And the sons of Ham Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
Genesis 10 traces how the nations spread after the flood. Verse 6 opens Ham's line with four names, and each name belongs to a man whose descendants shaped Israel's story.
The father's own name carries meaning, one commentator says, just as his brother Japheth's does.
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.
Modern versions read "Egypt" and "Put" where older ones keep the Hebrew forms Mizraim and Phut. Some argue Mizraim was never a man, because its Hebrew ending marks a pair.
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.
Cush is named first, and his family split. One writer follows both branches into prophecy, where they stand with Gog, an enemy of Israel in the last days.
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.
Of the four, Phut leaves the faintest trace. One commentator reads that silence itself as evidence.
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.
Canaan comes last and carries the heaviest history. A curse already lay on him, and his descendants held the land God had promised to Israel.
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.
Why did the curse fall on this son and not on Ham, who did the wrong? One answer looks at what God had already given Ham, and at how things worked out among Ham's other sons.
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.
Two things stand side by side in this line, and both come from one root.
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.
- Persons. Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan were real men before they were nations. The paired form of Mizraim no more makes it a place than it does with Ephraim — and Ephraim was a man born in Egypt.
- Progress. From these four came the earliest and strongest civilisation after the flood, in Asia and in Africa alike. Even hostile critics cannot deny it.
- Degradation. The same line sank into savagery; Phut's very obscurity in the record shows how far that fall went. Both the brilliance and the ruin come from one cause: departure from God.
- Curse. Noah's curse fell on Canaan, not on Ham. God had already blessed Ham, and Ham's other sons never served Shem.
- Prophecy. These names outlive Genesis. Canaan's land passed to Israel. Cush divided, settling on the Euphrates and on the Nile — north and south of Israel. Both branches reappear in the prophets' scenes of the last days.
And the sons of Cush Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah Sheba and Dedan.
Genesis 10:7 lists seven names: five sons of Cush, and two grandsons through Raamah. The chapter then moves on without a word of explanation, yet several of these names became peoples with a homeland, a trade, and a place in later prophecy.
These names sit in a chapter with no rival. It alone traces where the nations came from.
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.
The name Cush is tied to Ethiopia. But his sons settled far beyond Africa.
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.
Raamah's two sons are named in this verse. A dictionary entry sums up where their descendants settled and who they traded with.
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.
The names Sheba and Dedan turn up in the line of Shem as well. Scripture itself keeps the two families apart by the goods each people traded in.
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.
Some of these names lead nowhere. Scripture gives one of these sons nothing but his name.
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.
Two names from this verse reappear in Ezekiel's picture of the last invasion of Israel. The traders are still trading, still counting their profit.
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.
The line does not end in judgment. Sheba appears once more, with Seba, another son of Cush, among the kings who bow to Christ when He reigns. Older translations read this psalm as a promise: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
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)
- Source. Genesis 10 alone tells us where the races and languages of the world came from. No other account gives their origin.
- Spread. Cush's sons did not stay in one corner. Their settlements ran from Ethiopia across Arabia to the southern coast of Asia.
- Trade. Raamah's sons Sheba and Dedan became merchant peoples on the Persian Gulf, and merchants of Raamah traded with Tyre.
- Care. Sheba and Dedan occur in the line of Shem too, so read each name in its context. Where Scripture is silent, as with Sabtecha, we should not guess.
- End. Sheba and Dedan appear at the last invasion of Israel, weighing their profit. Sheba and Seba appear among the kings who at last bring gifts to Christ.
And Cush begot Nimrod he began to be mighty on the earth.
Genesis 10 lists the families of Noah's sons, then stops at one man. Nimrod is the first man the Bible calls mighty after the flood, and this verse raises the question of where that greatness came from.
One writer sets Nimrod beside earlier men whose greatness came to them as a gift. The writers quote an older translation, which reads "began to be a mighty one in the earth":
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.
The next verse calls him a mighty hunter, and commentators differ on what that means. One takes it literally, as real skill with animals:
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.
Another writer finds more in the word, and a clue in his name:
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 phrase does not mean God approved. A reference work explains how he gained his power:
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.
One writer sets Nimrod against the shepherds among God's people:
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.
That character shaped the first kingdom. Until Nimrod, fathers led their families:
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."
Babylon begins here, and the Bible follows that name to its end:
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.
Another writer contrasts Nimrod's fame with the greatness of the man God called:
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.
- Self-made. Nimrod's greatness was not God's gift. He sought great things for himself, and God allowed it apparent success.
- Rebel. His name carries the sense of rebellion. Some read his hunting as literal skill; others as the hunting of souls to make them rebels.
