Genesis 10:1–32

Genesis 2:4 — Genesis 4:26, Generations of heavens and earth. Genesis 5:1 — Genesis 6:8, Generations of Adam. Genesis 6:9 — Genesis 9:29, Generations of Noah. Genesis 10:1 — Genesis 11:9, Generations of sons of Noah. Genesis 11:10 — Genesis 11:26, Generations of Shem.

This chapter is full, instructive, and interesting, and Genesis 11:1-9 that follows it has its own special importance. The chapter describes something new among mankind: its many nations spread out in their lands, each with its own language. Before the flood no such distinctions existed. However large the population was, they were not grouped like this, and they were not marked off from one another... God had not yet set up any government, there was no division into nations, and there was no difference of language.

In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 for how God arranged languages, families, and nations. This is the only place that tells us how the different races arose, and where they came from. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided this way?... All men who are worth listening to are convinced of this: these three great lines are clearly separate, and just as clearly they came from one common origin. Scripture says there was only one such root.

This is the right place for such a statement. It comes after Noah's fall and its striking results. In the same way, the family line of Adam's sons came in Genesis 5 after his sin, and the line of Cain led on to the picture God gives us of the world before the flood. Noah lived on for centuries, but the history never mentions him again, just as Adam drops out of sight after his sin... It was well ordered that none of Noah's sons had children until they came out of the ark. So too Adam became a father only after the fall, when God sent him out of paradise.

Genesis 6:10 gives the names of Noah's sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Genesis 10:1 and 1 Chronicles 1:4 give the same names in the same order. Yet Genesis 9:24 and 10:21 show us that the true order of their birth was Japheth, Shem and Ham. But God in His sovereignty chose Shem, so his name comes first.

Chapters 10 and 11 give us the history of the world after the flood — how it was peopled and set in order... Chapter 10 gives the facts. Chapter 11 shows how they came about, in judgment. The two chapters are not to be read as following one after the other in time. The division into nations and languages came after men tried, in their pride, to hold together at Babel. Then, last of all, we are given the family Jehovah owned, so that we can trace in it the line down to the one who carried the promise.

It looks like nothing more than a list of generations — fathers, sons, and so on. What can be interesting about that? But God does not give history the way men give it... The names of the nations listed here are found all through the Bible, and each keeps its character through its whole history, right to the end. In Ezekiel, and especially in Ezekiel 38 and 39, many of these names come up in connection with the very last days.

Notice that the order of Noah's sons is now changed. Japheth has the first place when we come to the survey of family lines. We learn why when we arrive at the line of Shem (v. 21). For spiritual reasons Shem had always held that place of honour up to now, and Ham was otherwise put before Japheth.

Genesis 10:2, compared with verse 21, plainly shows that Japheth was the eldest, and Ham probably the youngest (Genesis 9:24). Both Shem and Noah owe their place of precedence not to birth, but to the honour God set on them.

No chapter in the Bible matters more than Genesis 10 for the providential arrangement of tongues, families, and nations. This chapter alone gives the rise of the different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was so divided? This is the divine account of the races. Here man is at sea. But where he does arrive at conclusions, this at least is the common consent, as far as I know, of all who have given their minds to the study: there are three, and only three, divisions into which nations properly diverge… More than that: those worth hearing are just as sure that these three lines had one common origin. Scripture says there was only one such root.

Of Japheth — the Celtic family (Gomer), the tribes to the north of the Caucasus (Magog), Medes, Greeks, Tibareni, Moschi and Thracians — generally the Indo-Europeans.

Magog (compare Ezekiel 38:2) is quite as certainly identified with the land we call Russia. To these we must add Meshech and Tubal, races long known as Moschi and Tibareni: these are the Muskai and the Tuplai of the Assyrian inscriptions, who find their representatives in Moscow and Tobolsk. This is the Slavic branch.

It became evident that Sanskrit, old as it may be, is no more the parent of these tongues than Greek. They were all sisters, derived from a language earlier than any of them. That they had a common source in the east was for the learned a recent discovery. But our verse tells us with full authority that Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras were sons of Japheth. So they were all linked together — distinct in dialect, but of common origin.

There remains only Tiras. From the likeness of the name, most have believed it stands for the Thracians… Still the question cannot be said to be settled, like all the others that come before it.

Of the sons of Japheth we get Gomer, Magog, Tubal and Meshech under the same names in Ezekiel 38 as followers of Gog. You will also find Persia there, which was united to Media (Madai)… so only Javan and Tiras remain to be accounted for.

"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." Israel was, and shall yet be, God's earthly centre. It is a fact of the deepest interest that from the very outset, as we see in Genesis 10, the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations and fixed their bounds according to His own sovereign will. He did it with direct reference to Abraham's descendants, and to that narrow strip of land they are to possess.

Only two of Japheth's sons have their descendants listed — Gomer, the head of the Celts, and Javan, from whom came the Greek and Italian peoples.

These were respectively the families which peopled Asia Minor, and Armenia on the east, and the sons of Javan whom we cannot fail to identify with the Greek or Hellenic families, extending to Spain, France, Italy and Sicily, the isles or maritime coasts of the nations.

Jeremiah brings in Ashkenaz as one of three kingdoms called out together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon, when the kings of the Medes also played their decisive part. Ararat and Minni were parts of Armenia, which here as elsewhere comes under Togarmah. So there seems no sound reason to doubt that Ashkenaz and Riphath held the peninsula of Asia Minor at that time. They took their place with Cyrus, the leader of these peoples, during that famous struggle. But this in no way weakens the general fact that Gomer pushed west into Europe, granting that at least Togarmah settled in Armenia.

Scripture says nothing about where Riphath lived. But Jeremiah 51:27 makes it certain that Ashkenaz belongs among the Asiatic kingdoms, and probably in the district between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea… It is a fair and interesting subject to discuss. Still, it is better to hear and weigh the evidence of Scripture before we come to conclusions.

Jewish teachers say that Ashkenaz later moved into the part of Europe afterwards called Germany… But the evidence is far from clear, though all agree that the Germanic peoples descend from Japheth and from Gomer… There is far less ground for applying Riphath to Great Britain, as some have done… But there is no good reason to doubt that those we call Germans came from Gomer, just as the Celts did.

Ezekiel 38 beyond doubt unveils the judgment of Russia at the end of this age. It lets us see its supporters forced to follow it and to share the general ruin. Among the peoples of the north are Gomer and all his hordes, and the house of Togarmah from the far north with all his. The southern peoples of Persia, Cush, and Phut come under the same influence.

"The house of Togarmah" from the northern parts I suppose to be the Armenian people, as they say of themselves. They will follow Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal — that is, the last head of the Russian Empire.

At the time of the scattering at Babel, God caused the various peoples to drop down just where His ways would need them when Israel came into view. So God Himself settled the first map of the world, with the land and people of Israel as His centre.

Verse 2 already showed briefly that Javan represents Greece. Ionia, however, or Ionis, comes closest to the Hebrew name. It was a narrow district in Asia Minor, and Greek colonies are said to have taken it over more than a thousand years before Christ… Ionia was remarkable not only for its success in trade, but for its excellence in art and poetry, in history and philosophy — before the mother country reached any eminence in these pursuits… In fact Greece is so named from Genesis 10 to Zechariah 9.

Eldest son of Javan, the son of Japheth. His descendants seem to have occupied the "isles of Elishah," and supplied the Phoenicians with blue and purple (Ezekiel 27:7). Josephus identifies them with the Aeolians. Others connect Elishah with Elis in the Peloponnese.

Tarshish follows. Here it appears that we need not doubt an original settlement on the south shore of Spain. The Phoenicians later had trading stations there too, and from there their ships brought silver, iron, tin and lead to Tyre, as Ezekiel 27:12 tells us. The ships of Tarshish were the most famous for merchandise in ancient times… There may have been another place of the same name in the south east or the Indian ocean, to which Solomon's ships sailed from Ezion-Geber.

There is no difficulty about Kittim. The term is applied beyond dispute to two of the peninsulas of Europe — first Greece (or Macedon), then Rome or Italy… So in Balaam's prophecy (Numbers 24:24) we learn of a fleet from the west afflicting Asshur, when all man's power comes to destruction. Elsewhere we hear of the "isles" or sea-coasts of Kittim. That can hardly mean Cyprus, as Josephus and many since his day have understood it.

The Old Testament refers to it several times in connection with its "ships." At first it points to Cyprus. But Jeremiah 2:10 and Ezekiel 27:6 speak of the "isles of Chittim," so it is clear that in the Prophets other islands go with Cyprus.

Descendants of Javan, son of Japheth. Genesis 10:4; 1 Chronicles 1:7. In the margin the name is RODANIM, which has some manuscript support.

Javan's firstborn is Elishah, "God has forgotten." That is always the thought in a soul that has forgotten Him. His second son is Tarshish, and… he speaks of one who goes out from the presence of God. He is a seeker on his own account, attracted by everything shining or conspicuous. He is trying to satisfy himself with what has never satisfied anyone. But that helps us understand the energy he puts into it. He is the ideal explorer, and the riches of the earth become his own… Here is the restless spirit of one adrift from God — a prodigal.

