Hebrew word · H5436

סְבָאִים

soa'im

Sabean

Read as סְבָאִים: Sabeans, the people of Sheba (Saba) in south-west Arabia, famous for incense, spices and gold carried by caravan. Read from the root סָבָא: heavy drinkers, guzzlers (Deut 21:20; Prov 23:20–21; Isa 56:12; Nah 1:10).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

People descended from Sheba, a man of the Cushites living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.10.7;

son of: Raamah (H7484);

brother of: Dedan (H1719B); also called Sabean at Job.1.15; 3x

Group of she.va (שְׁבָא "Sheba" H7614)

§ Sabeans = "drunkards"

the people of Seba

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 23:42

Range of meaning

Read as סְבָאִים: Sabeans, the people of Sheba (Saba) in south-west Arabia, famous for incense, spices and gold carried by caravan. Read from the root סָבָא: heavy drinkers, guzzlers (Deut 21:20; Prov 23:20–21; Isa 56:12; Nah 1:10).

Against the English

KJV and YLT follow the read-aloud tradition ('Sabeans'). BSB, WEB, ESV and NASB follow the written consonants ('drunkards'). Neither is careless; they choose different strands of the Hebrew tradition.

Used elsewhere in the period

Sheba's caravan trade: 1 Kgs 10; Isa 60:6; Jer 6:20; and Ezekiel's own trade list, 27:22–23, where 'merchants of Sheba' bring spices, precious stones and gold. Drinking sense: Prov 23:20–21, where 'guzzlers of wine' are paired with gluttons. Hebrew scribes marked a word whose written form differed from its customary reading (Ketiv/Qere); this is one such case.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 45:14 וּסְבָאִים֮ and [the] Sabeans

    This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you; they will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will confess to you: ‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.’”

    Here: The people of Seba, listed with Cush in Genesis 10:7 and Isaiah 43:3. They were probably African, near or beyond Cush. Seba is spelled differently from Sheba in south Arabia.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 23:42 סָבָאִ֖ים Sabeans

    accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head.

    Here: As traditionally read aloud: Sabeans, the caravan traders of Sheba in south Arabia. As written: 'guzzlers, drunkards'. The two words differ by only one vowel letter, and the pun may be intended: the far-off 'Sabeans' are 'soakers'.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.