Genesis · Chapter 10

Verse 1. Now these are the generations] It is extremely difficult to say what particular nations and people sprang from the three grand divisions of the family of Noah, because the names of many of those ancient people have become changed in the vast lapse of time from the deluge to the Christian era; yet some are so very distinctly marked that they can be easily ascertained, while a few still retain their original names. Moses does not always give the name of the first settler in a country, but rather that of the people from whom the country afterwards derived its name. Thus Mizraim is the dual of Mezer, and could never be the name of an individual. The like may be said of Kittim, Dodanim, Ludim, Ananim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, Philistim, and Caphtorim, which are all plurals, and evidently not the names of individuals, but of families or tribes. See Genesis 10:4, 6, 13, 14. In the posterity of Canaan we find whole nations reckoned in the genealogy, instead of the individuals from whom they sprang; thus the Jebusite, Amorite, Girgasite, Hivite, Arkite, Sinite, Arvadite, Zemarite, and Hamathite, Genesis 10:16-18, were evidently whole nations or tribes which inhabited the promised land, and were called Canaanites from Canaan, the son of Ham, who settled there.

Moses also, in this genealogy, seems to have introduced even the name of some places that were remarkable in the sacred history, instead of the original settlers. Such as Hazarmaveth, Genesis 10:26; and probably Ophir and Havilah, Genesis 10:29. But this is not infrequent in the sacred writings, as may be seen 1 Chronicles 2:51, where Salma is called the father of Bethlehem, which certainly never was the name of a man, but of a place sufficiently celebrated in the sacred history; and in 1 Chronicles 4:14, where Joab is called the father of the valley of Charashim, which no person could ever suppose was intended to designate an individual, but the society of craftsmen or artificers who lived there. Eusebius and others state (from what authority we know not) that Noah was commanded of God to make a will and bequeath the whole of the earth to his three sons and their descendants in the following manner:-To Shem, all the East; to Ham, all Africa; to Japheth, the Continent of Europe with its isles, and the northern parts of Asia. See the notes at the end of the preceding chapter. See Clarke’s note “Genesis 9:29”.

Verse 1. Although this chapter may appear to some unprofitable, it is indeed of great use. 1st, It gives us a true, and the only true account of the origin of the several nations of the world. 2d, It discovers and distinguishes from all other nations, the people in which God’s church was to be preserved, and from which Christ was to come. 3d, It explains and confirms Noah’s prophecy concerning his three sons, and makes the accomplishment of it evident. 4th, It enables us to understand many other parts of Scripture, as well prophetical and poetical, as historical and doctrinal. It is therefore well worth our attention. These are the sons of Noah, Shem, &c. — Although Shem is always named first, when the sons of Noah are enumerated, because he was the progenitor of Abraham and of Christ, and because the church of God was continued in his line, yet it is generally thought he was the youngest of the three, and that Japheth, though always mentioned last, was the eldest.

V. 2. Moses begins with Japhet’s family, either because he was the eldest, or because that lay remotest from Israel, and had least concern with them, at that time when Moses wrote; and therefore he mentions that race very briefly; hastening to give account of the posterity of Ham, who were Israel’s enemies, and of Shem, who were Israel’s ancestors: for it is the church that the scripture designed to be the history of, and of the nations of the world only as they were some way or other interested in the affairs of Israel.

Verse 2. The sons of Japheth] Japheth is supposed to be the same with the Japetus of the Greeks, from whom, in an extremely remote antiquity, that people were supposed to have derived their origin. Gomer] Supposed by some to have peopled Galatia; so Josephus, who says that the Galatians were anciently named Gomerites. From him the Cimmerians or Cimbrians are supposed to have derived their origin. Bochart has no doubt that the Phrygians sprang from this person, and some of our principal commentators are of the same opinion. Magog] Supposed by many to be the father of the Scythians and Tartars, or Tatars, as the word should be written; and in great Tartary many names are still found which bear such a striking resemblance to the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, as to leave little doubt of their identity. Madai] Generally supposed to be the progenitor of the Medes; but Joseph Mede makes it probable that he was rather the founder of a people in Macedonia called Maedi, and that Macedonia was formerly called Emathia, a name formed from Ei, an island, and Madai, because he and his descendants inhabited the maritime coast on the borders of the Ionian Sea. On this subject nothing certain can be advanced.

Javan] It is almost universally agreed that from him sprang the Ionians, of Asia Minor; but this name seems to have been anciently given to the Macedonians, Achaians, and Bæotians.

Tubal] Some think be was the father of the Iberians, and that a part at least of Spain was peopled by him and his descendants; and that Meshech, who is generally in Scripture joined with him, was the founder of the Cappadocians, from whom proceeded the Muscovites.

Tiras.] From this person, according to general consent, the Thracians derived their origin.

Verse 2. Moses begins with Japheth’s family, either because he was the eldest, or because it lay most remote from Israel, and had least concern with them at the time when he wrote; and therefore he mentions that race very briefly; hastening to give account of the posterity of Ham, who were Israel’s enemies, and of Shem, who were Israel’s ancestors: for it is the church of which the Scripture is designed to be the history: and of the nations of the world, only as they were some way or other interested in the affairs of Israel.

Verse 2. The sons of Japhet were Gomer, &c. Japhet is the Iapetos of the Greeks. His blessing Niphtha occasioned him to be called Neptune by the Greeks. Gomer, the father of the Galatinians, or Galatians. Magog, father of the Scythians, north of the Euxine. Ezekiel 38:15. Madai, father of the Medes. Javan, the Prometheus of the Greeks; and Janus, father of the Ionians. Tubal, father of the Iberians, or ancient Spaniards, and others north of the Mediterranean sea. Meshech, father of the Moscovites, called Moschenos, Moschicos, Moschini, Mossyni, &c. Tiras, father of the Thracians, as all critics agree, for his name is evidently the primitive of the names of many towns and rivers.

SONS OF JAPHETH, 2-5.

2. Gomer — The word occurs elsewhere in the Scriptures only in Ezekiel 38:6, where it is, as here, associated with Togarmah. The name is undoubtedly preserved in the Homeric name Kimmerioi, the Gimiri in the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius Hystaspes, Cimmerians, Kymri or Kymbri, the original Kelts, (Celts,) and Gauls, who were found in possession of all northern and western Europe at the dawn of western civilization. This race settled first on the north of the Black Sea, where they have left traces of their name, as Crimea, Crim-Tartary; driven thence by the Scythians before the time of Herodotus, (Her., 4, 11,) they moved west and south-west to the sea. Traces of the original Celtic language are still preserved in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and the Scotch Highlands. The Galatians of Asia Minor, the Celtic people to whom Paul wrote his famous epistle, were called Gomerites by Josephus. The Celts call themselves Kymr, and by orthoepic changes between the liquids L, M, R, as well as the palatals K and G, changes such as are constantly taking place in spoken languages, the names Gomer, Kymr, Gaul, Kelt, Galatae, Kimmeri, Crimea, Cambria, Cumberland, all come from the same root. Linguistic affinities show that these people, the earliest inhabitants of Europe of whom we definitely know, were Asiatic in origin, for the Keltic is an Indo-European language.

Magog — The name probably means “the place,” (or region,) of Gog, and appears in Ezekiel 38:2, and 39:6, as the name of a people dwelling “in the sides of the north,” over whom Gog is king, identified by Josephus, Jerome, and most moderns with the Scythians, who in the time of Herodotus had their home north of the range of Caucasus, in what is now Russia. Furst interprets Magog as Great Mount, that is, Caucasus. The region between the Black and Caspian Seas was called Magog by the Arabians. They came into Europe after the Kelts, a fierce, formidable, nomadic race, who poured down upon Asia Minor and Egypt in the seventh century B.C. (Herod., 4.)

Madai — This word is nowhere else in the Bible rendered as the name of a person, but, whenever it occurs, it is translated Media, or the Medes, (see 2 Kings 17:6; Esther 1:3, 18, 19,) a powerful nation who once dwelt south and south-west of the Caspian, east of Armenia and Assyria. The Medes are here represented in close affinity with the Kelts (Gomer) and the Greeks, (Javan,) confirming Schlegel’s theory, now deemed established by linguistic researches, that the principal European and East Indian nations are of the same Aryan stock, having in a prehistoric period migrated westward and eastward from the high land of Ivan. This theory is embodied in the word Indo-European.

Javan — ˆwy, Yavan, translated Greece in Zechariah 9:13; Daniel 8:21, etc.; and its plural is rendered Grecians in Joel 4:6. Ionia, the name of a western province of Asia Minor, colonized at an early period by the Greeks, and applied by the Orientals to the Greeks in general. The Rosetta Stone shows that the Egyptians called the Greeks by the same name. The word occurs with the same meaning in Sanskrit and old Persian, showing that the name existed before the rise of the Aryan, Hamitic, and Shemitic families of speech. (Knobel.) The famous Greco-Italian races, which did not arise till many centuries after the composition of this narrative, inhabiting Macedonia, Thessaly, the Greek and Italian peninsulas, and west Asia Minor, are foreshadowed in this name.

Tubal, and Meschech — These peoples are constantly associated together by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 27:13; 32:26; 38:1, 2, etc.,) and by Herodotus, (Herod., 3:94, 7:78.) They are likewise, according to Rawlinson, associated in the Assyrian inscriptions. Josephus identifies Tubal with the Iberians, who once dwelt between the Caspian and Euxine Seas. Knobel considers the Tibareni to have been only a branch of the widespread Iberians, some of whom settled in the east, some in the west. The Moschi were the ancestors of the Muscovites, builders of Moskwa, or Moscow, and still give Russia its name throughout the East. Ezekiel says that they came down from the “sides of the north,” and traded in copper and slaves in the markets of Tyre. Ezekiel 27:13. Tiras — Thracians, who dwelt between Mt. Haemus and the AEgean, on the south-west shore of the Black Sea. They are associated with Meshech (Meshnash) on the old Egyptian monuments. (Rawlinson.)

Verse 3. Ashkenaz] Probably gave his name to Sacagena, a very excellent province of Armenia. Pliny mentions a people called Ascanitici, who dwelt about the Tanais and the Palus Mæotis; and some suppose that from Ashkenaz the Euxine Sea derived its name, but others suppose that from him the Germans derived their origin.

Riphath] Or Diphath, the founder of the Paphlagonians, which were anciently called Riphatæi.

Togarmah.] The Sauromates, or inhabitants of Turcomania. See the reasons in Calmet.

Ver. 3. The sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, or Ascenaz, father of the Esclavonians, or the Ascanii, who found their way in the east of Germany. Riphath, or Diphath, (1 Chronicles 1:6) father of the Paphlagonians, who inhabited Pontus and Bithynia. Togarmah, father of the Tygramenians, or the Turks,

3. Sons of Gomer — Sub-families of the Gomeridae, or Cimmerians, Kimbri.

Ashkenaz — Or Askenaz. Kenaz means family, family of the Asi, who lived in the north-west of Asia Minor, and from whom Asia derives its name. (Knobel.) By metathesis the name becomes Aksenaz, possibly the old name of the Black Sea, which the Greeks called axenov, Euxine. (Lewis.) The Greek name is usually understood, however, to mean inhospitable.

Riphath — The portion of the Kelts who, according to Plutarch, crossed the Rhipoen (Carpathian) mountains, and poured over northern Europe, seem to have preserved this name.

