What Does Genesis 10:7 Mean?

(7) **Sons of Cush.**—Of Cush there are five subdivisions, of which one is again parted into two. These are— **1. Seba.**—The name at this time of an Arabian tribe, which subsequently migrated into Africa, and settled in Meroë, which, according to Josephus, still bore in his days this appellation. They also left their name on the eastern side of the Red Sea, not far to the north of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. **2. Havilah, **upon the river Pison (Genesis 2:11), was undoubtedly a region of Arabia, situated probably upon the Persian Gulf. Havilah is again mentioned in Genesis 10:29. **3. Sabtah.**—Probably Hadramaut, in Arabia Felix. (See Note on Genesis 10:26.) **4. Raamah, **on the Persian Gulf, was divided into Dedan upon the south-west and Sheba in the centre, while Havilah lay upon the north-west side. Of these, Sheba subsequently rose to fame as the kingdom of the Himyarite Arabs. **5. Sabtechah.**—Apparently still more to the south of Dedan, but placed by some on the eastern side of the gulf. Thus, then, at the time when this table was written the southern half of Arabia was Cushite, and a swarthy race of men is still found there, especially in Yemen and Hadramaut, far darker than the light brown Arabians. Migrating from place to place along the sea-shore, the passage of the Cushites into Nubia and Abyssinia was easy. But their chief home was, at this period, in Mesopotamia, and the cuneiform inscriptions have now revealed their long struggle there with men of the race of Shem.