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John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Genesis 10:1
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 10
This chapter gives an account of the posterity of the three sons of Noah, by whom the world was peopled after the flood, Ge 10:1 of the posterity of Japheth, Ge 10:2 of the posterity of Ham,
Ge 10:6 and of the posterity of Shem, Ge 10:21.
Ver. 1. Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah,.... The genealogy of them, and which is of great use to show the original of the several nations of the world, from whence they sprung, and by whom they were founded; and to confute the pretended antiquity of some nations, as the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Chinese, and others; and to point out the particular people, which were to be the seat of the church of God for many ages, and from whom the Messiah was to spring; which seems to be the principal view of the history of Moses, and of this genealogy, with which should be compared 1Ch 1:1 Shem, Ham, and Japheth; see Ge 5:32
and unto them were sons born after the flood; for they had none born to them either before the flood or in it; they were married before the flood, for their wives went into the ark with them; but it does not appear they had any children before, though they then were near an hundred years old; and if they had, they were not in the ark, and therefore must perish with the rest, which is not likely: Shem's son Arphaxad was born two years after the flood, Ge 11:10 when the rest were born, either his or his brethren's, is not said; however they were all born after the flood; though some pretend that Canaan was born in the ark {y}, during the flood, for which there is no authority; yea, it is confuted in this chapter, where Canaan stands among the sons of Ham, born to him after the flood.
{y} See Bayle's Dictionary, vol. 10. art. "Ham", p. 587.
Genesis 10:2
Ver. 2. The sons of Japheth,.... Who though mentioned last, the genealogy begins with him, by a figure which rhetoricians call a "chiasm". The posterity of Japheth are those whom Hesiod {z} often calls iapetionidhv, "Iapetionides", and him iapetov, "Iapetus". According to Josephus {a}, the sons of Japheth inhabited the earth, beginning from the mountains Taurus and Amanus, and then went on in Asia unto the river Tanais, and in Europe unto Gadira. Seven of his sons are mentioned, and the first is Gomer; from whom, according to the same writer {b}, came the Gomareans or Gomerites, in his time called by the Greeks Galatians, that is, the Gauls of Asia minor, who inhabited Phrygia; both Gomer and Phrygia signifying the same, as Bochart {c} observes, and the country looking as if it was torrified or burnt; and Pliny {d} makes mention of a town in Phrygia, called Cimmeris; and the Cimmerians and Cimbri are derived by some from this Gomer, whom Herodotus {e} makes mention of as in Asia and Scythia, and speaks of a country called Cimmerius, and of the Cimmerian Bosphorus; and these seem to be the Gauls before mentioned, under a different name; and it is to be observed, that the Welsh, who sprung from the Gauls, call themselves to this day Cumero, or Cymro and Cumeri. It is plain from
Eze 38:6 that Gomer and his people lay to the north of Judea, and the posterity of Japheth went first into the northern parts of Asia, and then spread themselves into Europe: six more of his sons follow, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras; the first of these, Magog, was the father of a northern people which bore his name, see Eze 38:2 and according to Josephus {f}, who is generally followed, are the same that were called Scythians; from Madai came the Medes, often spoken of in Scripture, along with the Persians; so Josephus {g} says, from him came the nation of Madaeans, whom the Greeks call Medes; and very frequently in Scripture the Medes go by the name of Madai, their original ancestor; see Da 5:28 but Mr. Mede {h} is of opinion, that Macedonia was the seat of this Madai, which was formerly called Aemathia; that is, as he gives the etymology of it, aia, "Madai", the country of Madai; but the former sense is generally received. Javan is by all agreed to be the father of the Grecians; hence Alexander, king of Grecia, is in Da 8:21 called king of Javan; and one part of Greece bore the name of Ionia; and the sea that washed it is called the Ionian sea. And his posterity are
iaonev, "Iaonians", in Homer {i} and Aristophanes {k}; and the scholiast of the latter says, that the Barbarians call all Greeks Iaonians. The next son of Japheth is Tubal or Thobel, as Josephus calls him, who says {l} the Thobelians in his time were called Iberians, a people in Asia, that dwelt near the Euxine sea; and in Albania was a place called Thabilaca, as may be seen in Ptolemy {m}, and another called Thilbis, from whom might spring the Iberians in Europe, now called Spaniards; but Bochart {n} thinks that the Tibarenes are the descendants of Tubal, a people that dwelt between the Trapezuntii and Armenia the less; and he wonders that this never was thought of by any; but in that he is mistaken, for our countryman Mr. Broughton {o} makes the Tibarenes to spring from Tubal; and Epiphanius {p} many hundreds of years before him. Meshech, his next son, is mentioned along with Tubal in Eze 27:13 from him came the Mosocheni, as Josephus {q}, who in his time were called Cappadocians, with whom there was a city then named Mazaca, since Caesarea {r}; and these seem to be the same that Pliny {s} calls Moscheni, who inhabited the mountains Moschici, which were at the north east of Cappadocia. Some derive the Muscovites from them, which is not improbable: the last of Japheth's sons is Tiras or Thiras, which Jarchi interprets very wrongly by Paras, or Persia; much better the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, and so a Jewish chronologer {t}, by Thracia; for the descendants of Thiras, as Josephus {u} observes, the Greeks call Thracians; and in Thrace was a river called Atyras {w}, which has in it a trace of this man's name; and Odrysus, whom the Thracians worshipped, is the same with Tiras, which god sometimes goes by the name of Thuras; and is one of the names of Mars, the god of the Thracians.