Togarmah — The Armenians, who, according to their own historians, had Thorgon for their founder, and call themselves the house (family) of Thorgon. (Furst, Knobel.) They originally dwelt in Armenia and Asia Minor, but poured across the Hellespont into Europe before the dawn of history, and, according to Sallust, (Jugurtha, 18,) spread over the Mediterranean peninsulas even to Spain. They are mentioned by Ezekiel (chap. 27:14) as trading at the Tyrian markets in horses, horsemen, and mules, which they brought down from the Armenian highlands to the sea.

Verse 4. Elishah] As Javan peopled a considerable part of Greece, it is in that region that we must seek for the settlements of his descendants; Elishah probably was the first who settled at Elis, in Peloponnesus. Tarshish] He first inhabited Cilicia, whose capital anciently was the city of Tarsus, where the Apostle Paul was born.

Kittim] We have already seen that this name was rather the name of a people than of an individual: some think by Kittim Cyprus is meant: others, the isle of Chios; and others, the Romans; and others, the Macedonians. Dodanim.] Or Rodanim, for the d and r may be easily mistaken for each other, because of their great similarity. Some suppose that this family settled at Dodona in Epirus; others at the isle of Rhodes; others, at the Rhone, in France, the ancient name of which was Rhodanus, from the Scripture Rodanim.

Ver. 4. The sons of Javan, Elishah, father of the Greek tribes, generally called Hellenists, who inhabited Achaia, &c. From them arose many names of persons, as Helen; of towns, as Eleusis, Elis; and the country Peloponnesus. Tarshish, father of the Tharsenians; hence Tarsis, a city of Cilicia. This name is often rendered by the LXX Carthage, as Isaiah 23:6. Jonah took a ship, it is more likely, to Carthage than to Tarsis. We cannot deny that the first settlers in Cadiz might give the name of Tartessus, from the same father of a race who delighted in the seas. Kittim, or Chittim, father of the Cittii, Cretians, Cyprians, &c. Dodanim, or Rhodamis, (1 Chronicles 1:7) father of the Rhodians; hence the names of cities, Rhodano and Dodano.

4. Sons of Javan — Rather, Yavan, the Ionian families.

Elishah — The AEolians, (Elis,) who occupied three fourths of Greece, and spread to the coasts and isles of Asia Minor. (Josephus, Knobel.) Tarshish — A famous commercial people well known to the sacred and classic writers, (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Strabo, Herodotus,) whence the Greek Tartessus and Tartessis, a town and region in southern Spain at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. According to Herodotus, Tartessus was settled by a colony of Phocaean Greeks, (i, 163,) the word signifying in Phenician, younger brother, (Rawl.,) a very suitable name for a colony. Their ships were so celebrated for size and fleetness as to give the name “ships of Tarshish” to all large merchant vessels wherever sailing. The ships of Tarshish (Ezekiel 27:12, etc.) brought gold and silver, iron, tin, and lead to Tyre, and these are precisely the articles which the classic writers, Strabo, etc., make the staple products of Spain. Knobel and Furst understand the word to refer to that Pelasgic-Hellenic race called Etruscans, Tuscans, Tyrsenians, who before the Roman dominion peopled Italy and the Sicilies, and thus carried the name to Spain. (Knobel, p. 86.) Hence, perhaps, Tarsus in Cilicia. (Josephus.)

Kittim — Cyprians, who still preserve the name in the term Kitti. Josephus says (Ant. 1:6) that the Helvens transferred the name Kittim to all the Mediterranean isles and coasts. The Cyprian Kittim is shown by its monuments to have been a Phenician colony, or at least to have had Phenician or Hamitic settlers. But there were also Hamitic Chittim, (Hittites, sons of Heth or Cheth,) see verse 15, a widespread people in the age of Solomon; and the Japhetic Kittim seem to have mingled at Cyprus with the Hamitic Chittim. (Knobel.)

Dodanim — Dardanians, Trojans, or perhaps it should be Rodanim, (interchange of d and r, in the first syllable,) as it is given in 1 Chronicles 1:7, and in some copies by the Septuagint and Samaritan. The Rodani, or Rhodians.

V. 5. The posterity of Japheth were allotted to the isles of the Gentiles, which were solemnly, by lot, after a survey, divided among them, and probably this island of ours among the rest. All places beyond the sea, from Judea, are called isles, Jeremiah 25:22, and this directs us to understand that promise, Isaiah 42:4, the isles shall wait for his law, of the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ.

Verse 5. Isles of the Gentiles] EUROPE, of which this is allowed to be a general epithet. Calmet supposes that it comprehends all those countries to which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea, such as Spain, Gaul, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor.

Every one after his tongue] This refers to the time posterior to the confusion of tongues and dispersion from Babel.

Verse 5. The posterity of Japheth were allotted to the isles of the Gentiles, which were solemnly by lot, after a survey, divided among them, and probably this island of ours among the rest. All places beyond the sea from Judea, are called isles. Jeremiah 25:22; and this directs us to understand that promise, Isaiah 42:4, The isles shall wait for his law, of the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ.

5. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided — Rather, from these [Japhethites] have the [dwellers on the] islands of the [Gentile] nations divided themselves in their lands. “Islands,” in the Old Testament, means the isles, coasts, and peninsulas of the Mediterranean. The writer knew only of the “enlargement” of Japheth over the Mediterranean coasts and isles, but modern linguistic and monumental research shows that these ancient Hebrew names outline those vast pre-historic migrations of the Japhetic race from the great plateau of Iran eastward into Asia, westward and north-westward into Asia Minor and Europe, the traces of which may be found to-day from the Indian peninsulas to the Atlantic, and from the Mediterranean to the frozen ocean. After his tongue… their families… nations — The peoples called Turanian (a linguistic, rather than an ethnic, name) were on the ground at the dawn of tradition itself, and their origin is yet obscure; successive families of the Indo-European (Aryan) race swept eastward and westward, wave after wave, each to a great degree obliterating the traces of its predecessor, yet, as Rawlinson expresses it, leaving detached fragments of the superseded race in holes and corners, as the Turanian Laps and Fins are left in their remote peninsulas — as the Keltic Welsh and Scotch are left in their highlands, mountains, and islands — scattered patches of peoples who once thinly covered the continent.

Verse 6. Cush] Who peopled the Arabic nome near the Red Sea in Lower Egypt. Some think the Ethiopians descended from him.

Mizraim] This family certainly peopled Egypt; and both in the East and in the West, Egypt is called Mezr and Mezraim.

Phut] Who first peopled an Egyptian nome or district, bordering on Libya. Canaan.] He who first peopled the land so called, known also by the name of the Promised Land.

Ver. 6. The sons of Ham, Cham, or Jupiter Hammon, the Cronus of the Greeks, were Cush, the Coum of the Greeks, the father of the Ethiopians and Abyssinians. It pleased God, whose works are various, to change the colour of his skin to black. Mizraim, or Misor of Sanchoniatho, and Osiris, worshipped in Egypt, was father of the Egyptians; the word is plural, and refers to his posterity. Egypt is called Masor. Isaiah 19:7. Micah 7:12 Micah

SONS OF HAM, 6-20.

The three first sons of Ham settled in Northern Africa. 1) The Ethiopians (Cushites) of the Upper Nile. 2) The Egyptians (Mizraim) of the Lower Nile. 3) The Libyans (the Phutites) west of the Egyptians, in the east of Northern Africa. The Cushites appear to have removed from the high North-east, (of Central Asia,) passing over India, Babylonia, and Arabia, in their course towards the south. The Canaanites settled between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan, and gave their name to the country. The name Poeni (Foinov) blood-red, denotes the original Hamitic colour of the Phenicians. Eastward from these the various families of the Hamites occupied the whole country of Arabia to the Persian Gulf; and under Nimrod they became the people of the first great empire, Babylonia. See Lange.

6. Ham — Or rather Cham, is from a root signifying to be hot, and hence burnt, black. The Hamites are dark-skinned peoples, dwelling mainly in the torrid zone. Ham is used frequently in Scripture for Egypt and the Egyptians, an Hamitic country and people. It, or its Egyptian equivalent, was also the common name for that land and people among the Egyptians themselves. It is written with two letters in the hieroglyphic language, K M, and occurs in the form Ch M E more than ten times on the Rosetta Stone. The Hamites are presented here, 1) as Cushite Ethiopians, Assyrians, Babylonians; 2) Egyptians; 3) Lybyans; 4) and Canaanites. Cush — Ethiopia in the Sept. and Vulg., and so often rendered in our version. Isaiah 43:3; 45:14, etc. Monumental and linguistic research has now established the long-disputed theory that there was an Asiatic as well as an African Cush. Lepsius finds the name in Egypt on monuments of the sixth dynasty, and Rawlinson proves an ethnic connexion between the Ethiopians and the primitive Babylonians. The later Babylonians were Shemitic in origin, but Knobel shows (Volk., p. 246) that the Cushites primarily peopled Babylonia and spread eastward to India. Thus has it been shown by the research of our own day that the Asiatic kingdoms of Nineveh and Babylon are Hamitic in origin. The African and the Asiatic Cush freely communicated with each other through Meroe, on the upper Nile, and the Red Sea, by caravans and ships.

Mizraim — This is the Hebrew name for Egypt and the Egyptians. It is primarily a geographical word, in the dual number, well rendered by Lewis the Narrows, a designation singularly descriptive of Egypt, which is a narrow strip of verdure threaded by the Nile, hundreds of miles in length and only a dozen or so in breadth, stretching from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean, and separating the deserts of Africa and Asia. The name was naturally imposed by the first Hamite settlers, and afterwards transferred from the country to its inhabitants.

Phut — Lybyans, in the wide sense of the word inhabitants of the North African coast west of Egypt. Ptolemy and Pliny mention a river Phtuth, (fqouq,) in north-western Africa. The Egyptian designation of Lybya is Phet, from Pet, Coptic Phit, a bow, by which symbol it is represented in the hieroglyphics. (Knobel, p. 296.) Jeremiah (xlvi, 9) associates Phut (Lybyans) with Cush, (Ethiopians,) as rising up against Pharaoh-necho; and Nahum (Nahum 3:9) makes Phut an ally with Nineveh in connexion with Ethiopia and Egypt.

Canaan — Rather, Kenaan, from a root signifying to be low. Hengstenberg supposes that Ham thus named his son in a tyrannical spirit, to denote the obedience which he exacted from him, though so irreverent himself, while God’s secret providence had a national humiliation in view in permitting the child to receive this name. Comp. Genesis 9:25, and the note. Some understand Kenaan as geographical, signifying Lowland, but this is not in harmony with Noah’s prophecy in Genesis 9:25, etc. Herodian states that the ancient name of Phenicia (Palm-land) was Cna, or Kenaan.

Verse 7. Seba] The founder of the Sabæans. There seem to be three different people of this name mentioned in this chapter, and a fourth in Genesis 25:3.

Havilah] Supposed by some to mean the inhabitants of the country included within that branch of the river Pison which ran out of the Euphrates into the bay of Persia, and bounded Arabia Felix on the east. Sabtah] Supposed by some to have first peopled an isle or peninsula called Saphta, in the Persian Gulf.

Raamah] Or Ragmah, for the word is pronounced both ways, because of the [ ain, which some make a vowel, and some a consonant. Ptolemy mentions a city called Regma near the Persian Gulf; it probably received its name from the person in the text.

Sabtechah] From the river called Samidochus, in Caramanla; Bochart conjectures that the person in the text fixed his residence in that part. Sheba] Supposed to have had his residence beyond the Euphrates, in the environs of Charran, Eden, &c.

Dedan.] Supposed to have peopled a part of Arabia, on the confines of Idumea.

