Josephus himself, in his own speech
to the Jews, Of the War, B. V. ch. 9. sect. 4, speaks of Neehao, who was
also called Pharaoh, as the name of that king of Egypt with whom Abraham
was concerned; of which name Neehao yet we have elsewhere no mention
till the days of Josiah, but only of Pharaoh. And, indeed, it must
be conceded, that here, and sect. 5, we have more mistakes made by
Josephus, and those relating to the kings of Egypt, and to that queen of
Egypt and Ethiopia, whom he supposes to have come to see Solomon, than
almost any where else in all his Antiquities.

[16] That this queen of Sheba was a queen of Sabea in South Arabia, and
not of Egypt and Ethiopia, as Josephus here asserts, is, I suppose, now
generally agreed. And since Sabea is well known to be a country near the
sea in the south of Arabia Felix, which lay south from Judea also; and
since our Savior calls this queen, "the queen of the south," and says,
"she came from the utmost parts of the earth," Matthew 12:42; Luke
11:31, which descriptions agree better to this Arabia than to Egypt and
Ethiopia; there is little occasion for doubting in this matter.

[17] Some blame Josephus for supposing that the balsam tree might be
first brought out of Arabia, or Egypt, or Ethiopia, into Judea, by this
queen of Sheba, since several have said that of old no country bore this
precious balsam but Judea; yet it is not only false that this balsam was
peculiar to Judea but both Egypt and Arabia, and particularly Sabea; had
it; which last was that very country whence Josephus, if understood not
of Ethiopia, but of Arabia, intimates this queen might bring it first
into Judea. Nor are we to suppose that the queen of Sabaea could well
omit such a present as this balsam tree would be esteemed by Solomon, in
case it were then almost peculiar to her own country. Nor is the mention
of balm or balsam, as carried by merchants, and sent as a present out
of Judea by Jacob, to the governor of Egypt, Genesis 37:25; 43:11, to
be alleged to the contrary, since what we there render balm or balsam,
denotes rather that turpentine which we now call turpentine of Chio, or
Cyprus, the juice of the turpentine tree, than this precious balm. This
last is also the same word that we elsewhere render by the same mistake
balm of Gilead; it should be rendered, the turpentine of Gilead,
Jeremiah 8:22.

[18] Whether these fine gardens and rivulets of Etham, about six miles
from Jerusalem, whither S