The sons of Japheth Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
The genealogy of 1 Chronicles opens with Adam and runs down to Noah. At verse 5 it turns to seven names that are not Israel at all — the sons of Japheth. Why does Israel's own record start with the nations outside it? And what became of these seven men?
The order of these names is not accidental. One writer traces the same pattern elsewhere in the chapter.
Shem is mentioned first in verse 4, although he is not the firstborn. But the genealogies of Japheth and of Ham come before his (vv. 5-16), as we also see in Genesis 10. In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has first place. Yet in the natural order what is spiritual does not come first. It is the same with Abraham's children. Verse 28 says, "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael." Isaac is named first, as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, has his line listed first (v. 29), as the seed according to the flesh.
These are not lost names. Commentators trace several of them to peoples and places still on the map.
Next, Magog (compare Ezekiel 38:2) is just as surely the land we call Russia... To these we must add Meshech and Tubal, races long known as the Moschi and the Tibareni. These are the Muskai and the Tuplai of the Assyrian inscriptions, and their representatives today are Moscow and Tobolsk. This is the Slavonic branch.
Not every name is so clear. Of Tiras, the last of the seven, one reference work says only:
A son of Japheth. No one has traced his descendants, but they are thought to match the Thracians.
The list also touches the question of where the world's languages came from.
Scholars learned only recently that these languages had one common source in the east, as Sanskrit proved. But our verse states it with authority: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras were sons of Japheth. So they were all linked together — distinct in dialect, but of one origin. And it is not hard to tell these races apart in general.
The list stops where it does on purpose.
Of the seven sons of Japheth, we have the descendants of only two, Gomer and Javan: three from Gomer, four from Javan — seven named in the second generation, as in the first. No one can doubt that Magog and Madai had sons, for we hear of their descendants down to the latest times, and the same is true of Tubal and Meshech; nor can we doubt it of Tiras. But the design here was not to give details of more. The prophets speak of others who came from these early forefathers to play their part in the last days.
Four of these seven names come back in a prophecy of Ezekiel.
Of these sons of Japheth we get Gomer, Magog, Tubal and Mesec under the same names in Ezekiel 38, as followers of Gog. You will also find Persia there, which was joined to Media (Madai)... so that only Javan and Tiras are left to account for. The nations named above make up Russia, Asia Minor, Tartary and Persia.
Japheth's line was not left out of blessing.
The blessing was to be especially Shem's portion, and to come on Japheth in a secondary way. The blessing, as always, is tied to the name of the Lord, who was to be known as the God of Shem. Japheth was to be enlarged and "dwell in the tents of Shem." This, we gather, means that by being closely joined to Shem, Japheth would also come into the knowledge of God.
A chapter of names will never read like John 17. One writer says so, then makes the case for it anyway.
We do not claim that we should linger over the first chapter of 1 Chronicles with the same interest as over John 17 or Romans 8... But we do say that each of these Scriptures is inspired by God, one just as much as another. More than that: we say 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a place John 17 cannot fill, and do a work Romans 8 cannot do.
- Order — Japheth's line is written out first. In the natural order what is spiritual does not come first. Shem holds the place of honour in God's thoughts, not in the list.
- Origin — Seven peoples, seven languages, one father. Scholars took centuries to reach the common source this verse states outright.
- Reach — Japheth's portion is enlargement — room on the earth, and the knowledge of God, gained by being joined to Shem.
- Return — Four of these seven names come back in Ezekiel 38 among Gog's followers. The roll call of the past also sketches the days ahead. Not every name is equally sure: no one has traced Tiras.
- Reason — This chapter does a work no other chapter can do, which is reason enough to read it.
-- And the sons of Gomer Ashkenaz, and Diphath, and Togarmah.
The verse names the three sons of Gomer. It is one small link in a chain that runs from Adam through Noah out to the nations of the world. Three names, no story, no verb. So why does God keep such a list, and do these people matter anywhere else in Scripture?
Gomer heads Japheth's line. One commentary traces where his descendants went:
Gomer was the eldest son of Japheth, and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. He is thought to be the ancestor of certain branches of the Celtic family. His descendants settled north of the Black Sea, spreading to the south and west of Europe.
Commentators differ on exactly where each son settled. One writer notes that Scripture says nothing about the location of Riphath, and argues from Jeremiah that Ashkenaz was Asiatic, near the Caspian and Black Seas, rather than European. Another treats the movement as two-directional:
There seems no sound reason to doubt that, just as Ararat and Minni were parts of Armenia and here as elsewhere fall under Togarmah, so Ashkenaz and Riphath occupied the peninsula of Asia Minor at that time... But this in no way weakens the general fact that Gomer pushed westward and into Europe, allowing that at least Togarmah settled in Armenia.
Japheth had seven sons, but only two of them get a second generation here. One writer sets out which families these were:
The line of Japheth is traced first in the early verses, and with marked brevity. Japheth's sons give the broad outline of those who took possession of the north, from east to west, in Asia and Europe. We hear of descendants from only two of them, though no doubt all had them; here we have only the sons of Gomer and of Javan. These were the families who peopled Asia Minor and Armenia in the east. And the sons of Javan we cannot fail to identify with the Greek or Hellenic families, who reached as far as Spain, France, Italy and Sicily.
Verse 4 names Shem first, yet the chapter leaves his descendants until verse 17. It works through Japheth's family, Gomer's sons included, before that. One writer sees a pattern here:
In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place. But in the natural order what is spiritual is not first, as we have already pointed out. It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael." Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first as the seed according to the flesh.
These are not dead names. The same list of peoples surfaces again in the prophets:
The names of the nations given here are found throughout the Bible. They also keep their character through all of history, right to the end. In Ezekiel, above all in chapters 38 and 39, many of these names appear in connection with the very last days before the millennium.
Two of the three names in this verse belong to that future scene:
Ezekiel 38 beyond doubt unveils the judgment of Russia at the end of this age. It lets us see its supporters forced to follow and share the general ruin. Among those of the north are Gomer and all his hordes, and the house of Togarmah from the far north and all his.