7:12. And the capital of Egypt was called Messri by the Egyptians, Memphis by the Greeks, and Noph by the Hebrews. This change of the letters is common in ancient names, as Vulcan for Tubal Cain. Phut, father of the Lybians, and Mauritanians; that is, the country of the blacks. Many names of towns and rivers are derived from this primitive, as Pharsi, and Fez, &c. Canaan, father of the Canaanites. The word, applied to his posterity, no doubt designates a merchant. He is the Mercury of pagan fable.

Ver. 7. The sons of Cush; Saba, father of the Sabeans, who took Job’s oxen. They inhabited the south of Arabia, or the desert. Havilah, who gave his name to Ophir or Africa, the land where there is much gold. To place this patriarch near the Sabeans is without support; yet many make the Pison to be the Ganges, and place Havilah near the sources of that river.

7. Sons of Cush — The Cushite Ethiopians and Arabians. Seba — Inhabitants of Meroe of the Upper Nile, situated on the peninsula (called an island by Herodotus) formed by the Astaboras and the Nile, about eight hundred miles south of Syene. It is often mentioned by the classic writers, and by the Hebrew poets and prophets, as a land of precious woods and metals, the thoroughfare of caravans that traded between Egypt and Ethiopia, and between both of these countries and India. Queen Candace, mentioned in Acts 8:27, seems to have reigned here. Heeren and others consider Meroe the mother of Egyptian civilization, but Rawlinson considers it the daughter. (Herod., 2:46.) Havilah — The Macrobian Ethiopians, who dwelt in what is now Abyssinia. There was also a Shemitic Havilah (verse 29) in Arabia. The two families probably intermingled, and thus bore a common name. See note on Cush.

Sabtah — Ethiopians of Hadramont, in South Arabia, whose chief city was Sabta, Sabota, or Sabotha. Arrian mentions inhabitants of South Arabia, distinguished from true Arabs by stature, darker skin, and habits of life, such as eating fish, (ichthyophagi.) Niebuhr and other travellers and missionaries confirm these differences, and also declare that the language of this people differs wholly from the Arabic. (Knobel.) Raamah — This name still remains in South-eastern Arabia, the Rhegma of the old geographers, where, according to Pliny and Ptolemy, dwelt a fish-eating people, (ichthyophagi.) We learn from travellers that they still exist in Omaun, distinguished from the Arabs by colour, language, and habits. (Ritter.) The merchants of Raamah and Sheba are mentioned by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 27:22) as trading at Tyre in spices, precious stones, and gold. Sheba is to be distinguished from the Shemitic Sheba, (verse 28.) The Cushite Sheba was on the Persian Gulf, traces of which may, perhaps, be found in the modern Saba, the thoroughfare of the Hebrew commerce with India. The Shemitic Sheba was an Arabic town in South Arabia, and appears as a kingdom in the days of Solomon, when the “queen of Sheba” came, with a caravan laden with gold and precious stones and “great store of spices,” to test the wisdom of the Hebrew king. Dedan is probably still to be traced in Dodan, on the east coast of Arabia. Sheba and Dedan are also given (Genesis 25:3) as descendants of Abraham by Keturah. This also seems to point to an early intermingling of the Shemitic and Hamitic families.

Sabtecha — The dark-skinned Carmanians. (They were a fish-eating people,) described by the old settlers as dwelling on the coast east of the Persian Gulf. They had a river and a city Sabis.

V. 8. Began to be mighty on the earth-That is, whereas those that went before him were content to stand upon the same level with their neighbours, Nimrod could not rest in this parity, but he would top his neighbours, and lord over them. The same spirit that the giants before the flood were acted by, Genesis 6:4, now revived in him; so soon was that tremendous judgment, which the pride and tyranny of those mighty men brought upon the world, forgotten.

Verse 8. Nimrod] Of this person little is known, as he is not mentioned except here and and in 1 Chronicles 1:10, which is evidently a copy of the text in Genesis. He is called a mighty hunter before the Lord; and from Genesis 10:10, we learn that he founded a kingdom which included the cities Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Though the words are not definite, it is very likely he was a very bad man. His name Nimrod comes from drm, marad, he rebelled; and the Targum, on 1 Chronicles 1:10, says: Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord. The Jerusalem Targum says: “He was mighty in hunting (or in prey) and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men in their languages; and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod.” The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says: “From the foundation of the world none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, and in rebellions against the Lord.” The Syriac calls him a warlike giant. The word dyx tsayid, which we render hunter, signifies prey; and is applied in the Scriptures to the hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny. Hence it is likely that Nimrod, having acquired power, used it in tyranny and oppression; and by rapine and violence founded that domination which was the first distinguished by the name of a kingdom on the face of the earth. How many kingdoms have been founded in the same way, in various ages and nations from that time to the present! From the Nimrods of the earth, God deliver the world!

Mr. Bryant, in his Mythology, considers Nimrod as the principal instrument of the idolatry that afterwards prevailed in the family of Cush, and treats him as an arch rebel and apostate. Mr. Richardson, who was the determined foe of Mr. Bryant’s whole system, asks, Dissertation, p. 405, “Where is the authority for these aspersions? They are nowhere to be discovered in the originals, in the versions, nor in the paraphrases of the sacred writings.” If they are not to be found either in versions or paraphrases of the sacred writings, the above quotations are all false.

Ver. 8. Nimrod; that is, tyrant, revolter, rebel. A giant, as the LXX read; a man who formed designs of empire, by the subjugation of other tribes. He is generally regarded as the father of Ninus, and as having been worshipped under the name of Baal. But this idea does not seem to accord with a prophecy in the Voluspa, a northern poem of very high antiquity, which says, “Balthur shall come, and dwell with Hauthur in Thropt’s abode.”

8. Nimrod — If this is a Hebrew or Shemitic word, it is probably related to the verb drm, to rebel, and means, let us rebel; but it may be an Hamitic name. The author here naturally turns aside to notice the foundation of the first great monarchies of the earth, Babylon and Nineveh. Brief digressions of this kind are not uncommon with the Hebrew chroniclers. Comp. 1 Chronicles 2:4. Nimrod is clearly a person, and appears to be separately introduced as such, but he may have been removed several generations from Cush; for the Hebrew usage allows the dropping out of intermediate names in order to introduce an important personage. A mighty one — Mighty in personal prowess; warlike.

V. 9. Nimrod was a mighty hunter-This he began with, and for this became famous to a proverb. Some think he did good with his hunting, served his country by ridding it of wild beasts, and so insinuated himself into the affections of his neighbours, and got to be their prince. And perhaps, under pretence of hunting, he gathered men under his command, to make himself master of the country. Thus he became a mighty hunter, a violent invader of his neighbour’s rights and properties. And that, before the Lord-Carrying all before him, and endeavouring to make all his own by force and violence. He thought himself a mighty prince; but before the Lord, that is, in God’s account, he was but a mighty hunter. Note, Great conquerers are but great hunters. Alexander and Caesar would not make such a figure in scripture history as they do in common history. The former is represented in prophecy but as a he-goat pushing, Daniel 8:5. Nimrod was a mighty hunter against the Lord, so the seventy; that is, he set up idolatry, as Jeroboam did, for the confirming of his usurped dominion; that he might set up a new government, he set up a new religion upon the ruin of the primitive constitution of both.

Verse 9. Nimrod was a mighty hunter — In the Septuagint it is, He was a giant hunter: — the Arabic has it, He was a terrible giant before the Lord: and the Syriac, He was a great warrior. It is probable he began with hunting, and for this became famous to a proverb. He served his country by ridding it of wild beasts, and so insinuating himself into the affections of his neighbours, he got to be their prince. And perhaps, under pretence of hunting, he gathered men under his command, to make himself master of the country. Thus he became a mighty hunter, a violent invader of his neighbours’ rights and properties. Great conquerors are but great hunters before the Lord. Alexander and Cesar would not make such a figure in Scripture history as they do in common history. The former is represented in prophecy, but as a he-goat pushing, Daniel 8:5.

9. A mighty hunter — Or, a hero of hunting; a powerful man in the chase. Such a hero would also be likely to become a mighty warrior. Bold and expert hunters have usually been the great pioneers of civilization, and their prowess became developed by fierce conflicts both with savage beasts and savage men. The Assyrian monuments, covered with scenes of hunting and of war, commemorate the daring and the prowess of ancient Ninevite kings. Accordingly some of the best interpreters (as Delitzsch and Lange) regard this description of Nimrod as a praiseworthy account of his work as a pioneer of culture and civilization; and the proverb recorded in this verse, instead of being a stigma on his name, was rather intended to commemorate him as a benefactor of the race. Others, however, understand the words before the Lord to imply some hostility towards Jehovah; like the phrase before God (Elohim) in Genesis 6:11, which seems to enhance the wickedness of the antediluvians. So the Septuagint (enantion) and the Jerusalem Targum. These regard him as notoriously violent; so bad that God could not take his eyes from him. (Lewis.) Nimrod was the first of the long line of bloody conquerors whose cruel ambition has cursed the earth.

V. 10. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel-Some way or other, he got into power: and so laid the foundations of a monarchy which was afterwards a head of gold. It doth not appear that he had any right to rule by birth; but either his fitness for government recommended him, or by power and policy he gradually advanced into the throne. See the antiquity of civil government, and particularly that form of it which lodges the sovereignty in a single person.

Verse 10. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel] lbb babel signifies confusion; and it seems to have been a very proper name for the commencement of a kingdom that appears to have been founded in apostasy from God, and to have been supported by tyranny, rapine, and oppression.

In the land of Shinar.] The same as mentioned Genesis 11:2. It appears that, as Babylon was built on the river Euphrates, and the tower of Babel was in the land of Shinar, consequently Shinar itself must have been in the southern part of Mesopotamia.

Verse 10. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel — Some way or other, he got into power; and so laid the foundation of a monarchy which was afterward a head of gold. It does not appear that he had any right to rule by birth; but either his fitness for government recommended him, or by power and policy he gradually advanced himself to a throne. See the antiquity of civil government, and particularly of that form of it which lodges the sovereignty in a single person.

Ver. 10. Erech. The kingdom connected with this city, was called Irak by the Arabians, or Iran, as in Sir William Jones’s sixth discourse before the Society of Calcutta. Parthia, now Persia, afterwards obtained as the name of the whole country.

10. The beginning of his kingdom — He was the first to build great cities, the seats of luxury and idolatry, which have crushed the masses of mankind by bloody despotisms, whereas the primary design of God seems to have been for mankind to scatter themselves in smaller masses under a patriarchal government. The four places here mentioned may not have been founded by Nimrod personally; they are mentioned as the germs of the great Babylonian empire. Babel — Babylon, whose origin is more fully described in the next chapter, identified with the modern Babil. Erech — The great necropolis of Babylonia, situated on the Euphrates. Accad — A name often found by Rawlinson in the Babylonian inscriptions, the native name of the primitive inhabitants (and language) of Babylonia, (Rawl. Her., 1:319,) situated on the Tigris. This was the beginning of the famous empire of Babylon. Calneh — Ctesiphon, Sept., calannh, a compound of Kal or Khal, the almost universal Babylonian and Assyrian prefix denoting place, as Khal-asar, fort of Asshur, Khal-nevo, temple of Nebo, etc. (Rawl., Her., 1:480.) Anna is a Babylonian name for the first god in the Chaldean triad, corresponding to the Greek Pluto, and so Kal-neh, or calannh, probably means temple of Anna. Shinar is the early Hebrew name for the great plain afterward known as Babylonia or Chaldea, through which flow the lower Euphrates and the Tigris; perhaps derived from sh’ne and ar, signifying “two rivers.” The monuments and the cuneiform inscriptions of this region, now being deciphered, show the Hamitic origin of this kingdom, and its intimate relationship with Egypt. The Babylonian and Assyrian languages contain strong Shemitic elements, as well as Aryan traces, which have been very baffling to scholars; but Renan, a high authority on such a subject, concludes, from purely philological reasons, that the basis of the Assyro-Babylonian nationality was an Hamitic race, resembling the Egyptians; that this was succeeded by a large Shemitic population; and that this, in turn, was dominated over by Aryan (Japhetic) warriors. G. Rawlinson proves at length the Hamitic origin of the Chaldees (Ancient Mon., I, iii) from tradition, language, and physical characteristics. Thus was there a primeval fusion, as well as separation, of races on the plain of Shinar.

