The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.
Parallel Translations
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The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.
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The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
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The Sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to 1 Chronicles 1:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 10:22-32 The sons of Shem were: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram were: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad became the father of Shelah. Shelah became the father of Eber. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother’s name was Joktan. Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Their dwelling extended from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. These are the sons of Shem, by their families, according to their languages, lands, and nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their generations, according to their nations. The nations divided from these in the earth after the flood.
- Genesis 11:10 This is the history of the generations of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.
- Genesis 14:1 In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, king of Ellasar; Chedorlaomer, king of Elam; and Tidal, king of Goiim,
- Numbers 23:7 He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.
- Numbers 24:22-24 Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted, until Asshur carries you away captive.” He took up his parable, and said, “Alas, who shall live when God does this? But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim. They shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber. He also shall come to destruction.”
- Ezra 4:2 they came near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as you do; and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esar Haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”
- Psalms 83:8 Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot.
- Isaiah 11:11 It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
- Isaiah 21:2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.
- Isaiah 22:6 Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
- Isaiah 66:19 “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to far-away islands, who have not heard my fame, nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
- Jeremiah 25:25 and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;
- Ezekiel 27:10 “ ‘ “Persia, Lud, and Put were in your army, your men of war. They hung the shield and helmet in you. They showed your beauty.
- Ezekiel 27:23 “ ‘ “Haran, Canneh, and Eden, the traders of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were your traders.
- Ezekiel 32:22 “Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them slain, fallen by the sword;
- Ezekiel 32:24 “There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.
- Hosea 14:3 Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”
- Daniel 8:2 I saw the vision. Now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Of whom came the Syrians, and therefore they are…
Of whom came the Syrians, and therefore they are called Aramites throughout all the Scripture.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The sons of Shem; either the name of sons…
The sons of Shem; either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, who are called sons, Gen 29:5; 2Sa 19:21; or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood and inserted before
Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The sons - Either the name of sons is…
The sons - Either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood before Uz, out of Gen. x, 23, where they are expressed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ch 1:17-19. The sons of Shem — Either the…
1Ch 1:17-19. The sons of Shem — Either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, or the children of Aram are understood before Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed. Arphaxad begat — Either immediately, or mediately by his son Canaan, who is expressed Luk 3:35. Divided — In their languages and habitations.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz,…
The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Gen 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Gen 10:23. It seems preferable to “Mash,” which admits of no very probable explanation. Just as Hamites and Semites were intermingled in Arabia (Gen 10:7, note; Gen 10:29, note), so Semites and Japhethites may have been intermingled in Cappadocia - the country of the Meshech or Moschi (Gen 10:2 note); and this Aramaean ad-mixture may have been the origin of the notion, so prevalent among the Greeks, that the Cappadocians were Syrians.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Hus and Hul were the immediate sons of Aram,…
Hus and Hul were the immediate sons of Aram, as well as....Mosoch, or Mes; (Genesis x. 23.; Calmet) so that there seems to be here some transposition. (Du Hamel)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech--or, "Mash"; these…
Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech--or, "Mash"; these were the children of Aram, and grandsons of Shem (Gen 10:23).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17 (= Gen_10:22-23). The Sons of Shem
17 (= Gen_10:22-23). The Sons of Shem
17. The sons of Shem] These occupied the middle geographical “zone.”
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Elam] “Semites neither in blood nor in speech” (Sayce, Higher Criticism, p. 122). If this be so, the reason of their being reckoned to Shem must be that they were in the geographical zone which belonged to the Semites.
Asshur] The Assyrians, who spoke a Semitic dialect and were doubtless Semites.
Arphaxad] R.V. Arpachshad. The second half of the word (“chshad”) contains the name of the Casdim, the “Chaldeans” or “Chaldees” of the A.V.
Lud] Perhaps the Lydians. In 1Ch_1:11, which is an extract from an earlier document (“J”), Ludim (“the Lydians”) are reckoned as the children of Mizraim (Egypt). Lydia itself was in the Japhetic “zone,” but the people may have been recognised as Semites independently of their geographical position.
