature, darker skin, and habits of life, such as eating fish, (ichthyophagi.) Niebuhr and other travellers and missionaries confirm these differences, and also declare that the language of this people differs wholly from the Arabic. (Knobel.)

Raamah This name still remains in South-eastern Arabia, the Rhegma of the old geographers, where, according to Pliny and Ptolemy, dwelt a fish-eating people, (ichthyophagi.) We learn from travellers that they still exist in Omaun, distinguished from the Arabs by colour, language, and habits. (Ritter.) The merchants of Raamah and Sheba are mentioned by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27:22) as trading at Tyre in spices, precious stones, and gold . Sheba is to be distinguished from the Shemitic Sheba, (Genesis 10:28.) The Cushite Sheba was on the Persian Gulf, traces of which may, perhaps, be found in the modern Saba, the thoroughfare of the Hebrew commerce with India. The Shemitic Sheba was an Arabic town in South Arabia, and appears as a kingdom in the days of Solomon, when the “queen of Sheba” came, with a caravan laden with gold and precious stones and “great store of spices,” to test the wisdom of the Hebrew king. Dedan is probably still to be traced in Dodan, on the east coast of Arabia. Sheba and Dedan are also given (Genesis 25:3) as descendants of Abraham by Keturah . This also seems to point to an early intermingling of the Shemitic and Hamitic families .

Sabtecha The dark-skinned Carmanians. (They were a fish-eating people,) described by the old settlers as dwelling on the coast east of the Persian Gulf. They had a river and a city Sabis.