Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim. The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (where the Philistines came from), and Caphtorim. Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, Heth, the Jebusite, and the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech. Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and 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; and his brother’s name was Joktan. Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abram (also called Abraham).
Show the surrounding paragraph
1 Chronicles 1:4-27 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim. The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (where the Philistines came from), and Caphtorim. Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, Heth, the Jebusite, and the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech. Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and 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; and his brother’s name was Joktan. Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abram (also called Abraham). The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. These are their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael. The sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Midian: Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. Abraham became the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel. The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zephi, Gatam, Kenaz, Timna, and Amalek. The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. The sons of Seir: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. The sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam; and Timna was Lotan’s sister. The sons of Shobal: Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. The son of Anah: Dishon. The sons of Dishon: Hamran, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Jaakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
Parallel Translations
-
Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah.
The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.
The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth.
Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
Pathrusim, Casluhim (where the Philistines came from), and Caphtorim.
Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, Heth,
the Jebusite, and the Amorite, the Girgashite,
the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,
the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.
Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and 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; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
Ebal, Abimael, Sheba,
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah,
Eber, Peleg, Reu,
Serug, Nahor, Terah,
Abram (also called Abraham).
-
Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
And the sons of Gomer; Ashchenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth.
And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (of whom came the Philistines,) and Caphthorim.
And Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn, and Heth,
The Jebusite also, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,
And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
And Arphaxad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber.
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother’s name was Joktan.
And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,
Hadoram also, and Uzal, and Diklah,
And Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba,
And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah,
Eber, Peleg, Reu,
Serug, Nahor, Terah,
Abram; the same is Abraham.
Show all 3 translations
-
Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Diphath, and Togarmah.
And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.
The sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
And the sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raama, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raama: Sheba, and Dedan.
And Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
And Mizraim begot Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
and Pathrusim, and Casluhim — from whence came the Philistines — and Caphtorim.
And Canaan begot Zidon his first-born, and Heth;
and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite;
and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite;
and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
The Sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
And Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber.
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
And Joktan begot Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah;
and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah;
and Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba;
and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah;
Eber, Peleg, Reu;
Serug, Nahor, Terah;
Abram — the same is Abraham.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Contradictions (4)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Show all 4
Cross-references (111)
- Luke 3:35 (v25) the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,
- Genesis 5:32 (v4) Noah was five hundred years old, then Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
- Genesis 10:6-7 (v8) The sons of Ham were: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah…
- Genesis 10:13-18 (v11) Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim.…
- Genesis 11:10-26 (v24) 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…
Show all 100 cross-references
- Genesis 15:21 (v14) the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
- Joshua 3:10 (v14) Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, the Hittite, the…
- Genesis 9:18 (v4) The sons of Noah who went out from the ship were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.
- Genesis 9:22 (v13) Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
- Genesis 9:25-26 (v13) He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.” He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be…
- Genesis 10:1-5 (v5) Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. The…
- Genesis 10:15-19 (v13) Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth, the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the…
- Genesis 10:21 (v19) Children were also born to Shem (the elder brother of Japheth), the father of all the children of Eber.
- Genesis 10:22-32 (v17) The sons of Shem were: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram were: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad became the…
- Genesis 10:28 (v22) Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
- Genesis 11:27-32 (v27) Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.…
- Joshua 24:2 (v27) Joshua said to all the people, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father…
- Nehemiah 9:7 (v27) You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, gave him the name of Abraham,
- Luke 3:34-36 (v24) the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of…
- Numbers 24:24 (vv7, 19) But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim. They shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber. He also shall come to destruction.”
- Isaiah 66:19 (vv7, 17) “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…
- Genesis 2:11 (v23) The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
- Genesis 6:8-10 (v4) But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes. This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people…
- Genesis 7:1 (v4) Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
- Genesis 9:29 (v4) All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, and then he died.
- Genesis 10:3 (v6) The sons of Gomer were: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
- Genesis 10:8-12 (v10) Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said,…
- Genesis 10:24 (v18) Arpachshad became the father of Shelah. Shelah became the father of Eber.
- Genesis 10:25 (v19) 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.
- Genesis 10:26-27 (v20) Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
- Genesis 10:29 (v23) Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
- Genesis 11:10 (v17) 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…
- Genesis 11:12-15 (v18) Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah. Arpachshad lived four hundred three years after he became the father of…
- Genesis 11:16-17 (v19) Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg. Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and…
- Genesis 14:1 (v17) In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, king of Ellasar; Chedorlaomer, king of Elam; and Tidal, king of Goiim,
- Genesis 23:3 (v13) Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke to the children of Heth, saying,
- Genesis 23:5 (v13) The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,
- Genesis 23:20 (v13) The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place.
- Genesis 25:18 (v23) They lived from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He lived opposite all his relatives.
- Genesis 27:46 (v13) Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as…
- Genesis 48:22 (v14) Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
- Genesis 49:30-32 (v13) in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from…
- Exodus 3:8 (v15) I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a…
- Exodus 3:17 (v15) I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the…
- Exodus 13:5 (v15) It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite,…
- Exodus 23:28 (v13) I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
- Exodus 33:2 (v14) I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the…
- Exodus 34:11 (v14) Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the…
- Numbers 21:21-32 (v14) Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn away into field or vineyard.…
- Numbers 23:7 (v17) 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…
- Numbers 24:22-24 (v17) Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted, until Asshur carries you away captive.” He took up his parable, and said, “Alas, who shall live when God…
- Numbers 34:8 (v16) From Mount Hor you shall mark out to the entrance of Hamath; and the border shall pass by Zedad.
- Deuteronomy 2:23 (v12) Then the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.)
- Deuteronomy 7:1 (v14) When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the…
- Deuteronomy 20:17 (v14) but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your…
- Joshua 9:1 (v13) When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of…
- Joshua 24:15 (v14) If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the…
- Judges 1:21 (v14) The children of Benjamin didn’t drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in…
- Judges 19:11 (v14) When they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, “Please come and let’s enter into this city of the…
- 1 Samuel 15:7 (v23) Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.
- 2 Samuel 11:6 (v13) David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” Joab sent Uriah to David.