These lists of names look dry. One writer finds a warm lesson in them:
They teach us a most precious lesson about Jehovah's faithful care of His people Israel. They show His loving interest in them and in everything that concerns them. He watches over them from generation to generation, even though they are scattered and lost to human view. He knows all about the twelve tribes, and He will show them openly in due time. He will plant them in the inheritance meant for them, in the land of Canaan, as He promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Named. Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah are Gomer's sons. Their descendants spread through Asia Minor, Armenia and on into Europe.
- Selected. Only two of Japheth's sons have children listed: Gomer and Javan. These two families filled the north from east to west.
- Ordered. The chapter records Japheth's and Ham's lines before Shem's. In the natural order, what is spiritual is not first.
- Remembered. Gomer and Togarmah return in Ezekiel's picture of the last days. A genealogy plants names that prophecy later harvests.
- Treasured. Behind the record stands God's care for His people from generation to generation, even when no human eye can trace them. He will yet plant them in the land He promised.
And the sons of Javan Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Rodanim.
Only four names appear here, all sons of Javan, and none of them belong to Israel. Why does a book that traces the line of David pause over distant coastlands and sea-going peoples?
The chapter runs from Adam to David. Japheth's branch comes first, and it does not stay long:
Adam is the starting point, and the Holy Spirit leads on through a list of names — yet no meaningless list — until we come to David, the picture of Him who will shortly have all things put under Him, and in whom all families of the earth shall be blessed. A different order than the natural one is before us. The natural order — who was born first — is constantly set aside when it cuts across the order of grace and God's purpose of blessing. And if Japheth and his descendants are noticed first, it is only briefly, and then they are dismissed.
The verse is bare on purpose. Genesis 10 gives the borders; this chapter leaves them out:
Genesis 10 deals with how the nations were spread over the earth. The details found there would be of no use for the aim of the book we are now considering. For the same reason this book says nothing at all about the boundaries of the Canaanites in Genesis 10:18-20, or those of the sons of Joktan.
Javan is the father of all four men listed, and his name is the Hebrew word behind Greece:
Fourth son of Japheth, and father of Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim. "From these came the distribution of the isles of the nations." … In Daniel 8:21, where the Hebrew is the same, Alexander the Great is king of Javan. This agrees with Daniel 10:20, Daniel 11:2 and Zechariah 9:13, that Javan refers to Greece.
The name covers more than mainland Greece:
the sons of Javan, whom we cannot fail to identify with the Greek or Hellenic families. They extended to Spain, France, Italy and Sicily — the isles, or sea coasts, of the nations.
Elishah, the first named, is tied to a trade in dyed cloth:
Eldest son of Javan, the son of Japheth. His descendants seem to have occupied the "isles of Elishah." They supplied the Phoenicians with blue and purple (Ezekiel 27:7). Josephus identifies them with the Æolians. Others connect Elishah with Elis in the Peloponnesus.
Tarshish became the name of a region famous for shipping and metal:
Here it appears that we need not doubt an original settlement on the south shore of Spain. The Phoenicians later had trading posts there too, and their ships brought silver, iron, tin, and lead from there to Tyre, as Ezekiel 27:12 tells us. The ships of Tarshish were the most famous for merchandise in ancient times.
Kittim turns up later in prophecy, and commentators differ over how much land the name covers:
There is no difficulty as to Kittim. The term covers two of the peninsulas of Europe beyond any controversy — first Greece, then Rome or Italy. … So in the prophecy of Balaam (Numbers 24:24) we learn of a fleet from the west afflicting Asshur, when all man's power comes to destruction. … We also hear of the "isles," or sea coasts, of Kittim, which can hardly mean Cyprus, as Josephus understood it and many since his day.
The last name comes in two forms. This verse reads Rodanim; elsewhere it is Dodanim:
Descendants of Javan, son of Japheth. In the margin the name is RODANIM, which has some manuscript authority.
These coastland peoples drop out of the story almost at once. They do not stay out:
From Genesis 10 we learn that the isles of the Gentiles are the portion of Japheth. Though far from prominent at the beginning, these names reappear in the prophetic record of the close of this world's history. … They spread over their allotted portion of the earth without a sound, hidden by their own insignificance and in the darkness of their idolatry. No one noticed them in the history of God's dealings with the nations that interfered with Israel at the first — for what makes any Gentile prominent is his having to do with Israel, whether with them or against them. But they come out in fearful prominence at the close, when the Son of David is about to make good His title to the sovereignty of the world. The sons of Ham have had their day of supremacy. The race of Japheth is now dominant, and will be a little longer.
- Names. The verse is not filler; Adam is the starting point, and "the Holy Spirit leads on through a list of names, yet no unmeaning list, till we come to David."
- Nations. Javan is Greece. His four sons head the coastland peoples: Greek families reaching to Spain, France, Italy and Sicily.
- Seas. Elishah's people supplied the Phoenicians with blue and purple. Tarshish sent silver, iron, tin and lead to Tyre in the most famous merchant ships of the ancient world.
- Prophecy. Kittim covers Greece and then Rome, and comes back as the fleet from the west. The branch noticed briefly here stands out at the close.
- The King. Japheth's line is named first, then dropped. The natural order gives way to the order of grace, and the names travel on toward the Son of David.
The sons of Ham Cush and Mizraim, Phut and Canaan.
Chronicles opens its long genealogy with the four sons of Ham, one of Noah's three sons — the same four names given in Genesis 10:6. Why does Scripture keep a bare list like this, and where do these four names turn up again?
Chronicles lists Ham's line before Shem's. One writer sees a deliberate order in that, repeated elsewhere in Scripture.
In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place. But in the natural order, what is spiritual does not come first, as we have already pointed out. It is the same with Abraham's sons: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the son born according to the flesh.
ESV calls the third son Put; older versions spell the name Phut. He is the hardest of the four to trace, and one writer reads that obscurity as telling.
Phut or Put shows us the more degraded stock of Ham's descendants in Africa. They lived next to Egypt and Ethiopia, and are named with one or the other at times… The very obscurity that covers this African branch of Ham's sons shows how low they had fallen.