Aram] the “Syrians” of the A.V.; better called Aramaeans. In Damascus they held an independent power for centuries and were constantly at war with Israel. Further north they seem to have been under the hegemony of the Hittites.
Uz] From Gen_10:23 it appears that in Chron. the words “And the children of Aram[1]” have dropped out, so that “Uz” etc. appear as the immediate descendants of Shem.
[1] The Alexandrine MS (A) of the LXX. has the words.
Neither Uz nor the three following names have been satisfactorily identified. For “Meshech” Gen_10:2 (Heb. not LXX.) reads “Mash.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain THE SONS OF SHEM, OR THE SEMITES (1Ch_1:17-23).
THE SONS OF SHEM, OR THE SEMITES (1Ch_1:17-23).
(17) Blam.—The Elamtum of the Assyrian inscription, the classic Susiana, a mountainous land eastward of Babylonia, to which it was subject in the days of Abraham (Genesis 14). The names Assurû, Elamû, Kassû, and Accadû occur together in an old Assyrian list of nations. Êlama, from which the Assyrian and Hebrew names are derived, is Accadian. The native designation was Ansan. The Sargonide kings of Assyria had frequent wars with Elam.
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Asshur.—Assyria proper, i.e., a district on the Tigris, about twenty-five miles long, between the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh parallels of latitude. Asshur was the name of its older capital and tutelar god. The Semitic Assyrians appear to have been settled at Asshur as early as the nineteenth century B.C. They were emigrants from Babylonia (Gen_10:11). The original name was A-usar, “water-meadow.”
Arphaxad apparently means Babylonia, or, at least, includes it. Babylonian monarchs styled themselves “King of the Four Quarters” (of heaven); and Arphaxaa may perhaps mean land of the four quarters or sides, and be derived from the Assyrian arba-kisâdi “four sides” (Friedrich Delitzsch). More probably it is Arph-chesed, “boundary of Chaldea.”
Lud, usually identified with the Lydians (Assyrian Luddi), perhaps their original home in Armenia. The name has also been compared with Rutennu, the Egyptian name of the Syrians (I and r being confused in Egyptian). But comp. Eze_27:10; Eze_30:5.
Aram.—The high land—that is, eastern and western Syria, extending from the Tigris to the Great Sea. The name is constantly used for the Arameans, or Syrians.
Uz.—An Arab tribe, called Hâsu by Esarhaddon, who reduced them. Perhaps, however, Uz (Heb., Ûç), is the Assyrian Uçça, a district on the Orontes, mentioned by Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 860-825). Job lived in the “land of Uz.” The remaining names appear to be also those of Arab tribes, who must have lived northward in the direction of Aram; these are called sons of Aram in Genesis 10
Hul is the Assyrian Hûlî’a, which formed a part of the mountain land of Kasiar or Mash (Inscription of Assurnâçirpal, B.C. 885-860). For Meshech Genesis 10 has Mash, which is compared with Mount Masius, near Nisibin. (So the Syriac and some Heb. MSS.)
(18) Eber.—The land on the other side (Gr., ἡ πέραν) Peræa. Here the land beyond the Euphrates is meant, from which “Abraham, the Hebrew” (i.e., Eberite), migrated.
(19) Two sons.—This indicates the ancient consciousness that the Hebrew and Arabian peoples were akin.
The earth was divided.—Or, divided itself. (Comp. Deu_32:7-9.) The words probably refer to a split in the population of Mesopotamia.
(20) Joktan begat Almodad.—The Joktanite tribes lived along the coast of Hadhramaut (Hazarmaveth) and Yemen, in southern Arabia. The tribes of Yemen call their ancestor Qahtân (= Joktan). The names in 1Ch_1:20-21, are all explicable from Arabic sources.
(22) Ebal.—Gen_10:28. Obal, where, however, the LXX. read Εὐάλ (Ebal). The different spelling is due to the common confusion in MSS. of the Hebrew letters w and y. Both Ebal and Abimael are unknown.
(23) Ophir.—Abhîra, at the mouth of the Indus.