- 2 Samuel 21:2 (v14) The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the…
- 2 Samuel 24:16 (v14) When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed…
- 1 Kings 8:65 (v16) So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt,…
- 1 Kings 9:20 (v15) As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the…
- 1 Kings 9:28 (v23) They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
- 1 Kings 10:11 (v23) The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir, also brought in from Ophir great quantities of almug trees and precious stones.
- 2 Kings 21:11 (v14) “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him,…
- 1 Chronicles 29:4 (v23) even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, with which to overlay the walls of…
- Ezra 4:2 (v17) 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…
- Nehemiah 9:8 (v14) found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the…
- Job 22:24 (v23) Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
- Psalms 45:9 (v23) Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.
- Psalms 72:10 (v7) The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
- Psalms 83:8 (v17) Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot.
- Isaiah 11:11 (v17) 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…
- Isaiah 13:12 (v23) I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.
- Isaiah 21:2 (v17) A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have…
- Isaiah 22:6 (v17) Elam carried his quiver, with chariots of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
- Isaiah 23:1 (v7) The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim…
- Isaiah 23:12 (v7) He said, “You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest.”
- Isaiah 54:9-10 (v4) “For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so I have sworn…
- Jeremiah 2:10 (v7) For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing.
- Jeremiah 25:25 (v17) and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;
- Jeremiah 47:4 (v12) because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; for Yahweh will…
- Ezekiel 14:14 (v4) though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness,” says the Lord…
- Ezekiel 27:10 (v17) “ ‘ “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 27:13 (v5) “ ‘ “Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders. They traded the persons of men and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.
- Ezekiel 27:23 (v17) “ ‘ “Haran, Canneh, and Eden, the traders of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were your traders.
- Ezekiel 32:22 (v17) “Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them slain, fallen by the sword;
- Ezekiel 32:24 (v17) “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…
- Ezekiel 38:2-3 (v5) “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say,…
- Ezekiel 38:6 (v5) Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with you.
- Daniel 11:30 (v7) For ships of Kittim will come against him. Therefore he will be grieved, and will return, and have indignation against the holy covenant,…
- Hosea 14:3 (v17) 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…
- Amos 2:9 (v14) Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his…
- Amos 9:7 (v12) Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of…
- Zechariah 9:7 (v14) I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; and he also will be a remnant for our God; and he…
- Matthew 24:37-38 (v4) “As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and…
- Luke 3:34-35 (v26) the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (111 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 7, 10, 17, 18, 24 It had been sufficient to have named Shem of…
It had been sufficient to have named Shem of whom came Abraham and David, but because the world was restored by these three, mention is also made of Ham and Japheth.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 10, 18, 20 1Ch 1:4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
1Ch 1:4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Ver. 4. Shem, Ham, Japheth.] Of these three, Shem is supposed to have peopled the east, Ham the south, Japheth the north.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24 Formerly he mentions only one son, but here he…
Formerly he mentions only one son, but here he names and treats of Noah’s three sons, partly because they were all the founders of the new world, and partly because the accomplishment of Noah’s famous prophecy, Gen 9:25-27, could not otherwise appear, but by the account of their several posterities.
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 On vv5, 14, 17, 18, 19, 24 The sons of Japheh - The historian repeating the…
The sons of Japheh - The historian repeating the account of the replenishing the earth by the sons of Noah, begins with those that were strangers to the church, the sons of Japheth, who peopled Europe, of whom he says little, as the Jews had hitherto little or no dealings with them. He proceeds to those that had many of them been enemies to the church, and thence hastens to the line of Abraham, breaking off abruptly from all the other families of the sons of Noah, but that of Arphaxad, from whom Christ was to come. The great promise of the Messiah was transmitted from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Jewish nation, who were intrusted above all nations with that sacred treasure, 'till the promise was performed, and the Messiah was come: and then that nation was made not a people.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 23, 24 Verse 5. After Tiras, the Targum adds, "And the…
Verse 5. After Tiras, the Targum adds, "And the names of their countries were Africa, and Germany, and Media, and Macedonia, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace." And in another copy, "Germany, Getia, and Media, and Ephesus, Bithynia, and Maesia, and Thrace."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv5, 14, 17, 24 1Ch 1:5. The sons of Japheth — The historian,…
1Ch 1:5. The sons of Japheth — The historian, repeating the account of the replenishing the earth by the sons of Noah, begins with those that were strangers to the church, the sons of Japheth, who peopled Europe, of whom he says little, as the Jews had hitherto little or no dealings with them. He proceeds to those that had many of them been enemies to the church, and thence hastens to the line of Abraham, breaking off abruptly from all the other families of the sons of Noah, but that of Arphaxad, from whom Christ was to come. The great promise of the Messiah was transmitted from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Jewish nation, who were intrusted above all nations with that sacred treasure, till the promise was performed, and the Messiah was come.
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 On vv7, 16, 17 Dodanim - See the Gen 10:4 note.
Dodanim - See the Gen 10:4 note.
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 On vv4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17, 18, 24 Noe begot Sem, Cham, and Japheth. (Haydock) See Genesis…
Noe begot Sem, Cham, and Japheth. (Haydock) See Genesis x. The author passes lightly over some of the descendants of the two latter, as he had David’s genealogy principally in view.
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 On vv4, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth--The three sons of this…
Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth--The three sons of this patriarch are enumerated, partly because they were the founders of the new world, and partly because the fulfilment of Noah's prophecy (Gen 9:25-27) could not otherwise appear to have been verified.
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 On vv5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24 5–7 (= Gen_10:2-4). The Sons of Japheth
5–7 (= Gen_10:2-4). The Sons of Japheth
5. The sons of Japheth] The writer begins with the Northern “zone.”
Read full note →
Gomer] to he identified with the Gimirrai of the Assyrian monuments who in the seventh century b.c. inhabited the district afterwards called Cappadocia. Probably they are also to be identified with the Κιμμέριοι of the Greeks, who migrated from South Russia into Asia Minor under the pressure of the Scythians (Hdt. I. 103; IV. 11, 12; cp. Eze_38:6, R.V.; Sayce, Higher Criticism and the Monuments, p. 124).
Magog] In Ezekiel 38 judgement is denounced on “Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal” (1Ch_1:2, R.V.) who is represented as accompanied in his migration by the “hordes” of Gomer and Togarmah (1Ch_1:6, R.V.), “all of them riding upon horses” (1Ch_1:15). Magog represents therefore one of several tribes of Northern nomads (Scythians) known to Israel; see note below on Tubal and Meshech.