This family produced the earliest great civilisations and also the deepest collapse.
The obvious fact that strikes one here is this. After the flood, this branch of mankind stood out for the earliest and strongest civilisation. And not in one isolated case, but in Asia and in Africa alike… Yet along with material progress another feature is just as marked: the degradation of the race, their fall into ways and habits of savagery… However opposite the two are, both are effects of turning away from God.
Cush is named first of the four, and royal power rises first in his line.
Ham receives much more detail, filling verses 6 to 20. With the holy boldness and openness that marks the truth, this chapter does not hide the early rise of royal power in that race. It sets that rise plainly before us. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Nimrod was of Cush, Ham's eldest son.
The last of the four names carries the heaviest weight.
But Canaan, named last, has the worst place of all. He was the early object of the curse, and the fiercest enemy of Israel in the land assigned to them according to promise. His was a highly civilised race, but steeped in shameless idolatry and every moral evil. So they were given up to destruction, as earthly righteousness required — both because they deserved it, and to keep Israel from being drawn into the same evils.
Why did the curse fall on Canaan, and not on Ham himself?
It may seem strange that Noah did not curse Ham himself, who had not respected his father. But no doubt it was God who led Noah here. As Noah gave out the prophecy about his three sons in the new world, God in His government led him to visit Ham's conduct on his son. God had already blessed Ham along with Noah, and had made a covenant with him. How then could He lead Noah to curse him? Besides, we do not find that all Ham's sons became the servants of Shem; the curse fell on Canaan only.
These names are not only ancient history. One writer follows them into prophecy.
The children of Ham are pointed out in Genesis 10:6. Of these, Canaan has been destroyed, and his country given over to Israel. Cush (Ethiopia) and Phut are also found under Gog (Ezekiel 38:5). Cush appears there only in part: one part of that family settled on the Euphrates, the other on the Nile — north and south of Israel. Mizraim, or Egypt (Mizraim is simply the Hebrew name for Egypt), and the rest of Cush and the Libyans you will find in the scenes of the last day; Daniel 11:43.
A bare list of names can look like filler. One writer meets that thought directly.
We do not claim that we are to linger with equal interest over 1 Chronicles 1 and John 17 or Romans 8… But what we do say is that God inspired each of these scriptures, one just as much as another. And we say more: 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a place which John 17 cannot fill, and do a work which Romans 8 cannot do.
- Order — Chronicles lists Ham before Shem, because the natural comes before the spiritual, just as Ishmael is listed before Isaac.
- Rise — Ham's line led the world in early civilisation, in Asia and Africa alike. Royal power first rose through Nimrod, of Cush's line, at Babel.
- Fall — the same family sank into savagery, and Canaan alone of the four carried Noah's curse. Rise and fall alike came from turning away from God.
- Reach — Cush, Phut and Mizraim (Egypt) reappear in Ezekiel and Daniel, so four old names still touch the last days.
- Worth — this list is inspired as much as John 17 or Romans 8, and does work those chapters cannot do.
-- And the sons of Cush Seba and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raama, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah Sheba and Dedan.
This list belongs to Cush, a son of Ham and grandson of Noah. Every name in it later becomes a people, a trading port, or a tribe around Arabia and the Red Sea. So why does Chronicles stop to record the family tree of nations outside Israel?
Chronicles is copying Genesis 10. One writer explains what hangs on that chapter.
I will not go into details, but I will say this. In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged languages, families, and nations. This is the only place that gives the rise of the different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided in this way? … This is the divine ethnology. Here man is at sea.
The verse lists Cush's sons long before the chosen line reaches Abraham. The same order repeats through the chapter.
Shem is mentioned first in verse 4, although he is not the firstborn… But the genealogies of Japheth and of Ham come before his (vv. 5-16), as in Genesis 10. In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place, but in the natural order what is spiritual is not first… The same is true of Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh.
Compare this verse with Genesis and you find Chronicles keeps the names but drops the map.
Genesis 10 deals with the distribution of the nations on the earth. Those developments would be useless for the aim of the book we are now considering. For the same reason the boundaries of the Canaanites in Genesis 10:18-20 and those of the sons of Joktan are passed over in complete silence here.
These names are not empty syllables. Seba, the first in the list, left his name on the map.
The man Seba gave his name to the country and people afterwards known as Meroë, between Ethiopia and Egypt.
Raamah's trail runs further still.
Raamah is easier to identify, not only through his own name, but through his sons' names too. Indeed Ezekiel names father and son, represented long afterwards by the merchants from the eastern coast of Arabia. "The traders of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the best of all kinds of spices and all precious stones and gold" (Ezek. 27:22). These were above all the products of Arabia Felix on the Persian Gulf.
The same two names, Sheba and Dedan, also appear later in Shem's family. Ezekiel helps sort out which is which.
Of Sheba and Dedan, sons of Raamah… this much may be noticed: in Ezekiel 27 Sheba occurs twice. First, with Raamah in verse 22, which fixes him as the Cushite in the same part of Arabia. Second, with Asshur and others in verse 23, which points to the Shemitic line. The different merchandise of each confirms it. In the same way the men of Dedan in Ezekiel 27:15 appear to be Cushites on the Persian Gulf… But verse 20 marks out a different Dedan. They seem to be Shemitic through Keturah.
Not every name yields that much. The trail runs cold at Sabteca.
Sabteca is the last-named of Cush's sons, and Scripture makes no mention of him beyond the genealogical list here and in 1 Chronicles 1. So we cannot say anything certain.
A reader may assume these peoples faded out with the ancient world. They do not.
The way God gives us history is not at all the way men give it… The names of the nations given here appear throughout the Bible, and they keep their characters through all of history right to the end. In Ezekiel, especially in Ezekiel 38 and 39, we find many of these names mentioned in connection with the very last days.
When Sheba and Dedan surface in that last scene, their old trading instinct is still on show.
Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish would be ready to profit by the wickedness of Gog. They would either do business with the plunderer or loot in his wake. They did not have the power to rob Israel… But they were ready to profit from any circumstances that might turn out favourable.
