Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 1

Adam (man) is here treated as a proper name; in Genesis 5:1-5 it is an appellative.

The Chaldeans also had a tradition of ten antediluvian patriarchs or kings, beginning with Alorus and ending with Xisuthrus (Hasis-Adra), the hero of the Flood. They made the duration of this first period of human history 432,000 years. Remembering that Abraham, the Hebrew, was from “Ur (Uru, the city) of the Chaldees,” we can hardly suppose the two accounts to be independent of each other. The comparative simplicity and, above all, the decided monotheism of the Hebrew account, give a high probability to the assumption that it represents a more original form of the tradition.

Sheth, Enosh.—Those who have imagined the present list to be a mere duplicate of that given in Genesis 4:17 and following, and who explain the whole by the fatally easy process of resolving all these different names into a capricious repetition of one original solar figure, are obliged to admit a difficulty in connection with the names of Sheth and Enosh, which are acknowledged “not to belong to mythology at all” (Prof. Goldziher). Considering that most Hebrew names have a distinct and intentional significance, it is obviously a mere exercise of ingenuity to invest them with a mythological character. Meanwhile, such speculations cannot possibly be verified.

Shem, Ham, and Japheth. —There is no doubt that Ham means black, or sunburnt, and Japheth (Heb., Yepheth) is probably the fair-skinned. Shem has been compared with an Assyrian word meaning brownish (sa’mu). Thus the three names appear to allude to differences of racial complexion.

1 Chronicles 1:5–23 is an abridgment of Genesis 10. The proper names represent, not persons, but peoples and countries. By adding them all together, the old Jewish interpreters made a total of seventy nations for the world. The list is a classified summary of the ethnical and geographical knowledge of Hebrew antiquity.

THE SONS OF JAPHETH THE FAIR —(1 Chronicles 1:5–7).

The Oriental theory of political and even social communities refers each to a common ancestor. The Israelites are known as “sons of Israel,” the Ammonites as “sons of Ammon” (Authorized Version, “children”). In the same way, an Arab tribe is called the “Bêni Hassan” (sons of Hassan), and Assurbanipal styles his subjects “sons of Asshur.” Sometimes a people is called “sons” of the land or city they inhabit; e.g., the Babylonians are styled “sons of Babel.” The “sons of Japheth” are probably the fair Caucasian race.

Gomer. —The Cimmerians of the Greek writers; called Gi-mir-ra-a-a in Assyrian inscriptions. Their country was Cappadocia, called Gamir by the ancient Armenians. The Arabic version has “Turkey.”

Magog. —Ezekiel 38:2–3; Ezekiel 38:6 speaks of Gog, king of Magog, and suzerain of Tubal, Meshech, Gomer and the house of Togarmah. With the name Gog compare Gâgu, king of Salii, mentioned in connection with Assurbanipal’s campaign against the Mannâ-a. Magog appears to be a general name for the peoples north of Assyria, i.e., in Armenia.

Madai. —The Medes. 2 Kings 17:6; Isaiah 13:17. Assyr., Ma-da-a-a.

Javan. —The Assyrian Yavnan, i.e., Cyprus, mentioned in the Behistun Inscription, as here, along with Media, Armenia, and Cappadocia. (Isaiah 66:19.)

Tubal and Meshech, the Tibareni and Moschi of classical writers; and the Muski and Tabali of Assyrian records.

Tiras has been compared with the Tyras or Dniester. Perhaps we may compare Tros and the Trojans.

Ashchenaz. —Jeremiah 51:27, near or in Armenia. Apparently the Asguzâa mentioned by Esarhaddon in the account of his campaign against the Cimmerians and Cilicians. The Arabic has Slavonia.

Riphath. —The reading of Genesis 10:3, some Hebrew manuscripts, the Septuagint, and Vulgate. The common Hebrew text (Van der Hooght’s) wrongly reads Diphath (Syriac, Diphar). Togarmah seems to be the Tulgarimmç on the border of Tabali, which Sennacherib reduced in his expedition against Cilicia (Smith, Sennach., p. 86).

Elishah. —Usually identified with Hellas, or the Hellenes. Perhaps, however, Carthage is meant: compare the name Elissa, as a by-name of Dido, Virg. Æn. iv. 335.

Tarshish. —Usually identified with the Phoenician colony of Tartessus, in Spain. (Compare to Psalms 72:10.)

Dodanim. —So many Hebrew manuscripts, the Syriac, Vulgate, and Genesis 10:3. The Septuagint has “Rhodians,” which implies a reading, Rodanim, which we find in the common Hebrew text. Dodanim might be the Dardanians of the Troad, or the Dodoneans (Dodona, the seat of an ancient oracle, the fame of which might have reached Phoenician ears).

Thus far the list appears to deal with Asia Minor and adjacent lands; and Japheth, whose name is curiously like the Greek Iäpetus, seems to include the western races so far as known to the Hebrews.

THE SONS OF HAM, THE DARK-SKINNED OR SWARTHY (1 Chronicles 1:8–16).

Cush.—The Greek Meroë, Assyrian Miluhha, or Kûsu, south of Egypt, in our Bibles often called Ethiopia (Isaiah 19:1). The Arabic gives Habesh, that is, Ethiopia.

Mizraim.—The common Hebrew name of Egypt: strictly, “the two Miçrs”—that is, Upper and Lower Egypt. But the name should rather be spelled Mizrim—the Egyptians; the form Mizraim being probably a mere fancy of the Jewish punctuators.

The Assyrians wrote Muçum, Muçru, Muçur. The Inscription of Darius has Miçir. Maçôr was the name of the wall which protected Egypt on the northeast. Hence, it gave its name to the whole of Lower Egypt.