Madai] first mentioned in an inscription of the Assyrian king Rammannirar (Rimmon-nirari III.), who reigned b.c. 812–783. They are probably the Medes who lived in small communities (κατὰ κώμας, Hdt. I. 96) without a central government in Azerbaijan and Irak Ajemi, i.e. in the N.W. provinces of modern Persia.
Javan] the Ionians (Ἰάϝʹονες) who were already settled on the West coast of Asia Minor at the dawn of Greek history. Being a seafaring nation and having a slave-trade with Tyre (Eze_27:13; Joel 3 [Heb_4:6 “Grecians”]), they became known to Israel at an early date. In the Book of Daniel the title “king of Javan” (1Ch_8:21) is used of Alexander the Great; cp. “kingdom of Javan” (1Ch_11:2) of the Macedonian Empire.
Tubal and Meshech] mentioned together Eze_27:13; Eze_32:26; Eze_38:2-3; Eze_39:1; and to be identified with the “Tabal” and “Muski” of the monuments, who in the times of the later Assyrian Empire lived as neighbours in the country N.E. of Cilicia; see Kiepert’s map in Schrader’s Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vol. II. This Meshech is to be distinguished from the Meshech son of Shem mentioned in 1Ch_1:17. At a later period the Τιβαρηνοί (= Tubal) lived in Pontus, and the Μόσχοι (= Meshech) further E. towards the Caspian. They were in the nineteenth nome of the Persian Empire (Hdt. iii. 94).
Tiras] No probable identification has been proposed for this name.
5–23. The “Genealogy” of the Nations
The table which follows is taken from Gen_10:2-29. In the A.V. several variations between Gen. and Chron. occur in the spelling of proper names. In the R.V. the spelling has been made uniform.
The table is geographical rather than ethnological, i.e. neighbouring nations are regarded as having the same descent. The world, as known to the writer, is divided into three zones, of which the Northern is assigned to the Sons of Japheth (5–7), the Southern to the Sons of Ham (8–16), and the Central to the Sons of Shem (17–23). Had the arrangement been according to descent the Semitic Zidonians and the (probably Mongoloid) Hittites would not have been equally described as the offspring of Ham (cp. Sayce, Higher Criticism and the Monuments, p. 122).
It must be noticed, moreover, that the passage contains a general table with two appendices. The General Table is derived from the so-called “Priestly” narrative (PC) of the Hexateuch, while the appendices have been inserted by a Redactor from an earlier narrative, the “Prophetical” (J) (cp. Driver, Introduction, p. 13). Thus we get the following scheme:—
1Ch_1:5-9.
PC
(General Table of the descendants of Japheth and Ham).10–16.
J
(Appendix to the descendants of Ham).17.
PC
(General Table of the descendants of Shem).18–23.
J
(Appendix to the descendants of Shem).
It must be further noted that though the Priestly source is assigned in its main stock by critics to “the exilic or early post-exilic period,” some elements in it belong to pre-exilic times. This table of the nations in particular agrees with the state of the world as referred to by Ezekiel, and is probably to be assigned to a date anterior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. (Sayce in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, i. 347, suggests that the table is as early as the period of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Egyptian dynasties, when Palestine was under Egyptian suzerainty.)
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 On vv4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 24 (4) Shem, Ham, and Japheth.—There is no doubt that…
(4) Shem, Ham, and Japheth.—There is no doubt that Ham means black, or sunburnt, and Japheth (Heb., Yepheth) is probably the fair-skinned. Shem has been compared with an Assyrian word meaning brownish (sa’mu). Thus the three names appear to allude to differences of racial complexion.
1Ch_1:5-23 are an abridgment of Genesis 10. The proper names represent, not persons, but peoples and countries. By adding them all together, the old Jewish interpreters made a total of seventy nations for the world. The list is a classified summary of the ethnical and geographical knowledge of Hebrew antiquity.
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 On vv5, 8, 10, 16, 17, 19, 27 Vers. 5-7. B. LIST OF SONS AND GRANDSONS OF…
Vers. 5-7. B. LIST OF SONS AND GRANDSONS OF JAPHETH. After the mention of Noah"s three sons, in the order of their age (though some on slender ground think Ham the youngest), this order, as in (Gen_10:2) , is reversed; and the compiler, beginning with Japheth, the youngest, apparently with the view of disposing of what his purpose may not so particularly require, gives the names of seven sons and seven grandsons, viz. three through Gomar, the eldest son, and four through Javan, the fourth son. These fourteen names are identical in the Authorized Version with the list of (Gen_10:2-4) . The Septuagint, though not identical in the spelling of the four names Madai, Tiras, Tarshish, and Kittim, shows no material differences in the two places. In the Hebrew, according to the text and edition consulted, very slight variations are found in the orthography of Tubal (lBtuw here for lbtuw) and Tarshish (jvyvirtw here for vyvirtw)and in the adoption of Riphath and Dodanim in this book for Diphath and Rodanim. The names Kittim and Dodanim look less like names of individuals than of such family, tribe, or nation as descended from the individual. At the close of this short enumeration, we have.in Genesis the statement, "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." It is evident here also that, whether the compiler borrowed from the Book of Genesis itself, or from some common source open to both, his objects are not exactly the same. Time and the present position and condition of that part of his people for which he was writing governed him, and dictated the difference. Accordingly we do not pause here on the colonizings and the fresh seats and habitations of the sons and grandsons of Japheth. The subject, one of extreme interest, and the threads of it perhaps not so hopelessly lost as is sometimes thought, belongs to the place in Genesis from which the above verse is cited. It may, however, be written here that the rather verbose disquisitions of Joseph Mede are neither altogether unin-retorting nor in some parts of them unlikely. They form Discourses 47, 48, bk. 1. (edit. "The Works of Joseph Mode." London, 1664).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v19 Because in his days the earth was divided.
1Ch_1:19
Because in his days the earth was divided.
Read full note →
The division of the earth
The chief value of the genealogical records consists--
1. In enabling us to view the origin of nations historically.
2. In enabling us to trace out the various tribes of the sons of Jacob.
3. In enabling us to prove the lineal descent of Christ to have been of the house and lineage of David; and that He was the fulfiller of the promise to Abraham, In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
4. Independently of all this we meet with a sentence or a paragraph suggestive of the deepest thought, or illuminating a principle expressed in another part of the Scriptures with light as clear and bright as it is beautiful and enchanting. Such an instance we have in the text.