Babylon is often made in Scripture the type of unholy ambition, despotism, and idolatry. It is noteworthy that the covenant people founded no vast cities or military monarchies. Cain builds the first city; Nimrod founds Babylon and Nineveh; the descendants of Ishmael and Esau dwelt in cities, while the sons of Isaac and Jacob yet dwelt in tents, confessing “that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Verse 11. Out of that land went forth Asshur] The marginal reading is to be preferred here. He-Nimrod, went out into Assyria and built Nineveh; and hence Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, Micah 5:6. Thus did this mighty hunter extend his dominions in every possible way. The city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is supposed to have had its name from Ninus, the son of Nimrod; but probably Ninus and Nimrod are the same person. This city, which made so conspicuous a figure in the history of the world, is now called Mossul; it is an inconsiderable place, built out of the ruins of the ancient Nineveh.

Rehoboth, and Calah, &c.] Nothing certain is known concerning the situation of these places; conjecture is endless, and it has been amply indulged by learned men in seeking for Rehoboth in the Birtha of Ptolemy, Calah in Calachine, Resen in Larissa, &c., &c.

Verse 11. Out of that land went forth Asshur — He was the son of Shem, verse 22: and, it seems that, not being able to endure Nimrod’s tyranny, who possessed himself of other men’s territories, (Chaldea, which Nimrod had seized upon, being Shem’s part,) he went away beyond Tigris, where he founded the empire of Assyria, whose chief city was Nineveh, Isaiah 23:13.

Ver. 11. Asshur, from whom the Assyrians derived their name.

11, 12. Went forth Asshur — Rather, [Nimrod] went forth to Asshur [Assyria.] So reads the margin, after the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; (so Baumgarten, De Wette, A. Clarke, Delitzsch, and Knobel.) This is certainly the meaning of the text, for the author would not here describe the person Asshur, who is not introduced till verse 22; and besides, if Asshur be not here a place, the locality of these four cities would not be designated in the text at all. Nimrod first founded Babylon, (verse 10,) and then he (or his descendants) ascended the Tigris valley and founded the Assyrian kingdom, (Asshur,) whose capital city was Nineveh, identified of late years with the mass of ruins on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul. And the city Rehoboth — This should be rendered either Rehoboth, a city, or as a compound name, Rehoboth-Ir, so called, perhaps, from being the market places of the city Nineveh. Verses 11 and 12 should accordingly be translated: “From that land he went forth unto Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah. This was the great city.” As Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen have not been identified, it is very possible that they became a part of Nineveh, and the pronoun awh, this, (common version, the same,) is to be understood not of Calah, the last named city, but Nineveh, called great, because thus composed of four cities, the name Nineveh being in the first instance applied in a restricted sense to the city whose ruins lie opposite Mosul, and then being extended to other cities along the east bank of the Tigris, so as to embrace the whole region where are now found the ruins called Nimroud, south of Mosul, Konyunjik and Nebbi Yunus, opposite Mosul, and Khorsabad, to thenorth. This is the opinion of those most eminent Assyrian scholars, Rawlinson, Layard, and Grote, and also of Delitzsch, Knobel, and Ewald.

11, 12. Went forth Asshur — Rather, [Nimrod] went forth to Asshur [Assyria.] So reads the margin, after the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; (so Baumgarten, De Wette, A. Clarke, Delitzsch, and Knobel.) This is certainly the meaning of the text, for the author would not here describe the person Asshur, who is not introduced till verse 22; and besides, if Asshur be not here a place, the locality of these four cities would not be designated in the text at all. Nimrod first founded Babylon, (verse 10,) and then he (or his descendants) ascended the Tigris valley and founded the Assyrian kingdom, (Asshur,) whose capital city was Nineveh, identified of late years with the mass of ruins on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul. And the city Rehoboth — This should be rendered either Rehoboth, a city, or as a compound name, Rehoboth-Ir, so called, perhaps, from being the market places of the city Nineveh. Verses 11 and 12 should accordingly be translated: “From that land he went forth unto Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah. This was the great city.” As Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen have not been identified, it is very possible that they became a part of Nineveh, and the pronoun awh, this, (common version, the same,) is to be understood not of Calah, the last named city, but Nineveh, called great, because thus composed of four cities, the name Nineveh being in the first instance applied in a restricted sense to the city whose ruins lie opposite Mosul, and then being extended to other cities along the east bank of the Tigris, so as to embrace the whole region where are now found the ruins called Nimroud, south of Mosul, Konyunjik and Nebbi Yunus, opposite Mosul, and Khorsabad, to thenorth. This is the opinion of those most eminent Assyrian scholars, Rawlinson, Layard, and Grote, and also of Delitzsch, Knobel, and Ewald.

Verse 13. Mizraim begat Ludim] Supposed to mean the inhabitants of the Mareotis, a canton in Egypt, for the name Ludim is evidently the name of a people.

Anamim] According to Bochart, the people who inhabited the district about the temple of Jupiter Ammon.

Lehabim] The Libyans, or a people who dwelt on the west of the Thebaid, and were called Libyo-Egyptians.

Naphtuhim] Even the conjectures can scarcely fix a place for these people. Bochart seems inclined to place them in Marmarica, or among the Troglodytæ.

13. Mizraim — The descendants of Mizraim formed the Egyptian nations. Comp. note on verse 6. The names of these seven Egyptian peoples cannot all be with certainty identified. All these words are plurals in im. Ludim — Must be distinguished from the Shemitic Lud. Verse 22. A warlike people of Northern Africa, associated by the prophets with the Lybyans and Ethiopians as those who handle the bow and shield. Isaiah 66:19; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 27:10, etc. It is possible, but not probable, that the prophets in the above passages may refer to the Shemitic Lud. Some (Movers) make this a Mauritanian race; others (Knobel) assign them to Northeast Egypt.

Anamim — Inhabitants of the Nile Delta.

Lehabim — Elsewhere called Lubim, Lybyans, yet not the Lybyans proper, who descended from Phut, but the Egyptian Lybyans, dwelling west of the Nile Delta. Shishak, king of Egypt, had them in the army which he led against Jerusalem in the days of Rehoboam, (2 Chronicles 12:3,) and Nahum and Daniel associate them with the Ethiopians. Naphtuhim — Middle Egyptians, people of Phtah, which is the name of an Egyptian god. Memphis means the dwelling of Phtah. (Gesen., Champol.)

Verse 14. Pathrusim] The inhabitants of the Delta, in Egypt, according to the Chaldee paraphrase; but, according to Bochart, the people who inhabited the Thebaid, called Pathros in Scripture.

Casluhim] The inhabitants of Colchis; for almost all authors allow that Colchis was peopled from Egypt.

Philistim] The people called Philistines, the constant plagues and frequent oppressors of the Israelites, whose history may be seen at large in the books of Samuel, Kings, &c.

Caphtorim] Inhabitants of Cyprus according to Calmet.

14. Pathrusim — Inhabitants of Pathros, an Egyptian word meaning southern region, (Gesenius,) Upper Egypt, Thebais.

Casluhim — Or better, Kasluchim. The word is, according to Knobel, Egyptian, meaning dwellers in the dry (or desolate) mountain; probably Mount Casius and the region about it. Casiotis, (the modern Cape El-Cos preserves the name,) the sandy region of North-east Egypt towards Philistia. From this people sprang the Colchians, who dwelt on the east shore of the Black Sea. (Herod., 2:104.)

Out of whom came Philistim — The Philistines, so often mentioned in the Old Testament; the Palestinians, as Philistia was the original Palestine, a name which afterwards came to mean the same as Canaan. Amos (Amos 9:7) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 47:4) describe the Philistines as coming from Caphtor, (Crete;) but this was also colonized from Egypt, so that there is no discrepancy. The primitive Philistine colony, probably, came from Casiotis, in Egypt, and was afterward re-enforced from Crete. Knobel (p. 215) understands this phrase to describe the place whence the Philistines came, that is, from Casiotis, and not to set forth their origin, translating µvm, whence, and the word may certainly apply to the country or people. Knobel believes the Philistines to have been descendants of Shem through Lud.

Caphtorim — This name is preserved in the ancient Egyptian Coptos, whence Copt and Coptic, the names applied to the modern Egyptians. Probably it here refers to the island of Crete, which was colonized from Egypt. The Greek myths of Cecrops and Danaus point to an early colonization of the Greek coasts and cities from Egypt.

V. 15. The account of the posterity of Canaan, and the land they possessed is more particular than of any other in this chapter, because these were the nations that were to be subdued before Israel, and their land was to become Immanuel’s land. And by this account, it appears that the posterity of Canaan was both numerous and rich, and very pleasantly seated, and yet Canaan was under a curse. Canaan here has a better land than either Shem or Japheth and yet they have a better lot, for they inherit the blessing.

Verse 15. Sidon] Who probably built the city of this name, and was the father of the Sidonians.

Heth] From whom came the Hittites, so remarkable among the Canaanitish nations.

Verse 15. The account of the posterity of Canaan, and of the land they possessed, is more particular than that of any other in this chapter; because these were the nations that were to be subdued before Israel, and their land was to become Immanuel’s land. And by this account it appears that the posterity of Canaan were both numerous and rich, and very pleasantly seated; and yet Canaan was under a curse. Canaan here has a better land than either Shem or Japheth; and yet they have a better lot, for they inherit the blessing.

15-18. Eleven Canaanitish nations are here enumerated. The first two names are probably personal, the last nine are certainly national. The descendants of Canaan, it is observable, are given with unusual fulness, they being the foreign tribes with whom the Hebrews came into most immediate contact, and, therefore, the sources of information were in this case unusually complete. The descendants of Canaan were, first, the Phenicians; second, the Canaanites proper.