- Source. Genesis 10, which this verse copies, is the one account anywhere of how the races and languages of earth began. Human research is out of its depth here.
- Order. The record puts Ham's branch before Shem's, just as it puts Ishmael before Isaac. The natural line comes first on the page; the chosen line comes first in God's thoughts.
- Trimming. Chronicles keeps the names and drops the territories. The borders in Genesis 10 do not serve the aim of this book.
- Reach. Seba gave his name to Meroë. Raamah and Sheba turn up in Ezekiel as spice traders. Names on a page became peoples on the ground.
- Result. The same names return in Ezekiel 38-39 in the last days. They keep their old character, ready to profit from another nation's ruin.
And Cush begot Nimrod he began to be mighty on the earth.
Chronicles opens with lists of bare names — son after son, family after family. Then it stops at one man in Ham's line and adds a comment. Nimrod is not just named. He is the first man on earth called mighty. Where did that greatness come from, and why does the list pause to record it?
Genesis tells the full story of this man. Chronicles keeps one line. One writer explains why.
Among the sons of Ham, Nimrod is only mentioned as the one who "began to be mighty on the earth." Genesis 10:9-12 shows how far his rule reached, in great detail. Genesis 10 is about how the nations spread over the earth, and those details would serve no purpose for the aim of the book we are now looking at.
The wording marks a beginning. What made it new was where the greatness came from.
But there is nothing mythical in the little that scripture says. Nimrod "began to be a mighty one in the earth." It had not been like that with Abel or Seth, with Enoch or Noah. What they enjoyed was God's gift. They looked for Him Who is coming. Nimrod sought great things for himself, like Cain, who built the first city in the earliest days. Nimrod built the first city after the flood, and he built again and again, on a large scale. Present power was his aim, and God let it look successful.
Genesis calls him a mighty hunter before the Lord, and commentators differ on how far to press it. Some take it plainly, as a reputation won in the field that later served him elsewhere.
We are further told that "he was a mighty hunter before Jehovah." There is no good reason to doubt that this is meant literally. It made a great impression on the people of his day, and his skill as a hunter became a byword... It clearly gave him the trained skill and strength that later moved into another field, far more serious and important.
Others read the hunting as a picture of what he did to people, and find the clue in his name.
This means more than that he hunted animals. His name means "we will rebel." He led the way in hunting the souls of men, to make them rebels. His kingdom began at Babel, where man was lifted up in defiance of God.
The phrase does not mean God approved of him. One reference work reads it as power claimed in God's presence but without God's authority. (Where these writers print "Jehovah," the ESV has "the LORD.")
He was 'mighty upon the earth' and 'a mighty hunter.' He used force and cunning to bring men as well as animals under his power. The words 'before the Lord' probably point to the drive of an empire-builder and to authority seized without right, independent of Jehovah. "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel" with other towns in the land of Shinar... So Nimrod and his descendants founded both Babylon and Nineveh.
One writer sets this first kingdom beside the kingdom God later set up.
So it was among the sons of Ham that the first kingdom among men was set up. God was not in any of Nimrod's thoughts. Nimrod did not seek Him, and He gave no direction at all in the matter. Nimrod planned it out of his own ambition, and carried it out by the force of his will... He took His servant David from the pasture, from following the sheep. He made him prince over His people Israel, to shepherd them. And He promised David that his house and his kingdom would stand firm forever before him.
Chronicles lists Ham's line before it comes back to Shem and Abraham. That order carries a lesson.
Man has become sinful. He fell as soon as he began. God has purposes of grace toward him, yet this fact stands: as a sinner he first fathers sons in his own image. Those sons have no part in God's counsels. They are the seed of a fallen and corrupted nature. If God in His mercy does not step in, man can only produce evil. So in these chapters the line of the flesh comes first, and the line of the Spirit second.
- First — Nimrod is the first great man after the flood, and his is the first kingdom among men. The verse marks a beginning, not just one man's story.
- Taken — earlier men in this chapter received what they had as God's gift. Nimrod sought greatness for himself and seized it.
- Hunted — commentators differ here. Some read a real hunter's skill that later ruled people. Others read a hunting of souls into rebellion. Either way, force and cunning brought men under him.
- Built — that self-made power built Babel and Nineveh, cities and rule set up without God.
- Answered — God's answer to the hunter-king was a shepherd-king. He took David from the sheep and promised his throne would stand forever.
-- And Mizraim begot the Ludim, and the Anamim, and the Lehabim, and the Naphtuhim,
The record in Chronicles runs from Adam through Noah's sons and out into the nations, and here it stops on Egypt and four of its families. Why does a history of Israel's kings open with names like Ludim and Anamim, which most readers have never heard?
Chronicles is heading toward David and the kingdom, yet it starts with the branches that fall outside the promise. One writer sees a deliberate order in that.
Chronicles deals with God's purposes and His ways of grace toward man, so it begins with Adam. It then traces the line of man chosen according to God's purposes of grace. This stands in contrast to the line of man according to the flesh... So in these chapters the line of the flesh comes first, and the line of the Spirit second. God does not beget until sinful man has first shown what his nature could produce.
The name at the head of this verse is not an obscure ancestor. It is the Hebrew word for a whole country.
Son of Ham, and the name of his descendants and also of the country they held. Its meaning is much disputed. The Hebrew word is really Mitzraim. The King James Version leaves it untranslated only in Genesis 10:6, 13 and 1 Chronicles 1:8, 11. Everywhere else that version renders it EGYPT. The word has a dual form. Some have thought this came from the division of that land into Upper and Lower Egypt.
The two names, Mizraim and Ham, carry meaning of their own.
The Scripture name is not Egypt but Mizraim, and Mizraim means "double narrowness."... Mizraim was son of Ham... a very telling name here. Ham means black or sun-burnt — darkened by the light. Ham is the father of Mizraim. So what we call the natural state is not truly natural. It is not the mere absence of light. It is the effect of the light itself. And such is the darkness of the world.
The first of the four names belongs to two different families.
There was also a Lud among the sons of Shem. He was the ancestor of the well-known Lydian race in western Asia Minor. It is important to keep him separate from those descended from Mitzraim, who spread out west of the Nile. They were archers. We learn this from Isaiah 66:19 and Jeremiah 46:9, where the African peoples appear to be listed and described this way.