"May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant." From Japheth have come all the European nations. They have spread out to the ends of the earth. They have entered into the favour that belonged to Israel — and Israel has been cut out of it for the time being because of their unbelief, as Romans 11 shows.

The word usually translated "isles" also covers coast-lands (such as the Greek, Italian, Spanish and Scandinavian peninsulas), and settlements or homes wider still. Gesenius argues this, and the more learned modern Jews fully agree. Again, four things mark the division: their lands, the tongue spoken, their family descents, and the resulting nation.

There are no islands near to Palestine. Cyprus is the nearest, and that is about seventy miles from the nearest point of Syria, far north. So the term "the isles" may be used at times indefinitely for places or nations far off.

How did all these languages come into existence? They are the result of God's judgment at Babel, when "there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them" (Gen. 11:9). In Genesis 10:5 we read: "From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language …" It is here that the word "tongue" first occurs in the Bible.

It is clear that the order of time is not in question here. The following chapter shows that the difference of tongues was imposed suddenly by a divine act of judgment… The orderly partition followed the confused dispersion.

Yet, contrary to the common purpose of men, each country went to its own race… The memory of the flood would not dispose men to separate. But God meant it to be, and so it was: one race of Adam, yet with all the variety into which the different family lines were to divide and fill the earth.

But the God of creation is the God of providence, and He knows how to give effect to His word. Here we have Europe, though not Europe only, as the destined scene for the line of Japheth. Of all the earth it is the most varied in outline and has the most coastline, since its shores are the most deeply cut. That makes it the easiest to reach through its inland seas, and the most open to contact with other lands. It was exactly suitable for him who was to be enlarged in his activity beyond his brothers.

The principle of government, which God laid on Noah and his sons, was to prove its great practical value. Its control could now reach men far more easily, once nations marked them off from one another… Families of course had existed before, in the middle of an undivided race. From now on, in the new state of things, they take their place in their lands by the lesser relation of their nations. Each nation was welded together by the tongue that set it apart from others of different descent and place.

It is evident from Acts 17:26 that the earth's surface is enough for men to live on, and that God has set the bounds of the nations. If men had respected these God-appointed bounds, and had been content with the "place in the sun" He had given them, there would have been no wars.

The peopling of the earth was in view of the coming of the Heir of all things, He for Whom all things were made.

In the Old Testament prophets we can identify the descendants of the line of Japheth, as well as those to follow of Ham and Shem. In Revelation… we hear of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, out of which the Lamb purchased saints to God by His blood.

The Holy Spirit now brings before us the descendants of Ham. The name of Japheth ("may he spread") seems to carry prophetic meaning, and Genesis 5:29 claims such meaning outright for Noah's own name. So there appears to be meaning in the name of his younger son too. It means "warm" or hot, and so "dark" or black.

The form of the word in Hebrew is the dual, which some would refer to upper and lower Egypt. However that may be, the context decides that both Cush and Mizraim mean men, and sons of Ham. Ephraim, born in Egypt, also has the dual form, but is no less surely the name of a man.

The children of Ham are pointed out in Genesis 10:6. Of these, Canaan has been destroyed, and his country turned over to Israel. Cush (Ethiopia) and Phut are also found under Gog — those of Cush only in part. The reason is this: one part of the family of Cush settled on the Euphrates, the other on the Nile, that is, north and south of Israel.

Phut or Put is an example of the more degraded stock of Ham's descendants in Africa. They lived next to Egypt and Ethiopia, and Scripture names them with one or the other at times… The very obscurity that covers this African branch of Ham's sons serves to show how low they had fallen.

But Canaan, named last, has the most unenviable place of all. He was the early object of curse, and the fiercest enemy of Israel in the land assigned to them by promise. The Canaanites were a highly civilised race, yet steeped in shameless idolatry and every moral corruption. So, according to God's righteousness on earth, they were given up to destruction — both because they deserved it, and as a safeguard, so that Israel would not be drawn into the same sins. And that is what happened: Israel failed to carry out His sentence, and were drawn in, to their own sin, shame, and cost.

It may seem strange that Noah did not curse Ham himself, since it was Ham who had not respected his father. But no doubt it was God who led him. In His government, God moved Noah to give out the prophecy about his three sons in the new world, and so 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. It was Nimrod, Ham's descendant, who founded the great kingdoms of the East, and we do not read of them paying tribute to Israel as Canaan did.

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. Scripture confirms the truth, and even its critics, hostile as ever, cannot dispute it. But alongside material progress another feature stands out just as much: the degradation of the race, their fall into savage ways and habits… However opposite, both are effects of departure from God.

I will not go into details. But I will say this: no chapter in the Bible is more important than Genesis 10 for how God arranged languages, families, and nations. This chapter alone gives the rise of the different races, and where they came from. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided like this? The details are of the greatest interest, especially when compared with what is predicted for the last days. There we see the same countries and nations appear again for judgment in the day of the Lord.

So the Jews did not go wrong here. They gave Cush not only Ethiopia and the nearby parts of Africa, but also the opposite coast of Arabia and the southern shore of Asia as far as India. But Arabia also received a large population from Shem, which gave their language its character. That came early from Joktan, Eber's son, and later from Ishmael's twelve sons and from Jokshan, Abraham's son.

Fourth son of Cush, a son of Ham. He was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Their descendants probably settled along the shores of the Persian Gulf. Merchants of Raamah traded with Tyre, and they were no doubt connected with these descendants.

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 line of Shem. The different merchandise of each confirms it. In the same way, the men of Dedan in Ezekiel 27:15 look like Cushites on the Persian Gulf. The island of Dadan keeps the name alive there, and their imports and exports match. But verse 20 sets apart a different Dedan, who seem to come from Shem through Keturah.

Sabtecha is the last named of Cush's sons. Scripture makes no mention of him beyond the genealogical list here and in 1 Chronicles 1. So we cannot say anything for certain. The most anyone can add is Bochart's guess that his people made their way to Carmania, on the Persian shore of the Gulf.

Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, "Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?" They may be eager to deal with the plunderer and profit by buying the loot they expect. But they too will soon say: truly there is a reward for the righteous; truly He is a God who judges on the earth.

So Christ as the King wins worldwide dominion by displaying His power in righteous judgment. For "may the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!" (Psalm 72:10-11)

There is nothing mythical in the little that Scripture says. Nimrod "began to be a mighty one in the earth." It had not been so 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. Cain was the first builder of a city in the earliest days; Nimrod was the first after the flood, and on a large and repeated scale. Present power was his aim; and God allowed it apparent success.

We are further told that "he was a mighty hunter before the LORD." There seems no good reason to doubt that this is meant literally. It made a great impression on his contemporaries, so that his skill as a hunter became proverbial. "Therefore it is said, 'Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.'" Clearly it gave him trained skill and strength. In time that skill passed into another field of far deeper interest and seriousness.

There is more implied in this than merely his being a literal hunter of animals. His name means "we will rebel," not only "I will rebel." He was a leader in hunting the souls of men, to make them rebels.

He was "mighty upon the earth," and "a mighty hunter," using force and craft to bring man as well as beasts under his sway. The words "before the Lord" probably mean imperial energy and authority seized in independence of Jehovah. Nimrod and his descendants founded both Babylon and Nineveh.

He was under the curse, but that meant nothing to him. He did not fear Jehovah at all, and he was willing and able to show he was strong before Him. There is a clear difference between the hunter and people of God like David and Amos, who were shepherds caring for the sheep. The hunter tries to kill the animals he is hunting. This remains Nimrod's character down the ages.

Nimrod was the first to set aside the rule of the fathers over their families. That order had held until then, and it continued elsewhere for ages afterward. His ambition could not stop at hunting animals, and it led him from wild beasts to mankind. "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel."

Here, then, we have the character of the founder of Babylon. Babylon's character all through the book of God matches its founder remarkably. It always appears as a mighty influence in the earth, acting in direct opposition to everything that owes its origin to heaven. Only when this Babylon has been completely abolished does the cry go up among the hosts above: "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns." Then all Babylon's mighty hunting will be over for ever, whether its hunting of wild beasts, to subdue them, or its hunting of souls, to destroy them.

The aim of the builders of Babel was to make themselves a name. To some extent they succeeded, for Nimrod "began to be a mighty one in the earth." The call of God carried Abraham into a path far removed from the power and fame of these famous men. … How great is the honour that God Himself should speak of him as "Abraham, my friend." Here is true greatness, greatness that lasts, while Nimrod's tower and city are only a heap of shapeless ruins on the plains of Mesopotamia and his rebel name is almost forgotten.

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 so 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 was the first to do so after the flood, and on a large and repeated scale. Present power was his aim; and God allowed it apparent success.

There seems no good reason to doubt that this is meant literally. It made a great impression on the people of his day, so that his skill as a hunter became proverbial. The hunting gave him trained skill and strength, which he later carried into a field of far deeper interest and seriousness.

There is more implied in this than merely his being a literal hunter of animals. His name means "we will rebel," not only "I will rebel." He was a leader in hunting the souls of men, to make them rebels. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, where man was exalted in defiance of God.