{z} In Theogonia. {a} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1. {b} Ib. {c} Phaleg. l. 3. c. 8. col. 171, 172. {d} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 30. {e} Clio sive, l. 1. c. 16, 103. & Melpomene sive, l. 4. c. 11, 12, 13. {f} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {g} Ib. {h} Dissert. 48. {i} Iliad. 13. ver. 685. {k} Acharneus. act. 1. scen. 3. p. 376. {l} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1. {m} Geograph. l. 5. c. 12. {n} Phaleg. l. 3. c. 12. col. 180. {o} See his Works, p. 2, 58. {p} Ancorat. p. 546. {q} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {r} Vid. Ammian. Marcellin. l. 20. p. 170. Ed. Vales. {s} Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 9, 10. {t} Sepher Juchasin, fol. 145. 1. Vid. T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 10. 1. {u} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {w} Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 4. c. 11.
Genesis 10:3
Ver. 3. And the sons of Gomer,.... Who was the first of the sons of Japheth, three of whose sons are mentioned, and they are as follow:
Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah; the first of these seated himself in the lesser Asia, in Pontus and Bithynia, where were some traces of his name in the river Ascanius, and in the Ascanian lake or bay; and also in the lesser Phrygia or Troas, where was a city called Ascania, and where were the Ascanian isles {x}, and the Euxine Pontus, or Axeine {y}, as it was first called, which is the sea that separates Asia and Europe, and is no other than a corruption of the sea of Ashkenaz. It seems to have been near Armenia, by its being mentioned along with Minni or Armenia, in Jer 51:27. Germany is by the Jews commonly called Ashkenaz; perhaps some of the posterity of Ashkenaz in Asia might pass into Europe, and Germany might be a colony of them; so Mr. Broughton {z} observes of the sons of Gomer, that they first took their seat in Asia, and then came north and west into Muscovy and Germany. The next son of Gomer was Riphath. Josephus {a} says, that the Riphathaeans which came from him are the Paphlagonians, a people of Asia Minor, near Pontus, so that he settled near his brother Ashkenaz; perhaps his posterity are the Arimphaei of Pliny {b}, and the Riphaeans of Mela {c}, who inhabited near the Riphaean mountains, which might have their name from this son of Gomer, who in 1Ch 1:6 is called Diphath, the letters r and d being very similar. His third son is called Togarmah, who had his seat in the north of Judea, see
Eze 38:6 his posterity are the Phrygians, according to Josephus {d}; but some place them in Galatia and Cappadocia; and Strabo {e} makes mention of a people called Trocmi, on the borders of Pontus and Cappadocia; and Cicero {f} of the Trogmi or Trogini, who may have their name from hence; for the Greek interpreters always call him Torgama or Thorgana. The Jews make the Turks to be the posterity of Togarmah. Elias Levita says {g}, there are some that say that Togarmah is the land of Turkey; and Benjamin of Tudela {h} calls a Turkish sultan king of the Togarmans, that is, the Turks; and among the ten families of Togarmah, which Josephus ben Gorion {i} speaks of, the Turks are one; and perhaps this notion may not be amiss, since the company of Togarmah is mentioned with Gog, or the Turk, See Gill on "Eze 38:6". The Armenians pretend to be the descendants of Togarmah, who, with them, is the son of Tiras, the son of Gomer, by his son Haik, from whom they and their country, from all antiquity, have bore the name of Haik {k}.