History has kept nothing at all about the second family.
Next come the Anamim. The Bible says nothing more about them than what stands in the two genealogy lists. Comparing the names that follow, we may perhaps gather that they were a race who settled in the Delta of Egypt. But we must admit that no one has found a reliable trace of them, either in the ancient geographers or in the monuments read so far. Here we have the unfailing record of God. He alone saw the end from the beginning, and He was pleased to tell us truth that would otherwise go unnoticed. A day is coming when God will judge the inhabited earth, and that judgment will prove these races are not extinct.
The third and fourth names lead straight into prophecy.
The Lehabim, also called Lubim in 2 Chronicles 12:3 and 16:8, together with the people called Phut, or Put, correspond to the ancient Libyans... Egypt conquered a group of peoples called "the Bows," or "Nine Bows," Na-Petu. That name seems to connect with the Naphtuhim, who follow the Lehabim at once... Something still future bears on this too. When the last king of the north conquers and plunders Egypt, the Lubim and Cush will be at his steps. Yet Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon will be delivered out of his hands.
These names do not stay in the past.
Genesis 10 is a chapter that few would read with interest. It looks like just a list of generations, of fathers, sons, and so on. What can be interesting about this? But the way God gives us history is not at all the way men give it... You not only find the names of these nations all through the Bible; they also keep the same character through the whole of history, right to the end.
- Order. Chronicles records the natural line before the spiritual one. Egypt's sons come before Israel's, because God first lets fallen man show what his nature produces.
- Origin. Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt, a son of Ham. Ham's name means darkened by the light — a picture of the world's darkness.
- Distinction. The Ludim here are African, west of the Nile. Do not mix them up with the Shemite Lud, the ancestor of the Lydians.
- Preservation. The Anamim left no trace in any human record. Only God's account keeps them, and a coming judgment will show they are not extinct.
- Destination. Lehabim points to the Libyans, who reappear in the prophets. So this quiet list ends where prophecy ends — with these nations present when God judges the earth.
and the Pathrusim, and the Casluhim out of whom came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim.
Here the list of Egypt's descendants pauses to note where Israel's most stubborn enemy came from. Why record that twice, once in Genesis and again at the start of Chronicles?
One writer calls the matching chapter in Genesis the Bible's most important record of where the nations came from:
In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 for God's providential arrangement of languages, families and nations. Here alone we are given the rise of the different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided? ... The details are of the highest interest, especially when compared with the predicted results in the last days, where we see the same countries and nations reappear for judgment in the day of the Lord.
All three clans descend from Mizraim — the Hebrew name for Egypt. The verse traces the Philistines to the Casluhim, while other passages tie them to Caphtor:
Between the Egyptian and the Philistine there is another important link: the Casluhim. Scripture names them just before the Caphtorim, and both spring from Mizraim. Both are connected with the Philistines, though not equally. The Philistines are said to have come out of Caphtor, and to be the remnant of that island or coast (Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7). Their name means "emigrants" in Ethiopic, but "wanderers" in Hebrew. Exodus marks the "way of the Philistines" as the "near" way out of Egypt to the land. It was as easy as it was near: no Red Sea to cross, nor Jordan. So the Philistines are natural men come into spiritual things, not by the power of God, but in a natural way.
One writer weighs what the name "Casluhim" means, and what it warns against:
There is no doubt that "as those forgiven" is the natural meaning of the word. And there is no doubt that the church systems of which Rome is head are largely marked by a forgiveness in appearance only, instead of an actual one. Forgiveness of sins is the first thing needed for peace and for a conscious relationship with God — that is, for there to be a church at all. Rome recognises this. There is nothing she insists on more than the forgiveness of sins. But it is church forgiveness: pardon pronounced by a priest through the sacraments, repeated again and again, and worthless in that same measure. "For," says the apostle, "the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins" (Hebrews 10:2). Instead the apostle maintains that Christ "by a single offering ... has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).
The easy road out of Egypt is not just old geography. One writer turns it on the reader:
A Philistine has slipped in by the easy way, the way of profession. It is more than that; it is the way of the world. There has been for him no unbearable bondage in Egypt, no sense of divine wrath for sin met by a divinely appointed sacrifice. He has not seen a Substitute who, in love to his soul, went down into the dark waters of death and judgment for him. He has seen no "waves and billows" of the Red Sea or Jordan pass over that blessed Substitute, opening for him a way out of bondage and into a divinely provided inheritance. No; the Philistine is a stranger to all this. He has slipped in by a "short and easy" way — the way of nature. Are you a Philistine, an intruder into God's inheritance?
One writer applies the picture to religion in our own time:
They are a picture of secularised Christianity — religion made acceptable to unconverted people. Ritualism and Modernism are some of the Philistines of our day. They are in fact pagan superstitions and philosophies that have invaded the sphere of faith... They claim to be children of God, but they have no right to that relationship. They have not received God's only Son by faith, and they have not been born again (John 1:12-13). They have the form of godliness, but deny the power.
Commentators differ over what the name means. One writer reads it as "wallowers," and points to the only cure:
Their name means "wallowers," for they wallow in the mire of empty forms and ceremonies, and they have always been a thorn in Israel's side. In the history of the Church this same evil has continually opposed the simplicity of the truth of the gospel of grace, and only faith can overcome it. In David's day the Philistines were largely subdued, but never expelled from the land.
- Source. These clans spring from Mizraim, that is, Egypt. The Philistine line starts in the very place God redeemed His people from.
- Short cut. Their route into the land avoided the Red Sea and Jordan: the near and easy way, not the way of death and resurrection.
- Name. "Casluhim" reads as "as those forgiven" — a pardon in appearance only, not the once-for-all cleansing of Hebrews 10.
- Picture. So they stand for natural people who come into spiritual things by natural means — the form of godliness without the power.
- Remedy. Only faith overcomes this enemy. David subdued the Philistines, but never drove them out of the land.
