Genesis 10:1-32
1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.a
5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel,b and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
14 And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
15 And Canaan begat Sidonc his firstborn, and Heth,
16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza;d as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.
21 Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.
22 The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad,e and Lud, and Aram.
23 And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.
24 And Arphaxad begat Salah;f and Salah begat Eber.
25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg;g for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
26 And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,
27 And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,
28 And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,
29 And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.
30 And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.
31 These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.
32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
Genesis 10:2. 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.
Genesis 10:3. 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,
Genesis 10:4. 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.
Genesis 10:6. 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. 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.
Genesis 10:7. 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.
Genesis 10:8. 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.”
Genesis 10:10. 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.
Genesis 10:11. Asshur, from whom the Assyrians derived their name.
Genesis 10:22. 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.
Genesis 10:24. Heber, thought to be a patriarch of great worth, and from him, as a paternal honour, the Hebrews derive their name.
Genesis 10:25. Peleg פלג 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. Genesis 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.