Genesis 10:21-32

8. The Line of Shem (Genesis 10:21-32, Genesis 11:10-32).

21 And unto 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, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram. 23 And the sons of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash. 24 And Arpachshad begat Shelah; and Shelah begat Eber. 25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; 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 Abimeal, 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 toward Sephar, the mountain 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 of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

The writer of Genesis, it will be noted, arranged his genealogies in such a way that the student is prepared for the elaboration of the Line of Shem through Terah and Abraham. The five major branches of the Semitic family are presented here: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
It is fitting to add here the complementary genealogical information from ch. 11:

10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begat Arpachshad lived after he begat Shelah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14 And Shelah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 15 and Shelah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 16 and Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: 17 and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: 19 and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. 20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: 21 and Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. 22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: 23 and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: 25 and Nahor lived after he begat Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. 26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. 28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 And Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there, 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Two important facts stand out in these Scriptures: (1) the steady decrease in the longevity of the patriarchs named (from 400 to about 200 years in the above table; later to 175 years in the time of Abraham [Genesis 25:7], and still later to 120 years in the time of Moses, Deuteronomy 34:7); (2) that the inspired writer steadily narrows the Line of Shem down to its proper Messianic orientation as his been his objective from the beginning. He is pointing the Messianic development firstly toward the Abrahamic Promise, and secondly to the giving of the Law at Sinai, and ultimately to the incarnate ministry of Messiah Himself, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Such again is the unity of the Book of Genesis in relation to the Bible as a whole. We shall now return to the account of the Line of Shem.

Elam: well-known as the area beyond the Tigris, north of the Persian Gulf, in the region around Susa. The Elamites were warlike and at one time controlled Lower Mesopotamia. Later, Elam became a province of the Persian Empire. In the Behistun Rock inscriptions of Darius I, the Old Persian text is accompanied by Elamite and Babylonian translations.

Asshur: Assyria; the shortened form, Syria. The most fertile and densely populated area which lay east of the central section of the Tigris valley. Its three great capitals were Asshur, Calah, and Nineveh (cf. Jonah 1:1). Archaeology has proved that it was inhabited before 5000 B.C. At one time the Assyrian Empire extended across southwest Asia as far as the Mediterranean and Lower Egypt.

Arpachshad (or Arphaxad): name not yet found in inscriptions, hence identification is not possible. (Cf. Arrapa of Ptolemy's Geography). Shelah: brought in from Genesis 11:12. Was this a personal name (cf. Methuselah, Genesis 5:22)? Eber (cf. Genesis 10:14): the name is translated one who passes over, and is the same as the word Hebrew (Habiru) and as such was used later to designate Semitic semi-nomads. In his days was the earth divided, hence the name of his son, Peleg, meaning division. Does this have reference to the dispersion following Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)? Or does it indicate a division between nomadic Arabs (a name which is probably a dialectical variant of -eber-', -wanderer-') and those peoples settled on irrigated lands, under Peleg (cf. NBD, 331)? Peleg (cf. Genesis 10:16), division. Joktan, Peleg's brother. Here we have the list of the thirteen Arabian tribes sired by Joktan; these tribes (or peoples) occupied the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula. Two of the names occur in the Hamitic Line, namely, Sheba and Havilah (cf. Genesis 10:7). Note the story of the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-13, cf. 2 Samuel 20:1, 1 Chronicles 5:13, Joshua 19:2, Ezekiel 27:22, Matthew 12:42 :, also the mention of the gold of Ophir, 1 Kings 9:28; 1 Kings 10:11). Sheba and Ophir obviously were regions in the vicinity of modern Yemen; Havilah was north of these areas (cf. Genesis 25:18, 1 Samuel 15:7). (Concerning the appearance of Sheba as a descendant both of Ham [Genesis 10:7] and of Shem [Genesis 10:28], Archer writes [SOTI, 201]: In all probability the Sabaeans were originally Hamitic, but continual intermixture with Semitic neighbors in South Arabia finally altered their ethnic complexion to make them predominantly Semitic. Thus both the relationship of Genesis 10:7 and that of Genesis 10:28 would be correct.) Note here also the supplementary list of the successive descendants of Peleg in the Messianic Line (Genesis 11:18-26): Reu, probably a short form of Reuel, but not as yet identified; Serug, mentioned in Assyrian texts as a city of the Haran district; Nahor, appears as Nakhuru in Mari texts of the 2nd millenium B.C.; Terah, the old city name of Haran district.