I. Consider the division of the earth as ordained without sin. Sin alters and affects everything. There is not a duty you perform or matter you can engage in, in which you do not find sin exerting a pernicious influence. And here it is, I think, that many persons make great error when seeking to interpret to themselves the trials and calamities which come upon them. Providence ordained it, is the common philosophy on the matter, when I humbly think the truer account of every calamity would be, Providence ordained and desired my happiness, but sin has deformed it, and for a time blasted the intended joys and filled me with anxieties. The division which God intended would be but a repetition in every case of what He had done at the beginning; there would have been allotted to the sons of men certain portions of this fair earth to govern and to till, and every child of Adam would be taught, in the beautiful homilies of nature, the first principles at least of homage to the Creator, and of confidence, and of love. The division Jehovah ordained was division without disunion. Distinction, but not discord. Partition, but still perfect peace. This first inquiry, then, is of much value, and will prove, ere many years, of vast importance in refuting the errors of the sceptical writers which abound. Nor will it perhaps be without its use, to have noticed the character of that division which God intended among the sons of men, one which should have promoted the equal comfort of all, amidst the blessings of universal peace and brotherhood. It may be, that when grace shall have triumphed in our sin-stained earth even but a little more, you may see a disposition to revert to these very principles of division which the Eternal desired to be followed, but which (as we shall notice directly) have been marvellously distorted ever since the day of which it is recorded in the text--Unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided.
II. Now let us inquire into the division of the earth among nations as it does exist, under the influence of sin. Now you notice, by referring to the text (Gen_10:25), that the division took place before the building of Babel, and according to some persons, some considerable period before that epoch. At all events, the narrative implies that this division preceded the dispersion, and must therefore have occurred when all men spoke but one language. Remember, then, that Gods will was that men should divide (though without discord) and replenish all the earth. Recollect, too, that from the text we learn that the first step in this had been taken, even as Eber names his child Peleg (division) in memory of the event. Observe, then, what we are told immediately after the division in the days of Peleg. You read in the eleventh chapter of Genesis that the whole earth was of one language and of one speech; but that in their journeyings from the east, instead of dividing (as probably was the intention when they started), finding a large and inviting plain in Shinar, they counsel each other: Let us build a city and tower whose top may reach to heaven, and let us make us a name lest (mark) we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth. So that sin at once interrupted the beneficent designs of God, and interposing its corrupting leaven, sought to change His ordinances by promising greater benefits than He, but which have ever been found productive of evil. And now, that which was ordained for a blessing in every age, forthwith becomes a curse while it is yet obeyed; for God coming down, and seeing the injurious moral effect which would follow from this congregating together, disperses them by a division wholly unlooked for. God confounded their speech, made them talk in different languages, and they are obliged in consequence to disperse, and the division is accomplished. But how? Not in peace and harmony, and with a God be with you. But brother utters jargon to brother, and words of blessing and adieu are impossible, and now it is no more division with love, but confusion, and disunion, and discord, and ill-will. For I ask you what is the history of nations, but a continuation of this story? Nations for the most part are distinguished from one another by their difference of speech. But this is not the only difference. Scarcely a nation in the world but has at one time or another, been at war with other nations, and almost every kingdom of importance has, in its turn, encountered the armies of all other kingdoms in the dread attack of war and slaughter, at some period of their history. And this is the place for observing another very striking result of sin in the division of the earth. God, we saw, intended it so to be conducted as to subserve the advantage of all; but man decreed in his pride of intellect and reasoning that he would live in the dense vastness of a thickly populated city. And though God indeed dispersed them from Babel, the tendency of our nature seems to be far from eradicated. Still mankind crowd into cities, until they are so closely populated, that disease and death are fearfully increased. So you may notice how the retributive hand of judgment has followed these transactions. Man is a social being, and intended by God to congregate, but intended not so to congregate as we find he has done, and will still persist in doing, until by a strange anomaly his next-door neighbour is the veriest stranger to him. God ordered earth to be divided; and the plan by which thousands are huddled in close, dark, narrow alleys and areas is only sins development of its influences, as it reverses Gods intended method of division, and says with towering vanity, Go to, let us build rather a city that we may not be scattered. It is a known fact, that there is less religion in large towns than small ones, and far less where the poor are obliged to pack together as I have described. The reason is also plain. The cause is, that since the days of Peleg, the earth has been divided according to sin, and the dispersion of nations is the result of Gods anger, in confounding their speech. But the reason is, because the human mind, cut off from the beauties of nature, and those countless sources which it possesses for preparing the mind for religion, becomes prejudiced in its fearfully artificial state of town life, and by the evil customs and habits which surround it, against every sense of real godliness, which it thus learns to regard as belonging only to the rich.
III. But though you see sin so plainly operating, you are assured that christ will conquer, and grace finally prevail. In the day of glory which awaits you (described in the last two chapters of the Revelation), it is very interesting to observe that the city of the new Jerusalem described there bears a peculiar likeness to those which would have existed if the division of the world had been such as God ordained, and which began in the days of Peleg. In Christs kingdom there will be division without discord, that is, every person in his right place, in perfect love, and unity with all the rest.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v10 1Ch_1:10; 1Ch_1:19-46; 1Ch_2:3; 1Ch_2:7-34; 1Ch_4:9-10; 1Ch_4:18; 1Ch_4:22; 1Ch_4:27; 1Ch_4:34-43;…
FAMILY TRADITIONS
1Ch_1:10; 1Ch_1:19-46; 1Ch_2:3; 1Ch_2:7-34; 1Ch_4:9-10; 1Ch_4:18; 1Ch_4:22; 1Ch_4:27; 1Ch_4:34-43; 1Ch_5:10; 1Ch_5:18-22; 1Ch_7:21-23; 1Ch_8:13
Read full note →
CHRONICLES is a miniature Old Testament, and may have been meant as a handbook for ordinary people, who had no access to the whole library of sacred writings. It contains nothing corresponding to the books of Wisdom or the apocalyptic literature; but all the other types of Old Testament literature are represented. There are genealogies, statistics, ritual, history, psalms, and prophecies. The interest shown by Chronicles in family traditions harmonizes with the stress laid by the Hebrew Scriptures upon family life. The other historical books are largely occupied with the family history of the Patriarchs, of Moses, of Jephthah, Gideon, Samson, Saul, and David. The chronicler intersperses his genealogies with short anecdotes about the different families and tribes. Some of these are borrowed from the older books; but others are peculiar to our author, and were doubtless obtained by him from the family records and traditions of his contemporaries. The statements that "Nimrod began to be mighty upon the earth"; {1Ch_1:10} that "the name of one" of Ebers sons "was Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided"; {1Ch_1:19} and that Hadad "smote Moab in the field of Midian," {1Ch_1:46} are borrowed from Genesis. As he omits events much more important and more closely connected with the history of Israel, and gives no account of Babel, or of Abraham, or of the conquest of Canaan, these little notes are probably retained by accident, because at times the chronicler copied his authorities somewhat mechanically. It was less trouble to take the genealogies as they stood than to exercise great care in weeding out everything but the bare names.
