1 Chronicles 1:9

I will not go into details, but I will say this. In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged languages, families, and nations. This is the only place that gives the rise of the different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided in this way? … This is the divine ethnology. Here man is at sea.

Shem is mentioned first in verse 4, although he is not the firstborn… But the genealogies of Japheth and of Ham come before his (vv. 5-16), as in Genesis 10. In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place, but in the natural order what is spiritual is not first… The same is true of Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh.

Genesis 10 deals with the distribution of the nations on the earth. Those developments would be useless for the aim of the book we are now considering. For the same reason the boundaries of the Canaanites in Genesis 10:18-20 and those of the sons of Joktan are passed over in complete silence here.

The man Seba gave his name to the country and people afterwards known as Meroë, between Ethiopia and Egypt.

Raamah is easier to identify, not only through his own name, but through his sons' names too. Indeed Ezekiel names father and son, represented long afterwards by the merchants from the eastern coast of Arabia. "The traders of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the best of all kinds of spices and all precious stones and gold" (Ezek. 27:22). These were above all the products of Arabia Felix on the Persian Gulf.

Of Sheba and Dedan, sons of Raamah… this much may be noticed: in Ezekiel 27 Sheba occurs twice. First, with Raamah in verse 22, which fixes him as the Cushite in the same part of Arabia. Second, with Asshur and others in verse 23, which points to the Shemitic line. The different merchandise of each confirms it. In the same way the men of Dedan in Ezekiel 27:15 appear to be Cushites on the Persian Gulf… But verse 20 marks out a different Dedan. They seem to be Shemitic through Keturah.

Sabteca is the last-named of Cush's sons, and Scripture makes no mention of him beyond the genealogical list here and in 1 Chronicles 1. So we cannot say anything certain.

The way God gives us history is not at all the way men give it… The names of the nations given here appear throughout the Bible, and they keep their characters through all of history right to the end. In Ezekiel, especially in Ezekiel 38 and 39, we find many of these names mentioned in connection with the very last days.

Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish would be ready to profit by the wickedness of Gog. They would either do business with the plunderer or loot in his wake. They did not have the power to rob Israel… But they were ready to profit from any circumstances that might turn out favourable.