-- And Canaan begot Zidon his firstborn, and Heth,
Two names stand at the head of Canaan's line: Sidon, the firstborn, and Heth. Both grew into peoples who filled the land God intended for Israel. Israel's family record pauses to name the very people Israel would later drive out. Why does a book about David's kingdom list them at all?
Chronicles opens with chapter after chapter of names. One writer explains why they matter.
Finally, and above all, these names were essential because of Messiah's kingship. His line must go back through the series of kings to Judah "the lawgiver." From Judah it goes back to Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, Adam and God!
The list puts Canaan's sons before Shem's line. The same pattern comes back later in the chapter.
In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place. But in the natural order, what is spiritual does not come first, as we have already pointed out. It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, because he is first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the son according to the flesh.
Sidon is both a man and a city. Its later story reaches right into Solomon's household.
The name of Zidon, or Sidon, means "fishing" — and so does Saida, the modern name of the city… In earlier days we hear of "great Zidon" (Joshua 11:8, Joshua 19:28). Even Homer, who speaks of the city and its people again and again, never named Tyre. The people were skilled in making goods, and later famous for their ships and their trade. But they corrupted even Solomon's house with their detestable practices.
The second name became a whole nation that runs through the Bible story:
Second son of Canaan, from whom descended the HITTITES. They are often called 'the children of Heth.' Gen. 10:15; Gen. 23:3-20; Gen. 25:10; Gen. 27:46; Gen. 49:32; 1 Chr. 1:13.
Their name later became a standing insult in the mouth of a prophet, aimed at Israel itself.
The Hittites came from Heth, or Cheth. Their daughters troubled Isaac and Rebecca, though we also hear of Abraham on friendly terms with them and others… In Ezekiel 16:3 and 45, "your mother was a Hittite" is meant no more literally than "your father was an Amorite." Both are the prophet's pictures of moral reproach.
A curse already lay on their father Canaan before either son was born. It shaped everything that followed.
"Cursed be Canaan" was of deep interest to an Israelite, and in truth to anyone who values the revelation of God. Later history shows how the curse came true, and it will come true still more. The sin began with complete disrespect to a father… Think of a man who despises the one he is bound to honour. God had also given that father a special place. Such a man must come to shame and disgrace. He must be not just a servant but "a servant of servants." Pride that climbs highest always has the deepest fall.
These peoples filled land that God intended for Israel. Their end came from how they lived, not only from where they lived.
Now the races of Canaan lived in the land that Jehovah intended for Israel. That was not all. They were openly vile… But the cup of the Amorites became full. The land grew so unclean that Jehovah had to judge its sin. So He chose to make Israel the executioner of His vengeance… Every unnatural evil, and idolatry too, had become one of their "customs" — and Israel had to stay clear of them.
Sidon is not a closed chapter. Long after this list, Jesus went into the region around that city, and a woman of Canaan came to Him.
The Lord comes into the region of Tyre and Sidon, where the descendants of Canaan lived ("cursed is Canaan"). That is always where grace comes. And she was one of these outcasts in the fullest sense of the word. She had no privileges, no claims.
Another writer sets her against the religious teachers of the passage just before.
If there was one race under God's ban above all others, it was Canaan… Just before this we had the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, full of learning and outward respect for the law. Imagine the case most opposite to theirs, and you have it in this poor woman of Canaan.
- Recorded — the genealogy exists so we can trace Messiah's line back through Judah, Abraham, Noah and Adam to God.
- Ordered — the list puts Ham's sons before Shem's, because in the natural order the spiritual does not come first.
- Named — Sidon means "fishing." It grew into "great Zidon," a city of merchants and sailors that later corrupted Solomon's house. Heth's descendants were the Hittites.
- Cursed — the line starts with a son who despised his father. The word over him was "a servant of servants": the higher the pride, the deeper the fall.
- Reached — Israel took the land of these two names, yet grace came into Tyre and Sidon for a woman with no claims at all.
and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,
Three names, three peoples out of Canaan's line, sit in a chapter that runs from Adam to Israel with no story attached. Why does the Spirit of God record the family lines of nations Israel would later have to drive out? And why do they come first, before the chosen line?
The order of 1 Chronicles 1 is deliberate. Ham's families, including Canaan's sons in this verse, come before the line of promise. One commentator sees a rule of Scripture in that order.
It is clear, then, that the Spirit of God presents these things on purpose. Nothing here is loose or random. There is a plan... "it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual." We find the same thing here. Japheth and Ham, with their sons, come before us first, and Shem and the line of God's promise in Shem come after... God's purposes ripen last. God lets the world take its own way, and the world exalts men on the earth. God means to exalt the Man who humbled Himself.
These are not empty names. Each of the three appears again in Israel's later story, and each one ends differently.
The Jebusites held Jerusalem. Joshua defeated them, but no one drove them out until David. The Amorites lived in the hill country of Judah, and they also spread east. When those Amorites fell or were driven out, the two and a half tribes settled east of the Jordan. The Girgashites disappeared from view.
The Girgashites are the least known of the three.
A people established early in Canaan, the origin of whom is not known, except that they were descended from Canaan.
The Canaanite branches get more detail than the other nations in the list. There is a reason for that care.
The notes on the Canaanite families are fuller, because God had His people in view. It was their duty to carry out judgment and take the promised land from these peoples. They might be "spread abroad" or scattered, and seem to flourish for a time. Still the curse was on them. It rested on them from the first on moral grounds. At last it grew heavier through outrages against God and man, which in His eyes called for them to be wiped out.
The Amorites were the strongest and most corrupt of these peoples, so their name sometimes stands for all the Canaanites (Morrish Bible Dictionary). Put together, the meanings of the three names read like a list of what keeps a believer from what God has given.
The Girgashites are "dwellers in clay." Sadly, we settle down in the dust of the earth instead of rising to our heavenly portion. The Amorite is "the talker," rather than the doer of the Word... and the Jebusite is "the treader down," who never rests until every divine thing lies under his feet. All these must be cast out. We must refuse any alliance with them.
The Jebusites outlasted the other two, and they held Jerusalem itself.