Sidon — Sidonians, Phenicians. Recent studies of Phenician monuments establish the view, long since on other grounds entertained, that the Phenicians spoke a Shemitish language, very closely allied to the Hebrew, if not identical with it. Thus Carthage (the name of a Phenician colony) signifies New-Town; Barcas, Carthagenian for Hamilcar, is the Hebrew Barak, signifying thunderbolt, a name appropriate to a military hero. The bal of Hannibal and Hasdrubal is the Phenician and Hebrew Baal, signifying Lord. These facts accord well with the Scripture record of Canaanitish proper names, and of the free intercourse between the Hebrew patriarchs and the Canaanitish aborigines. Some have insisted that the Phenicians must have been of Shemitic origin, but they show no Shemitic peculiarities, except in language. There is much obscurity yet to be cleared up in the early Phenician history; but the facts seem best explained by supposing a very early mingling of Hamites and Shemites in what is now Palestine, whereby the Hamites acquired a Shemitic language, yet retained, in a most marked manner, the leading Hamitic peculiarities, such as sensuality and idolatry, and, as contrasted with the Shemites, commercial enterprise. The ancient myths and the Assyrian monuments show a similar mingling of the two races, in prehistoric times, in Mesopotamia. Rawlinson, however, supposes that Sidon and Tyre were originally Canaanitic, but afterwards Shemitic, the Phenicians being a Shemitic race, who immigrated into Palestine from the shores of the Persian Gulf in about the 13th century B.C. The free and friendly intercourse maintained between the Hebrews and the Phenicians in the days of David and Solomon, certainly seems to separate them, in a marked manner, from the Canaanitish tribes who were devoted so solemnly to destruction, and with whom the Hebrews were forbidden to form any alliances. The subject can by no means be regarded as settled. (RAWL., Her., book vii, Essay ii; Knobel, p. 305.) Sidon, or Zidon, or Tsidon, signifies hunter, or fisher. This was the chief city of the Phenicians, from which Tyre was colonized. It was situated on the Mediterranean shore, where its ruins may now be seen. The Sidonians were the first navigators, being the first to steer by the stars; they had colonies in Africa, Spain, and even in Britain. Tyre surpassed Sidon in power and commercial splendor. The great variety and richness of the Tyrian commerce is described by Ezekiel in lofty strains, chapters 26, 27. The name Sidon is used by the Greeks and on the Tyrian coins, as equivalent to Phenician. There are Phenician names along the Persian Gulf, which attest the westward movement of this people in very ancient times. (RAWL., Her., 1:1.)

Heth — Or Cheth, ancestor of the Hittites or Chittites, who are also called sons of Heth, Genesis 23:3, etc. They were a Canaanitish tribe, who, in the time of Abraham. occupied the hill country about Hebron, (then called Kirjath-Arba,) and who treated the patriarch with much kindness and hospitality, chap. 23. They afterwards spread northward, and the name Hittite becomes synonymous with Canaanite. In the time of Solomon and of Elisha we read of their “kings.” 1 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 7:6. Jebusite — A mountain tribe who dwelt in Jebus, afterwards Mount Zion, and who held that strong fortress for centuries after the conquest of Canaan, being only finally subdued by David. 2 Samuel 5:7. Amorite — The most powerful and widespread of the Canaanitish tribes, and hence their name is often equivalent to Canaanite, as in Genesis 15:16, and 48:22. They founded powerful kingdoms on both banks of the Jordan, the eastern Amorites being conquered by Moses and the western by Joshua. Yet a remnant of this, as of other Canaanitish tribes, survived, even in the days of Solomon. 1 Kings 9:20. It is made quite probable by Knobel that the word Amorite is used not only of an Hamitic tribe, but also in a larger sense of a widespread people who dwelt in Canaan before the Canaanitish occupation, and were descended from the Shemitic Lud. The gigantic Amorites, of whom Og and Sihon were kings, he believes to have been Shemites. (So FURST, Gesch. Bib. Lit., pp. 19, 127, etc.) Girgasite — A tribe of whom, as Josephus says, there is left only the name.

Hivite — Or Chivite; a people who, in the time of Jacob, lived in Shechem, (Genesis 34:2,) who were also found by Joshua in Gibeon, (Joshua 11:19,) but whose chief seat at the time of the conquest of Canaan seems to have been in North-west Palestine, about Hermon and Lebanon. Joshua 11:3.

Arkite — This people dwelt on the Mediterranean shore north of Sidon. Their name is still preserved in the modern Arka, famous as being the birthplace of the Emperor Alexander Severus. Its ruins, including great columns of granite and of syenite, are scattered about a lofty mound twelve miles north of Tripoli.

Sinite — This people seem to have left their relics in the mountain fortress of Sinna, mentioned by Strabo, and the town of Sini, or Syn, north of Arka.

Arvadite — Inhabitants of the island Arvad or Arad, and the adjacent shore. Arvad was a rocky island fortress, two miles from the shore, north of Arka and Sini. It was colonized from Sidon, and was the mother of Tarsus, ranking at one time next to Tyre. It is ranked with these renowned Phenician cities by Herodotus, (vii, 98,) by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 27:8, 11,) and by the historian of the Maccabees. 1 Mac. 15:23. It is still inhabited by a maritime population bearing the name of Ruad, and retains some well-preserved remnants of heavy, bevelled Phenician walls. Zemarite — This people has not, as yet, been with certainty, identified by any historical or geographical traces. Perhaps the town of Sumra or Shoumra, at the foot of Lebanon, between Arka and the sea, is one of the memorials of this tribe, (so Knobel,) but there is no other proof than its vicinity to the other identified Phenician remains.

Hamathite — Or Chamathite; inhabitants of Hamath or Chamath Rabba, that is, Chamath the Great, (Amos 6:2,) a city on the Orontes, now known by the same name, in the great valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. This valley is known in the Old Testament as “the entering in of Hamath,” and formed the northern boundary of the promised land. See Numbers 13:21; 1 Kings 8:65.

Verse 16. The Jebusite-Amorite, &c.] Are well known as being the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, expelled by the children of Israel.

15-18. Eleven Canaanitish nations are here enumerated. The first two names are probably personal, the last nine are certainly national. The descendants of Canaan, it is observable, are given with unusual fulness, they being the foreign tribes with whom the Hebrews came into most immediate contact, and, therefore, the sources of information were in this case unusually complete. The descendants of Canaan were, first, the Phenicians; second, the Canaanites proper.

Sidon — Sidonians, Phenicians. Recent studies of Phenician monuments establish the view, long since on other grounds entertained, that the Phenicians spoke a Shemitish language, very closely allied to the Hebrew, if not identical with it. Thus Carthage (the name of a Phenician colony) signifies New-Town; Barcas, Carthagenian for Hamilcar, is the Hebrew Barak, signifying thunderbolt, a name appropriate to a military hero. The bal of Hannibal and Hasdrubal is the Phenician and Hebrew Baal, signifying Lord. These facts accord well with the Scripture record of Canaanitish proper names, and of the free intercourse between the Hebrew patriarchs and the Canaanitish aborigines. Some have insisted that the Phenicians must have been of Shemitic origin, but they show no Shemitic peculiarities, except in language. There is much obscurity yet to be cleared up in the early Phenician history; but the facts seem best explained by supposing a very early mingling of Hamites and Shemites in what is now Palestine, whereby the Hamites acquired a Shemitic language, yet retained, in a most marked manner, the leading Hamitic peculiarities, such as sensuality and idolatry, and, as contrasted with the Shemites, commercial enterprise. The ancient myths and the Assyrian monuments show a similar mingling of the two races, in prehistoric times, in Mesopotamia. Rawlinson, however, supposes that Sidon and Tyre were originally Canaanitic, but afterwards Shemitic, the Phenicians being a Shemitic race, who immigrated into Palestine from the shores of the Persian Gulf in about the 13th century B.C. The free and friendly intercourse maintained between the Hebrews and the Phenicians in the days of David and Solomon, certainly seems to separate them, in a marked manner, from the Canaanitish tribes who were devoted so solemnly to destruction, and with whom the Hebrews were forbidden to form any alliances. The subject can by no means be regarded as settled. (RAWL., Her., book vii, Essay ii; Knobel, p. 305.) Sidon, or Zidon, or Tsidon, signifies hunter, or fisher. This was the chief city of the Phenicians, from which Tyre was colonized. It was situated on the Mediterranean shore, where its ruins may now be seen. The Sidonians were the first navigators, being the first to steer by the stars; they had colonies in Africa, Spain, and even in Britain. Tyre surpassed Sidon in power and commercial splendor. The great variety and richness of the Tyrian commerce is described by Ezekiel in lofty strains, chapters 26, 27. The name Sidon is used by the Greeks and on the Tyrian coins, as equivalent to Phenician. There are Phenician names along the Persian Gulf, which attest the westward movement of this people in very ancient times. (RAWL., Her., 1:1.)

Heth — Or Cheth, ancestor of the Hittites or Chittites, who are also called sons of Heth, Genesis 23:3, etc. They were a Canaanitish tribe, who, in the time of Abraham. occupied the hill country about Hebron, (then called Kirjath-Arba,) and who treated the patriarch with much kindness and hospitality, chap. 23. They afterwards spread northward, and the name Hittite becomes synonymous with Canaanite. In the time of Solomon and of Elisha we read of their “kings.” 1 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 7:6. Jebusite — A mountain tribe who dwelt in Jebus, afterwards Mount Zion, and who held that strong fortress for centuries after the conquest of Canaan, being only finally subdued by David. 2 Samuel 5:7. Amorite — The most powerful and widespread of the Canaanitish tribes, and hence their name is often equivalent to Canaanite, as in Genesis 15:16, and 48:22. They founded powerful kingdoms on both banks of the Jordan, the eastern Amorites being conquered by Moses and the western by Joshua. Yet a remnant of this, as of other Canaanitish tribes, survived, even in the days of Solomon. 1 Kings 9:20. It is made quite probable by Knobel that the word Amorite is used not only of an Hamitic tribe, but also in a larger sense of a widespread people who dwelt in Canaan before the Canaanitish occupation, and were descended from the Shemitic Lud. The gigantic Amorites, of whom Og and Sihon were kings, he believes to have been Shemites. (So FURST, Gesch. Bib. Lit., pp. 19, 127, etc.) Girgasite — A tribe of whom, as Josephus says, there is left only the name.

Hivite — Or Chivite; a people who, in the time of Jacob, lived in Shechem, (Genesis 34:2,) who were also found by Joshua in Gibeon, (Joshua 11:19,) but whose chief seat at the time of the conquest of Canaan seems to have been in North-west Palestine, about Hermon and Lebanon. Joshua 11:3.

Arkite — This people dwelt on the Mediterranean shore north of Sidon. Their name is still preserved in the modern Arka, famous as being the birthplace of the Emperor Alexander Severus. Its ruins, including great columns of granite and of syenite, are scattered about a lofty mound twelve miles north of Tripoli.

Sinite — This people seem to have left their relics in the mountain fortress of Sinna, mentioned by Strabo, and the town of Sini, or Syn, north of Arka.

Arvadite — Inhabitants of the island Arvad or Arad, and the adjacent shore. Arvad was a rocky island fortress, two miles from the shore, north of Arka and Sini. It was colonized from Sidon, and was the mother of Tarsus, ranking at one time next to Tyre. It is ranked with these renowned Phenician cities by Herodotus, (vii, 98,) by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 27:8, 11,) and by the historian of the Maccabees. 1 Mac. 15:23. It is still inhabited by a maritime population bearing the name of Ruad, and retains some well-preserved remnants of heavy, bevelled Phenician walls. Zemarite — This people has not, as yet, been with certainty, identified by any historical or geographical traces. Perhaps the town of Sumra or Shoumra, at the foot of Lebanon, between Arka and the sea, is one of the memorials of this tribe, (so Knobel,) but there is no other proof than its vicinity to the other identified Phenician remains.

Hamathite — Or Chamathite; inhabitants of Hamath or Chamath Rabba, that is, Chamath the Great, (Amos 6:2,) a city on the Orontes, now known by the same name, in the great valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. This valley is known in the Old Testament as “the entering in of Hamath,” and formed the northern boundary of the promised land. See Numbers 13:21; 1 Kings 8:65.

15-18. Eleven Canaanitish nations are here enumerated. The first two names are probably personal, the last nine are certainly national. The descendants of Canaan, it is observable, are given with unusual fulness, they being the foreign tribes with whom the Hebrews came into most immediate contact, and, therefore, the sources of information were in this case unusually complete. The descendants of Canaan were, first, the Phenicians; second, the Canaanites proper.