He was "mighty upon the earth," and "a mighty hunter," using force and craft to bring men as well as beasts under his control. The words "before the LORD" probably signify imperial energy and usurped authority, independent of Jehovah.

"Before the LORD he hunted." In defiance of God he sought conquest and power. He added house to house and field to field, wanting to be lord alone… He had no heart for any portion God could give him. He set out to provide for himself and to make his own fortune, so that his dignity and honour came from himself. And such a man is the man of the world to this day.

There is a clear difference between the hunter and people of God like David and Amos, who were shepherds and took care of the sheep. The hunter tries to kill the animals he is hunting. This remains Nimrod's character down the ages.

How different was Jehovah's way later! Israel wanted a king like the nations, and chose one who served himself… Then God took His servant David from the pasture, from following the sheep, and made him prince over His people, Israel, to feed them.

The first self-exalted man after the flood was Nimrod. Beginning as a hunter of wild beasts, he developed into a tyrant over men. And so the centuries have rolled on in their monotonous course. Nimrods have never been lacking.

Nimrod was forceful, a mighty hunter. He gained the upper hand and founded a "kingdom," and the beginning of it was Babel. This happened, we judge, before Noah's long life ended; and if any kingdom existed, it should have been his. The power that should have been given to Noah was taken by Nimrod, and used to serve himself and his own renown. With this began the founding of cities to serve as centres of human influence. Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh are among the first we have any record of.

It was among the sons of Ham, then, that a kingdom was first set up among men. God was not in any of Nimrod's thoughts; He was not sought, nor did He give the least direction in the matter. His own ambition gave Nimrod the plan. He carried it out by the force of his will, and by the skill he had gained in his hunting. How different the way of Jehovah at a later day! For, when Israel wanted a king in imitation of the nations and chose one who served himself... He took His servant David from the pasture, from following the sheep. He made him prince over His people, over Israel, to feed them.

What did he care if it had begun in godless self-will? It aimed to gather mankind into one centre, against God's design and command to fill the earth. What did he care if the builders had abandoned it under a divine judgment that forced them to scatter over all the earth? The abandoned city and tower suited his plan exactly: a kingdom for himself, not a universal commonwealth. So "the beginning of his kingdom was Babel." Success encouraged him to go forward, and "Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar" followed.

The builders may be scattered, but their principles survive. Judgment does not cure... Nimrod, a grandson of Ham, plants his flag on the very spot that had witnessed the judgment of God. ... He had no heart for any portion God could give him. He set out to provide for himself and to be the maker of his own fortune. His dignity and honour would come from himself. And such is the man of the world to this day. He was the earliest example and pattern of the one who, in the closing days, will do as he pleases and fill up the measure of man's sin.

In them we find two great principles. They mark the natural energy of the human heart doing its own will: the spirit of despotism, and the spirit of association. Nimrod, the first example of individual supremacy, begins to be mighty in the earth... On the other hand, man does not like being governed. He joins with others to make himself completely independent of God. Joined with others, he thinks himself capable of anything. "Union," he says, "is strength." And this is true until God steps in... But when God had scattered men, Nimrod took possession of all they had done. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel.

Ancient name of the plain lying in the south between the Euphrates and the Tigris. It was where Nimrod established his kingdom, and where the tower of Babel was built. ... Later it was known as Chaldea, or Babylonia... and some of the captives from Judah were taken there.

That was how Babylon began, and its character all through the book of God matches that beginning. It is always seen as a mighty influence in the earth, acting in direct opposition to everything that comes from heaven. Only after this Babylon is completely abolished does the cry go up among the hosts above: "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns."

It seems his ambition was to rule the whole world. The aim in building the tower of Babel was to have a centre of government, control and oversight. The tower was never finished, and no man will ever gain that rule, until He comes to whom the whole creation rightly belongs.

Older English versions make it look as if a son of Ham named Asshur built Nineveh. Yet Genesis 10:22 and 1 Chronicles 1:17 name Asshur as a son of Shem. But in the margin of verse 11 it 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, for it links Assyria and Nimrod together. Assyria goes back to Asshur or Assur, a son of Shem. Nimrod came afterwards and may have subdued the country, but with what result is not shown.

Nothing here says that Ham's descendants drove Asshur out. The wording suggests instead that the success of Nimrod set the example, and stirred a similar ambition. Everything the record reveals shows how completely all of them forgot Noah's authority, though he was still alive. The authority of the family head gave way to men's own thoughts and will.

Nimrod's name means "we will rebel," not only "I will rebel." He was a leader in hunting the souls of men, to make them rebels. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, where man was exalted in defiance of God. Other places are also mentioned in the land of Shinar. The move from that land into Assyria came no doubt after the Lord scattered the people from Babel (Gen. 11:8). Nimrod's ambitious course of self-will was not stopped even by God's judgment at the tower of Babel.

When Asshur did his work, we need not imagine anything more than a small beginning of what would in time reach such power and splendour. It held that power long enough to conquer the ten tribes of Israel and to threaten Judah and David's house. Then it received a blow so plainly from God that it never troubled the holy land again. Soon it fell, never to rise again, when God chose to bring Babylon forward from a provincial position... to become ruler of the world.

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. Her founder was Nimrod, who lived shortly after the flood (Gen. 10:8-12). There was rivalry between Assyria and Babylon from the very beginning. Babylon is the picture of worldly might in a religious garment. Assyria pictures the proud, cruel and overbearing world, which knows nothing but her own importance.

Asshur founded Nineveh not long after the flood, apparently as a rival to Nimrod's Babylon (Gen. 10:11)... But where is Nineveh today? Opposite the town of Mosul there are miles of ruins from which many objects of interest have been dug up... The Medes captured and destroyed the city in 625 B.C. There has been no effort to rebuild it since that time, and it is not the will of God that it should ever be rebuilt.

The Lord, with His chosen instruments, will carry out His final judgments before He brings peace to this troubled world. He strikes the lands where man's lawlessness among the nations first raised its head, through Nimrod and Assyria (Gen. 10:9–11).

In Genesis 10:11 the Authorised Version seems to say that a son of Ham named Asshur built Nineveh. Yet Genesis 10:22 and 1 Chronicles 1:17 name Asshur as the son of Shem. But the margin of verse 11 reads that "he went out into Assyria." That is, Nimrod went out into Asshur or Assyria. Asshur and Assyria are the same word in Hebrew. Micah 5:6 confirms this: it links Assyria and Nimrod together. The name Assyria goes back to Asshur, or Assur, a son of Shem. Nimrod came later and may have subdued the country, but what came of that is not shown.

"From that land went out Asshur, and built Nineveh … and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: this is the great city." The text does not hint that Ham's descendants drove Asshur out. Rather, its language implies that Nimrod's success set the example and stirred a like ambition. Everything the record shows makes it clear: they all forgot Noah's authority, though he was still living. His place as head of the family gave way to men's own thoughts and will.

In defiance of God he sought conquest and power. He added house to house and field to field, in the desire to be lord alone. Erech, Accad and Calneh are mother-cities. Mighty Nineveh, with Rehoboth and Calah, and that great city Resen, are only colonies in the system of this boastful apostate. He had no heart for any portion God could give him. He undertook to provide for himself. He would be the maker of his own fortune, so that his dignity and honour came from himself. And such a man is the man of the world to this day.

The great city "between Nineveh and Calah," one of the four cities built by Asshur, or by Nimrod in Assyria. Genesis 10:12. Some judge it to be not identified; but others trace it to ruins at 36° 12' N, 43° 10' E.

The capital of Assyria was old Nineveh. Nimrod had already built it, along with Rehoboth, Resen and Calah. (Calah is the only town Scripture calls the great city.) It is possible that the expression "that great city" in Jonah 1:2 is to be understood in the same way. In that case the three days' journey of Jonah 3:3 would present no difficulty.

When Asshur did his work, we need not imagine anything more than a small beginning of what would in time reach such power and splendour. It kept that power. It went on to triumph over the ten tribes of Israel and to threaten Judah and David's house. Then it received a blow so plainly from God that it never troubled the holy land again.

The plant that had sprung up to shade the self-occupied prophet withered when God sent a worm. Jonah fainted in the heat and again wished to die. Then the LORD said, "You had pity on the plant … and should not I pity Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" Yes, He is the God of all grace. He is the God not of Jews only but of Gentiles also. As the faithful Creator, His mercies are over all His works.

Son of Ham, and the name of his descendants and also of the land they held. The meaning of the name is much disputed. The Hebrew word is really Mitzraim. The Authorised Version leaves it untranslated only in Genesis 10:6, 13 and 1 Chronicles 1:8, 11; everywhere else it says Egypt. The word has a dual form, caused, it has been thought, by the division of that land into Upper and Lower Egypt. Matzor, of which Mitzraim is the dual form, occurs many times, and the Authorised Version translates it in different ways: "besieged places," "defence," and "fortress." But it is a proper name, and it refers to Egypt.

The name for Egypt in Scripture is Mizraim. It means "double straitness," or "double strip," and that describes exactly what Egypt is. Egypt is a little strip of country on each side of the great river that flows through it. It owes its existence to that river alone. The desert on each side hems it in and blows its sand over the land from every direction. Each year the river floods, lays its load of earth on top, and renews the soil. So a constant conflict between life and death goes on here, as it does in the world at large.