The oldest name was Salem. The Jebusites called it Jebus (Judges 19:10). After David conquered it, the old name came back and the city became known as Jerusalem ("habitation of peace")... David took the stronghold. Jebusite means "the one who treads down." That recalls the words of our Lord: "Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).
Genesis gives the borders of these families; Chronicles gives only the names. The silence is not carelessness.
Genesis 10 deals with how the nations spread over the earth. Those details would serve no purpose for the aim of the book we are now considering. For the same reason, this book says nothing at all about the borders of the Canaanites in Genesis 10:18-20, or about the borders of the sons of Joktan.
Behind that silence lies a larger principle.
God does not come back to it. He cannot use the "natural man" in any way. From now on that man is left to himself, with no connection or relationship to God. So he makes room for a line chosen by grace, according to God's eternal purposes.
- Listed — Canaan's branches come before the chosen line. Scripture's order is the natural first, then the spiritual.
- Cursed — God describes these families in unusual detail because Israel had to drive them out. The curse rested on them on moral grounds.
- Named — "dwellers in clay," "the talker," "the treader down." The names picture what keeps us from our inheritance, and every alliance with them must be refused.
- Conquered — the Girgashites vanished, the Amorites were pushed east, and the Jebusites held Jerusalem until David took the stronghold.
- Closed — once the natural line is recorded, God does not return to it. The ground is clear for a line chosen by grace.
and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
Verse 15 names three clans among Canaan's descendants, inside a genealogy that runs from Adam to Israel. Such names look like dead weight today, yet these are the peoples Israel later meets in the promised land.
Both names point to settlements on the Phoenician coast, north of Israel. We know where the Arkites lived:
A tribe descended from Canaan, son of Ham; it probably lived in Arca, in the north of Phoenicia, about 15 miles north of Tripoli, now called Tell Arka. Gen. 10:17; 1 Chr. 1:15.
The Sinites left far less trace:
A tribe of unknown Canaanites, probably in the far north. Gen. 10:17; 1 Chr. 1:15. The Targums give Orthosia, a town on the coast to the north-east of Tripolis.
This clan keeps reappearing, from Jacob's day to Joshua's:
One of the races found early in Palestine: they were descendants of Ham through Canaan. Gen. 10:17. Jacob, on his return to Palestine, found Shechem occupied by the Hivites. Gen. 34:2. They also held Gibeon, and found a way to deceive Joshua into making a treaty with them. Joshua 9:3, 7. They seem to have been a trading people rather than a warlike one... Israel failed to carry out God's directions to drive out these and other inhabitants of the land, and suffered for it. These nations led Israel into idolatry.
Scripture does not list these families for the sake of geography. They held ground God had already assigned:
The youngest branch of the Hamitic race now comes before us, already marked with a curse (Gen. 9:25)... Scripture carefully points them out as races which took possession of the land destined for Israel. As the song of Moses so forcefully puts it (Deut. 32:8), "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage."
(Kelly's older translation reads "according to the number of the sons of Israel" — his point is that God measured out the land with Israel in view.)
God did not sweep these peoples away on a whim. He waited until their evil was complete:
Now the races of Canaan occupied the land which Jehovah intended for Israel. Nor was this all. They were notably vile... But the cup of the Amorites became full. The land grew so unclean that Jehovah had to judge its sin. Then He was pleased to make Israel the executioner of His vengeance. What could be more righteous in itself? What wiser for His people, its destined heirs? All unnatural evils as well as idolatries had become their "customs," from which Israel had to be kept. It was no question of cruelty. It was Israel's fault not to wipe them out as completely as Jehovah commanded. Those left alive went on to trap and corrupt the chosen people into the same infamy.
The best-known Hivite episode is Gibeon. The failure there was Israel's, not Gibeon's cleverness:
What the Gibeonites said sounded plausible. Their reference to Israel's God may have had a deciding effect with Joshua. But he and Israel made the fatal mistake of receiving them on their own word without asking counsel from the Lord (v.14)... if they had taken the matter to God, would they have been deceived? No! If we are in proper communion with the Lord, we shall not be deceived, for the Lord is not deceived.
Chronicles trims what Genesis 10 spells out. It leaves out the Canaanite borders, because this book has a narrower aim.
Genesis 10 deals with how the nations spread over the earth. Those details would be useless for the aim of the book we are now looking at. For the same reason the boundaries of the Canaanites in Genesis 10:18-20 and those of the sons of Joktan (Gen. 10:30-32) get no mention here at all.
One rule shapes the whole chapter. The natural branches come first, the promised line last.
Japheth and Ham, with their sons, come before us first, and only then Shem and the line of God's promise in Shem... God's purposes ripen latest. God lets the world take its own way, and it exalts men on the earth. God means to exalt the Man who humbled Himself.
- Named — the Arkites settled at Arca, north of Tripoli. The Sinites are unknown, likely far north. The Hivites held Shechem and Gibeon.
- Placed — these clans took land God had already measured out for Israel, so Scripture names them.
- Judged — judgment waited until their evil was full. It was righteous toward them and it guarded Israel.
- Spared — whoever Israel failed to drive out trapped Israel instead. Gibeon gained its treaty because no one asked the Lord.
- Last — Scripture lists the natural line first and the promised line last, because God's purposes ripen latest.
and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
Verse 16 closes the list of Canaan's descendants with three tribal names and nothing else — no story, no explanation. Why does Scripture keep names like these?
These are not single people but whole tribes descended from Canaan, son of Ham. Scripture says very little about the last of them:
About the races mentioned after these, little more can be said than what lies on the surface of Scripture… There were Hivites further north and outside, near whom the last five families settled, or on the coast, and also on the island of Aradus.
The Arvadites take their name from an island:
Family name of one of the sons of Canaan. Genesis 10:18; 1 Chronicles 1:16: doubtless connected with the island of Arvad.
Canaan's family is listed in far more detail than Japheth's. The reason lies in what Israel would later have to do:
The notes on the Canaanite families are fuller, because God had His people in view. It was their duty to carry out judgment and to dispossess them of the promised land. These families might be "spread abroad" or scattered. They might be seen to flourish for a while. But the curse was on them, from the first on moral grounds. At the end it was made worse by outrages against God and man which in His eyes called for extermination.