Sidon — Sidonians, Phenicians. Recent studies of Phenician monuments establish the view, long since on other grounds entertained, that the Phenicians spoke a Shemitish language, very closely allied to the Hebrew, if not identical with it. Thus Carthage (the name of a Phenician colony) signifies New-Town; Barcas, Carthagenian for Hamilcar, is the Hebrew Barak, signifying thunderbolt, a name appropriate to a military hero. The bal of Hannibal and Hasdrubal is the Phenician and Hebrew Baal, signifying Lord. These facts accord well with the Scripture record of Canaanitish proper names, and of the free intercourse between the Hebrew patriarchs and the Canaanitish aborigines. Some have insisted that the Phenicians must have been of Shemitic origin, but they show no Shemitic peculiarities, except in language. There is much obscurity yet to be cleared up in the early Phenician history; but the facts seem best explained by supposing a very early mingling of Hamites and Shemites in what is now Palestine, whereby the Hamites acquired a Shemitic language, yet retained, in a most marked manner, the leading Hamitic peculiarities, such as sensuality and idolatry, and, as contrasted with the Shemites, commercial enterprise. The ancient myths and the Assyrian monuments show a similar mingling of the two races, in prehistoric times, in Mesopotamia. Rawlinson, however, supposes that Sidon and Tyre were originally Canaanitic, but afterwards Shemitic, the Phenicians being a Shemitic race, who immigrated into Palestine from the shores of the Persian Gulf in about the 13th century B.C. The free and friendly intercourse maintained between the Hebrews and the Phenicians in the days of David and Solomon, certainly seems to separate them, in a marked manner, from the Canaanitish tribes who were devoted so solemnly to destruction, and with whom the Hebrews were forbidden to form any alliances. The subject can by no means be regarded as settled. (RAWL., Her., book vii, Essay ii; Knobel, p. 305.) Sidon, or Zidon, or Tsidon, signifies hunter, or fisher. This was the chief city of the Phenicians, from which Tyre was colonized. It was situated on the Mediterranean shore, where its ruins may now be seen. The Sidonians were the first navigators, being the first to steer by the stars; they had colonies in Africa, Spain, and even in Britain. Tyre surpassed Sidon in power and commercial splendor. The great variety and richness of the Tyrian commerce is described by Ezekiel in lofty strains, chapters 26, 27. The name Sidon is used by the Greeks and on the Tyrian coins, as equivalent to Phenician. There are Phenician names along the Persian Gulf, which attest the westward movement of this people in very ancient times. (RAWL., Her., 1:1.)

Heth — Or Cheth, ancestor of the Hittites or Chittites, who are also called sons of Heth, Genesis 23:3, etc. They were a Canaanitish tribe, who, in the time of Abraham. occupied the hill country about Hebron, (then called Kirjath-Arba,) and who treated the patriarch with much kindness and hospitality, chap. 23. They afterwards spread northward, and the name Hittite becomes synonymous with Canaanite. In the time of Solomon and of Elisha we read of their “kings.” 1 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 7:6. Jebusite — A mountain tribe who dwelt in Jebus, afterwards Mount Zion, and who held that strong fortress for centuries after the conquest of Canaan, being only finally subdued by David. 2 Samuel 5:7. Amorite — The most powerful and widespread of the Canaanitish tribes, and hence their name is often equivalent to Canaanite, as in Genesis 15:16, and 48:22. They founded powerful kingdoms on both banks of the Jordan, the eastern Amorites being conquered by Moses and the western by Joshua. Yet a remnant of this, as of other Canaanitish tribes, survived, even in the days of Solomon. 1 Kings 9:20. It is made quite probable by Knobel that the word Amorite is used not only of an Hamitic tribe, but also in a larger sense of a widespread people who dwelt in Canaan before the Canaanitish occupation, and were descended from the Shemitic Lud. The gigantic Amorites, of whom Og and Sihon were kings, he believes to have been Shemites. (So FURST, Gesch. Bib. Lit., pp. 19, 127, etc.) Girgasite — A tribe of whom, as Josephus says, there is left only the name.

Hivite — Or Chivite; a people who, in the time of Jacob, lived in Shechem, (Genesis 34:2,) who were also found by Joshua in Gibeon, (Joshua 11:19,) but whose chief seat at the time of the conquest of Canaan seems to have been in North-west Palestine, about Hermon and Lebanon. Joshua 11:3.

Arkite — This people dwelt on the Mediterranean shore north of Sidon. Their name is still preserved in the modern Arka, famous as being the birthplace of the Emperor Alexander Severus. Its ruins, including great columns of granite and of syenite, are scattered about a lofty mound twelve miles north of Tripoli.

Sinite — This people seem to have left their relics in the mountain fortress of Sinna, mentioned by Strabo, and the town of Sini, or Syn, north of Arka.

Arvadite — Inhabitants of the island Arvad or Arad, and the adjacent shore. Arvad was a rocky island fortress, two miles from the shore, north of Arka and Sini. It was colonized from Sidon, and was the mother of Tarsus, ranking at one time next to Tyre. It is ranked with these renowned Phenician cities by Herodotus, (vii, 98,) by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 27:8, 11,) and by the historian of the Maccabees. 1 Mac. 15:23. It is still inhabited by a maritime population bearing the name of Ruad, and retains some well-preserved remnants of heavy, bevelled Phenician walls. Zemarite — This people has not, as yet, been with certainty, identified by any historical or geographical traces. Perhaps the town of Sumra or Shoumra, at the foot of Lebanon, between Arka and the sea, is one of the memorials of this tribe, (so Knobel,) but there is no other proof than its vicinity to the other identified Phenician remains.

Hamathite — Or Chamathite; inhabitants of Hamath or Chamath Rabba, that is, Chamath the Great, (Amos 6:2,) a city on the Orontes, now known by the same name, in the great valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. This valley is known in the Old Testament as “the entering in of Hamath,” and formed the northern boundary of the promised land. See Numbers 13:21; 1 Kings 8:65.

15-18. Eleven Canaanitish nations are here enumerated. The first two names are probably personal, the last nine are certainly national. The descendants of Canaan, it is observable, are given with unusual fulness, they being the foreign tribes with whom the Hebrews came into most immediate contact, and, therefore, the sources of information were in this case unusually complete. The descendants of Canaan were, first, the Phenicians; second, the Canaanites proper.

Sidon — Sidonians, Phenicians. Recent studies of Phenician monuments establish the view, long since on other grounds entertained, that the Phenicians spoke a Shemitish language, very closely allied to the Hebrew, if not identical with it. Thus Carthage (the name of a Phenician colony) signifies New-Town; Barcas, Carthagenian for Hamilcar, is the Hebrew Barak, signifying thunderbolt, a name appropriate to a military hero. The bal of Hannibal and Hasdrubal is the Phenician and Hebrew Baal, signifying Lord. These facts accord well with the Scripture record of Canaanitish proper names, and of the free intercourse between the Hebrew patriarchs and the Canaanitish aborigines. Some have insisted that the Phenicians must have been of Shemitic origin, but they show no Shemitic peculiarities, except in language. There is much obscurity yet to be cleared up in the early Phenician history; but the facts seem best explained by supposing a very early mingling of Hamites and Shemites in what is now Palestine, whereby the Hamites acquired a Shemitic language, yet retained, in a most marked manner, the leading Hamitic peculiarities, such as sensuality and idolatry, and, as contrasted with the Shemites, commercial enterprise. The ancient myths and the Assyrian monuments show a similar mingling of the two races, in prehistoric times, in Mesopotamia. Rawlinson, however, supposes that Sidon and Tyre were originally Canaanitic, but afterwards Shemitic, the Phenicians being a Shemitic race, who immigrated into Palestine from the shores of the Persian Gulf in about the 13th century B.C. The free and friendly intercourse maintained between the Hebrews and the Phenicians in the days of David and Solomon, certainly seems to separate them, in a marked manner, from the Canaanitish tribes who were devoted so solemnly to destruction, and with whom the Hebrews were forbidden to form any alliances. The subject can by no means be regarded as settled. (RAWL., Her., book vii, Essay ii; Knobel, p. 305.) Sidon, or Zidon, or Tsidon, signifies hunter, or fisher. This was the chief city of the Phenicians, from which Tyre was colonized. It was situated on the Mediterranean shore, where its ruins may now be seen. The Sidonians were the first navigators, being the first to steer by the stars; they had colonies in Africa, Spain, and even in Britain. Tyre surpassed Sidon in power and commercial splendor. The great variety and richness of the Tyrian commerce is described by Ezekiel in lofty strains, chapters 26, 27. The name Sidon is used by the Greeks and on the Tyrian coins, as equivalent to Phenician. There are Phenician names along the Persian Gulf, which attest the westward movement of this people in very ancient times. (RAWL., Her., 1:1.)

Heth — Or Cheth, ancestor of the Hittites or Chittites, who are also called sons of Heth, Genesis 23:3, etc. They were a Canaanitish tribe, who, in the time of Abraham. occupied the hill country about Hebron, (then called Kirjath-Arba,) and who treated the patriarch with much kindness and hospitality, chap. 23. They afterwards spread northward, and the name Hittite becomes synonymous with Canaanite. In the time of Solomon and of Elisha we read of their “kings.” 1 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 7:6. Jebusite — A mountain tribe who dwelt in Jebus, afterwards Mount Zion, and who held that strong fortress for centuries after the conquest of Canaan, being only finally subdued by David. 2 Samuel 5:7. Amorite — The most powerful and widespread of the Canaanitish tribes, and hence their name is often equivalent to Canaanite, as in Genesis 15:16, and 48:22. They founded powerful kingdoms on both banks of the Jordan, the eastern Amorites being conquered by Moses and the western by Joshua. Yet a remnant of this, as of other Canaanitish tribes, survived, even in the days of Solomon. 1 Kings 9:20. It is made quite probable by Knobel that the word Amorite is used not only of an Hamitic tribe, but also in a larger sense of a widespread people who dwelt in Canaan before the Canaanitish occupation, and were descended from the Shemitic Lud. The gigantic Amorites, of whom Og and Sihon were kings, he believes to have been Shemites. (So FURST, Gesch. Bib. Lit., pp. 19, 127, etc.) Girgasite — A tribe of whom, as Josephus says, there is left only the name.

Hivite — Or Chivite; a people who, in the time of Jacob, lived in Shechem, (Genesis 34:2,) who were also found by Joshua in Gibeon, (Joshua 11:19,) but whose chief seat at the time of the conquest of Canaan seems to have been in North-west Palestine, about Hermon and Lebanon. Joshua 11:3.

Arkite — This people dwelt on the Mediterranean shore north of Sidon. Their name is still preserved in the modern Arka, famous as being the birthplace of the Emperor Alexander Severus. Its ruins, including great columns of granite and of syenite, are scattered about a lofty mound twelve miles north of Tripoli.

Sinite — This people seem to have left their relics in the mountain fortress of Sinna, mentioned by Strabo, and the town of Sini, or Syn, north of Arka.

Arvadite — Inhabitants of the island Arvad or Arad, and the adjacent shore. Arvad was a rocky island fortress, two miles from the shore, north of Arka and Sini. It was colonized from Sidon, and was the mother of Tarsus, ranking at one time next to Tyre. It is ranked with these renowned Phenician cities by Herodotus, (vii, 98,) by Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 27:8, 11,) and by the historian of the Maccabees. 1 Mac. 15:23. It is still inhabited by a maritime population bearing the name of Ruad, and retains some well-preserved remnants of heavy, bevelled Phenician walls. Zemarite — This people has not, as yet, been with certainty, identified by any historical or geographical traces. Perhaps the town of Sumra or Shoumra, at the foot of Lebanon, between Arka and the sea, is one of the memorials of this tribe, (so Knobel,) but there is no other proof than its vicinity to the other identified Phenician remains.

