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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
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And unto Eber were born two sons; the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Genesis 10:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Chronicles 1:19 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.
- Genesis 10:32 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.
- Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
- Luke 3:35-36 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
- Acts 17:26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
- Genesis 11:16-19 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 became the father of more sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu. Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
- Genesis 10:21 Children were also born to Shem (the elder brother of Japheth), the father of all the children of Eber.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This division came by the diversity of languages, as…
This division came by the diversity of languages, as appeareth, Gen. 11:9.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 10:25 And unto Eber were born two sons:…
Gen 10:25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one [was] Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name [was] Joktan.
Ver. 25. Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided.] Eber, of whom came the Hebrews or Israelites, {Exo 1:15} that he might have before his eyes a perpetual monument of God’s just displeasure against the ambitious Babel builders, calls his son Peleg, or Division, because in his days was the earth divided. It is good to write the remembrance of God’s worthy works, whether of mercy or justice, upon the names of our children, or otherwise as we can best, to put us in mind of them; for we need all help; such is either our dulness or forgetfulness. What was it else that made David so often to put the thorn to his breast? {Psa 103:1-3} And why would God have the plates of the censers of those sinners against their own souls, to be a covering to the altar, but to be a memorial to the children of Israel, that no stranger come near to offer incense, that he be not as Korah and his company, &c.? {Num 16:38; Num 16:40}
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 In his days; either,
In his days; either,
1. In the time of his birth, whence he was so called. Or,
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2. Afterwards in the time of life. So his father gave him this name by the Spirit of prophecy, foreseeing this great event, and the time of it; this being no unusual thing in Scripture, as we shall hereafter see, to give prophetical names to children. And thus there is a longer and more convenient space left for the peopling of the world, and ripening of things for the general dispersion and habitation of the earth.
The earth was divided, first in language, and then in habitations.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And unto Eber were born two sons: the name…
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg,.... Bochart (k) thinks, that either Peleg, or one of his posterity, in memory of him, gave the name of Phalga to a town situated on the Euphrates; though the reason of the name, as given by Arrianus, as he himself observes, was because it divided between the two Seleucias, as the reason of Peleg's name was:
for in his days was the earth divided; among the three sons of Noah, and their respective posterities; their language was divided, and that obliged them to divide and separate in bodies which understood one another; hence that age, in which was this event, was usually called by the Jews the age of division; whether this was done about the time of his birth, and so this name was given him to perpetuate the memory of it, or in some after part of his life, and so was given by a spirit of prophecy, is a question: Josephus, Jarchi, and the Jewish writers, generally go the latter way; if it was at the time of his birth, which is the sense of many, then this affair happened in the one hundred and first year after the flood, for in that year Peleg was born, as appears from Gen 11:11.
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and his brother's name was Joktan, whom the Arabs call Cahtan, and claim him as their parent, at least, of their principal tribes; and say he was the first that reigned in Yaman, and put a diadem on his head (l); and there is a city in the territory of Mecca, about seven furlongs or a mile to the south of it, and one station from the Red sea, called Baisath Jektan, the seat of Jektan (m), which manifestly retains his name; and there are a people called Catanitae, placed by Ptolemy (n) in Arabia Felix.
(k) Phaleg. l. 2. c. 14. col. 93. (l) Vid. Pocock. Specimen. Arab. Hist. p. 39. 55. (m) Arab. Geograph. apud Bochart. Phaleg: l. 2. c. 15. col. 98. (n) Geograph, l. 6. c. 7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 25. Peleg] From פלג palag, to divide, because…
Verse 25. Peleg] From פלג palag, to divide, because in his days, which is supposed to be about one hundred years after the flood, the earth was divided among the sons of Noah. Though some are of opinion that a physical division, and not a political one, is what is intended here, viz., a separation of continents and islands from the main land; the earthy parts having been united into one great continent previously to the days of Peleg. This opinion appears to me the most likely, for what is said, Ge 10:5, is spoken by way of anticipation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 10:25. In his days the earth was divided…
Gen 10:25. In his days the earth was divided — That is, about the time of his birth it was divided among those that were to inhabit it, either when Noah made an orderly distribution of it among his descendants, as Joshua divided the land of Canaan by lot; or when, upon their refusal to comply with that division, God, in justice, divided them by the confusion of tongues.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided--After…
Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided--After the flood (Gen 11:10-16) the descendants of Noah settled at pleasure and enjoyed the produce of the undivided soil. But according to divine instruction, made probably through Eber, who seems to have been distinguished for piety or a prophetic character, the earth was divided and his son's name, "Peleg," was given in memory of that event (see Deu 32:8; Act 17:26).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 25. Peleg — Division, relating, it is generally thought,…
25. Peleg — Division, relating, it is generally thought, to the division of tongues which the narrator immediately proceeds to describe in the next chapter, but Knobel makes it refer to the division in the family of Eber between the brothers Peleg and Joktan. He presents reasons for the view which seem to have weight. It is doubtful if the matter can be decisively settled, but we follow the current opinion. Smith’s Dictionary follows Knobel.
