Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 7. Seba] The founder of the Sabaeans. There seem to be three different people of this name mentioned in this chapter, and a fourth in chap. xxv. 3.
Havilah] Supposed by some to mean the inhabitants of the country included within that branch of the river Pison which ran out of the Euphrates into the bay of Persia, and bounded Arabia Felix on the east.
Sabtah] Supposed by some to have first peopled an isle or peninsula called Saphta, in the Persian Gulf.
Raamah] Or Ragmah, for the word is pronounced both ways, because of the [ ain, which some make a vowel, and some a consonant. Ptolemy mentions a city called Regma near the Persian Gulf; it probably received its name from the person in the text.
Sabtechah] From the river called Samidochus, in Caramanla; Bochart conjectures that the person in the text fixed his residence in that part.
Sheba] Supposed to have had his residence beyond the Euphrates, in the environs of Charran, Eden, &c.
Dedan.] Supposed to have peopled a part of Arabia, on the confines of Idumea.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - This chapter shows concerning the three sons of Noah, that of them wa the whole earth overspread. No nation but that of the Jews can be sure from which of these seventy it has come. The lists of names of father and sons were preserved of the Jews alone, for the sake of the Messiah Many learned men, however, have, with some probability, shown which of the nations of the earth descended from each of the sons of Noah To the posterity of Japheth were allotted the isles of the gentiles; probably the island of Britain among the rest. All places beyond the sea from Judea are called isles, Jer 25:22. That promise, Isa 42:4, The isle shall wait for his law, speaks of the conversion of the gentiles to the faith of Christ.
Original Hebrew ובני1121 כושׁ3568 סבא5434 וחוילה2341 וסבתה5454 ורעמה7484 וסבתכא5455 ובני1121 רעמה7484 שׁבא7614 ודדן׃1719
