Genesis 10:6-20
Verse 6 Cush - Who peopled the Arabic nome near the Red Sea in Lower Egypt. Some think the Ethiopians descended from him. Mizraim - This family certainly peopled Egypt; and both in the East and in the West, Egypt is called Mezr and Mezraim. Phut - Who first peopled an Egyptian nome or district, bordering on Libya. Canaan - He who first peopled the land so called, known also by the name of the Promised Land. Verse 7 Seba - The founder of the Sabaeans. There seem to be three different people of this name mentioned in this chapter, and a fourth in Gen 25:3. Havilah - Supposed by some to mean the inhabitants of the country included within that branch of the river Pison which ran out of the Euphrates into the bay of Persia, and bounded Arabia Felix on the east. Sabtah - Supposed by some to have first peopled an isle or peninsula called Saphta, in the Persian Gulf. Raamah - Or Ragmah, for the word is pronounced both ways, because of the ע ain, which some make a vowel, and some a consonant. Ptolemy mentions a city called Regma near the Persian Gulf; it probably received its name from the person in the text. Sabtechah - From the river called Samidochus, in Caramanla; Bochart conjectures that the person in the text fixed his residence in that part. Sheba - Supposed to have had his residence beyond the Euphrates, in the environs of Charran, Eden, etc. Dedan - Supposed to have peopled a part of Arabia, on the confines of Idumea. Verse 8 Nimrod - Of this person little is known, as he is not mentioned except here and in 1Chr 1:10, which is evidently a copy of the text in Genesis. He is called a mighty hunter before the Lord; and from Gen 10:10, we learn that he founded a kingdom which included the cities Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Though the words are not definite, it is very likely he was a very bad man. His name Nimrod comes from מרד, marad, he rebelled; and the Targum, on 1Chr 1:10, says: Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord. The Jerusalem Targum says: "He was mighty in hunting (or in prey) and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men in their languages; and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod." The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says: "From the foundation of the world none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, and in rebellions against the Lord." The Syriac calls him a warlike giant. The word ציד tsayid, which we render hunter, signifies prey; and is applied in the Scriptures to the hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny. Hence it is likely that Nimrod, having acquired power, used it in tyranny and oppression; and by rapine and violence founded that domination which was the first distinguished by the name of a kingdom on the face of the earth. How many kingdoms have been founded in the same way, in various ages and nations from that time to the present! From the Nimrods of the earth, God deliver the world! Mr. Bryant, in his Mythology, considers Nimrod as the principal instrument of the idolatry that afterwards prevailed in the family of Cush, and treats him as an arch rebel and apostate. Mr. Richardson, who was the determined foe of Mr. Bryant's whole system, asks, Dissertation, p. 405, "Where is the authority for these aspersions? They are nowhere to be discovered in the originals, in the versions, nor in the paraphrases of the sacred writings." If they are not to be found either in versions or paraphrases of the sacred writings, the above quotations are all false. Verse 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel - בבל babel signifies confusion; and it seems to have been a very proper name for the commencement of a kingdom that appears to have been founded in apostasy from God, and to have been supported by tyranny, rapine, and oppression. In the land of Shinar - The same as mentioned Gen 11:2. It appears that, as Babylon was built on the river Euphrates, and the tower of Babel was in the land of Shinar, consequently Shinar itself must have been in the southern part of Mesopotamia. Verse 11 Out of that land went forth Asshur - The marginal reading is to be preferred here. He - Nimrod, went out into Assyria and built Nineveh; and hence Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, Mic 5:6. Thus did this mighty hunter extend his dominions in every possible way. The city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is supposed to have had its name from Ninus, the son of Nimrod; but probably Ninus and Nimrod are the same person. This city, which made so conspicuous a figure in the history of the world, is now called Mossul; it is an inconsiderable place, built out of the ruins of the ancient Nineveh. Rehoboth, and Calah, etc. - Nothing certain is known concerning the situation of these places; conjecture is endless, and it has been amply indulged by learned men in seeking for Rehoboth in the Birtha of Ptolemy, Calah in Calachine, Resen in Larissa, etc., etc. Verse 13 Mizraim begat Ludim - Supposed to mean the inhabitants of the Mareotis, a canton in Egypt, for the name Ludim is evidently the name of a people. Anamim - According to Bochart, the people who inhabited the district about the temple of Jupiter Ammon. Lehabim - The Libyans, or a people who dwelt on the west of the Thebaid, and were called Libyo-Egyptians. Naphtuhim - Even the conjectures can scarcely fix a place for these people. Bochart seems inclined to place them in Marmarica, or among the Troglodytae. Verse 14 Pathrusim - The inhabitants of the Delta, in Egypt, according to the Chaldee paraphrase; but, according to Bochart, the people who inhabited the Thebaid, called Pathros in Scripture. Casluhim - The inhabitants of Colchis; for almost all authors allow that Colchis was peopled from Egypt. Philistim - The people called Philistines, the constant plagues and frequent oppressors of the Israelites, whose history may be seen at large in the books of Samuel, Kings, etc. Caphtorim - Inhabitants of Cyprus according to Calmet. Verse 15 Sidon - Who probably built the city of this name, and was the father of the Sidonians. Heth - From whom came the Hittites, so remarkable among the Canaanitish nations. Verse 16 The Jebusite-Amorite, etc. - Are well known as being the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, expelled by the children of Israel. Verse 20 These are the sons of Ham after their families - No doubt all these were well known in the days of Moses, and for a long time after; but at this distance, when it is considered that the political state of the world has been undergoing almost incessant revolutions through all the intermediate portions of time, the impossibility of fixing their residences or marking their descendants must be evident, as both the names of the people and the places of their residences have been changed beyond the possibility of being recognized.
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