In one instance (Cf. Gen_36:24, and 1Ch_1:40), however, the chronicler has erased a curious note to a genealogy in Genesis. A certain Anah is mentioned both in Genesis and Chronicles among the Horites, who inhabited Mount Seir before it was conquered by Edom. Most of us, in reading the Authorized Version, have wondered what historical or religious interest secured a permanent record for the fact that "Anah found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father." A possible solution seemed to be that this note was preserved as the earliest reference to the existence of mules, which animals played an important part in the social life of Palestine; but the Revised Version sets aside this explanation by substituting "hot springs" for "mules," and as these hot springs are only mentioned here, the passage becomes a greater puzzle than ever. The chronicler could hardly overlook this curious piece of information, but he naturally felt that this obscure archaeological note about the aboriginal Horites did not fall within the scope of his work. On the other hand, the tragic fates of Er and Achar had a direct genealogical significance. They are referred to in order to explain why the lists contain no descendants of these members of the tribe of Judah. The notes to these names illustrate the more depressing aspects of history. The men who lived happy, honorable lives can be mentioned one after another without any comment; but even the compiler of pedigrees pauses to note the crimes and misfortunes that broke the natural order of life. The annals of old families dwell with melancholy pride on murders, and fatal duels, and suicides. History, like an ancient mansion, is haunted with unhappy ghosts. Yet our interest in tragedy is a testimony to the blessedness of life; comfort and enjoyment are too monotonously common to be worth recording, but we are attracted and excited by exceptional instances of suffering and sin.
Let us turn to the episodes of family life only found in Chronicles. They may mostly be arranged in little groups of two or three, and some of the groups present us with an interesting contrast.
We learn from 1Ch_2:34-41; 1Ch_4:18 that two Jewish families traced their descent from Egyptian ancestors. Sheshan, according to Chronicles, was eighth in descent from Judah and fifth from Jerahmeel, the brother of Caleb. Having daughters, but no son, he gave one of his daughters in marriage to an Egyptian slave named Jarha. The descendants of this union are traced for thirteen generations. Genealogies, however, are not always complete; and our other data do not suffice to determine even approximately the date of this marriage. But the five generations between Jerahmeel and Sheshan indicate a period long after the Exodus; and as Egypt plays no recorded part in the history of Israel between the Exodus and the reign of Solomon, the marriage may have taken place under the monarchy. The story is a curious parallel to that of Joseph, with the parts of Israelite and Egyptian reversed. God is no respecter of persons; it is not only when the desolate and afflicted in strange lands belong to the chosen people that Jehovah relieves and delivers them. It is true of the Egyptian, as well as of the Israelite, that "the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich."
"He bringeth low, He also lifteth up; He raiseth up the poor out of the dust: He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes; And inherit the throne of glory." {1Sa_2:7-8}
This song might have been sung at Jarhas wedding as well as at Josephs.
Both these marriages throw a sidelight upon the character of Eastern slavery. They show how sharply and deeply it was divided from the hopeless degradation of Negro slavery in America. Israelites did not recognize distinctions of race and color between themselves and their bondsmen so as to treat them as worse than pariahs and regard them with physical loathing. An American considers himself disgraced by a slight taint of Negro blood in his ancestry, but a noble Jewish family was proud to trace its descent from an Egyptian slave.
The other story is somewhat different, and rests upon an obscure and corrupt passage in 1Ch_4:18. The confusion makes it impossible to arrive at any date, even by rough approximation. The genealogical relations of the actors are by no means certain, but some interesting points are tolerably clear. Some time after the conquest of Canaan, a descendant of Caleb married two wives, one a Jewess, the other an Egyptian. The Egyptian was Bithiah, a daughter of Pharaoh, i.e., of the contemporary king of Egypt. It appears probable that the inhabitants of Eshtemoa traced their descent to this Egyptian princess, while those of Gedor, Soco, and Zanoah claimed Mered as their ancestor by his Jewish wife. Here again we have the bare outline of a romance, which the imagination is at liberty to fill in. It has been suggested that Bithiah may have been the victim of some Jewish raid into Egypt, but surely a king of Egypt would have either ransomed his daughter or recovered her by force of arms. The story rather suggests that the chiefs of the clans of Judah were semi-independent and possessed of considerable wealth and power, so that the royal family of Egypt could intermarry with them, as with reigning sovereigns. But if so, the pride of Egypt must have been greatly broken since the time when the Pharaohs haughtily refused to give their daughters in marriage to the kings of Babylon.
Both Egyptian alliances occur among the Kenizzites, the descendants of the brothers Caleb and Jerahmeel. In one case a Jewess marries an Egyptian slave; in the other a Jew marries an Egyptian princess. Doubtless these marriages did not stand alone, and there were others with foreigners of varying social rank. The stories show that even after the Captivity the tradition survived that the clans in the south of Judah had been closely connected with Egypt, and that Solomon was not the only member of the tribe who had taken an Egyptian wife. Now intermarriage with foreigners is partly forbidden by the Pentateuch; and the prohibition was extended and sternly enforced by Ezra and Nehemiah (Deu_7:3; Joshua; Ezr_9:1; Ezr_9:10 Neh_13:23). In the time of the chronicler there was a growing feeling against such marriages. Hence the traditions we are discussing cannot have originated after the Return, but must be at any rate earlier than the publication of Deuteronomy under Josiah.