His brother’s name was Joktan — Called in the Arabian genealogies Kahtan, the ancestor of thirteen tribes in South Arabia. The name signifies Little. Niebuhr mentions a town and province Kahtan. Some of these thirteen names following are still found in Arabia, others have become extinct, and others are not as yet identified.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 25. Peleg] R.V. marg. That is, Division. His descendants…
25. Peleg] R.V. marg. That is, Division. His descendants are not recorded. In Gen_11:18-23 (P) Peleg is the father of Reu, the father of Serug, the father of Nahor. Eber’s two sons, Peleg and Joktan, apparently represent the two divisions of Shemites, Peleg the northern or Mesopotamian, Joktan the southern or Arabian.
was the earth divided] The reference is generally assumed to be to the division, or dispersion, of the peoples at the tower of Babel, the words being an anticipation of the story in Gen_11:1-9. “The earth” will then mean “the inhabitants of the earth,” as in Gen_11:1 and Gen_19:31.
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Sayce, on the strength of palgu being Assyrian for “canal,” would conjecture “the division of the earth” to signify the introduction of a system of canals into Babylonia during the reign of Hammurabi.
Perhaps, however, the name Peleg may indicate the historic “severance” of the northern Shemites from their southern brethren.
Joktan] The genealogy of Eber’s elder son, Peleg, is here omitted, evidently because the compiler is giving the descendants of Peleg in Gen_11:18 from P; in which passage Joktan’s name is not mentioned.
The thirteen sons of Joktan probably represent tribes in Arabia. The division of the population into tribes, continually warring with each other, has always been a feature of the Arabian Peninsula.
Dillmann suggests that one name has been interpolated; and that, as in the case of Israel, the number of tribes was originally twelve. Obal’s name is omitted in some MSS. of LXX.
Most of their names have been, with more or less reason, identified with places in Arabia, for details of which the student should consult the dictionaries.
Sheleph] The name of a tribe, or region, in the Yemen, or southern Arabia.
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 (25) Peleg; for in his days was the earth…
(25) Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided.—This may refer to the breaking up of the race of Shem into separate nations, which severally occupied a distinct region; and so, while Joktan took Arabia, and in course of time expelled the Hamites from that country, Asshur, Aram, and Peleg occupied the regions on the north and north-west. But as Peleg, according to the Tôldôth Shem, was born only 101 years after the flood, Noah’s family could scarcely have multiplied in so short a time to as many as 500 people; and Mr. Cyril Graham considers that the name refers to “the first cutting of some of those canals which are found in such numbers between the Tigris and the Euphrates.” This is made more probable by the fact that Peleg in Hebrew means water-course.
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 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name…
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg. Division," from palg, to divide; cf. pelagov and pela gus, a division of the sea. For in his days was the earth divided. At the confusion of tongues (Bochart, Rosenm Keil, Lange, Murphy); at an earlier separation of the earth"s population (Delitzsch), of which there is no record or trace. And his brother"s name was Joktan. Father of the Arabians, by whom he is called Kachtan.
Peleg, or the division of the people.
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I WHEN IT TOOK PLACE. In the fourth generation after the Flood.
II How IT WAS EFFECTED.
1. By the Divine interposition.
2. By the confusion of tongues.
III FOR WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED.
1. To punish sin.
2. To separate the Church.
3. To occupy the earth.
IV BY WHAT IT WAS REMEMBERED. The naming of Eber"s son. Learn
1. To read well the signs of the times.
2. To understand well the cause of God"s judgments.
3. To remember well the gift of God"s mercies. W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 10:25 Peleg means division, anticipating the separation of people…
10:25 Peleg means division, anticipating the separation of people into language groups after Babel (11:1-9). Peleg’s line led to Abram (see 11:16-26). • Joktan was the ancestor of the southern Arabian tribes. The Ishmaelite tribes were in northern Arabia (see 25:13-16).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.