Genesis 10:28

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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עוֹבָ֥ל

ʻÔwbâl

H5745

“Obal”

Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: of foreign derivation

TWOT: None

Obal = "stripped bare" - a son of Joktan and the founder of an Arab tribe

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
4: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

עוֹבָ֥ל Obal H5745

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

עוֹבָ֥ל Obal H5745
אֲבִֽימָאֵ֖ל Abimael H39

Shared distinctive vocabulary

אֲבִֽימָאֵ֖ל Abimael H39 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

1 Chronicles 1:22

Grammatical profile

3 nouns
3 particles

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 3 words from the Hebrew and 5 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 4 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 10:28 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 25:3 Jokshan became the father of Sheba, and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
1 Kings 10:1 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh, she came to prove him with hard questions.
1 Chronicles 1:20–28 Joktan became the father of Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 10:28 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאֶת עוֹבָ֥ל וְאֶת אֲבִֽימָאֵ֖ל וְאֶת שְׁבָֽא

Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 10:28 Septuagint · lemma form

καί αβιμεηλ καί σαβευ

Eval, and Abimael, and Saba,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְיָת עוֹבָל וְיָת אֲבִימָאֵל וְיָת שְׁבָא

and Obal, and Avimael, and Sheba,

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְיַת עוֹבָל וְיַת אֲבִימָאֵל וְיַת שְׁבָא

and Oval, and Avimael, and Sheba,

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 10:28 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 28. See Clarke on Ge 10:26.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

28. Obal] In 1Ch_1:22 Ebal, where LXX Cod. B omits. Here several MSS. of the LXX omit the name.

Sheba] See also Gen_10:7 : presumably the Sabeans of south-west Arabia whose extant inscriptions shew that at one time they must have been a prosperous and civilized community. For the Queen of Sheba, see 1 Kings 10.

For its exports of frankincense cf. Isa_60:6, Jer_6:20. Its merchandise is mentioned in Job_6:19, Eze_27:22, Psa_72:10.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba. The first of these, Obal, or Aubal, as the Arabs pronounce, Bochart (t) is obliged to make his posterity pass over the straits of the Arabian Gulf out of Arabia Felix into Arabia Troglodytice; where he finds a bay, called by Pliny (u) the Abalite bay, which carries in it some trace of this man's name, and by Ptolemy (v) the Avalite bay; and where was not only an emporium of this name, but a people called Avalites and also Adulites, which Bishop Patrick believes should be read "Abulites", more agreeably to the name of this man, but Pliny (w) speaks of a town of the Adulites also: Abimael is supposed by Bochart (x) to be the father of Mali, or the Malitae, as his name may be thought to signify, Theophrastus (y) making mention of a place called Mali along with Saba, Adramyta, and Citibaena, in spicy Arabia, which is the only foundation there is for this conjecture: Sheba gave name to the Sabaeans, a numerous people in Arabia; their country was famous for frankincense; the nations of them, according to Pliny (z), reached both seas, that is, extended from the Arabian to the Persian Gulf; one part of them, as he says (a), was called Atramitae, and the capital of their kingdom Sabota, on a high mountain, eight mansions from which was their frankincense country, called Saba; elsewhere he says (b), their capital was called Sobotale, including sixty temples within its walls; but the royal seat was Mariabe; and so Eratosthenes in Strabo (c) says, the metropolis of the Sabaeans was Mariaba, or, as others call it, Merab, and which, it seems, is the same with Saba; for Diodorus Siculus (d) and Philostorgius (e) say, the metropolis of the Sabaeans is Saba; and which the former represents as built on a mountain, as the Sabota of Pliny is said to be,

(t) Ut supra, (Phaleg. l. 2.) c. 23. (u) Nat. Hist. l. 26. c. 29. (v) Geograph. l. 4. c. 7, 8. (w) Nat. Hist. l. 26. c. 29. (x) Ut supra. (Phaleg. l. 2. c. 24.) (y) Ut supra, (Hist. Plant. l. 9.) c.4. (z) Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. (a) Ib. l. 12. c. 14. (b) Ut supra. (Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28.) (c) Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. (d) Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 180. (e) Hist. Ecclesiast. l. 3. p. 477.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

A different person from him Gen 10:7, and the father of another people, having only the same name with him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

28. Obal — Not identified.

Abimael — Father of Mael. An Arabic style of naming. Among the Arabs a man is sometimes named from his son, as among the Hebrews from his father.

Sheba — A kingdom in Yemen, or Arabia Felix, often mentioned by the classic and Arabic writers. Its chief cities were Uzal and Sepher. It was the queen of this country who visited Solomon. There are ancient buildings in this region, evidently of Cushite origin, showing a very ancient connexion between this and the Cushite Sheba of Gen_10:7.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 6 words (4 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻÔwbâl (“Obal”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “Obal” (ʻÔwbâl) contribute to the verse as a whole?
1 word here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Why might the author reach for such rare wording?
2 words make their first appearance in Scripture here. What does this debut establish?
How does 1 Chronicles 1:22, which shares the word «Abimael», read alongside this verse?
Compare how Adam Clarke's Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
2 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 4 Greek words.
4 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.