Genesis 10:22

The sons of Shem This is the account by P, corresponding to the previous mention of "the sons of Japheth," Genesis 10:2, and "the sons of Ham," Genesis 10:6.

Elam The name of a people and a country east of the Tigris and north of the Persian Gulf. The Elamites were at one time supreme in Western Asia (see note on Genesis 14:1). They do not appear to have been a Semitic race; but the place of Elam in this verse probably indicates the easternmost people with which the descendants of Shem were brought into contact.

Asshur See note on Genesis 10:11. The Assyrians were the most powerful of the Semitic peoples.

Arpachshad This name used to be identified with Ἀῤῥαπαχῖτις, a mountainous region north of Assyria, but this does not explain the two final syllables in which we naturally recognize Chesed, or the Chasdim, viz. = the "Chaldeans," a people dwelling in the south of Babylonia. Sayce explains the word to mean "the wall of Chesed," i.e. "the fortress-protected country of the Chaldeans." Cheyne thinks that the name in this passage and elsewhere is an erroneous fusion of two names, "Arpach" and "Chesed." (Z.A.T.W. 1897, p. 190.

Lud Presumably the Lydians of Asia Minor, though it is difficult to explain why they should be here associated with the "sons of Shem."

Aram The people inhabiting the whole country north-east of Palestine, the northern region of the Euphrates Valley (Aram-Naharaim) and the country of Syria proper (Aram-Dammesek).

The people denoted by Aram were destined to exercise a great influence throughout Western Asia. The Aramaean language gradually prevailed over the other Semitic dialects, and before the Christian era it had displaced even the Hebrew language among the Jews. The Aramaic tongue spoken by our Lord and the Apostles was like the language in which portions of the books of Ezra and Daniel were written.