{x} Strabo Geograph. l. 12. p. 387, 388. & l. 14. p. 468. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 4. 12. & 5. 30, 31, 32. {y} Vid. Orphei Argonautic, ver. 84. {z} See his Works, p. 2, 58. {a} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {b} Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 2. {c} De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 2. {d} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {e} Geograph. l. 4. p. 130. & l. 12. p. 390. {f} De Divinatione, l. 2. {g} In Tishbi, p. 259. {h} ltinerarium, p. 27, 54. {i} Hist. Heb. l. 1. c. 1. p. 3. {k} See the Universal History, vol. 1. p. 377.
Genesis 10:4
Ver. 4. And the sons of Javan,.... Another son of Japheth; four sons of Javan are mentioned, which gave names to countries, and are as follow:
Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim; the first of these, Elishah, gave name to the Elysaeans, now called Aeoles, as Josephus {l} says; hence the country Aeolia, and the Aeolic dialect, all from this name; and there are many traces of it in the several parts of Greece. Hellas, a large country in it, has its name from him; so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret Elishah by Allas. Elis in Peloponnesus, Eleusis in Attica, the river Elissus, or Ilissus, and the Elysian fields, are so called from him. Tarshish, second son of Javan, gave name to Tarsus, by which Cilicia was formerly called, as Josephus says {m}, of which the city named Tarsus was the metropolis, the birth place of the Apostle Paul, Ac 22:3. Hence the Mediterranean sea is called Tarshish, because the Cicilians were masters of it; and Tartessus in Spain might be a colony from them, as Broughton observes; and so Eusebius says, from the Tarsinns are the Iberians, or Spaniards; and which Bochart {n} approves of, and confirms by various evidences; and Hillerus, {o} makes Tarshish to be the author of the Celtae, that is, of the Spanish, French, and German nations. The third son of Javan is Kittim, whom Josephus {p} places in the island of Cyprus, a city there being called Citium, from whence was Zeno the Citian: but rather the people that sprung from him are those whom Homer {q} calls Cetii; and are placed by Strabo {r} to the west of Cilicia, in the western parts of which are two provinces, mentioned by Ptolemy {s}, the one called Cetis, the other Citis: likewise this Kittim seems to be the father both of the Macedonians and the Latines; for Alexander the great is said to come from Cittim, and Perseus king of Macedon is called king of Cittim,
"And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece,'' (1 Maccabees 1:1)
"Beside this, how they had discomfited in battle Philip, and Perseus, king of the Citims, with others that lifted up themselves against them, and had overcome them:'' (1 Maccabees 8:5)
and Macedonia is sometimes called Macetia, as it is in Gellius {t}, which has something of the name of Cittim or Cetim in it; and also the Latines or Romans seem to spring from hence, who may be thought to be meant by Cittim in Nu 24:24 Da 11:30 and Eusebius says the Citians are a people from whom came the Sabines, who also are Romans; and in Latium was a city called Cetia, as says Halicarnassensis {u}; and Bochart {w} has shown, that Latium and Cethem signify the same, and both have their names from words that signify to hide; "latium a latendo", and "celhem", from Mtk, "to hide", see Jer 2:22 in which sense the word is frequently used in the Arabic language; and Cittim in the Jerusalem Targum is here called Italy. The last son of Javan mentioned is Dodanim; he is omitted by Josephus: his country is by the Targum of Jonathan called Dordania; and by the Jerusalem Targum Dodonia; and he and his posterity are placed by Mr. Mede in part of Peloponnessus and Epirus, in which was the city of Dodona, where were the famous temple and oracle of Jupiter Dodonaeus, under which name this man was worshipped. In 1Ch 1:7 he is called Rodanim, and in the Samaritan version here; and the word is by the Septuagint translated Rodians; which have led some to think of the island of Rhodes as the seat, and the inhabitants of it as the posterity of this man; but Bochart {x} is of opinion, that they settled in the country now called France, gave the name to the river Rhodanus, and called the adjacent country Rhodanusia, and where formerly was a city of that name, much about the same tract where now stands Marseilles; but this seems too remote for a son of Javan.
{l} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {m} Ib. {n} Phaleg. l. 3. c. 7. {o} Onomastic. Saer. p. 944. {p} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {q} Odyss. 11. ver. 520. {r} Geograph. l. 13. p. 423. {s} Ibid. l. 5. c. 8. {t} Attic. Noct. l. 9. c. 3. {u} Hist. l. 8. p. 376. {w} Phaleg. l. 3. c. 5. col. 159, 160. {x} Phaleg. l. 3. c. 6. col. 163, 164.
