Genesis 25:3

25:3 Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. ¹  The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites.

Job 1:15

1:15 and the Sabeans ²  swooped down ³  and carried them all away, and they killed ⁴  the servants with the sword! ⁵  And I – only I alone ⁶  – escaped to tell you!”

[25:3]  ¹ sn The names Sheba and Dedan appear in Gen 10:7 as descendants of Ham through Cush and Raamah. Since these two names are usually interpreted to be place names, one plausible suggestion is that some of Abraham’s descendants lived in those regions and took names linked with it.

[1:15]  ² tn The LXX has “the spoilers spoiled them” instead of “the Sabeans swooped down.” The translators might have connected the word to שְָׁבָה (shavah, “to take captive”) rather than שְׁבָא (shÿva’, “Sabeans”), or they may have understood the name as general reference to all types of Bedouin invaders from southern Arabia (HALOT 1381 s.v. שְׁבָא 2.c).

[1:15]  ³ tn The Hebrew is simply “fell” (from נָפַל, nafal). To “fall upon” something in war means to attack quickly and suddenly.

[1:15]  ⁴ sn Job’s servants were probably armed and gave resistance, which would be the normal case in that time. This was probably why they were “killed with the sword.”

[1:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the edge/mouth of the sword”; see T. J. Meek, “Archaeology and a Point of Hebrew Syntax,” BASOR 122 (1951): 31-33.

[1:15]  ⁶ tn The pleonasms in the verse emphasize the emotional excitement of the messenger.