Shem also had a son called Lud (verse 22). He was the ancestor of the well-known Lydian race in western Asia Minor. It is important to keep him apart from those descended from Mizraim, who spread out west of the Nile. They were archers, as we learn from Isaiah 66:19 and Jeremiah 46:9, where Scripture appears to list the African peoples and describe them that way.

We next hear of the Anamim, of whom nothing more is said in the Bible than in the two genealogical lists. Comparing the names that follow, we may perhaps gather that they were a race which settled in the Delta of Egypt. But we must admit that no reliable trace of them is known, either in the ancient geographers or in the monuments deciphered 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 of judgment for the inhabited earth is approaching, and it will prove that these races are not extinct.

The Lehabim, also called Lubim in 2 Chronicles 12:3 and 16:8, together with the people called Phut, or Put, answer to the ancient Libyans. But the ordinary use of "Libya" in old times is vague. It stretches far and wide over almost all Africa west of the Nile… The Naphtuhim come at once after the Lehabim. They are the same as the Lebu or Rebu of the Egyptian inscriptions, as Mr. R. S. Poole has shown — the Libyans proper.

Genesis 10 is a chapter that few would read with interest. It seems to be just a list of generations, of fathers, sons, and so on. What can be interesting about that? But God does not give us history the way men give it… The names of the nations listed here run all through the Bible. They also carry characters that they keep through the whole of history, right to the end. In Ezekiel, above all in chapters 38 and 39, many of these names appear again in connection with the very last days before the millennium.

Son of Ham, and the name of his descendants and also of the country they held. The Hebrew word is really Mitzraim. Older translations leave it untranslated only in Genesis 10:6, 13; 1 Chronicles 1:8, 11. Everywhere else they translate it Egypt.

From Isaiah 11:11, Pathros, as distinguished from Egypt, would seem to be the upper part of the land. Ezekiel 29:14 and 30:13-18 are thought to apply to the Thebaid the ruin that the prophet said would come on the whole land.

There remain the "Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim." There is little doubt that these races lived in the Delta before the Philistines moved to the Shephelah, the lowland of Canaan. Some suggest the two names have been swapped here. Deuteronomy 2:23, Jeremiah 47:4 and Amos 9:7 all connect the Philistine settlers with the Caphtorim. Pusey, commenting on the last of these Scriptures, leans to the conclusion that the same tribe moved into Palestine more than once. The Danes and Saxons came into England in the same way, and all merged under one common name. The first migration may have been from the Casluhim. The second came later, but mattered most, and it came from the Caphtorim. A third, of Kerethim (probably from Crete), came in the time of the judges and added only a little to their strength (1 Samuel 30:14-16). From these last, the Cherethites and Pelethites served as bodyguards of King David.

The Philistines were not Canaanites, although sons of Ham. They sprang, according to Genesis 10:14, from Mizraim, to whom the land of Egypt gave its own name. Yet we always find them in the land of Canaan, on the lowland of the south-west coast. Their outlook was toward Egypt, and they had the freest and most open contact with it (see Exodus 13:17).

Genesis 10 shows how the nations were divided. The descendants of Ham were Cush (the Ethiopian) and Mizraim (Egypt, of which this is the Hebrew name). Then in verses 13 and 14, "from Mizraim … came the Philistines." Here is the root, and there the branch, set out for us... they had crossed the desert by what is called "the way of the land of the Philistines." God would not lead Israel this way when they left Egypt (Exodus 13:17), "although that was near." It was in fact a short cut across the desert into the land of Canaan. It was not the true path for the redeemed. That path ran through the Red Sea and the Jordan, through death and resurrection. Only that way could Israel enter the land in a divine way and take it.

They come from the Caphtorim, and that word means as though they were openers; and from the Casluhim, as if forgiven — though not truly forgiven. So you have make-believe teaching, and a make-believe nearness to God, when after all there is nothing of the kind.

We have to admit that no reliable trace of them survives, either in the ancient geographers or in the monuments deciphered so far. Here we have the unfailing record of God, who alone saw the end from the beginning and has chosen to tell us the truth we would otherwise miss. A day of judgment on the whole inhabited earth is coming, and it will prove that these races are not extinct.

The youngest branch of Ham's family now comes before us, already branded with the curse (Gen. 9:25), and the lowest of servants to his brothers. Yet for a long time no doom seemed more unlikely. They were more enterprising than anyone, and as ready to leave home as the sons of Cush. Who spread out as widely as they did? The name Canaan covered the whole group, but it belonged in a special way to the "lowlanders" of the country.

No doubt an evident curse, which none could deny but an unbeliever, fell on Canaan, when because of their enormous wickedness the guilty cities of the Plain were destroyed by fire out of heaven. But even this was far from being an event of Noah's age… Yet Scripture is plain that both the curse and the blessing are not complete till Israel re-enter the land under Messiah and the new covenant, to be rooted there and blessed as long as the earth endures.

Of these races we need dwell on no more than the first two. These two can be separated more easily, because only they are personal names; the rest are names of nations. The name of the first, Sidon, means "fishing," and so does Saida, its modern name. The city stood on the northern slope of a spur that juts into the sea, and its citadel stood behind it on the south… In time Tyre, its daughter city, outshines it, as the later prophets show. In earlier days we hear of "great Zidon" (Joshua 11:8; 19:28)… They were skilled in manufacturing then, and later famous for their ships and their trade. But they corrupted even Solomon's house by their abominations.

The descendants of Heth, a son of Canaan, and so descendants of Ham: a large race who lived in Palestine. In God's covenant with Abraham, his descendants were to take over their land (Gen. 15:20). When Sarah died, Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpelah from the Hittites. His dealings and contract with them show that they were a civilised race, used to commercial transactions (Gen. 23:3-20).

He reminds his sons that the purchase of the cave and the field had been made from the children of Heth, which means "fear." Those who are unsaved are the children of fear, who, through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:15).

Verse 15 speaks of Canaan and his descendants, who took up the land that God had already decided would be Israel's (v. 19)… God's sovereign choice for His people was absolute from the beginning. Whoever held their land in the meantime, this would have no effect on Israel owning it in the end. And God was clearly righteous when He drove out the Canaanites at the proper time, because of their idolatry and demon worship.

Now the races of Canaan occupied that land which Jehovah intended for Israel… They were openly vile, worst of all the cities of the plain, whose wickedness was too shameful to name… Every unnatural evil, and idolatry too, had become their "customs," and Israel had to be kept clear of them. This was no question of cruelty. Israel was at fault for not removing them as fully as Jehovah commanded, so the ones they spared trapped and corrupted the chosen people into the same shame.

She belonged to a city which God had held up as a most guilty city (Matt. 11:21). She was a Syrophoenician — a Canaanite — from a race the Old Testament calls accursed (Gen. 9:25-27), a race no one could expect repentance from. The Lord comes into the region of Tyre and Sidon, peopled by the descendants of Canaan ("Cursed be Canaan"). That is where grace ever comes. And she was one of these outcasts in the fullest sense of the word. She had no privileges, no claims.

The Jebusites held Jerusalem. Joshua defeated them, but they were not driven out until David. The Amorite lived in the hill country of Judah, but pushed east. After their fall and expulsion, the two and a half tribes settled east of the Jordan. The Girgashites disappeared from view.

Scripture carefully points them out as races which took possession of the land destined for Israel. As the song of Moses 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 Israel."

We must also remember that Noah spoke as a prophet when he said it. The later history of Canaan and his descendants fully justified his solemn words. Genesis 10 gives us the sons of Canaan. From them came the nations that lived east of the Mediterranean and just north of Egypt. That is how the region became known as the land of Canaan.

The record of the Canaanite families is more detailed, because God had in view His people, whose duty it was to execute judgment and drive them out of the promised land. They might be "spread abroad" or scattered, and seen to flourish for a while. Still the curse was on them. It rested on them from the first on moral grounds. At last their outrages against God and man made it worse — crimes which in His eyes called for extermination.

The races of Canaan were strikingly vile, most of all the cities of the plain, whose wickedness was not to be named... But at last the cup of the Amorites was full. The land became so unclean that the LORD had to visit its iniquity. So He was pleased to make Israel the executioner of His vengeance. It was no question of cruelty. It was Israel's fault not to wipe them out as completely as the LORD commanded, so that those they spared went on to trap and corrupt the chosen people into the same disgrace.

God was going to let the Amorites fill up the cup of their iniquity before He ejected and destroyed them. This is always the way He takes in His holy government. It accounts for the patience He extends to the guilty world we are living in. He knows the full nature of man's evil from the start. But He lets it develop fully, so that when His judgment falls in full severity, all created beings will see that it is just.

The names here, as everywhere, are surely significant. They suggest those powers of evil which occupy the ground and would keep us from enjoying our God-given inheritance in Christ... The Girgashites are "dwellers in clay." Sadly, we are prone to settle down in the dust of earth instead of rising to our heavenly portion. The Amorite is "the talker," not the doer of the Word... while the Jebusite, "the treader down," never rests until all divine things are put under his feet. All these are to be cast out. We must refuse any alliance with them.

