Sheth

Sheth appears in two distinct biblical contexts. In Numbers 24:17, Balaam's fourth oracle contains the enigmatic poetic line: and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. The Revised Version renders children of Sheth as sons of tumult (from the Hebrew sheth, tumult or pride), treating it as a poetic synonym for the warlike nations rather than a proper name. Some interpreters, however, have proposed that Sheth refers to a specific tribe or to Seth the son of Adam, making all humanity the object of the prophecy.

The second occurrence is in 1 Chronicles 1:1, where Sheth appears in the genealogy from Adam to Abraham, equivalent to Seth the son of Adam (from the Hebrew Shet). This reflects the use of variant spellings in the biblical text for the same figure. The Balaam oracle in Numbers 24 is typically understood as a messianic prophecy pointing to a future king from Israel who will achieve universal dominion — applied in Jewish and Christian tradition to the Davidic Messiah.