Hamathite — Or Chamathite; inhabitants of Hamath or Chamath Rabba, that is, Chamath the Great, (Amos 6:2,) a city on the Orontes, now known by the same name, in the great valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. This valley is known in the Old Testament as “the entering in of Hamath,” and formed the northern boundary of the promised land. See Numbers 13:21; 1 Kings 8:65.

19. The territory of the Canaanites is now described, in general terms, as commencing at the Phenician city of Sidon and running southward to Gerer and Gaza, cities of the Philistines, then spreading eastward to the great plain of Siddim, which is now covered by the southern portion of the Dead Sea, but which, at the time this narrative was written, was occupied by the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. This statement shows that this chapter must have been written at least as early as the time of Abraham. The location of Lasha is unknown, although Jerome, and others following him, identify it with Callirhoe, north-east of the Dead Sea. But there are no remains there, and the identification is doubtful.

Verse 20. These are the sons of Ham after their families] No doubt all these were well known in the days of Moses, and for a long time after; but at this distance, when it is considered that the political state of the world has been undergoing almost incessant revolutions through all the intermediate portions of time, the impossibility of fixing their residences or marking their descendants must be evident, as both the names of the people and the places of their residences have been changed beyond the possibility of being recognized.

SONS OF HAM, 6-20.

The three first sons of Ham settled in Northern Africa. 1) The Ethiopians (Cushites) of the Upper Nile. 2) The Egyptians (Mizraim) of the Lower Nile. 3) The Libyans (the Phutites) west of the Egyptians, in the east of Northern Africa. The Cushites appear to have removed from the high North-east, (of Central Asia,) passing over India, Babylonia, and Arabia, in their course towards the south. The Canaanites settled between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan, and gave their name to the country. The name Poeni (Foinov) blood-red, denotes the original Hamitic colour of the Phenicians. Eastward from these the various families of the Hamites occupied the whole country of Arabia to the Persian Gulf; and under Nimrod they became the people of the first great empire, Babylonia. See Lange.

6. Ham — Or rather Cham, is from a root signifying to be hot, and hence burnt, black. The Hamites are dark-skinned peoples, dwelling mainly in the torrid zone. Ham is used frequently in Scripture for Egypt and the Egyptians, an Hamitic country and people. It, or its Egyptian equivalent, was also the common name for that land and people among the Egyptians themselves. It is written with two letters in the hieroglyphic language, K M, and occurs in the form Ch M E more than ten times on the Rosetta Stone. The Hamites are presented here, 1) as Cushite Ethiopians, Assyrians, Babylonians; 2) Egyptians; 3) Lybyans; 4) and Canaanites. Cush — Ethiopia in the Sept. and Vulg., and so often rendered in our version. Isaiah 43:3; 45:14, etc. Monumental and linguistic research has now established the long-disputed theory that there was an Asiatic as well as an African Cush. Lepsius finds the name in Egypt on monuments of the sixth dynasty, and Rawlinson proves an ethnic connexion between the Ethiopians and the primitive Babylonians. The later Babylonians were Shemitic in origin, but Knobel shows (Volk., p. 246) that the Cushites primarily peopled Babylonia and spread eastward to India. Thus has it been shown by the research of our own day that the Asiatic kingdoms of Nineveh and Babylon are Hamitic in origin. The African and the Asiatic Cush freely communicated with each other through Meroe, on the upper Nile, and the Red Sea, by caravans and ships.

Mizraim — This is the Hebrew name for Egypt and the Egyptians. It is primarily a geographical word, in the dual number, well rendered by Lewis the Narrows, a designation singularly descriptive of Egypt, which is a narrow strip of verdure threaded by the Nile, hundreds of miles in length and only a dozen or so in breadth, stretching from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean, and separating the deserts of Africa and Asia. The name was naturally imposed by the first Hamite settlers, and afterwards transferred from the country to its inhabitants.

Phut — Lybyans, in the wide sense of the word inhabitants of the North African coast west of Egypt. Ptolemy and Pliny mention a river Phtuth, (fqouq,) in north-western Africa. The Egyptian designation of Lybya is Phet, from Pet, Coptic Phit, a bow, by which symbol it is represented in the hieroglyphics. (Knobel, p. 296.) Jeremiah (xlvi, 9) associates Phut (Lybyans) with Cush, (Ethiopians,) as rising up against Pharaoh-necho; and Nahum (Nahum 3:9) makes Phut an ally with Nineveh in connexion with Ethiopia and Egypt.

Canaan — Rather, Kenaan, from a root signifying to be low. Hengstenberg supposes that Ham thus named his son in a tyrannical spirit, to denote the obedience which he exacted from him, though so irreverent himself, while God’s secret providence had a national humiliation in view in permitting the child to receive this name. Comp. Genesis 9:25, and the note. Some understand Kenaan as geographical, signifying Lowland, but this is not in harmony with Noah’s prophecy in Genesis 9:25, etc. Herodian states that the ancient name of Phenicia (Palm-land) was Cna, or Kenaan.

V. 21. Two things especially are observable in this account of the posterity of Shem. [1.] The description of Shem, Genesis 10:21, we have not only his name, Shem, which signifies a name; but two titles to distinguish him by. 1. He was the father of all the children of Eber. Eber was his great grandson, but why should he be called the father of all his children, rather than of all Arphaxad’s or Salah’s? Probably because Abraham and his seed, not only descended from Heber, but from him were called Hebrews. Eber himself, we may suppose, was a man eminent for religion in a time of general apostasy; and the holy tongue being commonly called from him the Hebrew, it is probable he retained it in his family in the confusion of Babel, as a special token of God’s favour to him. 2. He was the brother of Japheth the elder; by which it appears, that though Shem be commonly put first, yet he was not Noah’s first-born, but Japheth was elder. But why should this also be put as part of Shem’s description, that he was the brother of Japheth, since that had been said before? Probably this is intended to signify the union of the Gentiles with the Jews in the church. He had mentioned it as Shem’s honour, that he was the father of the Hebrews; but lest Japheth’s seed should therefore be looked upon as shut out from the church, he here minds us, that he was the brother of Japheth, not in birth only, but in blessing, for Japheth was to dwell in the tents of Shem. [2.] The reason of the name of Peleg, Genesis 10:25, because, in his days, (that is, about the time of his birth) was the earth divided among the children of men that were to inhabit it; either when Noah divided it, by an orderly distribution of it, as Joshua divided the land of Canaan by lot, or when, upon their refusal to comply with that division, God, in justice, divided them by the confusion of tongues.

Verse 21. Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber] It is generally supposed that the Hebrews derived their name from Eber or Heber, son of Shem; but it appears much more likely that they had it from the circumstance of Abraham passing over (for so the word rb[ abar signifies) the river Euphrates to come into the land of Canaan. See the history of Abraham, Genesis 14:13.

Verse 21. Unto Shem, &c. — The word Shem signifies a name; but two titles are also added whereby to distinguish him: 1st, He was the father of all the children of Eber. Eber was his great-grandson; but why should he be called the father of all his children, rather than of all Arphaxad’s or Salah’s? Probably because Abraham and his seed, from Eber, were called Hebrews. Eber himself, we may suppose, was a man eminent for religion in a time of general apostacy; and the holy tongue being commonly called from him the Hebrew, was retained in his family in the confusion of Babel, as a special token of God’s favour to him. 2d, He is styled the brother of Japheth, perhaps to signify the union of the Gentiles and Jews in the church.

THE SHEMITIC FAMILY, 21-31.

21. Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born — That is, older than Ham, though younger than Japheth. Comp. note on Genesis 5:32. This expression, “elder brother,” seems to be inserted here to remind the reader that, although Shem was mentioned after Ham, he was really older than he. Shem’s posterity is mentioned last, to form a more immediate and natural connexion with the following history, which pertains to them exclusively. Shem signifies name, that is, great or distinguished name; made illustrious as the line through which God shines on the world — the line in which arose the “NAME that is above every name.” Shem was the ancestor of the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, and Lydians, (perhaps also of the Phenicians, see verse 15,) all great nations of western Asia; but he is especially conspicuous in this history as father of the “children of Eber,” the Hebrew people, through whom came revelation and the Messiah. For the meaning of “Hebrew,” see verse 24 and note. The names of most of these sons of Shem became early transferred to the countries they occupied.

Verse 22. Elam] From whom came the Elamites, near to the Medes, and whose chief city was Elymais.

Asshur] Who gave his name to a vast province (afterwards a mighty empire) called Assyria.

Arphaxad] From whom Arrapachitis in Assyria was named, according to some; or Artaxata in Armenia, on the frontiers of Media, according to others.

Lud] The founder of the Lydians. In Asia Minor; or of the Ludim, who dwelt at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, according to Arias Montanus.

Aram.] The father of the Arameans, afterwards called Syrians.

Ver. 22. Arphaxad, generally reputed to be father of the Chaldeans. Elam, father of the Elamites or Persians. Lud, (or Ludim, a people) father of the Lydians. Aram, father of the Armenians.

22. Elam — The Elymaeans who originally peopled the country west of Persia, between it and Mesopotamia, Elymais, stretching from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf; called Susiana by the old geographers, the Cissia of Herodotus. It had become important and powerful in the time of Abraham, (Genesis 14:1, etc.,) although before that time, having been overrun by a Cushite race, it had lost its Shemitish language.

Asshur — Assyria; probably the word signifies plain, originally applied to the plain along the east bank of the Tigris, north of Susiana, (Elam,) which was the original seat of the great Assyrian empire. The recently discovered Assyrian monuments show that the people originally spoke a Shemitic language, although Aryan and Hamitic elements were afterwards mingled with it. (Furst, Gesch. Bib. Lit., p. 9.)

Arphaxad — Ewald interprets this word fortress of the Chaldees; Furst, country of the Chaldees, but the etymology is doubtful. Following Bochart, scholars have usually identified this name with Arrapachitis, a region on the east bank of the Tigris, north of the primitive Assyria and joining Armenia.

Lud — Supposed by eminent ethnologists to be the Lydians, a warlike race who spread westward into Asia Minor, and there founded a powerful kingdom, which was conquered by Cyrus, and swallowed up in the Medo-Persian empire. But the undoubted Aryan (Sanskrit) derivation of certain Lydian proper names (for example, Sardis, Candaules) makes the conclusion at least doubtful. The matter must be regarded as yet unsettled. (Comp. Rawl., Her., i, Essay ii; Furst, Gesch., Bib. Lit., p. 19.) The Arabic historians assign to Lud the Amalekites and the primitive Arabs, the Joktanite (verse 26) and Ishmaelite (Genesis 25:13) Arabs being younger branches of the nation. With this Knobel coincides, and also makes it probable that the primitive Amorites and the Philistines were Shemitic peoples of the stock of Lud. (Volktfl., p. 198, etc.)

Aram — High land, Aramea, or Syria, especially that part north of Palestine. Mesopotamia is the Aram of the two rivers, that is, Euphrates and Tigris — that part of Aram which falls between these streams; so there is an Aram of Damascus — Aram Zoba, north of Damascus, etc. It probably receives its name from Lebanon, the conspicuous mountain chain of the region. The Shemitic languages, Syriac and Chaldee, originated in Aram.

Verse 23. Uz] Who peopled Cælosyria, and is supposed to have been the founder of Damascus.

Hul] Who peopled a part of Armenia.

Gether] Supposed by Calmet to have been the founder of the Itureans, who dwelt beyond the Jordan, having Arabia Deserta on the east, and the Jordan on the west.