As to the literal history, even the doomed Canaanites might have escaped their doom. The way out was such a repentance and turning to God as was found in Rahab. The prophet later announced this principle openly (Jer. 18:7-8). It was a gospel of fact for every nation, before there could be a gospel of words.

Of these races we need dwell on no more than the first two. These can be more easily distinguished, since they alone are personal names, the rest are names of peoples.

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.

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.

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 possessed Gibeon, and found means to deceive Joshua into making a league with them. Joshua 9:3, 7... Israel suffered because they did not carry out God's directions to drive out these and the other peoples of the land. These peoples led Israel into idolatry.

The youngest branch of the Hamitic race now comes before us, already branded with curse (Gen. 9:25), and a servant of servants to his brothers. Yet for a long time no doom seemed less likely. They were enterprising beyond any, and no more inclined to stay at home than the sons of Cush. Who spread themselves abroad as they did? ... They are carefully pointed out as races which took possession of the land destined for Israel.

The notices of the Canaanite families are more detailed. God had His people in view, and it was their duty to carry out judgment and drive these families out of the promised land. However much they might be "spread abroad" or scattered, and seem to flourish for a while, the curse was on them. It rested on them from the first on moral grounds. At last it grew worse through outrages against God and man, which in His eyes called for extermination.

It is true that God allowed them to bear a certain mark of degradation as a result. They were enslaved, as the only course left open in righteousness... After the treaty it would have been fresh sin, a crime, to have put them to death. The name of the Lord had been solemnly given, and no one can trifle with that. But on the other hand, the Gibeonites were reduced to the most menial services for the sanctuary of Jehovah. So it was plain that nothing preserved them but His name.

The names here, as everywhere, are surely significant. They suggest powers of evil that occupy the ground first. They would stop us enjoying our God-given inheritance in Christ... the Amorite, "the talker," rather than the doer of the Word. The Canaanite, "the trafficker"... the Hivite, "the villager," suggesting a false humility. The Jebusite, "the treader down," never rests until everything divine is under his feet.

A district and a well-known 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 extended southward too, since Scripture speaks of the northern border of Israel as "the entrance of Hamath." Toi, king of Hamath, sent to congratulate David on his victory over Hadadezer. It was more than a hundred miles farther north than Dan, but it became tributary to Solomon and he built store cities there. It afterwards fell into the hands of the Assyrians.

The notices of the Canaanite families are more detailed, because God had His people in view. Their duty was to carry out judgment and dispossess these families of the promised land. However much they might be "spread abroad" or dispersed, and however much they seemed to flourish for a while, the curse was on them. It rested on them from the first on moral grounds. At last their outrages against God and man made it worse, and in His eyes these called for extermination.

The youngest branch of the Hamitic race now comes before us, already branded with curse, and a servant of servants to his brothers. Yet for a long time no doom seemed more unlikely. They were enterprising beyond any other people, and no more inclined to stay at home than the sons of Cush. Who spread themselves abroad as they did? … They are carefully pointed out as the races which took possession of the land destined for Israel. The song of Moses puts it strongly: "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."

Acts 17:26 makes it clear that the earth's surface is enough for people to live on. It also shows that God has set the bounds of the nations. Suppose men had respected these God-appointed bounds and been content with the "place in the sun" that He had given them. Then there would have been no wars. But they found no satisfaction in what they had, and they refused to feel after God for it. So they have cast covetous eyes on their neighbours' share and have broken the bounds God appointed — and from that come the bloodshed and the sorrow.

Looking back over the descendants of Ham, we cannot help seeing this. None rose so early into prominence of earthly power and rule. None carried civilisation forward so fast and so widely in earliest times. No other peoples were so marked at first by material grandeur … and they were long the only pioneers of commerce in west and east, north and south. But the true God was absent from their souls. And not only that: they outran all other races in their empty thoughts. They ungratefully abandoned Him when they knew Him, and their foolish heart darkened first.

Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer endure them. So He was going to drive them out, quite apart from who the incoming tenants were.

Israel was, and will yet be, God's centre on earth. It is a fact of the deepest interest that from the very start, as we see in Genesis 10, the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations and fixed their borders. He did this by His own sovereign will, and with direct reference to Abraham's seed and to that narrow strip of land they are to hold, under the everlasting covenant made with their fathers.

The Canaanite families are listed in closer detail, because God had His people in view, whose task it was to carry out judgment and take the promised land from them. The Canaanites might spread out and scatter, and seem to flourish for a while. Still the curse was on them. It rested there from the first on moral grounds, and was made worse at the end by outrages against God and man which in His eyes called for their destruction.

The border is traced from Sidon in the north-west, and from Gerar and Gaza in the south-west, and from the four doomed cities of the plain in the south-east to Lasha. Lasha was probably Laish or Leshem in the north-east. Jerome takes it to be Callirrhoe on the east of the Dead Sea, and Bochart a city the Arabs called Lusa in the south of Judah.

Place which marked the limit of the country of the Canaanites. It was probably on the east of the Dead Sea.

Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim were all caught in the blow. Sodom and the cities around her had enjoyed unusual prosperity, but their prosperity became their ruin. "Pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease" bred sin that a righteous God would not put up with for ever.

The youngest branch of Ham's family now comes before us. He was already marked with a curse, and made a servant of servants to his brothers. Yet no doom ever seemed less likely. They were more enterprising than any, and no more willing to stay at home than the sons of Cush. Who spread out as widely as they did? The name Canaan covered the whole country, but it applied more particularly to the "lowlanders" in it. They are carefully pointed out as the races that took possession of the land meant for Israel.

They were a highly civilised race, but steeped in shameless idolatry and every moral evil. So, according to righteousness on earth, they were given up to destruction. They deserved it, and their removal also guarded Israel from being drawn into the same sins. Israel failed to carry out His sentence, and proved this to their own sin, shame, and cost.

No people rose so early to power and rule on earth. None carried civilisation forward so fast and so far in the earliest times. No others stood out at first with such wealth and splendour, both in the plain of Shinar and in that remarkable country along the Nile — in Asia and in Africa alike. For a long time they were the only pioneers of trade in west and east, north and south. But the true God was absent from their souls.

I will not go into details, but I will say this. In the Bible there is no chapter more important than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged tongues, families, and nations. Here alone is given the rise of different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was thus divided? This was a new state of things. Nothing like it existed in the world before the flood, and it did not exist for a long while after it. Then came their spread into their lands. This is God's own account of the nations. Here man is lost.

Another word, erets, has wider meanings: sometimes the earth as a sphere — "God created the heavens and the earth," Genesis 1:1; He "hangs the earth on nothing," Job 26:7. But in other places it means only a district: "out of that land went forth Asshur"; "after their tongues in their countries"; "in his days was the earth divided." Genesis 10:11, 20, 25.

This is how mankind spread everywhere after the flood. It happened after some time had passed. People did not go willingly; God's power forced them out… So nationalities began, each with its own tongue, in their lands, but with mercy ruling according to their families. There was no confusion in Jehovah's ordering. Genesis 11:1-9 is the key to the previous chapter 10, the moral account of what was there given as a fact.

Look back over the descendants of Ham and we cannot help seeing this. No line rose so early to earthly power and rule. None carried civilisation forward so fast or so far in the earliest times. No other peoples stood out at first for such material grandeur — both in the plain of Shinar and in that remarkable country along the Nile, that is, in both Asia and Africa. And for a long time they were the only pioneers of trade in west and east, north and south. But the true God was absent from their souls. That was not all. They outran every other race in their empty thoughts. They knew Him, then abandoned Him without thanks, and their foolish heart was the first to grow dark.

The youngest branch of the Hamitic race now comes before us, already branded with a curse (Genesis 9:25), a servant of servants to his brothers. Yet for a long time no doom seemed more unlikely. They were enterprising beyond any… The record points them out with care as the races that took possession of the land destined for Israel. The song of Moses says it with force (Deuteronomy 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 Israel. For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage."

The earth was divided into distinct nations. This division was new, and it was not necessary for the earth under government. The nations were separated by place, by language and — as to the various lower branches — we may add, by more immediate origin. So, whatever changes there may have been since, the earth under government took the form it now bears… And there is more, which is interesting to see. Take the list of nations gathered under the wilful king in the last days, and under Gog in Ezekiel. We find ourselves brought back to the same nations, tongues and families that Genesis sets before us at the outset.

Ham, we know, is called "the little one" (Genesis 9:24) — usually translated "youngest." And the dates show that not Shem but Japheth was the eldest. Shem holds first place in the usual formula "Shem, Ham, and Japheth." That is not due to the order of birth. It is due to the spiritual purpose which gave Shem that position. When the chapter lists "the generations" in detail, however, Japheth's sons come first... Japheth had the honour of the firstborn. Ham wins recognition for rising early to political place and natural power. But the honour toward God was kept for Shem, though he is named last.

Shem comes last, the father of Hebrews, the brother of the one who has long despised him, as holding an elder brother's title. Such is the general result in the peopling of the world under God's ordering.