Such marriages with Egyptians must have had some influence on the religion of the south of Judah, but probably the foreigners usually followed the example of Ruth, and adopted the faith of the families into which they came. When they said, "Thy people shall be my people," they did not fail to add, "and thy God shall be my God." When the Egyptian princess married the head of a Jewish clan, she became one of Jehovahs people; and her adoption into the family of the God of Israel was symbolized by a new name: "Bithiah," "daughter of Jehovah." Whether later Judaism owed anything to Egyptian influences can only be matter of conjecture; at any rate, they did not pervert the southern clans from their old faith. The Calebites and Jerahmeelites were the backbone of Judah both before and after the Captivity.
The remaining traditions relate to the warfare of the Israelites with their neighbors. The first is a colorless reminiscence, that might have been recorded of the effectual prayer of any pious Israelite. The genealogies of chapter 4 are interrupted by a paragraph entirely unconnected with the context. The subject of this fragment is a certain Jabez never mentioned elsewhere, and, so far as any record goes, as entirely "without father, without mother, without genealogy," as Melchizedek himself. As chapter 4 deals with the families of Judah, and in 1Ch_2:55 there is a town Jabez also belonging to Judah, we may suppose that the chronicler had reasons for assigning Jabez to that tribe; but he has neither given these reasons, nor indicated how Jabez was connected therewith. The paragraph runs as follows: {1Ch_4:9-10} "And Jabez was honored above his brethren, and his mother called his name Jabez" (Yabec), "saying, In pain" (oceb) "I bore him. And Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, If Thou wilt indeed bless me by enlarging my possessions, And Thy hand be with me to provide pasture, that I be not in distress" (oceb).
And God brought about what he asked. The chronicler has evidently inserted here a broken and disconnected fragment from one of his sources; and we are puzzled to understand why he gives so much, and no more. Surely not merely to introduce the etymologies of Jabez; for if Jabez were so important that it was worth while to interrupt the genealogies to furnish two derivations of his name, why are we not told more about him? Who was he, when and where did he live, and at whose expense were his possessions enlarged and pasture provided for him? Everything that could give color and interest to the narrative is withheld, and we are merely told that he prayed for earthly blessing and obtained it. The spiritual lesson is obvious, but it is very frequently enforced and illustrated in the Old Testament. Why should this episode about an utterly unknown man be thrust by main force into an unsuitable context, if it is only one example of a most familiar truth? It has been pointed out that Jacob vowed a similar vow and built an altar to El, the God of Israel; {Gen_28:20; Gen_33:20} but this is one of many coincidences. The paragraph certainly tells us something about the chroniclers views on prayer, but nothing that is not more forcibly stated and exemplified in many other passages; it is mainly interesting to us because of the light it throws on his methods of composition. Elsewhere he embodies portions of well-known works and apparently assumes that his readers are sufficiently versed in them to be able to understand the point of his extracts. Probably Jabez was so familiar to the chroniclers immediate circle that he can take for granted that a few lines will suffice to recall all the circumstances to a reader.
We have next a series of much more definite statements about Israelite prowess and success in wars against Moab and other enemies.
1Ch_4:21-22, we read, "The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen, of the house of Ashbea; and Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had dominion in Moab and returned to Bethlehem." Here again the information is too vague to enable us to fix any date, nor is it quite certain who had dominion in Moab. The verb "had dominion" is plural in Hebrew, and may refer to all or any of the sons of Shelah. But, in spite of uncertainties, it is interesting to find chiefs or clans of Judah ruling in Moab. Possibly this immigration took place when David conquered and partly depopulated the country. The men of Judah may have returned to Bethlehem when Moab passed to the Northern Kingdom at the disruption, or when Moab regained its independence.
The incident in 1Ch_4:34-43 differs from the preceding in having a definite date assigned to it. In the time of Hezekiah some Simeonite clans had largely increased in number and found themselves straitened for room for their flocks. They accordingly went in search of new pasturage. One company went to Gedor, another to Mount Seir.
The situation of Gedor is not clearly known. It cannot be the Gedor of Jos_15:58, which lay in the heart of Judah. The LXX has Gerar, a town to the south of Gaza, and this may be the right reading; but whether we read Gedor or Gerar, the scene of the invasion will be in the country south of Judah. Here the children of Simeon found what they wanted, "fat pasture, and good," and abundant, for "the land was wide." There was the additional advantage that the inhabitants were harmless and inoffensive and fell an easy prey to their invaders: "The land was quiet and peaceable, for they that dwelt there aforetime were of Ham." As Ham in the genealogies is the father of Cainan, these peaceable folk would be Cainanites; and among them were a people called Meunim, probably not connected with any of the Maons mentioned in the Old Testament, but with some other town or district of the same name. So "these written by name came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and smote their tents, and the Meunim that were found there, and devoted them to destruction as accursed, so that none are left unto this day. And the Simeonites dwelt in their stead."
Then follows in the simplest and most unconscious way the only justification that is offered for the behavior of the invaders: "because there was pasture there for their flocks." The narrative takes for granted-
"The good old rule, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."
The expedition to Mount Seir appears to have been a sequel to the attack on Gedor. Five hundred of the victors emigrated into Edom, and smote the remnant of the Amalekites who had survived the massacre under Saul; {1 Samuel 15} "and they also dwelt there unto this day."
In substance, style, and ideas this passage closely resembles the books of Joshua and Judges, where the phrase "unto this day" frequently occurs. Here, of course, the "day" in question is the time of the chroniclers authority. When Chronicles was written the Simeonites in Gedor and Mount Seir had long ago shared the fate of their victims.
The conquest of Gedor reminds us how in the early days of the Israelite occupation of Palestine "Judah went with Simeon his brother into the same southern lands," and they smote the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and devoted them to destruction as accursed; {Jdg_1:17} and how the house of Joseph took Bethel by treachery. {Jdg_1:22-26} But the closest parallel is the Danite conquest of Laish. {Judges 18} The Danite spies said that the people of Laish "dwelt in security, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure," harmless and inoffensive, like the Gedorites. Nor were they likely to receive succor from the powerful city of Zidon or from other allies, for "they were far from the Zidonians, and had no dealings with any man." Accordingly, having observed the prosperous but defenseless position of this peaceable people, they returned and reported to their brethren, "Arise, and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good; and are ye still? Be not slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and the land," like that of Gedor, "is large, for God hath given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth."
