Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 10:21-32

"And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born. The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram. And the sons of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash. And Arpachshad begat Shelah; and Shelah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: The name of the one was Peleg. For in his days was the earth divided. And his brother`s name was Joktan. And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah, and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah, and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan. And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. 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." — Genesis 10:21-32 (ASV)

21. אבר 'eber — “Eber, yonder side; verb: pass, cross.”

22. עילם 'eylām — “Elam.” עוּל ‛ûl, “suckle.” עלם ‛ālam, “hide; be mature.” ארפכשׁד 'arpakshad — “Arpakshad.” כשׂד ארף 'arp keśed, “boundary of Kesed, or (von-Bohlen) Arjapakshata, beside Aria.” ארם 'ǎrām — “Aram, high; verb: be high.”

23. עוּץ ‛ûts, “‘Uts; verb: counsel; be firm, solid.” חוּל chûl — “Chul; verb: rub, twist, writhe, be strong, await.” גתר geter — “Gether, bridge?” משׁ meshek — “Mash; related: feel, touch.”

24. שׁלח shelach — “Shelach, missile, shoot.”

25. פלג peleg — “Peleg; noun: brook, canal; verb: divide.” יקטן yāqṭān — “Joctan, small.”

26. אלמודד 'almôdād — “Almodad.” למד lāmad — “learn.” מדד mādad — “measure.” שׁלף shelep — “Sheleph; verb: draw out or off.” חערמות chatsarmāvet — “Chatsarmaveth, court of death.” ירח yerach — “Jerach, moon, month.”

27. הדורם hadôrām — Hadoram, “majesty, beauty;” verb: “swell, honor.” אוּזל 'ûzāl — Uzal; verb: “go out or away.” דקלה dı̂qlâh Diclah, “palm.”

28. עובל ‛ôbāl, ‘Obal, “bare, bald.” אבימאל 'ǎbı̂ymā'ēl — Abimael, “father of Mael” (circumcision).

29. אופיר 'ôpı̂r — Ophir; verb: “break, veil.” יובב yôbāb — Jobab; verb: “cry, call.”

30. משׁא mēshā' — Mesha, שׁאה shā'âh = שׁוא shô' — “roar, crash.” ספר s(e)pār Sephar, “counting, writing.”

From Japheth, who penetrated into the remotest regions, the writer proceeds to Ham, who came into close contact with Shem. From Ham, he passes to Shem, in whom the line of history is to be continued.

(Genesis 10:21) Shem is here distinguished by two characteristics—the former referring to a subsequent, the latter to an antecedent event. He is “the father of all the sons of Heber.” It is evident from this that the sons of Heber cast luster on the family of Shem, and therefore on the whole human race. It is unnecessary to anticipate the narrative, except so far as to note that the sons of Heber include most of the Arabians, a portion of those who mingled with the race and inhabited the land of Aram, and, most probably, the original element of the population in the land of Kenaan. This characteristic of Shem shows that the table in which it is found was composed after the Hebrews had become conspicuous among the descendants of Shem.

Shem is next distinguished as the “older brother of Japheth”; that is, older than Ham. This interpretation of the words is most agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, and is the only one which provides an important sense. That Shem was the second son appears from the facts that Ham was the youngest (Genesis 9:24), that Shem was born in the five hundred and third year of Noah (Genesis 11:10), and, therefore, Japheth must have been the one born when Noah was in his five hundredth year (Genesis 5:32). The reason for inserting this statement is to prevent the order in which the brothers are introduced in the pedigree from being taken as that of their age, instead of that of the historical relationship existing among the nations descended from them.

(Genesis 10:22) Twenty-six of the primitive nations are descended from Shem, of which five are immediate.

1. Elam was settled in a part of modern Persia, to which he gave name. This name seems to be preserved in Elymais, a province of that country bordering on the Dijlah, and now included in Khusistan. It was early governed by its own kings (Genesis 14:1), and continued to occupy a distinct place among the nations in the time of the later prophets (Isaiah 22:6; Jeremiah 49:34; Ezekiel 32:24). Its capital was Shushan or Susa (Daniel 8:2), now Shuster.