Verse 21 sets a notable mark on Eber. It introduces his forefather in the unusual terms "father of all the children, or sons, of Eber," though Eber came several generations later. Shem is called not Arphaxad's father, nor Salah's, but Eber's. The opposite happened to Ham, though perhaps not so sharply: he had to bear the shame of the title "father of Canaan" (Genesis 9:18). So God calls us to look two ways. On one side stands the man who inherited the curse. He became the enemy's instrument, trying to stop Israel from taking possession of the promised land in due time. On the other side we see the interest God took in pointing us forward to those who stood in the first line of the heirs of Shem's blessing. For "blessed be Jehovah the God of Shem."

Japheth, the picture of energy and independence, gains little notice for now. He passes away from the centre of view out to the border-lands. In Ham's family we have the earliest development of the world-empires, and the most open opposition to God. Shem means "name," and to him Jehovah reveals Himself. He rightly comes third: the verse marks him as the father of all the children of Eber ("passage") — the pilgrim race.

He is specified, on the one hand as the father of all the sons of Eber, and on the other as the brother of Japheth the elder (or, great one)... we may compare Genesis 14:13, "Abram the Hebrew," to understand better what seems meant. And here the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Old Testament, gives "the passer." This at least gives a distinctive stamp, where only tradition gives one to Eber personally.

People usually trace it to his ancestor Eber, or Heber. But Genesis 11:17-26 shows five generations between Eber and Abraham. By that derivation many others could have been called Hebrews. Genesis 10:21 says that Shem was "the father of all the children of Eber." This shows the Hebrews were Shemites. But many other tribes were Shemites too, and they could not be called Hebrews.

Here lies the real and superior dignity of Shem. Messiah is to come of his stock... "Blessed be Jehovah the God of Shem." This was not predicted of the elder, but "God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem." And so it has been. How vast in His providence the spread of that energetic race! And have they not dwelt in the tents of Shem too? Not as mere conquerors, but as sharers in that blessing pictured so well in Israel's "own olive tree."

The list now names the immediate descendants of Shem, it seems in the order of birth. Arpachshad, the ancestor of the chosen line, stands in third place — neither first nor last. Either of those places could have been used for a special reason, as happens elsewhere.

Elam and Asshur were famous among mankind. They are prominent in the Bible too, and bound up with Jewish history. Yet the list only names them, though they come before Arpachshad — as it does with Lud, who comes after him.

Son of Shem. He settled in a highland district east of Babylonia, which became the seat of a powerful monarchy. The district was also called ELAM... In the days of Abraham, Chedorlaomer king of Elam was able to make war as far away as the Dead Sea. In Scripture Elam often stands for Persia... Daniel was at Shushan, which was in the province of Elam.

In Genesis 10:11 the older Authorized Version seems to say that a son of Ham named Asshur built Nineveh. Then Genesis 10:22 and 1 Chronicles 1:17 name Asshur as the son of Shem. But the margin of verse 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, since it links Assyria and Nimrod together. Assyria goes back to Asshur or Assur, a son of Shem. Nimrod came later and may have subdued the country.

Here again mercy will triumph over judgment. Isaiah 19 says clearly that in the day of Messiah's power and glory Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the earth... Both did countless evils to man. Both sinned shamelessly against God. But what will mercy not do on God's part, even for the enemies of His guilty and chastened people?

Lud is the next son of Shem. Here we need extra care, since another race with a similar name lived in Africa. They were the first named of the Mizraim or Egyptian peoples... So there was a Ludim of Ham as well as of Shem. Josephus was right to say that Shem's Lud settled in Asia Minor, as the Lydians.

Aram is the last of the sons of Shem. His name usually stood for the high tableland north-east of Palestine, though it also had a wider use in combination with other terms... At its largest it took in the watershed of the Jordan and the country north, west and east. It also took in the land stretching to the Tigris, with Armenia on the north down to Arabia on the south.

As to the children of Shem (Genesis 10:22), Elam is the same as Persia... Asshur is named in the judgment which will take place in the last times (Micah 5:6; Isaiah 14:25; Isaiah 30:33). He appears also in the conspiracy of Psalm 83, and in other places. Arpachshad is one of the ancestors of the Israelites... Asshur displaced Aram, or Syria, and Aram appears under the title of the king of the North. The same remarks, it seems, may be made of Lud.

Here lies the real and higher dignity of Shem. Messiah is to come from his stock. Canaan was cursed — not all of Ham, but Canaan — and the living word said, "Blessed be Jehovah the God of Shem." The word said nothing like this of the elder brother. Of him it said, "God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem." And so it has been.

Aram is the last of the sons of Shem. People generally gave his name to the high plateau north-east of Palestine, though they also used it more widely, joined with other terms. In the King James Version, following the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, "Syria" stands for that general use. In the largest sense the name took in the Jordan basin and the country north, west, and east. It also took in the land stretching to the Tigris, with Armenia on the north down to Arabia on the south. In the south-east part, the land is called Aram-Naharaim, that is, Syria of the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Genesis 24:10 translates that name as "Mesopotamia".

The first of them gave his name to the sandy soil south-east of Palestine, in the north of the Arabian desert, and west of the Euphrates. Job 1 tells us who lived there, and about the raids of the Sabeans and the Chaldeans.

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 belonged to Shem's branch of the great human family too. Teman, the ancestor of Eliphaz, was a grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:11). Shuah, the ancestor of Bildad, was one of Abraham's children by Keturah (Genesis 25:2). These family details show us roughly where the land of Uz lay, and Lamentations 4:21 confirms that it was not far from Edom.

Hul seems to have gone farther north. We may trace his name in Ard-el-Huleh and Bahr-el-Huleh, south of this district. These are the waters of Merom, which Josephus calls the lake Semechonitis, though he himself connects Hul with Armenia.

Mash, as Bochart supposes, seems to match the place the classical writers called Mons Masius. That is the mountain range north of Mesopotamia, between the two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Hiddekel, or Tigris. In 1 Chronicles 1:17 the name is Meshech, but not the Meshech joined with Kedar, who came from Japheth. In that same family list the writer places these four sons of Aram straight alongside the sons of Shem, Aram included. Such lists often use this short form. The difference is only on the surface.

In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged languages, families, and nations. This chapter alone gives us the rise of the different races and where they came from. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided like this? This is God's own account of the nations. Here man is lost.

Last of all we come to Shem's descendants in verses 21-31. Scripture gives him a striking description: father of all the sons of Eber, brother of Japheth the elder. Eber led the way through Peleg, in due time, to the father of the faithful. Shem did not have the natural rank of the elder brother over Japheth, but the blessing was his above all, as the curse was Canaan's... The Lydians answer to Lud, and the Syrians to Aram.

Of all Shem's descendants, the most important line is the shortest in this genealogy. It matters for its distant results and even for its nearer ones, through its moral and divine connections. We must now look at it.

One of his sons, Asshur, built Nineveh (Gen. 10:11), one of the cities well known as an enemy of Israel, though its founder came from the race of Shem. But the line of blessing did not run through Asshur, but through Arphaxad... When we come to Shem, we are in a higher atmosphere, so to speak. We find that God is the Lord God of Shem. The moral side, the character of things, comes into view — and not just names or history.

Notice that the inspiring Spirit led Moses to change his style at this point. He brings in Arphaxad and his family as a fresh start... In evil, a new departure began with Cush and his descendants. So here, for good, a new departure begins where Arphaxad comes before us. Yet for now we are told little about him, unlike Nimrod, who shot into prominence at once... Good is rare here below, and it grows slowly.

Arphaxad was Shem's eldest son, born two years after the flood.

This region, south of Armenia, was the early home of Shem's descendants, as later Asshur held power there... But Shem's people, unlike the others, were always inclined to stay at home. That made the later crossing all the more remarkable in the forefather of the Hebrews, at the call of God.

We can say little about Salah, or Salach, with any certainty, because the Bible is silent. He was the father of Eber, in the direct line of the chosen patriarch Abram, the man entrusted with the promise. The name means shoot or extension. But to call the name invented for that reason ought to be too absurd even for rationalists to believe.

The root of the word is 'to pass over,' as when someone crosses a river, or moves from one region to another. Abraham was told to leave his country and his relatives and go into the land of Canaan. The word Hebrew is not used until Abraham had left his country and was in the land of Canaan (Gen. 14:13). Once there he was a 'sojourner' — a stranger in a foreign country, living in tents.

They went to the East and got a name. They were the direct descendants of Eber. God did not call them Hebrews; the other nations did. Some take the name from Arba in Hebrew, since the word means to come over, because Abraham came over the river.

Son of Arphaxad and father of Sala (Luke 3:36). He is usually called the 'second' Cainan, because of the earlier one named in Luke 3:37. His name is striking, because it does not appear in the Hebrew, Samaritan Pentateuch, Vulgate, Syriac or Arabic texts of Gen. 10:24; Gen. 11:12; 1 Chr. 1:18. It is in the Septuagint, the old Greek Old Testament, and from there it may have found its way into Luke's Gospel. Or perhaps, as some think, later copies of the Septuagint took it from Luke.

The name of Eber's second son was Joktan, which means "small." Peleg's name, "division," marked an era: the more peaceful dividing of the earth, which came after God's judgment forced the scattering of mankind.

