Job 1:15

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

Ezekiel 23:42

23:42 The sound of a carefree crowd accompanied her, ⁶  including all kinds of men; ⁷  even Sabeans ⁸  were brought from the desert. The sisters ⁹  put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.

Joel 3:8

3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to ¹⁰  the people of Judah. ¹¹ 

They will sell them to the Sabeans, ¹²  a nation far away.

Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

[1:15]  ¹ 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]  ² tn The Hebrew is simply “fell” (from נָפַל, nafal). To “fall upon” something in war means to attack quickly and suddenly.

[1:15]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The pleonasms in the verse emphasize the emotional excitement of the messenger.

[23:42]  ⁶ tn Heb “(was) in her.”

[23:42]  ⁷ tn Heb “and men from the multitude of mankind.”

[23:42]  ⁸ tn An alternate reading is “drunkards.” Sheba is located in the area of modern day Yemen.

[23:42]  ⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referents (the sisters) have been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[3:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “into the hand of.”

[3:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”

[3:8]  ¹² sn The Sabeans were Arabian merchants who were influential along the ancient caravan routes that traveled through Arabia. See also Job 1:15; Isa 43:3; 45:14; Ps 72:10.