2. Asshur seems to have originally occupied a district of Mesopotamia, which was bounded on the east by the Tigris (Genesis 2:14). The inviting plains and slopes on the east of the Tigris would soon occasion a migration of part of the nation across that river. It is possible there may have been an ancient Asshur occupying the same region even before the flood (Genesis 2:14).

3. Arpakshad is traced in Ἀῤῥαπαχῖτις Arrapachitis—Arrhapachitis, a region in the north of Assyria. Von Bohlen and Benfey identify it with Ariapakshata, denoting a country beside Aria. Gesenius renders it border or stronghold of the Kasdim; but the components of the word are uncertain. The nations descended from Arpakshad are noted at the close on account of their late origin, as well as their importance for the subsequent narrative.

4. Lud is usually identified with the Lydians, Λυδοὶ Ludoi—who by migration at length reached and gave their name to a part of the west coast of Asia Minor.

5. Aram gave name to the upper parts of Mesopotamia and the parts of Syria north of Palestine. Hence, we read of Aram Naharaim (of the two rivers), Aram Dammesek (of Damascus), Aram Maakah on the southwest border of Damascus, about the sources of the Jordan, Aram Beth Rechob in the same neighborhood, and Aram Zoba to the north of Damascus. The name is perhaps varied in the Ἄριμοι Arimoi of Homer and Strabo (xiii. 4, 6). From Aram are descended four later nations.

(Genesis 10:23)

1. Uz (Ἀνσῖτις Ausitis—Septuagint), the chief of a people settled in the north of Arabia Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates. From this Uz it is possible that the sons of Nahor and of Seir (Genesis 22:21; Genesis 36:28) obtained their name. Job dwelt in this land.

2. Hul is supposed to have his settlement about the sources of the Jordan in Huleh. Others trace this nation in the Hylatae near Emesa.

3. Gether is of uncertain position, probably in Arabia.

4. Mash may have left a trace of his name in Mons Masius, Karajah Dagh, south of Diarbekir, and perhaps also in the Mysians and Moesians, who may have wandered westward from under this mountain.

(Genesis 10:24) Arpakshad begot Shelah. We know nothing of the nation of which he was the founder. He begot Heber. Heber is the progenitor of the Hebrews, the race to which Abraham belonged. He is marked out very prominently for reasons partly unknown to us after so much time, but partly no doubt because he was the ancestor of the chosen race who immediately preceded the confusion of tongues, and to whom belonged that generic Hebrew tongue, which afterward branched into several dialects, of which the Hebrew, now strictly so called, was one.

It is probable that most of the various forms of speech retained the substance of the primeval speech of mankind. And it is not improbable, for various reasons, that this Hebrew tongue, taken in its largest sense, deviated less from the original standard than any other. The Shemites, and especially the Hebrews, departed less from the knowledge of the true God than the other families of man, and, therefore, may be presumed to have suffered less from the concussion given to the living speech of the race.

The knowledge previously accumulated of the true God, and of His will and way, would have been lost if the terms and other modes of expressing divine things had been entirely obliterated. It is consistent with reason, then, to suppose that some one language was so little shaken from its primary structure as to preserve this knowledge. We know as a fact that, while other nations retained some faint traces of the primeval history, the Hebrews have handed down certain and tangible information concerning past events in a consecutive order from the very first. This is conclusive proof that they had the distinct outline and material substance of the primeval tongue in which these things were originally expressed. Consistent with this line of reasoning, though distinct from it, is the fact that the names of persons and things are given and explained in the Hebrew tongue, and most of them in that branch of it in which the Old Testament is composed.

We do not delve further into the special nature of the Hebrew family of languages, or their relationship with other forms of human speech, other than to suggest that such investigations tend to confirm the conclusions stated here.

(Genesis 10:25) This nation was very extensive, and accordingly branched out into several, of which the immediate ones are Peleg and Joctan.