One of the three names turns up again and again later — as a city, a border, and a kingdom:
District and a noted city in the north of Syria. We read of the HAMATHITE as early as Genesis 10:18. The district lay north of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. It perhaps reached further south too, since Scripture calls the northern border of Israel "the entrance of Hamath" (1 Kings 8:65). Toi, king of Hamath, sent congratulations to David on his victory over Hadadezer. Hamath lay more than a hundred miles further north than Dan. Yet it paid tribute to Solomon, and he built store cities there.
Genesis 10 gives the same names and then maps where the Canaanites spread. Chronicles stops at verse 16 and says nothing about their borders:
Genesis 10 deals with how the nations were spread over the earth. The details it gives there would be of no use for the aim of the book we are now considering. For the same reason this book says nothing at all about the boundaries of the Canaanites in Genesis 10:18-20, or about those of the sons of Joktan in Genesis 10:30-32 (compare verses 16, 23).
The same pattern of order runs through the whole chapter:
We find Shem mentioned first in verse 4, although he is not the firstborn. But Chronicles gives the genealogies of Japheth and of Ham before his (vv. 5-16), as we see also in Genesis 10. In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place. Yet in the natural order what is spiritual does not come first, as we have already pointed out. The same is true of Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, comes first in the list of descendants (v. 29), as the seed according to the flesh.
These names mattered most to the people coming home from captivity:
The man who believed God knew that seventy years would see them return from their captivity. So care for God and confidence in His Word would make them guard their genealogies carefully. Then, when they did return, they could enter on the portion God had allotted them. For this was what made every homestead in Israel so precious — that it was God who gave it. It was not merely something a man earned by his own labour or skill. It was the gift of God to them.
- Named: All three tribes branch off from Canaan's family, settled north and on the coast. Arvad was an island; Hamath a city and district in northern Syria.
- Numbered: Canaan's line gets unusual detail. God had in view the people who would dispossess them, and the curse already rested on them.
- Narrowed: Chronicles drops the Canaanite borders that Genesis 10 gives. Those details serve no purpose for the aim of this book.
- Ordered: Ham's line comes before Shem's, and Ishmael before Isaac. The natural comes first in the record; the chosen first in God's thoughts.
- Owned: These lists mattered to people coming home from exile. Every homestead they returned to was God's gift, not something earned.
The sons of Shem Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
This verse packs two generations into one line: Shem's five sons, then four names belonging to Aram. Why does Shem's family — the line that leads to Abraham — come last in the chapter rather than first?
Shem's sons come after the lines of Japheth and Ham. One writer sees a pattern here that repeats through the genealogies before Abraham.
Verse 4 mentions Shem first, although he is not the firstborn. The genealogies of Genesis before Abraham do this often. Yet the lists of Japheth's family and Ham's family come before his (vv. 5-16), just as we see in Genesis 10. In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, holds first place. But in the natural order, what is spiritual does not come first.
Of Shem's five sons, one carries the chosen line forward: Arphaxad, whom the ESV spells Arpachshad. Nothing in the list marks him out.
Shem's own sons come next, listed, it seems, in the order of their birth. Arpachshad, the ancestor of the chosen line, stands third — neither first nor last. A name might be placed first or last for special reasons, as happens elsewhere.
A reference work sums up why that third name matters:
Son of Shem, born two years after the flood, from whom Abraham descended.
Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech are not Shem's sons. They are Aram's sons, and so Shem's grandsons. The list sets them beside Shem's own children, which some readers have taken as an error.
In the same genealogy these four sons of Aram stand right alongside the sons of Shem, Aram included. Such lists often use this compressed style, and verse 4 prepares the reader for it. It only looks like a contradiction.
The last of the four carries a different name in Genesis 10:23. A reference work treats the two names as one man:
Mash: son of Aram, and grandson of Shem. Genesis 10:23. He is called Meshech in 1 Chronicles 1:17.
Each of these names became a people with a homeland and a history.
Elam is the first son named. He is the ancestor of the peoples east of Persia proper, who held the province whose capital was Shushan, or Susa. Elam rose to power early, then faded before the energy of Assyria and Babylon. Later, with Persia and Media, it shared the power of the second world-kingdom. Genesis 11 develops Arphaxad's line. The Lydians match Lud, and the Syrians match Aram.
One of Aram's four sons gives his name to the land where Job lived:
We do not know who Job's parents were. But he lived in the land of Uz, so he was one of Shem's descendants (Genesis 10:23). His friends came from the same branch of the human family, the line of Shem.
Readers have long asked which family Assyria came from. A reference work sorts it out:
In Genesis 10:11 an older translation seems to say that a son of Ham named Asshur built Nineveh. Then Genesis 10:22 and 1 Chronicles 1:17 name Asshur as a son of Shem. But the margin of Genesis 10:11 reads that "he went out into Assyria," that is, Nimrod went out into Asshur or Assyria (the Hebrew is the same). Micah 5:6 confirms this, linking Assyria and Nimrod together. Assyria goes back to Asshur, or Assur, a son of Shem. Nimrod came later and may have conquered the country.
These names return in the prophets, attached to events still ahead.
As to the children of Shem (Genesis 10:22), Elam is the same as Persia. Asshur appears in the judgment that will take place in the last times (Micah 5:6; Isaiah 14:25; Isaiah 30:31), and also in the conspiracy of Psalm 83, and in other places. Arphaxad is one of the ancestors of the Israelites… Asshur displaced Aram, or Syria, which then appears under the title of the king of the North.
- Order — Shem comes first in God's reckoning and last in the natural listing. Grace does not follow birth order.
- Chosen — Arphaxad sits third of five, with nothing to mark him out, yet Abraham comes from him.
- Compressed — the list folds Aram's four sons in beside Shem's own. That is shorthand, not contradiction.
- Real — Elam is Persia's region, Lud the Lydians, Aram the Syrians, and Uz the country where Job lived.
- Unfinished — Asshur, Elam and Aram return in the prophets, so the list points forward as well as back.