_A.M. 2006. B.C. 1998._ This chapter contains the only certain account extant of the original of nations; and yet, perhaps, there is no nation, but that of the Jews, that can be confident from which of these seventy fountains (for so many there are here) it derives its streams. We have a brief acco... [ Continue Reading ]
Although this chapter may appear to some unprofitable, it is indeed of great use. 1st, It gives us a true, and the only true account of the origin of the several nations of the world. 2d, It discovers and distinguishes from all other nations, the people in which God's church was to be preserved, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Moses begins with Japheth's family, either because he was the eldest, or because it lay most remote from Israel, and had least concern with them at the time when he wrote; and therefore he mentions that race very briefly; hastening to give account of the posterity of Ham, who were Israel's enemies,... [ Continue Reading ]
The posterity of Japheth were allotted to the _isles of the Gentiles_, which were solemnly by lot, after a survey, divided among them, and probably this island of ours among the rest. All places _beyond the sea_ from Judea, are called isles. Jeremiah 25:22; and this directs us to understand that pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nimrod was a mighty hunter_ In the Septuagint it is, _He was a giant hunter_: the Arabic has it, _He was a terrible giant before the Lord:_ and the Syriac, _He was a great warrior._ It is probable he began with hunting, and for this became famous to a proverb. He served his country by ridding it of... [ Continue Reading ]
_The beginning of his kingdom was Babel_ Some way or other, he got into power; and so laid the foundation of a monarchy which was afterward a _head of gold._ It does not appear that he had any right to rule by birth; but either his fitness for government recommended him, or by power and policy he gr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Out of that land went forth Asshur_ He was the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22: and, it seems that, not being able to endure Nimrod's tyranny, who possessed himself of other men's territories, (Chaldea, which Nimrod had seized upon, being Shem's part,) he went away beyond Tigris, where he founded the em... [ Continue Reading ]
The account of the posterity of Canaan, and of the land they possessed, is more particular than that of any other in this chapter; because these were the nations that were to be subdued before Israel, and their land was to become Immanuel's land. And by this account it appears that the posterity of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Unto Shem_, &c. The word _Shem_ signifies a _name;_ but two titles are also added whereby to distinguish him: 1st, He was _the father of all the children of Eber._ Eber was his great-grandson; but why should he be called the father of all _his_ children, rather than of all Arphaxad's or Salah's? Pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_In his days the earth was divided_ That is, about the time of his birth it was divided among those that were to inhabit it, either when Noah made an orderly distribution of it among his descendants, as Joshua divided the land of Canaan by lot; or when, upon their refusal to comply with that divisio... [ Continue Reading ]