Jobab.—Probably a tribe of Arabia Deserta. (Comp. the Arabic yabâb, a desert.)
All these were the sons of Joktan.—Gen_10:30 adds a definition of their territory: “Their dwelling was from Mesha” (Maisânu, at the head of the Persian Gulf), “until thou comest to Sephar” (probably Zafâru or Isfor, in South Arabia) “and the mountains of the east” (i.e., Nejd, a range parallel to the Red Sea).
From the whole section we learn that the Elamites, Assyrians, Chaldees, Arameans, Hebrews, and Arabs, were regarded as belonging to the great Semitic family. In regard to Elam, modern philologers have questioned the correctness of this view. It is, however, quite possible that at the time when the original of this table of nations was composed, some Semitic tribes were known to have effected a settlement in Elam, just as kindred tribes occupied Babylonia and Assyria.
The fourteen sons of Japheth and the thirty sons of Ham, and the twenty-six sons of Shem, make a total of seventy eponyms of nations. The number seventy is probably not accidental. Comp. the seventy elders (Num_11:16); the seventy members of the Sanhedrin; and even the seventy disciples of Christ (Luk_10:1). The seventy nations of the world are often mentioned in the Talmud. Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning Tyre, and the peoples that had commerce with her (Ezekiel 27), is a valuable illustration of the table.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 17-27. D. THE LIST OF SHEM"S DESCENDANTS TO…
Vers. 17-27. D. THE LIST OF SHEM"S DESCENDANTS TO ABRAM. This list is broken in two; it pauses a moment exactly halfway to Abram, at the name Peleg, to mention Peleg"s brother Joktan and Joktan"s thirteen sons. Then, repeating the first five names of lineal descent, and picking up the thread at Peleg, the list gives the remaining five to Abram. In the first half of this list, we have apparently the names of nine sons of Shem, but, as Genesis explains, really the names of five sons, and through Aram, the last of them, the names of four grandsons. Another grandson, through Arphaxad the third son, follows, and through this grandson two consecutive lineal descents bring us, in the name Peleg, half-way to Abram. It is here the lineal table pauses to give Joktan and his thirteen sons. The names then in this portion of the list are twenty-six in number. In the Authorized Version they correspond with those in Genesis, except that Meschech ( here is called Mash (vmw;) there; Shelah here is spelled Salah there; and Ebal (lbye) here is written Obal (lbwO) there. The difference between the Hebrew texts justifies the first and last of these variations in the Authorized Version, but in all other respects those texts are in entire accord with one another, for this paragraph. The Septuagint gives very little of this portion of the list. It corresponds, whether with the Hebrew or the Authorized Version, only as far as to the name Arphaxad, after which it carries down the line at once to Abram by the remaining eight names as given in our twenty-fourth to twenty-seventh verses. Nor is it in agreement with its own version in Genesis, which has points of important variation with the Hebrew text also. It is then at this break of the list that, after the names of Joktan"s sons, we have in Genesis these words, "And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lauds, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the Flood." Upon this follows the account of Babel, in nine long verses, and then a chronological summary is furnished in lineal descent only from Shem to Abram. It is with the names in this chronological summary that those in this second part of our list (vers. 24-27) are found to agree. But any attempt at reproduction of the chronology found in Genesis is again absent here. At this point a significant stage of these genealogies is reached. The ever-broadening stream of population now narrows again. Two thousand years have flown by, then Abraham appears on the stream and tide of human life. Of that long period the life of Adam himself spanned nearly the half. So far we learn without partiality of all his descendants in common. But henceforth, the real, the distinct purpose of the genealogy becomes apparent, in that the line of the descendants of Abraham, and that by one family, alone is maintained, and proves to be a purpose leading by one long straight line to Christ himself. With Abraham "the covenant of innoceney," long forfeited in Adam, is superseded by the everlasting "covenant of grace," and we lose sight in some measure of Adam, the "common father of our flesh," to think of a happier parentage found in Abraham, the "common father of the faithful."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
All of the names here are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
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translationWords
Shem
Elam
Aram
Meshech
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.