Genesis 10:5
Ver. 5. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands,.... That is, by those sons of Japheth before mentioned; and by "isles" are meant, not countries surrounded with water, for the isles in this sense would not have been sufficient for the posterity of Japheth; nor can it be thought they would leave the continent, where there was room enough for them, and go into islands; and besides must have found it difficult to get there, when shipping and navigation were little known: but it is usual with the Hebrews, of whom Moses, the writer of this history, was, to call all places beyond the Mediterranean sea, or whatsoever they went to by sea, or that were upon the sea coasts, islands, as Greece, Italy, &c.; Moreover, the word sometimes signifies countries, as it does in Job 22:30 and so should be rendered here, as it is by some {y}, "the countries of the Gentiles"; so called, because in the times of Moses, and at the writing of this history, those countries were inhabited by Heathens and idolaters, strangers to the true religion: and this division was not made at random, and at the pleasure of a rude company of men, but in an orderly regular manner, with the consent, and by the advice and direction of the principal men of those times; and especially it was directed by the wise providence of the most High, who divided to the nations their inheritance, and set the bounds of the people,
De 32:8.
everyone after his tongue, after their families, in their nations; this shows, that what is said concerning the division of countries to the sons of Japheth is by way of anticipation; and that, though thus related, was not done till after the confusion of languages, since the partition was made according to the different languages of men; those that were of the same language went and dwelt together, the several nations of them, and the several families in those nations; by which it appears that this was done by consultation, with great care and wisdom, ranging the people according to their tongues; of which nations were formed, and with them were taken the several families they consisted of.
{y} Mywgh yya "regiones gentium", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Patrick.
Genesis 10:6
Ver. 6. And the sons of Ham,.... Next to the sons of Japheth, the sons of Ham are reckoned; these, Josephus {z} says, possessed the land from Syria, and the mountains of Amanus and Lebanon; laying hold on whatever was towards the sea, claiming to themselves the countries unto the ocean, whose names, some of them, are entirely lost, and others so greatly changed and deflected into other tongues, that they can scarcely be known, and few whose names are preserved entire; and the same observation will hold good of others. Four of the sons of Ham are mentioned,
Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan; the first of these, Cush, Josephus {a} says, has suffered no loss by time; for the Ethiopians, whose prince he was, are to this day by themselves, and all in Asia, called Chusaeans: but though this word Cush, as used in Scripture, is generally rendered by us Ethiopia, this must not be understood of Ethiopia in Africa, but in Arabia; and indeed is always to be understood of one part of Arabia, and which was near to the land of Judea; so Moses's wife is called an Ethiopian, when she was an Arabian, or of Midian, Nu 12:1 and Chusan and Midian are mentioned together, Hab 3:7 see 2Ki 19:9 2Ch 14:9 and Bochart {b} has shown, by various arguments, that the land of Cush was Arabia; and so the Targum of Jonathan interprets it here Arabia. There was a city called Cutha in Erac, a province in the country of Babylon {c}, where Nimrod the son of Cush settled, which probably was called so from his father's name. Here the eastern writers say {d} Abraham was born, and is the same place mentioned in 2Ki 17:24. The second son of Ham was Mizraim, the same with the Misor of Sanchoniatho {e}, and the Menes of Herodotus {f}, the first king of Egypt, and the builder of the city of Memphis in Egypt, called by the Turks to this day Mitzir {g}. Mitzraim is a name by which Egypt is frequently called in Scripture, and this man was the father of the Egyptians; and because Egypt was inhabited by a son of Ham, it is sometimes called the land of Ham,
Ps 105:23. The word is of the dual number, and serves to express Egypt by, which was divided into two parts, lower and upper Egypt. Josephus says {h}, we call Egypt, Mestres, and all the Egyptians that inhabit it, Mestraeans; so the country is called by Cedrenus {i}, Mestre; and Kairo, a principal city in it, is to this day by the Arabians called Al-messer, as Dr. Shaw {k} relates. The third son of Ham is Phut; of whom Josephus {l} says, that he founded Libya, calling the inhabitants of it after his name, Phuteans; and observes, that there is a river in the country of the Moors of his name; and that many of the Greek historians, who make mention of this river, also make mention of a country adjacent to it, called Phute: mention is made of this river as in Mauritania, both by Pliny {m} and Ptolemy {n} and by the latter of a city called Putea: this Phut is the Apollo Pythius of the Heathens, as some think. The last son of Ham is Canaan, the father of the Canaanites, a people well known in Scripture. Concerning these sons of Ham, there is a famous fragment of Eupolemus preserved in Eusebius {o}; and is this;
"the Babylonians say, that the first was Belus, called Cronus or Saturn (that is, Noah), and of him was begotten another Belus and Chanaan (it should be read Cham), and he (i.e. Ham) begat Chanaan, the father of the Phoenicians; and of him another son, Chus, was begotten, whom the Greeks call Asbolos, the father of the Ethiopians, and the brother of Mestraim, the father of the Egyptians.''