- Before the LORD. The phrase points to power grabbed and used in independence of God, not power blessed by Him.
- Hunter, not shepherd. He set aside the rule of fathers and moved from beasts to men — the opposite of David and Amos, who kept sheep.
- Babel and after. His kingdom began at Babel, and its war against heaven runs through the whole Bible until the Almighty reigns. Nimrod's name is nearly forgotten; Abraham, whom God calls "my friend," has greatness that lasts.
He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah; therefore it is said, As Nimrod, the mighty hunter before Jehovah!
Genesis 10 lists names and nations, but the list stops for one man: Nimrod, a grandson of Cush, marked out by what he did rather than by whom he fathered. His title, the proverb built on it, and the words "before the LORD" all raise one question — what kind of power rose first on earth after the flood?
One writer sets Nimrod against the men named earlier in Genesis. They received what they had. He went after it himself.
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.
Commentators differ on how literally to take the hunting. Some say real skill with real game lies behind the proverb, and that he later used it elsewhere.
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.
Others read the word as pointing past animals from the start, and find the clue in his name.
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.
The phrase places this man's success right in God's presence. One reference work reads it as authority he seized rather than received.
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.
Another writer reads the same words as open defiance of God.
"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.
Nimrod's trade puts him on the opposite side from the men God chose.
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.
The same contrast shows in the king God later gave Israel.
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.
One writer traces the line from this first self-exalted man to the rulers who came after.
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.
- Began — Nimrod's greatness started with himself. Abel, Seth, Enoch and Noah enjoyed what God gave them. He sought great things for himself, and God allowed it apparent success.
- Hunted — commentators differ. Some see real hunting skill that later turned on men. Others see a hunt for human souls from the start. Both end with force and craft used on people.
- Before the LORD — the phrase points to authority he seized, held apart from God and even against Him. He wanted no portion God could give.
- Ruled — the hunter kills what he pursues; the shepherd feeds it. God passed over the Nimrod pattern and took David from the pasture to shepherd Israel.
- Repeats — his kingdom began at Babel, and the type never died out. The man who makes his own fortune and his own honour is still with us.
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
This verse names the first kingdom in the Bible. One man held four cities on the plain between the Tigris and Euphrates. Why does the Bible record it? And why does the first city on the list, Babel, keep coming back later in Scripture?
Nimrod's rise came while Noah was still living.
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.
God chose no one here, and no one asked Him.
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.
Babel is where God had scattered the builders. That ruin was exactly what Nimrod wanted.
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.
Another writer reads the placement as open defiance.
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.
Chapters 10 and 11 show two drives at work in the same city. One man rules the many; the many band together.
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.
The land of these four cities comes back later in the Bible under other names.
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.
This kingdom's story runs on through the whole Bible.
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."
Nimrod's ambition was never reached.
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.
- Beginning. The first kingdom in the Bible begins with a man seizing authority God had placed elsewhere. He used it for his own fame.
- Beginning without God. No one asked God about this kingdom. Contrast David, whom God Himself took from the sheep to shepherd His people.
- Beginning at Babel. Nimrod built his throne on ground God had already judged. The abandoned ruins suited his plan.
- Beginning of a pattern. Two impulses run out of this city: one strong will ruling others, and crowds uniting to be independent of God.
- Beginning without end — until Christ. Babel opposes heaven right through the Bible. It ends only when the Lord God Almighty reigns.
From that land went out Asshur, and built Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah,
Genesis 10 lists the nations that came from Noah's sons. In the middle of that list, one line moves north out of Shinar and founds Nineveh — the city that later ruled an empire — and it opens with a puzzle over who did it.
One reference work sets out the problem, and why many read the verse another way:
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.
Commentators differ here. William Kelly keeps the older reading and finds a moral point in it — a second man copying the first:
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.
Either way, the move goes north, away from the plain where the kingdom began. One writer names the man behind it, and places the move after the scattering at Babel:
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.
Nothing in the verse suggests these were great cities at the start. Kelly warns against reading Nineveh's later splendour back into its founding. He then traces what that small start became:
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.
Babel and Nineveh both begin in this chapter. The two cities stand for two different kinds of worldly power:
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.
The city founded here came to a definite end. Another writer, who takes Asshur as the founder, follows the story down to the ruins left today:
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.
Scripture returns to this ground at the close of history, and names it after the man in this verse:
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).
- The step. The verse records a move out of Shinar into Assyria. The Hebrew allows two readings: Nimrod went out into Assyria, or Asshur went out. Commentators differ, and Micah 5:6 supports the first.
