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.