Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 10:6

"And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan." — Genesis 10:6 (ASV)

Ham. —Many derive this word from a Hebrew root and explain it as signifying hot, sunburnt, and so swarthy. Japheth they connect with a word signifying to be fair; and so Ham is the progenitor of dark races, Japheth of those of a fair complexion, while the olive-colored spring from Shem. More probably it is Chemi, the old name of Egypt, the land of Ham (Psalms 78:51), called by Plutarch Chemia, and was taken from the black color of the soil.

The Hamites are grouped in four principal divisions:

1. Cush. Ethiopia, but not that of Africa, but of Asia. The home of the Cushites was on the Tigris and Euphrates, where Nimrod raised them to great power. From there they spread into the southern peninsula of Arabia, and crossing the Red Sea at a later date, colonized Nubia and Abyssinia. In the Bible Cush is watered by the Gihon (Genesis 2:13); and Zipporah, the wife of Moses, and daughter of a priest of Midian, is in Numbers 12:1 called a Cushite. Their high rank in old times is marked by the place held by them in the Iliad of Homer.

2. Mizraim. Egypt. In form the word is a dual and may point to the division of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt. If we choose to interpret a Hamite word by a Hebrew root, it may signify the narrowed land, but it is safer to leave these words until increased knowledge enables us to decide with some security upon their meaning. For the ancient name of Mizraim see Genesis 10:6, and for its extent see Genesis 10:14.

   From the study of the skulls and bodies of a large number of mummies, Brugsch-Bey in his recent history has come to the conclusion that the ancient Egyptians did not belong to any African race, but to the great Caucasian family, “but not of the Pelasgic or Semitic branches, but of a third, Cushite.” He adds that the cradle of the Egyptian nation must be sought in Central Asia.

3. Phut. The Libyans of North Africa.
4. Canaan. See Note on Genesis 10:15-19.