- The spread. One man's success set the pattern, and others copied it. Noah was still alive, but his authority counted for nothing.
- The scale. These cities were a small beginning. What began here grew into the power that overthrew the ten tribes of Israel and threatened David's house.
- The spirit. Both Babylon and Nineveh grew from this root. One is worldly power dressed in religion, the other worldly power that is proud and cruel.
- The sentence. Nineveh fell and was never rebuilt. Scripture says God's final judgments will fall on the land of Nimrod, where this lawlessness began, before peace comes.
and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah this is the great city.
Genesis 10:12 ends a short list of cities built in Assyria: Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and now Resen. Two questions have followed that list ever since — who went out and built them, and which one is "the great city"?
The sentence begins back in verse 11, and its wording can be read two ways. One reference work lays out both, and why it prefers the second:
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.
Commentators differ here. Others keep the older wording, where Asshur himself went out and built these cities, and read it as one man copying another:
"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.
Either way, one writer treats these cities not as scattered settlements but as one system, planted by one man:
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 verse fixes Resen only by its neighbours, and even its site today is disputed:
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 closing phrase may not describe Resen at all. One writer points to Calah instead, and carries the title into the book of Jonah:
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.
Whatever its size at the founding, this cluster of cities grew into the power that later fell on Israel:
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.
Centuries later God pressed His own pity for this city on His unwilling messenger, Jonah:
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.
- Ambition — Nimrod's success set the example, and the same drive built the cities further north.
- Self-will — the building went ahead while Noah was still alive; his place as head of the family gave way to men's own will.
- Expansion — Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah and Resen are colonies of one system; commentators differ over which of them is "the great city".
- Power — a small beginning grew into the empire that crushed the ten tribes of Israel, until a blow from God ended its threat to the holy land.
- Mercy — God asked whether He should not pity that great city; His mercy reaches Gentiles as well as Jews.
-- And Mizraim begot the Ludim, and the Anamim, and the Lehabim, and the Naphtuhim,
Genesis 10:13 belongs to the list of nations that spread out after the flood. It traces four peoples back to one father, Egypt, and the strange names raise one question: why did God record them at all?
Some translations keep the father's Hebrew name here. The ESV calls him Egypt. Both are right: the man and the country share one name.
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 double name also pictures the land itself: two thin strips of life held between deserts.
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.
The first name in the verse turns up again later in the chapter, as a son of Shem. Geography keeps the two apart.
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.
Nothing about the second name survives outside two lists in the Bible. That silence is what makes God's record valuable.
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 third and fourth names belong together, west of the Nile.
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.
A chapter of names looks like the least rewarding page in the Bible. The value shows up later, when the same names reappear in the prophets.
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.
- One name. Mizraim is both a son of Ham and the standard Hebrew word for Egypt, so this verse is Egypt's own family tree.
- A name that describes. "Double straitness" fits the land: two narrow strips of life along a river, hemmed in by desert.
- A name repeated. The Ludim here are African, west of the Nile. Do not confuse them with Lud, the son of Shem, in verse 22.
- A name only God kept. No monument or ancient writer remembers the Anamim. Only God's record keeps them.
- Names with a future. These peoples keep their character right through Scripture. They surface again in prophecy, and that is why this list is history worth reading.
and the Pathrusim, and the Casluhim, out of whom came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim.
This verse ends the list of peoples who came from Mizraim, the Hebrew name for Egypt. Tucked inside it is the line that tells us where the Philistines came from — and why they were never Canaanites.
Every clan in this verse comes from Mizraim, and that name belongs to a country as well.
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.
The Pathrusim are named after Pathros, and the prophets hint at where it lay.
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.
The verse credits the Philistines to the Casluhim, while later Scriptures tie them to Caphtor. Commentators have weighed how the two fit together.
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.
Where the Philistines came from and where they lived are two different places.
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).
The Philistines came into Canaan by a short desert road. God kept Israel off that road, and one writer draws out why.
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.
The two names in this verse carry a meaning of their own.
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.
Some of these clans have left no trace in history outside the Bible. Kelly takes that silence as proof of whose record this is.
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.
- Root. Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt; every clan in this verse, Philistines included, is Egyptian stock descended from Ham.
- Branch. The verse traces the Philistines to the Casluhim, while Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and Amos point to Caphtor. More than one migration of the same people explains both.
- Short cut. They reached Canaan by the coast road, never through the Red Sea or the Jordan — a picture of religion without death and resurrection.
- Outlook. Egyptian by descent, they settled on the lowest edge of Canaan, with their eyes still turned back toward Egypt.
- Record. Some of these clans left no trace in history; the chapter is God's own account of the nations, and those nations are not extinct.