Cush and Muçur are coupled together in the inscriptions of Esarhaddon and his son Assurbanipal.

Put.—Perhaps the Egyptian Punt, on the east coast of Africa. King Darius mentioned Pûta and Kûsu as subject to him (Behistun Inscription). Compare Nahum 3:9; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5. The Arabic has Kibtu, that is, Coptland.

Canaan.—There are many proofs of an early connection between Egypt and Canaan. The Philistines were colonists from the Delta (1 Chronicles 1:12), and Ramses II (circa 1350 or 1450 B.C.) had wars and made alliance with the Hittites.

Seba.—Capital of Meroë. The other names represent Arabian tribes and their districts.

Sheba.—The famous Sabaeans, whose language, the Himyaritic, has quite recently been deciphered from inscriptions.

Cush begat Nimrod.—Micah (Micah 5:6) speaks of the land of Nimrod in connection with the land of Asshur. The land of Nimrod is plainly Babylonia; and some have supposed the primitive inhabitants of Babylonia—“the black-headed race” (zalmat qayqadi) as they styled themselves—to have been akin to the peoples of Muçur and Cush.

At all events, Cush in this table of races appears as father of a series of mixed populations, ramifying from the northwest of the Persian Gulf in a southerly direction to the coast of Arabia.

The Asiatic Cush represents that primitive Elamitic Sumerian race which occupied the northwest and north coast of the Persian Gulf, or rather that portion of it which attained to empire in Babylonia.

The name Nimrod appears to be identical with Merodach, the Accadian Amar-utu, or Amar-utuki, Assyrian Maruduk. Merodach was the tutelary deity of Babylon, as Asshur was of Assyria; and many Babylonian sovereigns bore his name. (Compare Merodach-baladan, Isaiah 39:1.)

He began to be.—He was the first to become. Tradition made Nimrod the first founder of a great Oriental empire. The statement about his four cities (Genesis 10:10), the first of which was Babel (Babylon), is omitted here.

Mighty.—Literally, a hero, warrior (gibbôr); a title of Merodach.

The names in these verses are all in the masculine plural and obviously designate nations. Mizraim, the two Egypts, is said to have begotten the chief races inhabiting those regions—a common Oriental metaphor.

The Ludim are the Ludu, or Rudu, of the hieroglyphs (Professor Sayce thinks, the Lydian mercenaries of the Egyptian sovereigns); the Anamim are perhaps the men of An (On, Genesis 41:50); the Lehabim, the Libyans.

The Naphtuhim seem to get their name from Noph, that is, Memphis, and the god Ptah. Perhaps, however, the name is to be recognized in the town Napata.

Pathrusim.—The men of the south (Egyptian, pe-ta-res, “the southland”), or Upper Egypt.

Casluhim ... Caphthorim.—The men of Kaftûra, or the Delta. (See Amos 9:7: Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Mizraim? and the Philistines from Caphtor? and compare Deuteronomy 2:23.) The Casluhim may have been a leading division of the Caphthorim.

THE CITY ZIDON AND THE TEN RACES OF CANAAN (1 Chronicles 1:13–16).

Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn. — Or, in modern phrase, Zidon is the oldest city of Canaan. It is usually mentioned along with Tyre, the ruling city in later times. Sennacherib speaks of the flight of Lulî, “king of Zidon,” from Tyre. Esarhaddon mentions Baal of Tyre as a tributary. Of the eleven “sons of Canaan,” all but three or four have been identified in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria.

And Heth — that is, the Hittite race, called Heta by the Egyptians, and Hatti by the Assyrians. (See 1 Chronicles 1:8, Note.) The Hittites were once the dominant race of Syria and Palestine. Carchemish, on the Euphrates, and Kadesh, as well as Hamath, appear to have been Hittite cities. Their kings had commercial relations with Solomon (1 Kings 10:29). Inscriptions, in a kind of mixed hieroglyph, have been found at Hamath and Carchemish, but they still await decipherment.

The Jebusite. — The men of Jebus, or Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 11:4).

Amorite. — The hill-men of the trans-Jordan.

Girgashite. — Perhaps of Gergesa (Matthew 8:28).

Hivite. — On the slopes of Lebanon (Joshua 11:3), under Hermon, but also in Gibeon and Shechem (Joshua 9:7; Genesis 34:2). Delitzsch suggests that the name is connected with Hamath (Assyrian, Hammath as Hawath).

Arkite, and the Sinite. — Tribes living to the west of northern Lebanon. A fragment of the annals of Tiglath-pileser mentions along with Simyra the towns of Arqâ and Sianu “on the sea-coast” (739 BC). Josephus mentions a town Arka, which is otherwise known as the birthplace of the emperor Alexander Severus (Ruins: Tell’Araci).

Arvadite. — Arvad, or Aradus, now Ruâd, an island off Phoenicia. Assurnasirpal (885 BC) calls it “Arvada in the mid-sea.” Its king submitted to Sennacherib.

Zemarite. — The people of Simyra, on the coast of Phoenicia, south-east of Arvad. Simyra (Assyrian, Cimirra) was a fortified town commanding the road from the coast to the upper valley of the Orontes (Ruins: Sumra).

Hamathite. — The people of Hamath (Hamah) on the Orontes, a Hittite state which made alliance with David (around 1040 BC).

On a review of 1 Chronicles 1:8–16, we see that the “sons of Ham” include Ethiopia, Egypt, and the neighbouring shores of Arabia, and perhaps the founders of Babylon (1 Chronicles 1:8–10). The tribes of Egypt and Canaan are enumerated in 1 Chronicles 1:11–16.