Lud, son of Shem. Probably refers to the Lydians of Asia Minor. When the rich Lydian King Croesus was defeated by Cyrus the Great (c. 540 B.C.) Lydian autonomy came to an end.

Aram: the fifth son of Shem named, Genesis 10:22. The region known as Syria; the most important of the Aramaic states, Damascus, played a leading role in later Biblical history. Aram of the Two Rivers (i.e., Paddan-aram) was the name given to the region around Haran in northern Mesopotamia where Laban and other members of Abraham's family settled. Note the sons of Aram, Genesis 10:23: Uz, Hul, Gether, Mash: all unidentified as yet. Josephus takes Hul to be Armenia, Gether to be Bactria, and Mash to be district of Mesene at the mouth of the Euphrates. These identifications, however, are very questionable.

(For further appearances of the names in the Table of Nations, the student is referred especially to First Chronicles, chapter 1, and to any complete Concordance of the Old and New Testaments, For additional etymological, historical and geographical information concerning the names and places mentioned in the Table, see the Rand McNally Bible Atlas (BA), Baker's Bible Atlas (BBA), The New Bible Dictionary (NBD), and the Table of Nations Map 1, in the small but excellent Standard Bible Atlas (Standard Publishing, Cincinnati). Account must be taken of the fact that some differences occur as to the location of the different peoples represented in the Table, in the various maps in which they are placed geographically. Many of the persons and peoples given in the Table are simply as yet unidentifiable.)

9. The Importance of the Table of Nations

Whitelaw (PCG, 156): It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this ethnological table. Whether regarded from a geographical, a political, or a theocratical standpoint, -this unparalleled list, the combined result of reflection and deep research,-' is -no less valuable as a historical document than as a lasting proof of the brilliant capacity of the Hebrew mind.-' Undoubtedly the earliest effort of the human intellect to exhibit in a tabulated form the geographical distribution of the human race, it bears unmistakable witness in its own structure to its high antiquity, occupying itself least with the Japhetic tribes which were farthest from the theocratic center, and were latest in attaining to historic eminence, and enlarging with much greater minuteness of detail on those Hamitic nations, the Egyptian, the Canaanite, and Arabian, which were soonest developed, and with which the Hebrews came most into contact in the initial stages of their career. It describes the rise of states, and, consistently with all subsequent historical and archaeological testimony, gives the prominence to the Egyptian or Arabian Hamites, as the first founders of empires. It exhibits the separation of the Shemites from the other sons of Noah, and the budding forth of the line of promise in the family of Arphaxad. While thus useful to the geographer, the historian, the politician, it is specially serviceable to the theologian as enabling him to trace the descent of the woman's seed, and to mark the fulfillments of Scripture prophecies concerning the nations of the earth.
Dean (OBH, 18): The tenth chapter of Genesis is the oldest authority on ethnology. It gives the descendants of Noah's sons and their distribution. (1) Ham had four sons who settled the Lower Euphrates and the Nile valleys. The earliest civilizations were Hamitic. (2) Shem's five sons settled southwestern Asia. They were ancestors of the Chaldeans who conquered the earlier Hamitic race on the Euphrates, of the Assyrians, Syrians, Arabians, and Hebrews, (3) Japheth had seven sons, from whom sprang the Medes, Greeks, Romans, and all the modern races of Europe. They scattered widely, were in obscurity for thousands of years, but for twenty-four hundred years have been the ruling races of the world.
10. The Antiquity of Man