The moral of these incidents is obvious. When a prosperous people is peaceable and defenseless, it is a clear sign that God has delivered them into the hand of any warlike and enterprising nation that knows how to use its opportunities. The chronicler, however, is not responsible for this morality, but he does not feel compelled to make any protest against the ethical views of his source. There is a refreshing frankness about these ancient narratives. The wolf devours the lamb without inventing any flimsy pretext about troubled waters.
But in criticizing these Hebrew clans who lived in the dawn of history and religion we condemn ourselves. If we make adequate allowance for the influence of Christ, and the New Testament, and centuries of Christian teaching, Simeon and Dan do not compare unfavorably with modern nations. As we review the wars of Christendom, we shall often be puzzled to find any ground for the outbreak of hostilities other than the defenselessness of the weaker combatant. The Spanish conquest of America and the English conquest of India afford examples of the treatment of weaker races which fairly rank with those of the Old Testament. Even today the independence of the smaller European states is mainly guaranteed by the jealousies of the Great Powers. Still there has been progress in international morality; we have got at last to the stage of Aesops fable. Public opinion condemns wanton aggression against a weak state; and the stronger power employs the resources of civilized diplomacy in showing that not only the absent, but also the helpless, are always wrong. There has also been a substantial advance in humanity towards conquered peoples. Christian warfare even since the Middle Ages has been stained with the horrors of the Thirty Years War and many other barbarities; the treatment of the American Indians by settlers has often been cruel and unjust; but no civilized nation would now systematically massacre men, women, and children in cold blood. We are thankful for any progress towards better things, but we cannot feel that men have yet realized that Christ has a message for nations as well as for individuals, As His disciples we can only pray more earnestly that the kingdoms of the earth may in deed and truth become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
The next incident is more honorable to the Israelites. The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh did not merely surprise and slaughter quiet and peaceable people: they conquered formidable enemies in fair fight (1Ch_5:7-10, 1Ch_5:18-22). There are two separate accounts of a war with the Hagrites, one appended to the genealogy of Reuben and one to that of Gad. The former is very brief and general, comprising nothing but a bare statement that there was a successful war and a consequent appropriation of territory. Probably the two paragraphs are different forms of the same narrative, derived by the chronicler from independent sources. We may therefore confine our attention to the more detailed account.
Here, as elsewhere, these Transjordanic tribes are spoken of as "valiant {Deu_33:20 1Ch_12:8-21} men," "men able to bear buckler and sword and to shoot with the bow, and skillful in war." Their numbers were considerable. While five hundred Simeonites were enough to destroy the Amalekites on Mount Seir, these eastern tribes mustered "forty and four thousand seven hundred and threescore that were able to go forth to war." Their enemies were not "quiet and peaceable people," but the wild Bedouin of the desert "the Hagrites, with Jetur and Naphish and Nodab." Nodab is mentioned only here; Jetur and Naphish occur together in the lists of the sons of Ishmael. {Gen_25:15} Ituraea probably derived its name from the tribe of Jetur. The Hagrites or Hagarenes were Arabs closely connected with the Ishmaelites, and they seem to have taken their name from Hagar. In Psa_83:6-8 we find a similar confederacy on a larger scale:-
"The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre, Assyria also is joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot."
There could be no question of unprovoked aggression against these children of Ishmael, that "wild ass of a man, whose hand was against every man, and every mans hand against him." {Gen_16:12} The narrative implies that the Israelites were the aggressors, but to attack the robber tribes of the desert would be as much an act of self-defense as to destroy a hornets nest. We may be quite sure that when Reuben and Gad marched eastward they had heavy losses to retrieve and bitter wrongs to avenge. We might find a parallel in the campaigns by which robber tribes are punished for their raids within our Indian frontier, only we must remember that Reuben and Gad were not very much more law-abiding or unselfish than their Arab neighbors. They were not engaged in maintaining a pax Britannica for the benefit of subject nations; they were carrying on a struggle for existence with persistent and relentless foes. Another partial parallel would be the border feuds on the Northumbrian marches when-
"over border, dale, and fell
Full wide and far was terror spread;
For pathless marsh and mountain cell
The peasant left his lowly shed:
The frightened flocks and herds were pent
Beneath the peels rude battlement,
And maids and matrons dropped the tear
While ready warriors seized the spear
The watchmans eye
Dun wreaths of distant smoke can spy."
But the Israelite expedition was on a larger scale than any "warden raid," and Eastern passions are fiercer and shriller than those sung by the Last Minstrel: the maids and matrons of the desert would shriek and wail instead of "dropping a tear."
In this great raid of ancient times "the war was of God," not, as at Laish, because God found for them helpless and easy victims, but because He helped them in a desperate struggle. When the fierce Israelite and Arab borderers joined battle, the issue was at first doubtful; and then "they cried to God, and He was entreated of them, because they put their trust in Him," "and they were helped against" their enemies; "and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them, and there fell many slain, because the war was of God"; "and they took away their cattle: of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand, and of slaves a hundred thousand." "And they dwelt in their stead until the captivity."
This "captivity" is the subject of another short note. The chronicler apparently was anxious to distribute his historical narratives equally among the tribes. The genealogies of Reuben and Gad each conclude with a notice of a war, and a similar account follows that of Eastern Manasseh:-"And they trespassed against the God of their fathers, and went a-whoring after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them. And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river of Gozan, unto this day." And this war also was "of God." Doubtless the descendants of the surviving Hagrites and Ishmaelites were among the allies of the Assyrian king, and saw in the ruin of Eastern Israel a retribution for the sufferings of their own people; but the later Jews and probably the exiles in "Halah, Habor, and Hara," and by "the river of Gozan," far away in Northeastern Mesopotamia, found the cause of their sufferings in too great an intimacy with their heathen neighbors: they had gone a-whoring after their gods.