1. Peleg is remarkable on account of the origin assigned to his name. In his days was the earth divided. Here two questions occur. What is the meaning of the earth being divided, and what is the time denoted by “his days?” The verb “divide” (פלג pālag) occurs only three times elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures (1 Chronicles 1:19; Job 38:25; Psalms 55:9). The connection in which this rare word is used in the Psalm, “divide their tongues,” seems to determine its reference in the present passage to the confusion of tongues and consequent dispersion of mankind recorded in the following chapter. This provides a probable answer to our first question. The land was in his days divided among the representative heads of the various nations.

   But to what time are we directed by the phrase “in his days?” Was the land divided at his birth, or some later period of his life? The latter is possible, as Jacob and Gideon received new names, and Joshua an altered name, in later life.

   The phrase “in his days” seems to suggest the same. And the short interval from the deluge to his birth appears scarcely sufficient for such an increase of the human family as to allow of a separation into nations. Yet, on the other hand, it is hard to find any event in later life which connected this individual more than any other with the dispersion of mankind. It is customary to give the name at birth. The phrase “in his days” may, without stretching the meaning, refer to this period.

   And if we suppose, at a time when there were only a few families on the earth, an average increase of ten children in each in four generations, we shall have a thousand, or twelve hundred adults, and, therefore, may have five hundred families at the birth of Peleg. We cannot suppose more than fifty-five nations distinguished from one another at the dispersion, as Heber is the fifty-fifth name, and all the others are descended from him.

   And if three families were sufficient to propagate the human race after the flood, nine or ten were enough to constitute a primeval tribe or nation. We see some reason, therefore, to take the birth of Peleg as the occasion on which he received his name, and no stringent reason for fixing upon any later date. At all events the question seems to be of no chronological importance, as in any case only four generations preceded Peleg, and these might have been of comparatively longer or shorter duration without materially affecting the number of mankind at the time of his birth. Peleg is also remarkable as the head of that nation out of which, at a later period, the special people of God sprang. Of the Palgites, as a whole, we hear little or nothing further in history.

2. Joctan, if little or insignificant as an individual or a nation, is the progenitor of a large group of tribes, finding their place among the wandering races included afterward under the name Arabic. Cachtan, as the Arabs designate him in their traditions, may have given name to Cachtan, a town and province mentioned by Niebuhr.

(Genesis 10:26–29) The thirteen tribes of the Joctanites or primitive Arabs are enumerated here in Genesis 10:26-29.

1. Almodad is usually referred to Yemen. The first syllable may be the Arabic article. Mudad is the name of one celebrated in Arab story as the stepfather of Ishmael and chief of the Jurhum tribe of Joctanites. The Ἀλλουμαιῶται Alloumaiōtai of Ptolemy belonged to the interior of Arabia Felix.

2. Sheleph is traced in the Σαλαπηνοὶ Salapeenoi of Ptolemy (vi. 7), belonging to the interior.

3. Hazarmaveth gives name to a district on the Indian Ocean, abounding in spices, now called Hadramaut. This tribe is the Chatramitae of Greek writers.

4. Jerah occupied a district near Hadramaut where the coast and mountain of the moon are located.

5. Hadoram is preserved in the tribe called Ἀδραμῖται Adamitai Atramitae, placed by Pliny (vi. 28) between the Homerites and the Sachalites on the south coast of Arabia.

6. Uzal perhaps gave the ancient name of Azal to Sana, the capital of Yemen, a place still celebrated for the manufacture of beautiful fabrics.

7. Diclah settled possibly in the palm-bearing region of the Minaei in Hejaz.

8. Obal is otherwise unknown.

9. Abimael is equally obscure. Bochart supposes there is a trace of the name in Μάλι Mali—a place in Arabia Aromatifera.

10. Sheba is the progenitor of the Sabaei in Arabia Felix, celebrated for spices, gold, and precious stones, and noted for the prosperity arising from trade in these commodities. A queen of Sheba visited Solomon. The dominant family among the Sabaeans was that of Himjar, from whom the Himjarites (Homeritae) of a later period descended.