We should keep the "dividing" of the earth in the days of Peleg (chap. 10:25) separate. The scattering came first: Hebrew uses a different word, and the translation ought to use a different word too. Earlier in the chapter the isles are "separated," while here the earth is "divided." The orderly sharing out of the earth followed the confused scattering.

Earlier we had Nimrod's grasp at power and the spread of his rule from Babel, the beginning of his kingdom. Here, in Peleg's days, we have the earth divided. We are not told of human pride and power here, nor of Jehovah scattering men abroad by confusing their language... The division of the earth after that, in the days of Peleg, seems to have happened peacefully. But it is a fact that has lasted ever since, whatever migrations have come through hard circumstances or the desire for a better life.

There is no solid reason to limit the "division" to Eber's own family, with the younger branch moving into southern Arabia and the elder staying in Mesopotamia. If this verse meant only that family split, the younger son would more naturally have carried the name, not the elder who stayed where he was. Besides, how can an event so ordinary match the large words used — "in his days the earth was divided"?

"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." Israel was, and shall yet be, God's earthly centre. It is a fact of the deepest interest that, from the very outset, as we see in Genesis 10, the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations and fixed their bounds according to His own sovereign will. He did it with direct reference to the seed of Abraham, and to that narrow strip of land they are to possess under the everlasting covenant made with their fathers.

The genealogy itself may tell us something, however. In Peleg we see how men were taking possession of the earth more than ever. At the same time, the days of their hold on it were shortening fast — by half, in this very Peleg's time (Gen. 10:25)... God still numbers the fleeting years of those who have forgotten Him.

Joktan, Peleg's brother, has many sons to continue his line. Peleg must wait for another occasion, when his son will appear in the renowned line that leads on to David. The name of Peleg will be a continual reminder, until the new heavens and the new earth, of the judgment upon man through sin. Even the day of grace met the sin and rose above the judgment in God's wise way. It did not do this by cancelling the judgment or wiping out the sin. It did it by giving power to the Apostles at Pentecost to speak to men in the very languages they were born into — using the marks of judgment as channels to proclaim His grace.

The name of Eber's second son was, as we have seen, Joktan, "small." It stands in contrast with Peleg, whose name, "division," marked an era — the more peaceful dividing of the earth, after God's judgment forced mankind to scatter. There is no solid reason to limit this "division" to Eber's own family, with the younger branch moving into southern Arabia and the elder staying in Mesopotamia. If only that family split were meant, the younger son would more naturally have carried the name, not the elder who stayed where he was. Besides, how can so ordinary an event match the large words used — "in his days the earth was divided"?

An old Jewish paraphrase on 1 Chronicles 1:19 suggests that Joktan got his name from the shortening of human life at that time. It is certain that lifespans then sank by half, judging by the recorded years of Peleg (Genesis 11:18-19) and of those who came after him, dropping by stages to their ordinary range.

Joktan matches the Arabic Kachtán, on plenty of evidence of different kinds. Masoudy, in his work called "The Golden Meadows," says of the Beni Sad and of the Kahtan Arabs that they are the only remnants of the original tribes of Arabia… These two tribes, the Beni Sad and Kahtan, are famous in the most distant antiquity, at a time when Arabian history is, for the most part, covered in complete darkness. We shall see that the traces of his thirteen sons are nearly all clear enough too.

Son of Joktan, of the family of Shem. Genesis 10:26; 1 Chronicles 1:20. His descendants have been traced to Southern Arabia, where the tribe of Shelif or Shulaf has been found.

Hazarmaveth clearly matches the district east of modern Yemen, which the Arabs call Hádramäwt (court of death). It too lies in the south of Arabia, on the Indian Sea. It may be unhealthy, but it is no less famous for its rich spices. One of its ports was Zafári, the Sephar we read of later in this chapter.

Jerah, or Yerach, "the moon," is the fourth. Michaelis places him in the "low land of the moon," or in the "mount of the moon," both of which were near Hádramäwt… Indeed, on nothing ancient is Arab tradition more united, as we may see in Golius, than in calling this son of Joktan "Father of Yemen" (Abu Yemen).

Enough still shows up today, even about the least noticeable of these early tribes of Arabia, not only to confirm the account Moses gives, but to show the gracious interest of God in races of mankind that are otherwise obscure and unremarkable.

In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 for the way God's providence arranged languages, families, and nations. Here alone we are told how the different races arose, and where they came from. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided in this way?

Plenty of evidence of different kinds shows that Joktan matches the Arabic name Kachtán… We shall see that the traces of his thirteen sons are almost all clear enough too. Some have doubted this, thinking it was a Jewish tradition that Muslim writers took up later. But why doubt that the Katanitai, named by the geographer Claudius Ptolemy, are the Beni Kachtán, or Kahtanys?

The fifth son appears to have settled further east, in the part of the peninsula long called 'Omán. That name is also given to the lower waters of the Persian gulf… The old classical name of the headland is Korodamon akron. Long ago the learned Bochart guessed that the name of the forefather lies hidden in it, that is, Hadoram. Forster is so sure this is sound that he says the fact "is simply this: the headland now bears the name of Hadoram, shortened in the usual Arabic way, in its modern form Ras-el-Had."

Uzal comes sixth. Long ago he gave his name to the capital city of Yemen, later called Sanà, as it still is. E. S. Poole quotes the printed edition of the Marásid. It says the city's name was Oozál. When the Abyssinians arrived and saw it was beautiful, they said Sanà, which means beautiful, and so it was called Sanà. Arabic authors have compared it with Damascus for its waters and its fruits… It seems the Jews have lived there for longer than anyone can remember, and they know it only by the name of Uzal. Older English versions have obscured an important reference in Ezekiel 27:19, where Henderson and Darby read that Vedan and Javan of Uzal traded in Tyre's markets, with wrought iron, cassia and calamus in their barter.

Of Diklah… there is little to say. The name means "palm-trees". For that reason some have looked to the city Phoinikon in the north-west of Arabia Felix. Gesenius, following Bochart, leaned the same way, and looked for his descendants among the widespread people that classical writers called Minaei… Yet Mr. Poole knows of no trace of Diklah in Arabic works, except the mention of a place called Dakalah in El-Yemameh, where many palm-trees grew. Even about the least noticeable of these early tribes of Arabia, enough still appears today. It bears witness to the account Moses gave. It also shows the gracious interest of God in the races of mankind that are otherwise obscure and unknown.

Nothing is better known than the many races and tongues and peoples of mankind, each having its own separate bond of union. Yet not one of these nations can tell how that fact began, so full of meaning for history. Here it is written with simple and calm dignity by the instrument God chose for the purpose. History has utterly failed to show how families first rose into separate nations and tongues, just as science fails in the material world.

Genesis 10 is a chapter that few would read with interest. It seems to be just a list of generations, of fathers, sons, and so on. But the way God gives us history is not at all the way men give it… Not only are the names of the nations given here found throughout the Bible, but they keep their characters right through history to the end. In Ezekiel, especially in chapters 38 and 39, we find many of these names in connection with the very last days before the millennium.

Obal means "bare, or stripped of leaves." It is true that the settlement which recalls the founder was on the African side of the Red Sea, not in Arabia; but it is not a difficulty we cannot get past. We may not be able to trace those who stayed with the great mass in Arabia, while it is of interest to identify those who crossed the strait to Africa. Nothing binds us to confine all the descendants of Joktan, except as a general rule, to Arabia. Those on the western side of the strait were only a few miles from the coast of Yemen, where large numbers of their relatives lived.

Abimael means "father of Mael," and "Mael" is taken to mean "fatness." His people lived on the edge of the great Arabian desert. To this day the district has a high reputation for its balsam, and the sale of it is still an active and highly profitable trade. But in ancient times it was far more so, when Egypt and the West, Rome especially, used spices in large amounts and in luxury.

Sheba needs the greater care, because in the inspired history we hear of no fewer than three heads of tribes who bore the name. First came the Cushite Raamah's son (v. 7). Then came the tenth of Joktan's sons, the one in question here. Later came Jokshan, Abraham's son by Keturah, who fathered another Sheba (Gen. 25:2-3).

Son of Joktan, a descendant of Shem. Gen. 10:28; 1 Chr. 1:22. His descendants have been traced to Southern Arabia, or Arabia Felix. The capital of the district was at or near the modern Mareb.

There is no reasonable doubt about the Queen of Sheba, whose visit to King Solomon holds such an interesting place in Scripture. Our Lord called her the queen "of the South." She ruled the Sabean kingdom we have just spoken of. Indeed "Yemen" means the south generally, and that quarter of Arabia in particular. But Scripture carefully distinguishes the Shemite lines of Sheba, Joktan's and Jokshan's, from Raamah's Sheba in Yemen and the related Seba near the Persian Gulf. Those two Shemite lines are distinct in themselves as well.

As to her country or kingdom, I would just note that we read of several Shebas. .. The Sheba of which this history speaks must have been connected with the great-grandson of Ham, the nephew of Seba (Gen. 10:7). The reason is that the Lord speaks of the queen as being from "the south" and "from the ends of the earth," while Keturah's family was sent east, and Shem's portion was more central.