Mash.] Who inhabited mount Masius in Mesopotamia, and from whom the river Mazeca, which has its source in that mountain, takes its name.

23. Uz — Who gave name to the country of Job, in the north of Arabia Deserta. The manners and habits of this people may, to a considerable extent, be learned from this ancient poem.

Hul, Gether, and Mash are not identified to any degree of certainty, although some think that the last may be traced in Mysia of Asia Minor, and the Mount Masius, or Masion, and the Masei Arabs of Mesopotamia. The Arabic geographers call two districts of Syria by the name of Hul, (Chul,) and also trace to Gether the Themudites of Hedjaz and the Djasites of Jemama. (Knobel.)

Verse 24. Salah] The founder of the people of Susiana. Eber.] See Genesis 10:21. The Septuagint add Cainan here, with one hundred and thirty to the chronology.

Ver. 24. Heber, thought to be a patriarch of great worth, and from him, as a paternal honour, the Hebrews derive their name.

24. The line of Arphaxad is now specially taken up, as that with which the narrative is mainly concerned. Salah, or Shelah, from jlv, to send forth, one sent; hence Shiloah, or Siloah, sent. John 9:7. Eber, or Heber, from rb[, beyond, that is, beyond the river, (Euphrates,) an emigrant. Both of these names seem to point to the migration of the Hebrew people from Aram westward. The name Hebrew, yrb[, first occurs in Genesis 14:13, in the phrase Abram the Hebrew, and seems to be derived from the same root, meaning “one coming from beyond,” (the river Euphrates,) that is, immigrant, pilgrim. So the Seventy understood the word, and, therefore, translated it o perathv, one from beyond. (So Jerome, Theodotion, Chrysostom, Origen, Rosenmuller, Gesenius, Furst, Knobel.) In later years the term became narrowed to those who came from beyond the Jordan, that is, the Israelites proper, who dwelt west of the Jordan. (Furst.) The sacred historian is supposed by many to have traced the word Hebrew to the person Eber, making it a patronymic, in styling Shem the “father of all the children of Eber.” Verse 21. (So Gesenius.) But he calls the Hebrew people sons of Eber simply because the name Eber expresses their character; they were a pilgrim people, going forth by faith to a land that was not their own; wandering there for generations before they obtained possession, yet believing it theirs, (Hebrews 11:8, 9,) and conquering it at last by divine help. They were owners of the land where they dwelt, not by original possession or conquest, but by faith. The word Eber expresses this distinguishing trait of the Hebrew people. Comp. Genesis 12:1, 2. Thus were they typical of the spiritual Israel, who are pilgrims and strangers here, but seek a heavenly country. Hebrews 11:13, 14. This is the name by which the chosen people were designated by foreigners (see Genesis 39:14, 17, etc.) and by the Greek and Roman writers until the term Jew (from Judah) came into use. They called themselves Israelites, except when speaking of themselves to foreigners, or in contrast with foreigners. Genesis 40:15; Exodus 1:19; 2:11, 13. This trait made them a peculiar people.

Verse 25. Peleg] From glp palag, to divide, because in his days, which is supposed to be about one hundred years after the flood, the earth was divided among the sons of Noah. Though some are of opinion that a physical division, and not a political one, is what is intended here, viz., a separation of continents and islands from the main land; the earthy parts having been united into one great continent previously to the days of Peleg. This opinion appears to me the most likely, for what is said, Genesis 10:5, is spoken by way of anticipation.

Verse 25. In his days the earth was divided — That is, about the time of his birth it was divided among those that were to inhabit it, either when Noah made an orderly distribution of it among his descendants, as Joshua divided the land of Canaan by lot; or when, upon their refusal to comply with that division, God, in justice, divided them by the confusion of tongues.

Ver. 25. Peleg glp Palag, he divided. Usher, as in our Bible, places his birth in the 102nd year after the flood. As he was the fifth from Noah, and as the first four post-diluvian fathers cannot be supposed to marry till they were fifty years of age, though Peleg married at thirty, his birth may be placed in the year 200 or 250. He lived to the age of 239. At what year of his age the event happened, and from which he received his surname, is not said: perhaps about 400 years after Noah left the ark: Helvicus thinks 500. What the division of the earth means we are not told, except by the rabbins, that it was a division of the earth by lot among the descendents of Noah, at the head of which was a princely patriarch. But Noah had already given Asia to Shem, Europe to Japhet, and Africa to Ham, and Canaan’s family had settled in Palestine on the road, a land which according to Noah’s will, was not theirs.—But the name is applied to a divided fountain or waters, as well as to divided lands.

Now, we know that there was an inundation of the sea on the lower marshes, which drowned king Ogyges at Thebes. From this inundation to the first Greek olympiade Eusebius reckons above 1020 years. Præp. 10:10. Our miners also inform us, that there is a rent across the county of Durham, in which one side of the earth has subsided 120 yards. Bailey’s Hist. Mr. Whitehurst has given us plates of the strata at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, in which there is a subsidence of all the strata of lias, toadstone, and coal, for the like space of 120 yards. Dr. Price states the like subsidence of one side in Cornwall for 38 yards. This event probably proceeded from the bursting of the earth by subterranean fires, which drove the winds and waves to fury. De Lisle found trees near Thorne, from 12 to 14 feet thick towards the roots. The tides, still warping up their estuaries, have covered the bog-timber in some places to the depth of 10 or 20 feet. Thus in all the marshes of America, as well as in Europe, trees are found, and largely mixed with the horns and bones of herbivorous animals. The body of a woman, with antique sandals on her feet, was dug up at the Isle of Axholme near Epworth. Many papers in the Royal Society, as well as the assent of Dr. Edward Clarke, our accredited traveller in the East, perfectly coincide with this account of the Ogygian inundation. See more, Genesis 47:25.

25. Peleg — Division, relating, it is generally thought, to the division of tongues which the narrator immediately proceeds to describe in the next chapter, but Knobel makes it refer to the division in the family of Eber between the brothers Peleg and Joktan. He presents reasons for the view which seem to have weight. It is doubtful if the matter can be decisively settled, but we follow the current opinion. Smith’s Dictionary follows Knobel. His brother’s name was Joktan — Called in the Arabian genealogies Kahtan, the ancestor of thirteen tribes in South Arabia. The name signifies Little. Niebuhr mentions a town and province Kahtan. Some of these thirteen names following are still found in Arabia, others have become extinct, and others are not as yet identified.

Verses 26. - 30. Joktan] He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.

In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned, 1. The numbering by tens. 2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days. 3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes. 4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical. 5. The consecration of temples and altars. 6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges. 7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, &c., for the use of the altar. 8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed. 9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice. 10. The order of priesthood and its support. 11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, &c. 12. The universal tradition of a general deluge. 13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, &c., &c. See Dodd. The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth; for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.

GENESIS

26. Almodad — This name seems to be preserved in the Arabic El-Mudad, or Al-Modhadh, a famous Arab prince. The name was borne by several Arab chiefs in a tribe that lived first in Yemen, (South-west Arabia,) and then in Hedjaz, (along the upper Red Sea.) Sheleph — Probably Salif, or Sulaf, the Salapani of Ptolemy, an Arab people of Yemen.

Hazarmaveth — Court of death. The modern Hadhramant, or Hadramant, east of Yemen, in south Arabia, on the Indian Ocean; so named for its unhealthy climate. The modern name has the same meaning. This identification is undisputed.

Jerah — The moon. Michaelis and Gesenius understand this to designate what are now called the Moon Coast and the Moon Mountain, near Hadhramant.

Verses 26. - 30. Joktan] He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.

In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned, 1. The numbering by tens. 2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days. 3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes. 4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical. 5. The consecration of temples and altars. 6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges. 7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, &c., for the use of the altar. 8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed. 9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice. 10. The order of priesthood and its support. 11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, &c. 12. The universal tradition of a general deluge. 13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, &c., &c. See Dodd. The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth; for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.

GENESIS

27. Hadoram — The Adramites of Pliny and Ptolemy, in the eastern part of Hadhramant.

Uzal — The modern Sanaa, the chief city of Yemen, a walled town; said to be the finest in Arabia.

Diklah — Palm-tree. Probably some place abounding in palms, but not identified.

Verses 26. - 30. Joktan] He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.

In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned, 1. The numbering by tens. 2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days. 3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes. 4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical. 5. The consecration of temples and altars. 6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges. 7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, &c., for the use of the altar. 8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed. 9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice. 10. The order of priesthood and its support. 11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, &c. 12. The universal tradition of a general deluge. 13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, &c., &c. See Dodd. The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth; for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.

GENESIS

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 verse 7.

Verses 26. - 30. Joktan] He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.

In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned, 1. The numbering by tens. 2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days. 3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes. 4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical. 5. The consecration of temples and altars. 6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges. 7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, &c., for the use of the altar. 8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed. 9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice. 10. The order of priesthood and its support. 11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, &c. 12. The universal tradition of a general deluge. 13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, &c., &c. See Dodd. The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth; for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.

GENESIS

29. Ophir — A land celebrated in Solomon’s time for its trade in gold, gems, apes, and peacocks. Probably it was a port in Arabia on the Red Sea, although some assign it to India. There is an El-Ophir in the modern Oman or Omaun, east Arabia.

Havilah — A district of north Yemen. There was also a Cushite Havilah. See verse 7, and note on Cush.

Jobab — Not identified, but supposed by Bochart and others to be in Arabia Deserta.

Verses 26. - 30. Joktan] He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.

In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned, 1. The numbering by tens. 2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days. 3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes. 4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical. 5. The consecration of temples and altars. 6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges. 7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, &c., for the use of the altar. 8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed. 9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice. 10. The order of priesthood and its support. 11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, &c. 12. The universal tradition of a general deluge. 13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, &c., &c. See Dodd. The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth; for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.

GENESIS

30. Their dwelling was from Mesha — In this verse are given the boundaries of the Joktanite Arabs, probably as they existed in the time of Abraham. But it is now impossible to follow them with any degree of certainty. Yet, in the language and monuments of South Arabia there are, as shown above, abundant traces of these thirteen Joktanite tribes. The position of Mesha is uncertain, but it was probably located in North-west Yemen, and the seaport Mousa, on the Red Sea, may be its modern representative. Sepher is undoubtedly the modern Zafar, Dafar, Dhafari, a seaport beneath a lofty mountain on the shore of the Indian Ocean, in Hadhramant, an ancient mart of the Indian trade. These boundaries would fix the primitive seat of the Joktanite Arabs in Yemen and Hadhramant, mostly in Arabia Felix — a district stretching from the Nikkum mountains to the Red and Arabian Seas.

THE SHEMITIC FAMILY, 21-31.

21. Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born — That is, older than Ham, though younger than Japheth. Comp. note on Genesis 5:32. This expression, “elder brother,” seems to be inserted here to remind the reader that, although Shem was mentioned after Ham, he was really older than he. Shem’s posterity is mentioned last, to form a more immediate and natural connexion with the following history, which pertains to them exclusively. Shem signifies name, that is, great or distinguished name; made illustrious as the line through which God shines on the world — the line in which arose the “NAME that is above every name.” Shem was the ancestor of the Persians, Assyrians, Arabians, and Lydians, (perhaps also of the Phenicians, see verse 15,) all great nations of western Asia; but he is especially conspicuous in this history as father of the “children of Eber,” the Hebrew people, through whom came revelation and the Messiah. For the meaning of “Hebrew,” see verse 24 and note. The names of most of these sons of Shem became early transferred to the countries they occupied.