2 Kings ii, 19; an assembly or session, as Psa. i, 1, and the dwelliny of men, Gen. xxv, 49, and often. (3.) The word nj^izn, tekunah (from '(ZT\, takdn, to weigh), is rendered "seat" in the A. V., Job xxiii, 3, but means rather dwelling, abode. (4.) Finallv, shebeth, TCi'd, is the intinitive of the verb yashdb, 2'r^ (see No. 2, above), used substantively, as in Amos vi, 3,
Orientals usually seat themselves upon mats or car- pets on the floor. In the houses of the wealthy there are spread pillows, or cushions, stuffed with cotton ; and sometimes broad low sofas, or divans, are used, with arms, stuffed cushions, and costly ornaments. Upon these divans, as well as upon the floor, they sit with the legs bent un<ler, and crossed in a half-kneeling posture. Among some of them Europeans have even introduced chairs. The Ancient Egyptians had chairs and otto- mans in great variety and of the most elegant forms,
Ancient Egyptian Chair. (Now in the British Mnsenm.)
much in the modern fashion (Wilkinson, ^wc. 7i7w'- h 58 scj.) ; and no doubt the wealthy Hebrews imitated them. See Handicraft. In later times the Hebrews adopted the custom of reclining upon couches at table (1 Sam, ix, 22; Amos vi, 4; Esth. vii, 8; Matt, xxiii, 6; Luke vii, 37, 38), Among the Komans a chair of a particular form was used by the magistrates when ad- ministering justice, and this is calleil " the judgment- seat" (Matt, xxvii, 19; Acts xviii, 12, 16; Kom, xiv, 10), See Judgment-seat,
The place in which a person is seated regulates, in Eastern nations, the degree of rank or precedence which he claims for himself or receives from others. In Persia the distance from the tiirone within which the dignita- ries of the court and nobles may sir is regulated by the strictest etiquette. The same particularity is observed in every department of public and private life, in the formal divan, in the social feast, and even in the retire- ment of the domestic chamber. To tiiis peculiarity there are many allusions in Scripture: thus "tlie seat of Moses," in which the scribes and Piiarisees sat, ex- presses metaphorically the dignity which belonged to tiieir office as teachers or expimnders of the law; "the seat of honor," to which allusion is made in the Apocry- pha, was the highest seat in the synagogue so much coveted by the Pharisees. Thrones are mentioned only in reference to deity or sovereignty; every other kind of dignity is determined by the seat. It was usual for persons who were greatly respected to be employed as judges or arbitrators; and for such seats were provided in some public place, round which the people respect- fully stood, paying the most respectful reverence to the
SEBA
495
SEBA
person deemed worthy of occupying the seat. See At- titude.
Se'ba (Heb. Seba', NHD ; Sept. Sn/Srr, occasionally Eol}vii, V. r. in Chron. Srt/i«r), the oldest son of Cash (B.C. cir. 2500), and hence a country and people among the Cushites ((ien. x, 7; 1 Chron. i, 9), named in con- nection with Egyptians, Cushites, and Arabians (Sab;e- ans) (Isa. xliii, 3; xlv, 14; Psa. Ix.xii, 10), and in Isa. xlv, 14 ; Ezek. xxiii, 42, as a rich and proud race. (The following account is based in part upon tiiat of Poole, in Smith's iJict. ufthe Bible.)
1. Name. — Besides the singular form above, there is given the plural D'^X-D (Sept. Saliaa/i, ZajSatifi; Vulg. Sabuini), incorrectly rendered " Saba?ans," a name given in the A. V. with more probability to the 0^X3"^ (Joel iii, 8 [Heb. text, iv, 8]); and to Shehi, used for the people (Job i, 15); but it would have been better had the original orthography been followed in both cases by such ren<lerings as " people of Seba," " people of Sheba," where the gentile nouns occur. See Sab.e-
AN; SllEBA.
If Seba be of Hebrew or cognate origin, it may be connected with the root N30, saba, '"he drank to ex- cess," which would not be inappropriate to a nation seated, as we shall see was that of Seba, in a well-wa- tered country; but the comparison of two other similar names of Cushites, Sabtah (nnno) and Sabtechah (XDinilD), does not favor this supposition, as they were probably seated in Arabia, like the Cushite Sheba (XS'J), which is not remote from Seba (N2p), the two letters being not unfrequenth' interchanged. Gesenius has suggested the Ethiopic subernj, " a man," as the or- igin of both Seba and Sheba, but this seems unlikely. The ancient Egyptian names of nations or tribes, pos- sibly countries, of Ethiopia, probably mainly, if not whol- ly, of Nigritian race, Sahaba, Sabaiii (Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. ii, 9, tav. xii, K. 1), are more to the point; and it is needless to cite later geographical names of cities, though that of one of the upper confluents of the Nile, Astasobas, compared with Astaboras, and Astapus, seems worthy of notice as perhaps indicating the name of a na- tion. The proper names of the first and second kings of the Ethiopian 2oth dynasty of Egypt, Shebek (N'D) and Shebetek, may also be compared. Gesenius was led, by an error of the Egyptologists, to connect Sevechus, a Greek transcription of Shebetek, with Sabk or Sbuk, the crocodile- headed divinity of Ombos {Lex, s. v, X10).