Genesis 10 is a chapter few would read with interest. It seems to be just a list of generations, of fathers, sons, and so on. What can be interesting about that? But the way God gives us history is not at all the way men give it... Not only are the names of the nations given here found throughout the Bible, but they keep their characters all through history to the end. In Ezekiel, especially in Ezekiel 38 and 39, we find many of these names connected with the very last days before the millennium.

In the Bible no chapter is more important than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged languages, families, and nations. Only here are we told how the different races began, and where they came from. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided?

Joktan appears, on plenty of varied evidence, to match the Arabic Kachtán… We shall see that the traces of his thirteen sons are almost all plain enough too. Some had doubted this, supposing it to be a Jewish tradition later taken up by Muslim writers.

The place from which Solomon imported gold, precious stones, and almug trees. Ships brought them to the Gulf of Akaba. Possibly southern Arabia is meant; but India and Africa have also been suggested. 1 Kings 9:28; 1 Kings 10:11; Job 28:16; Isaiah 13:12.

Ever since the maps of Sale and D'Anville, Ofor or Ofir appears as the name of a city and district in the mountains of Oman. It lies on their eastern side, near the source of the Oman river, and within about a degree of the coast. The coast lying due east under Ofir was still famous in the elder Pliny's day for its trade in gold.

The family of "Havilah" have left a clear mark on the country, though the name is, as usual, a little disguised by differences of pronunciation… But we have to take into account that there was a Cushite Havilah. It spread its branches over the peninsula from the north-east to the south-west. We have to tell these apart from the Joktanite tribe, which seems to have settled mainly among their relatives.

Nor is there any serious question about the descendants of "Jobab" in the clan of the Jobaritae… It is remarkable that living representatives can still be traced for every one of Joktan's many sons. This testifies in a simple but striking way to the priceless value of God's word. It was written long before human records existed, and even then those records were few and unreliable until much later.

Genesis 10 is a chapter few would read with interest. It seems to be just a list of generations, of fathers, sons, and so on. What can be interesting about that? But the way God gives us history is not at all the way men give it… The names of the nations given here are found throughout the Bible. They also keep their character all through history to the end. In Ezekiel, and especially in chapters 38 and 39, many of these names appear in connection with the very last days before the millennium.

Nothing is better known than the many races, tongues, and peoples of mankind, each with its own bond of union. Yet not one of these nations can tell how this began. Here in Genesis 10 we survey a fact of immense importance to the government of the earth. History has completely failed to show how families first rose into separate nations and tongues, and science fails in the same way in the material realm.

The verse we now come to needs close study. It matters, and it is difficult too. It is clearly a general description of the limits within which the many sons of Joktan lived. We have already identified their homes in detail throughout Arabia. The only exception is those who crossed to the western shore of the narrow strait that separates their father's land from Africa.

A mountainous district, the boundary of the descendants of Joktan. It is probably Dhafar, pronounced Zafar, or Dhafari, pronounced Zafari, in Hadramaut, part of southern Arabia.

Trace Sephar to the Dhafàr on the border of Yemen and Hadrámaut, in the south-west of Arabia. That goes far to fix Mesha in the north-east of the peninsula. This best suits the short summary of the Joktanite settlements... There is a mountain chain in the Nedjd. It was the boundary of the sons of Joktan in that very region, and their enemies roamed north of it — the sure mark of a distinct race.

But he takes Sephar to be the mountain near Saphar, in the hill-country between Yemen and Hadrámaut. Such limits are little more than 200 miles. They clearly cannot fit the wide spread of the sons of Joktan across the southern half of the peninsula.

Muslim fanaticism has for long centuries shut Arabia and its many races off from free or friendly contact with the rest of mankind. Even so, the Greek and Latin geographers, before and since the Christian era, give striking help in identifying its places and races with those that existed then... And for our purpose here, nowhere in the world do names survive so well, resisting change or outliving it, as among the peoples of the east.

Israel was, and shall yet be, God's centre on earth. It is a fact of the deepest interest that from the very beginning, as we see in Genesis 10, the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations and fixed their bounds. He did it according to His own sovereign will, and with direct reference to the seed of Abraham and that narrow strip of land which they are to have, by the everlasting covenant made with their fathers.

No chapter in the Bible is more important than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged languages, families, and nations. It alone gives the rise of the different races, and where they came from. Who else could have told us how and when the earth was divided like this?... Here man is out of his depth. Yet where men do reach conclusions, all who have given their minds to the study agree on this much: nations fall into three lines, and only three. So it is here... It is just as certain, in the conviction of men worth hearing, that the three lines had one common origin. Scripture states that there was only one such root.

This genealogy of Genesis 11 continues with Reu the son of Peleg, ignoring Joktan and his sons. The reason is clear. Reu's line leads to Nahor, Terah and Abram. God had purposed Abram to be the father of a chosen race, whom He would separate from the rest of the nations.

In the cases of Japheth and of Ham, the Holy Spirit just records names… nothing but the bare fact, without a word of praise or blame. When we come to Shem, we are in a higher atmosphere. We find that God is the Lord God of Shem, and the moral side, the character of things, comes into view — not just names or history.

In Shem, God's history begins. He is Jehovah, the God of Shem. We have dates and set periods, for God governs after all, and the world must follow. Man belongs to God… But God's people have always been the centre of known history.

Noah's prophecy gave blessing to Shem — or, to be exact, the word was "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem." So it has been. So faith knows now. And so it will be fulfilled in full, when Christ makes the truth undeniable, in glorious results that every eye can see. This is not what God is doing through the gospel or in the church. He keeps it for the age to come.

Shem receives a special blessing: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem" (Genesis 9:26-27). This came true when Jehovah became the God of Shem's descendants through Abraham. The sons of Japheth — the Gentiles — came into the tents for blessing.

So both the judgment and the grace of God meet in Shem, and He is the Lord God of Shem. Before this there was only one language. Now the history of nations begins, and men soon learned to hate and fight. It is a solemn thought, as we look round at the many different nations of the earth, that all these nationalities began in sin and judgment. In the eternal state God will wipe out the last trace of this moral ruin. Then the tabernacle of God will be with men, not with nations. National differences will disappear.

Israel was, and shall yet be, God's earthly centre. From the very start, as we see in Genesis 10, the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations and fixed their borders. He did it by His own sovereign will, and with direct reference to the seed of Abraham and to that narrow strip of land they are to have under the everlasting covenant made with their fathers.

Ham may lead the way, for the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was certainly Babel. But Asshur soon followed the same path — not only of ambition, but of idolatry. Even the family of the man chosen to be the father of the faithful was corrupted in this way, at the very time when God's call went out to bless him and to make him a blessing to all the families of the earth (Joshua 24:2). So no one can boast in himself or in his ways.

Genesis 10:21-31 goes as far as Joktan the son of Peleg and stops with his thirteen sons. The genealogy of Genesis 11 continues instead with Reu the son of Peleg, ignoring Joktan and his sons. The reason is clear. Reu's line leads on to Nahor, Terah and Abram, and God had purposed Abram to be the father of a chosen race, whom He would separate from the rest of the nations.

No chapter in the Bible is more important than Genesis 10 for the way God arranged tongues, families, and nations. Only here do we find 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. But where he does reach conclusions, all who have studied it agree, as far as I know, on one thing at least. The nations branch into three divisions, and only three. So it is here.

Chapter 10 is not history, but a survey of the whole earth. There were no tongues or nations at all until Babel; if you try to put this chapter into time, you will go entirely astray.

It is only in Genesis 11 that we find the cause and occasion that started it. The previous chapter comes in, not following historical time, but as a descriptive parenthesis between Genesis 9 and 11.

So it was that mankind spread everywhere after the flood. It happened after a certain lapse of time, not willingly, but under the constraint of divine power. This confused them thoroughly and at once, so that they might well dread the outcome of any further effort to disobey. So nationalities began, each with its own tongue, in their lands, but with mercy ruling according to their families. There was no confusion in Jehovah's ordering. Genesis 11:1-9 is the key to the previous chapter, the moral account of what was there given as a fact.

So, instead of one vast commonwealth of all mankind, the divine Governor brought about man's dispersion first, and at length, in Peleg's day, the division of the earth. Whatever might come by migration or by decision, the nations, after their families and tongues, occupied their lands down to the apostle's day and to ours. God is not mocked.

This part of the history comes before Abram. It shows the earth under government. Here we have the recorded fact of the division of the earth among its various nations and families. We find this in Genesis 10, where the fact is stated, while its origin is explained only in chapter 11. … Take the list of nations gathered under the wilful king in the last days, and under Gog in Ezekiel. It brings us back to the same nations, tongues, and families set before us at the outset. … The rest of the intervening Scripture is the history of calling and grace.

A fresh start for the race began after the flood, which judged the guilty mass. From Noah and his three sons, whom God preserved from destruction, conditions began which continue today. They will continue for their descendants until the Son of man comes with the clouds of heaven. He will be given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, so that all peoples and languages should serve Him. … Instead of beginning with a single line, we have three heads with their wives, three great families to renew the history of man on earth.