11. Ophir gave name to a country celebrated for gold, precious stones, and almug wood, which seems to have lain on the south side of Arabia, where these products may be found. What kind of tree the almug is has not been clearly determined. Some suppose it to be the sandalwood which grows in Persia and India; others, a species of pine. If this wood was not native, it may have been imported from more distant countries to Ophir, which was evidently a great emporium.

    Others, however, have supposed Ophir to be in India, or Eastern Africa. The chief argument for a more distant locality arises from the supposed three years’ voyage to it from Ezion-geber, and the products obtained in the country so reached. But the three years’ voyage (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21) seems to be in reality to Tarshish, a very different region.

12. Havilah here is the founder of a Joctanite tribe of Arabs, and therefore his territory must be sought somewhere in the extensive country which was occupied by these wandering tribes. A trace of the name is probably preserved in Khawlan, a district lying in the northwest of Yemen, between Sana and Mecca, though the tribe may have originally settled or extended further north.

13. Jobab has been compared with the Ἰωβαρῖται Iōbaritai of Ptolemy (vi. 7). Bochart finds the name in the Arabic yobab, a desert.

(Genesis 10:29) The situation of Mesha is uncertain. But it is obviously the western boundary of the settlement, and may have been in the neighborhood of Mecca and Medina. Sephar is perhaps the Arabic Zaphari, called by the natives Isfor, a town on the south coast near Mirbat. It seems, however, to be, in the present passage, the mount of the east itself, an incense-bearing range of hills, possibly adjacent to the so-called seaport.

Gesenius and others fix upon Mesene, an island at the head of the Persian Gulf, as the Mesha of the text. But this island may have had no existence at the time of the Joctanite settlement. These boundaries include the greater part of the west and south coast of the peninsula, and are therefore sufficient to embrace the provinces of Hejaz (in part), Yemen, and Hadramaut, and provide space for the settlements of the thirteen sons of Joctan.

The limits thus marked out determine that all these settlers, Ophir among the rest, were at first to be found in Arabia, however far they may have wandered from it afterward.

(Genesis 10:31–32)Genesis 10:31 contains the usual closing formula for the pedigree of the Shemite tribes, and Genesis 10:32 contains the corresponding form for the whole table of nations.

From a review of these lands, it is evident that Shem occupied a much smaller area of territory than either of his brothers. The mountains beyond the Tigris, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Levant, the Archipelago, and the Black Sea form the boundaries of the countries that were in part settled by Shem's descendants.

Arabia, Syria, and Assyria contained the great bulk of the Shemites, intermingled with some of the Hamites. The Kushites, Kenaanites, and Philistines encroached upon their territory. The rest of the Hamites peopled Africa and countries populated from it. The Japhethites spread over all the rest of the world.

In this table there are 70 names, exclusive of Nimrod, of heads of families, tribes, or nations descended from the 3 sons of Noah—14 from Japheth, 30 from Ham, and 26 from Shem. Among the heads of tribes descended from Japheth are 7 grandsons. Among those from Ham are 23 grandsons and 3 great-grandsons. Among those of Shem are 5 grandsons, one great-grandson, 2 of the fourth generation, and 13 of the fifth. Therefore, it appears that the subdivisions are traced further in Ham and much further in Shem than in Japheth, and that they are pursued only in those lines which are of importance for the future events in the history of Shem.

It should also be noted that, though the different races are distinguished by the diversity of tongues, yet the different languages are much less numerous than the tribes. The eleven tribes of Kenaanites, and the thirteen tribes of Joctanites, making allowance for some tribal peculiarities, most probably spoke at first only two dialects of one family of languages, which we have designated the Hebrew, itself a branch of, if not identical with, what is commonly called the Shemitic. Hence, some Hamites spoke the language of Shem. A similar shared language may have occurred in some other instances of different lines of descent.