1 Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. 2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 5 Of these were the islands of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in their nations. 6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh." 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 Out of that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great city). 13 Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim. 15 Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth, 16 the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, 17 the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, 18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. 19 The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza; as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, to Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, in their nations. 21 To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born. 22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 24 Arpachshad became the father of Shelah. Shelah became the father of Eber. 25 To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother's name was Joktan. 26 Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 30 Their dwelling was from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. 31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, after their nations. 32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. Of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
The generations of the sons of Noah, Genesis 10:1. Japheth and his descendants, Genesis 10:2-4. The isles of the Gentiles, or Europe, peopled by the Japhethites, Genesis 10:5. Ham and his posterity, Genesis 10:6-20. Nimrod, one of his descendants, a mighty hunter, Genesis 10:8, Genesis 10:9, founds the first kingdom, Genesis 10:10. Nineveh and other cities founded, Genesis 10:11, Genesis 10:12. The Canaanites in their nine grand branches or families, Genesis 10:15-18. Their territories, Genesis 10:19. Shem and his posterity, Genesis 10:21-31. The earth divided in the days of Peleg, Genesis 10:25. The territories of the Shemites, Genesis 10:30. The whole earth peopled by the descendants of Noah's three sons, Genesis 10:32.
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 10
This chapter gives an account of the posterity of the three sons of Noah, by whom the world was peopled after the flood, Genesis 10:1 of the posterity of Japheth, Genesis 10:2 of the posterity of Ham, Genesis 10:6 and of the posterity of Shem, Genesis 10:21.
(Genesis 10:1-7) The sons of Noah, of Japheth, of Ham.
(Genesis 10:8-14) Nimrod the first monarch.
(v. 15-32) The descendants of Canaan, The sons of Shem.
IV. History of the Sons of Noah - Genesis 10-11:9
Pedigree of the Nations - Genesis 10
Of the sons of Noah, all that is handed down is the pedigree of the nations, or the list of the tribes which sprang from them (Genesis 10), and the account of the confusion of tongues, together with the dispersion of men over the face of the earth (Genesis 11:1-9); two events that were closely related to one another, and of the greatest importance to the history of the human race and of the kingdom of God. The genealogy traces the origin of the tribes which were scattered over the earth; the confusion of tongues shows the cause of the division of the one human race into many different tribes with peculiar languages.
The genealogy of the tribes is not an ethnographical myth, nor the attempt of an ancient Hebrew to trace the connection of his own people with the other nations of the earth by means of uncertain traditions and subjective combinations, but a historical record of the genesis of the nations, founded upon a tradition handed down from the fathers, which, to judge from its contents, belongs to the time of Abraham (cf. Hvernick's Introduction to Pentateuch, pp. 118ff. transl.), and was inserted by Moses in the early history of the kingdom of God on account of its universal importance in connection with sacred history. For it not only indicates the place of the family which was chosen as the recipient of divine revelation among the rest of the nations, but traces the origin of the entire world, with the prophetical intention of showing that the nations, although they were quickly suffered to walk in their own ways (Acts 14:16), were not intended to be for ever excluded from the counsels of eternal love.
In this respect the genealogies prepare the way for the promise of the blessing, which was one day to spread from the chosen family to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:2-3). - The historical character of the genealogy is best attested by the contents themselves, since no trace can be detected, either of any pre-eminence given to the Shemites, or of an intention to fill up gaps by conjecture or invention. It gives just as much as had been handed down with regard to the origin of the different tribes. Hence the great diversity in the lists of the descendants of the different sons of Noah. Some are brought down only to the second, others to the third or fourth generation, and some even further; and whilst in several instances the founder of a tribe is named, in others we have only the tribes themselves; and in some cases we are unable to determine whether the names given denote the founder or the tribe. In many instances, too, on account of the defects and the unreliable character of the accounts handed down to us from different ancient sources with regard to the origin of the tribes, there are names which cannot be identified with absolute certainty.
(Note: Sam. Bochart has brought great learning to the explanation of the table of nations in Phaleg, the first part of his geographia sacra, to which Michaelis and Rosenmller made valuable additions-the former in his spicil. geogr. Hebr. ext. 1769 and 1780, the latter in his Biblical Antiquities. Knobel has made use of all the modern ethnographical discoveries in his "Vlkertafel der Genesis" (1850), but many of his combinations are very speculative. Kiepert, in his article ber d. geograph. Stellung der nrdlichen Lnder in der phnikisch-hebrischen Erdkunde (in the Monatsberichte d. Berliner Akad. 1859), denies entirely the ethnographical character of the table of nations, and reduces it to a mere attempt on the part of the Phoenicians to account for the geographical position of the nations with which they were acquainted.)
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