Genesis 10 - Introduction

1 (P). The Generations of the Sons of Noah.

2 5 (P). The Sons of Japheth.

6, 7, and 20 (P). The Sons of Ham.

8 19, and 21 (J). Nimrod, Babylon, and Assyria: Egypt and Canaan.

22 31 (P). The Sons of Shem.

The names of Noah's sons only occur in Genesis and in the parallel genealogical list in 1 Chronicles 1. The distribution of the races of the earth between their descendants necessarily results from the record, in Genesis 7:21, of the destruction of all flesh in the Flood.

As will be seen from the names contained in this list, they represent not a formal genealogy, but a table of the principal races and peoples known to the Israelites. They are arranged, as if they were members of families intimately related to one another. This, however, represents the common attitude of the ancient world in explaining the complexity of tribes and peoples, out of which nations had arisen. We may compare early Greek and Roman accounts of the origin of the inhabitants of Greece and Italy in prehistoric times. The names are some of them racial, and some of them geographical. The attempts at identification are precarious, and cannot often be relied upon.

Observe that the order of the sons of Noah is here reversed. Thus the family of Shem is the last to be enumerated, leading up to the Narratives of the Patriarchs (chaps. 12 50).