-- And Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth,
Genesis 10 lists the nations that spread out after the flood. Verse 15 names the sons of Canaan — a line already under Noah's curse, and the peoples Israel would meet later in the land God had promised.
Noah's curse had already marked this branch of the family. Yet its early history looked nothing like a curse at work.
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.
Commentators are careful here about timing. The curse was not a fortune-teller's prediction of the next few years, and its full outcome runs far past Genesis.
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.
Sidon and Heth stand apart from the rest of the list. The first name belongs to a man and to a city.
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 second son gives his name to a people Israel would know well — and whom Abraham would deal with face to face.
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).
The name itself carries a lesson, drawn out from the burial ground Abraham purchased.
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).
The names are given in unusual detail because of where these people settled. God's plan for that ground had already been fixed.
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.
That later judgment was not random. It rested on what these nations had become.
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.
The two names of verse 15 reappear at the far end of the Bible's story — and not in judgment.
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.
- Cursed — Noah's words marked this line from the start. Yet for a long time no people looked less doomed; they travelled and traded more than anyone.
- Named — Sidon means "fishing," a coastal city Tyre later outshone. Heth means "fear," and his descendants sold Abraham a burial field.
- Placed — these families settled on ground God had already assigned to Israel. No one else holding it could change that.
- Judged — God was righteous to remove them, because of what they had become. Israel spared some, and those left dragged the nation into the same evils.
- Reached — the Lord went to the region of Tyre and Sidon and met a woman with no claim at all. That is where grace always comes.
and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,
Genesis 10:16 sits inside a family list, but its three names — Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites — are peoples Israel would later meet in the land God had promised. Why does Scripture record these branches of Canaan's family, and what did God plan to do about them?
One writer follows each of the three families into Israel's later history:
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.
These families settled on land God had already marked out for someone else:
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."
The chapter before records Noah's curse on Canaan. The sons listed here are where that curse begins to work out:
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 list gives these families more attention than others. That detail has a purpose:
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 Amorite of this verse marks God's timing. Judgment fell not when the sin began, but when it was full:
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.
The delay was no one-off. Another writer sees the same principle at work today:
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.
One writer takes the meanings of these names as a picture of what still hinders believers:
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.
The doom was real, but it was not sealed:
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.
- Curse — Noah spoke over Canaan as a prophet. The sons listed here are the first proof that his words came true.
- Squatters — the Jebusite, Amorite and Girgashite settled land the Most High had already assigned to Israel. They only ever borrowed it.
- Patience — judgment waited until the cup of the Amorites was full. The same patience explains why God bears with the world today.
- Pattern — the three names also picture evils that keep us from enjoying our inheritance in Christ: settling for earth, talking instead of doing, trampling on holy things.
- Mercy — Rahab shows the door was never shut. Repentance could have spared any Canaanite from that doom.
and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
Genesis 10:17 lists three more families descended from Canaan, the son of Ham. They are bare names to most readers — so why keep the record, and what became of them?
The list changes as it goes. One commentator marks where the names stop being men.
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.
One of these three still has a known home on the map.
A tribe descended from Canaan, son of Ham. It probably lived in Arca, in the north of Phoenicia, about 15 miles north of Tripoli, now called Tell Arka. Gen. 10:17; 1 Chr. 1:15.
The Sinites are harder to trace, and writers admit it instead of guessing.
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.
Of the three, the Hivites have the fullest later history — and it ends badly for Israel, not only for them.
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.
Noah's word against Canaan hangs over this whole branch of the family. Yet at this stage nothing in their expansion looked like a curse at work.
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.
Why does this branch get so much detail? One writer answers that God was looking ahead to 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.
The Hivites of Gibeon lied their way into a treaty with Joshua. They survived it, but not untouched, and not because they were clever.
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.
Some writers read these tribal names as pictures of what keeps believers from what God has given them. On that reading, even the word "Hivite" carries a warning.
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.
- Named. Hivite, Arkite and Sinite are names of peoples, not of men, unlike the first two names in Canaan's line.
- Placed. The Arkites settled near modern Tell Arka, in the north of Phoenicia. No one can place the Sinites for certain, and writers admit it.
- Cursed. Canaan's line already lay under a curse, yet it spread far and looked successful. It settled the very land promised to Israel.
- Recorded. Scripture lists these families in such detail because Israel would later have to drive them out. Their moral state is what brought that judgment.
- Spared. Hivites from Gibeon won a treaty by deceit, and nothing but the Lord's name kept them alive. Later, Israel's failure to drive such peoples out drew Israel into idolatry.
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.