The last two incidents which we shall deal with in this chapter serve to illustrate afresh the rough-and-ready methods by which the chronicler has knotted together threads of heterogeneous tradition into one tangled skein. We shall see further how ready ancient writers were to represent a tribe by the ancestor from whom it traced its descent. We read in 1Ch_7:20-21, "The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eleadah his son, and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath that were born in the land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle."
Ezer and Elead are apparently brothers of the second Shuthelah; at any rate, as six generations are mentioned between them and Ephraim, they would seem to have lived long after the Patriarch. Moreover, they came down to Gath, so that they must have lived in some hill-country not far off, presumably the hill-country of Ephraim. But in the next two verses (1Ch_7:22-23) we read, "And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him. And he went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house."
Taking these words literally, Ezer and Elead were the actual sons of Ephraim; and as Ephraim and his family were born in Egypt and lived there all their days, these patriarchal cattle-lifters did not come down from any neighboring highlands, but must have come up from Egypt, all the way from the land of Goshen, across the desert and past several Philistine and Canaanite towns. This literal sense is simply impossible. The author from whom the chronicler borrowed this narrative is clearly using a natural and beautiful figure to describe the distress in the tribe of Ephraim when two of its clans were cut off, and the fact that a new clan named Beriah was formed to take their place. Possibly we are not without information as to how this new clan arose. In 1Ch_8:13 we read of two Benjamites, "Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath." Beriah and Shema probably, coming to the aid of Ephraim, avenged the defeat of Ezer and Elead; and in return received the possessions of the clans, who been cut off, and Beriah was thus reckoned among the children of Ephraim.
The language of 1Ch_7:22 is very similar to that of Gen_37:34-35 : "And Jacob mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him"; and the personification of the tribe under the name of its ancestor may be paralleled from Jdg_21:6 : "And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother."
Let us now reconstruct the story and consider its significance. Two Ephraimite clans, Ezer and Elead, set out to drive the cattle "of the men of Gath, who were born in the land," i.e., of the aboriginal Avvites, who had been dispossessed by the Philistines, but still retained some of the pasture-lands. Falling into an ambush or taken by surprise when encumbered with their plunder, the Ephraimites were cut off, and nearly all the fighting men of the clans perished. The Avvites, reinforced by the Philistines of Gath, pressed their advantage, and invaded the territory of Ephraim, whose border districts, stripped of their defenders, lay at the mercy of the conquerors. From this danger they were rescued by the Benjamite clans Shema and Beriah, then occupying Aijalon; and the men of Gath in their turn were defeated and driven back. The grateful Ephraimites invited their allies to occupy the vacant territory and in all probability to marry the widows and daughters of their slaughtered kinsmen. From that time onwards Beriah was reckoned as one of the clans of Ephraim.
The account of this memorable cattle foray is a necessary note to the genealogies to explain the origin of an important clan and its double connection with Ephraim and Benjamin. Both the chronicler and his authority recorded it because of its genealogical significance, not because they were anxious to perpetuate the memory of the unfortunate raid. In the ancient days to which the episode belonged, a frontier cattle foray seemed as natural and meritorious an enterprise as it did to William of Deloraine. The chronicler does not think it necessary to signify any disapproval-it is by no means certain that he did disapprove-of such spoiling of the uncircumcised; but the fact that he gives the record without comment does not show that he condoned cattle-stealing. Men today relate with pride the lawless deeds of noble ancestors, but they would be dismayed if their own sons proposed to adopt the moral code of mediaeval barons or Elizabethan buccaneers.
In reviewing the scanty religious ideas involved in this little group of family traditions, we have to remember that they belong to a period of Israelite history much older than that of the chronicler; in estimating their value, we have to make large allowance for the conventional ethics of the times. Religion not only serves to raise the standard of morality, but also to keep the average man up to the conventional standard; it helps and encourages him to do what he believes to be right as well as gives him a better understanding of what right means. Primitive religion is not to be disparaged because it did not at once convert the rough Israelite clansmen into Havelocks and Gordons. In those early days, courage, patriotism, and loyalty to ones tribesmen were the most necessary and approved virtues. They were fostered and stimulated by the current belief in a God of battles, who gave victory to His faithful people. Moreover, the idea of Deity implied in these traditions, though inadequate, is by no means unworthy. God is benevolent; He enriches and succors His people; He answers prayer, giving to Jabez the land and pasture for which he asked. He is a righteous God; He responds to and justifies His peoples faith: "He was entreated of the Reubenites and Gadites because they put their trust in Him." On the other hand, He is a jealous God; He punishes Israel when "they trespass against the God of their fathers and go a-whoring after the gods of the peoples of the land." But the feeling here attributed to Jehovah is not merely one of personal jealousy. Loyalty to him meant a great deal more than a preference for a god called Jehovah over a god called Chemosh. It involved a special recognition of morality and purity, and gave a religious sanction to patriotism and the sentiment of national unity. Worship of Moabite or Syrian gods weakened a mans enthusiasm for Israel and his sense of fellowship with his countrymen, just as allegiance to an Italian prince and prelate has seemed to Protestants to deprive the Romanist of his full inheritance in English life and feeling. He who went astray after other gods did not merely indulge his individual taste in doctrine and ritual: he was a traitor to the social order, to the prosperity and national union, of Israel. Such disloyalty broke up the nation, and sent Israel and Judah into captivity piecemeal.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 Gen 10:2; Eze 38:2; Eze 39:6; Rev 20:8. (See…
Magog
Gen 10:2; Eze 38:2; Eze 39:6; Rev 20:8. (See Scofield "Eze 38:2").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 8, 11, 13, 17, 20, 24 Gomer ... Magog ... Madai ... Javan ... Tubal…
Gomer ... Magog ... Madai ... Javan ... Tubal ... Meshek ... Tiras ... Ashkenaz ... Riphath ... Togarmah ... Elishah ... Tarshish
These are all names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Read full note →
Kittites ... Rodanites
These are names of people groups. (See: How to Translate Names)
Rodanites
This name is sometimes spelled "Dodanites." (See: Textual Variants)
translationWords
Tubal
Meshech
Tarshish
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 13, 24 1:5-23 The record of Noah’s descendants establishes Abraham’s place…
1:5-23 The record of Noah’s descendants establishes Abraham’s place in history. The ethnic backdrop of the seventy nations of the world provides the context for Israel’s history (cp. Gen 10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.