and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. And afterwards the families of the Canaanites spread themselves abroad.
Genesis 10 lists the nations that came from Noah's sons, and this verse ends Canaan's branch with three little-known families. Why does Scripture track this one line so closely, and why did a people already under a curse spread the fastest?
Only the last of these three names comes up often later in Scripture. Its story runs from Genesis to the days of Assyria.
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 other two are little more than names with a map reference. The Zemarites were "a tribe descended from Ham, and one of 'the families of the Canaanites'" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). The Arvadites are "doubtless connected with the island of Arvad" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Genesis gives other branches of this table a single line. Canaan's it lists family by family. One writer explains why — and what their spreading abroad came to in the end.
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.
Nothing about this family looked cursed. They spread further than anyone — yet inside limits God had already fixed.
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."
Kelly's older translation reads "the sons of Israel" there. God sets bounds for every nation, and one writer traces the world's wars to men crossing them:
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.
Ham's descendants led the early world in power and trade. One writer grants them all of it, then names what they lacked.
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.
God's reason for clearing the land had nothing to do with who would move in.
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.
- Named. Three obscure families close Canaan's list. Only Hamath grew into a city and district on Israel's northern border.
- Traced. Canaan's line gets the most detail. God had in view the people who would dispossess them.
- Spread. No people of that day spread further. Yet a curse already rested on them, on moral grounds, from the start.
- Bounded. God fixed the borders of the peoples. When nations covet more and break those bounds, war follows.
- Evicted. Early greatness in power and trade counted for nothing with the true God absent from their souls. He evicted them like a landlord removing tenants who have ruined the property.
And the border of the Canaanite was from Sidon, as one goes to Gerar, up to Gazah; as one goes to Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, up to Lesha.
The names in this verse are not decoration. They mark the border of Canaan, and every one of those places would later matter to Israel.
The list of nations in Genesis 10 is not just a map. One writer sees a purpose behind where each nation ended up.
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.
That explains why Canaan's line gets more detail than any other branch in the chapter.
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 has four corners. Writers differ over the last name in the list.
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.
Reference works agree only that Lasha marked the limit and was likely east of the Dead Sea:
Place which marked the limit of the country of the Canaanites. It was probably on the east of the Dead Sea.
Here Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim only mark a boundary. What ruined them was not poverty but plenty.
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.
Canaan's line began under a curse. Their early success gave no sign of it.
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.
The sentence fell on them for what they did, not for who they were. One writer adds that Israel's failure to carry it out cost Israel dearly:
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.
Ham's line rose first in the world, and lost God fastest.
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.
- Bounds. Canaanite strength did not set this border. God fixed the limits of the nations from the start, with Abraham's seed and their land in view.
- Detail. Canaan's family gets more space than any other line in the chapter. Israel would one day have to face these peoples and take the land from them.
- Reach. Canaan spread further and faster than any other line. For centuries the curse spoken over him looked impossible.
- Ruin. The four cities named at the border — Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim — were destroyed together. Plenty, not hardship, bred the sin that ruined them.
- Warning. Early power without God ended in judgment. Israel failed to carry that judgment out, and fell into the very sins it was meant to remove.
These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, in their nations.
Genesis 10:20 closes the list of Ham's descendants with four words: clans, languages, lands, nations. Why does the Bible sort the whole human race under these four headings?
The chapter is the only place that tells us how the human family broke into separate races and speech:
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.
"Lands" here does not mean the whole globe. The Hebrew word behind it, erets, has a range of senses, and in this verse it narrows. The sample phrases below come from an older English translation, which keeps the same Hebrew word in view:
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.
The separate tongues are no accident of history. They came from the judgment at Babel in the next chapter, and even that judgment carried mercy:
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.
Ham's line rose fastest and fell furthest. One writer looks back over the whole list that verse 20 closes:
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.
Ham's youngest line is singled out here, because its land was already promised to someone else:
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 arrangement recorded here was not temporary. Its outlines run all the way to the closing scenes of prophecy:
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.
- One record. Genesis 10 is the only place that tells us how and when the earth was divided into races, tongues and lands.
- One judgment. The separate tongues came from what God did at Babel. Chapter 11 gives the moral reason for the fact chapter 10 records.
- One order. The scattering was not chaos. Nations began in their own lands, and mercy ruled according to their families.
- One warning. Ham's line led the world in power, building and trade, and led it just as fast into forgetting the God it once knew.
- One purpose. Canaan's line held the land God had already marked out for Israel. The same nations reappear at the close of prophecy.