We have already noted that in the Neolithic Age (roughly from 10,000 or 8,000 to 5,000 B.C.) plant and animal domestication was fully developed, and pottery began to put in appearance. We must take account also of the polychrome paintings on cave walls, of hand-carved artifacts (such as batons, used probably for magical purposes), many specimens of which have been dug up by the archaeologists and which must have been in existence about the beginning of the Neolithic Period. The Chalcolithic Age (c. 5,000 to 3,000 B.C.) was marked by many cultural advancements, skilled workmanship in copper, flint, basalt, marble, limestone, ivory and bone; high development of the imaginative-esthetic powers in man; and along with this a highly developed agricultural civilization. This age produced metallurgists, potters, weavers, smiths and many other artisans of high attainments. The beginning of skilled workmanship in bronze (in Scripture, brass) occurred between 3,000 and 2,500 B.C. (Bronze is, of course, an alloy of copper and tin). The discovery and widespread use of iron had its beginning from about 1,500 B.C.
When did homo sapiens first put in appearance? Some of the extravagant claims that are being made today for the antiquity of man are ridiculous beyond description. In recent months articles have appeared from time to time claiming the discovery of human skeletal remainsa. few here, and a few therewhich indicate an antiquity of some 100,000 years for the human being; by some this figure has been extended farther back into the limbo of unrecorded time. One Dr. Leakey has been spreading his assumptions of this character in the metropolitan press as if they were law and gospel, when as a matter of fact there is no possibility of proving the reliability of his claims. One fact stands out in this connection which, to this writer, needs some explanation. It is this: At the rate of population growth such as we have witnessed in our time, if homo sapiens existed 100,000 years ago, or even 25,000 years ago, or even much fewer years ago, there would have been billions of such creatures walking the earth. If so, what happened to them? Have we found any abundance of skeletal remains to prove that they had already covered the surface of the earth with their presence? Why did they not invent anything of importance? Why did they make little or no progress? What are the evidences of their culture, even as existing prior to the evidences of culture found in the caves and on the cave walls of early prehistoric species? If the human race had spread over the earth fifty thousand years ago, or twenty-five thousand years ago, it must have been a race of helpless critters. Or, is it a fact that the Flood did come and destroy them all? But even so, where are their fossilized remains? It is not about time to mix a little common sense with academic nonsense? Some of these claims are so absurd thatas an English philosopher once put itonly a very learned man could possibly conjure them up. It takes a great deal more blind faith to accept these academic conjectures than to let God work His sovereign Will as He may have chosen to do and does now choose to do.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART TWENTY-THREE

1.

How do the names of Noah's sons indicate the character of their respective Lines?

2.

What is the correct meaning of the word nation?

3.

What is the over-all principle of classification in the Table of Nations?

4.

Explain how the Table is arranged in climactic form?

5.

State the geographical distributions of the progenies of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, respectively.

6.

Why is the Table finally narrowed down to the Line of Shem?

7.

What is the general trend of the content of Genesis at this point?

8.

Why does the Line from Shem to Abraham trace a personal descent?

9.

Explain some of the problems involved in the explanation of this Table of Nations.

10.

Why were rivers the first arteries of transportation?

11.

What do we conclude as to the original unity of the race?

12.

What are some of the facts which help us in the interpretation of the Table of Nations?

13.

Explain the three distinctive characteristics of a people which may cause subtle variability in names.

14.

How can we account for duplicate names in two or more lists?

15.

Explain what is meant by the statement that names can be taken over from the Table of Nations to equate with specific usages in modern times.

16.

What is Albright's comment about this Table?

17.

What is meant by the statement that this Table is not the basis of the common threefold division of the races of mankind into Aryan, Semitic, and dark-skinned peoples.

18.

What was the geographical spread of the Japhethites?

19.

Identify the following names in the Line of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tarshish.

20.

Identify the following sons of the Line of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

21.

Identify Havilah and Sheba of the Line of Canaan.

22.

List the various Canaanite peoples and locate them geographically.

23.

What was the general geographical location of the Phoenicians and Canaanites?

24.

How is Nimrod described? What type of ruler does this description indicate that he was?

25.

Name and locate the Babylonian cities associated with the name of Nimrod.

26.

Name and locate the Assyrian cities associated with his name.

27.

Explain the historical and geographical relations between Babylonia and Assyria.

28.

Name the sons of Shem and indicate the areas held by the progeny of each.

29.

Who were the Elamites and what was their location and general history?

30.

Who were the Assyrians and what were their great Cities?

31.

Who was Joktan? How many tribes were sired by him and what territory did they occupy?

32.

With what people is the name of Lud associated?

33.

Who were the Arameans and what territory did they occupy?

34.

Identify Sheba and Ophir.

35.

Discuss the importance of this Table of the Nations.

36.

How long has homo sapiens been upon this earth? What are the objections to the extravagant claims regarding his antiquity?

37.

To what ultimate events of such great importance to the Plan of Redemption does the writer of Genesis point by his method of gradually narrowing down the genealogies from Shem to Abraham?

38.

To what extent does the genealogical table in chapter 11 contribute to that of chapter ten?