Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 10

Shem, Ham, and Japheth. —This is the undeviating arrangement of the three brothers. (See Note on Genesis 9:24; Genesis 10:21.)

The sons of Japheth. —Of these, seven main divisions are enumerated, some of which are subsequently subdivided; they are—

1. Gomer, whose name reappears in the Cimmerians. Their original settlement was between Magog and Madai, that is, between the Scythians and the Medes. After remaining for some time on the Caspian and Black Seas (on the latter of which they left their name in the Crimea), a powerful branch of them struck across the centre of Russia, and, skirting the Baltic, became the Cimbri of Denmark (from where the name Chersonesus Cimbrica, a name given to Jutland, comes), the Cymry of Wales, and so on. Generally, they are the race to which the name Celts is given.
2. Magog. The Scythians, who once possessed the country north and south of the Caucasus. The Russians are their modern representatives, being descended from the Sarmatians, a Scythic race, with a small admixture of Median blood.
3. Madai. The Medes, who lived to the south and southwest of the Caspian. Mada, in the Accadian language, means land, and it was in the Median territory that Kharsak-Kurra, “the mountain of the East,” was situated, on which the Accadians believed the ark to have rested. From here, possibly, Media took its name, as it was “the land” above all others (Chald. Gen., p. 196).
4. Javan, that is, Ionia, the land of the Greeks.
5. Tubal. The Tibareni, on the southeast of the Black Sea.
6. Meshech. The Moschi, a people of Colchis and Armenia.
7. Tiras. According to Josephus and the Targum, the Thracians. Other races have been suggested, but this is probably right; and as the Getae, the ancestors of the Goths, were Thracians, this would make the Scandinavian race the modern representatives of Tiras.

In this enumeration, the race of Japheth is described as occupying Asia Minor, Armenia, the countries to the west as far as the Caspian Sea, and from there northward to the shores of the Black Sea.

Subsequently, it spread along the northern shores of the Mediterranean and over all Europe.

But though unnoticed by the writer, its extension was equally remarkable towards the east.

Parthia, Bactria, the Punjab, and India are equally Japhethite with Germany, Greece, and Rome. And in Sanskrit literature, the Aryan first showed that genius, which—omitting the greatest of all books, the Semitic Bible—has made this race the foremost writers in the world.

Gomer has three main divisions:

1. Ashkenaz, a region in the neighbourhood of Armenia (Jeremiah 51:27), from where, following the course of Japhethite migration, the race seems to have wandered into Germany. The derivations are all most uncertain; but the Jews call the Germans Ashkenazites and are probably right.
2. Riphath, in 1 Chronicles 1:6, is called Diphath (see Dodanim, below). Riphath is probably right, and the inhabitants of the Riphæan Mountains (the Carpathians?) are the people meant. They were Celts.
3. Togarmah. Certainly Armenia.

Javan has four main divisions:—

1. Elishah, a maritime people of Greece. Traces of the name occur in Aeolis and in Elis, a district of the Peloponnese. Some boldly identify with Hellas. The isles of Elishah are mentioned in Ezekiel 27:7.
2. Tarshish. At such an early period, this could scarcely be Tartessus but is more probably the Tyrseni, or Tyrrheni, a race once powerful in Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, and finally in Spain. Probably Tartessus, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in Spain, was founded by them and took its name from them. At this time, they were apparently a small tribe of the Javanites; but while Elishah followed the sea-coast and colonised Greece, Tarshish took a course so far inland to the north of the Danube that it did not reach the sea until it had come to the northern districts of Italy.
3. Kittim. A plural, like Madai. The Kittim were a maritime race, who colonised Cyprus, the chief city of which was Kitium, and probably other islands and coast-districts of the Mediterranean. There was a Kitium also in Macedonia; and Alexander is called King of the Kittim in 1 Maccabees 1:1.
4. Dodanim. Another plural. The right reading is probably Rodanim, as found in many manuscripts of 1 Chronicles 1:7, and in the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch versions of this verse. R and D are so constantly interchanged in proper names, due to the similarity of their shape, that the reading cannot be fully relied upon. The Rodanim would be the Rhodians.

Isles of the Gentiles. —The word rendered “isles” means any maritime region. As there were no Gentiles at this time, the phrase should be translated “the coast-lands of the nations.”