Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 10:21-23

"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." — Genesis 10:21-23 (ASV)

shem ... the brother of Japheth the elder. —Really, the elder brother of Japheth. Though the rules of Hebrew grammar will admit of no other rendering, it is remarkable that both the Syriac and the Vulgate make the same mistake as our own version. In designating Shem as the father of all the children of Eber, attention is called to the fact that the descendants of Peleg, his elder son, are omitted from this table and reserved for the Tôldôth Shem. .

The nations descended from Shem were:

1. Elam. According to Mr. Sayce (Chald. Gen., p. 196), “the primitive inhabitants of Elam were a race closely allied to the Accadians, and spread over the whole range of country which stretched from the southern shores of the Caspian to the Persian Gulf.” But just as the Semitic Asshur expelled a Hamite race from Assyria, so another branch of this conquering family occupied Elymais. It is now called Chuzistan and was the easternmost of the countries occupied by the Semites. But see the Excursus to Genesis 14 on the conquests of the Elamite Chedorlaomer.
2. Asshur. This Semitic stock seems to have been the first to settle on the Tigris, as the Hamites were the first to settle on the Euphrates. Finally, as we have seen (Genesis 10:11), they conquered the whole country.
3. Arphaxad. Heb., Arpachshad. We may dismiss the idea that he was connected with the region called Arrapachitis, for this correctly is Aryapakshata, “the land next the Aryans.” Really he appears as the ancestor of Eber and the Joktanite Arabs.
4. Lud. Probably the Lydians, who, after various wanderings, settled in Asia Minor.
5. Aram. As Asshur means plain, so Aram means highland. It was originally the name of the Lebanon ranges, and thus Damascus is called Aram in 2 Samuel 8:5. Subsequently, the race so extended itself as to possess Mesopotamia, a lowland country, but called, as early as Genesis 24:10, “Aram of the two rivers.” The greatness of Aram will be best seen by examining those places in our version where Syria and Syrian are spoken of, and which, in Hebrew, are really Aram.

To the Aramean stock also belonged four outlying dependencies:

1. Uz, the land of Job, a district in the northern part of Arabia Deserta.
2. Hul, a region of which nothing is known.
3. Gether, a region of which nothing is known.
4. Mash, a desert region on the western side of the Euphrates (Chald. Gen., p. 276).