{z} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect 1.) {a} Ibid. {b} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 2. {c} Vid. Hyde Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 2. p. 39, 40. {d} Vid. Hyde Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 2. p. 72. {e} Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 1. p. 36. {f} Enterpe sive, l. 2. c. 4. 99. {g} See Cumberland's Sanchoniatho, p. 59. {h} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect 1.) {i} Apud Grotium de vera Christ. Relig. l. 1. p. 8. & Ainsworth in loc. {k} Travels, ch. 3. p. 294. Ed. 2. {l} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect 1.) {m} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 1. {n} Geograph. l. 4. c. 1, 3. {o} Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 17. p. 419.
Genesis 10:7
Ver. 7. And the sons of Cush,.... The first born of Ham, who had five sons, next mentioned, besides Nimrod, spoken of afterwards by himself:
Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha; the first of these is Seba, the founder of the Sabaeans, according to Josephus {p}, a people seated in Arabia Deserta, which seem to be the Sabaeans brought from the wilderness, Eze 23:42 and very probably the same that plundered Job of his cattle, Job 1:14. The second son is Havilah, who, as Josephus {q} says, was the father of the Evilaeans, now called Getuli; but the posterity of Havilah seem to be the same whom Strabo {r} calls Chaulotaeans, and whom he speaks of along with the Nabataeans and Agraeans, a people near Arabia Felix; and by Pliny {s} they are called Chavelaeans, and whom he speaks of as Arabians, and places them to the east of the Arabian Scenites. The third son is Sabtah; from him, Josephus {t} says, came the Sabathenes, who, by the Greeks, are called Astabari; the posterity of this man seemed to have settled in some part of Arabia Felix, since Ptolemy {u} makes mention of Sabbatha as the metropolis of that country, called by Pliny {w} Sabotale, or rather Sabota, as it should be read; Ptolemy places another city in this country he calls Saphtha, which seems to have its name from this man. The fourth son is Raamah or Ragmas, as Josephus calls {x} him, from whom sprung the Ragmaeans he says; and most of the ancients call him Rhegmah, the letter e being pronounced as a "G", as in Gaza and Gomorrah: his posterity were also seated in Arabia Felix, near the Persian Gulf, where Ptolemy {y} places the city Rhegama, or as it is in the Greek text, Regma. The fifth son is Sabtecha, whom some make to be the father of a people in the same country, Arabia Felix, near the Persian Gulf, called Sachalitae; but Dr. Wells {z} thinks, that the descendants of this man might be from him regularly enough styled at first by the Greeks, Sabtaceni, which name might be afterwards softened into Saraceni, by which name it is well known the people of the northern parts of Arabia, where he places the descendants of this man, were formerly denominated; though Bochart {a} carries them into Carmania in Persia, there being a short cut over the straits of the Persian Gulf, out of Arabia thither, where he finds a city called Samydace, and a river, Samydachus, which he thinks may come from Sabtecha, the letters "B" and "M" being frequently changed, as Berodach is called Merodach, and Abana, Amana, and so in other names.
And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan; no account is given of any of the posterity of the other sons of Cush, only of this his fourth son Raamah, who is said to have two sons; the first is called Sheba, from whom came the Sabaeans, according to Josephus {b}; not the Sabaeans before mentioned in Arabia Deserta, but those in Arabia Felix, where Pomponius Mela {c} and Strabo {d} seat a people called Sabaeans, and whose country abounded with frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon; the latter makes mention of a city of theirs called Mariaba, and seems to be the same that is now called Mareb, and formerly Saba {e}, very likely from this man. The other son, Dedan, is called by Josephus {f} Judadas, whom he makes to be founder of the Judadaeans, a nation of the western Ethiopians; but the posterity of this man most probably settled in Arabia, and yet are to be distinguished from the Dedanim in
Isa 21:13 who were Arabians also, but descended from Dedan the son of Jokshan, a son of Abraham by Keturah, Ge 25:3 as well as from the inhabitants of Dedan in Edom, Jer 25:23 it is observed, that near the city Regma before mentioned, on the same coast eastward, was another city called Dedan; and to this day Daden, from which the neighbouring country also takes its name, as Bochart {g} has observed, from Barboza, an Italian writer, in his description of the kingdom of Ormus: so that we need not doubt, says Dr. Wells {h}, but that here was the settlement of Dedan the son of Raamah or Rhegma, and brother of Sheba.
{p} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {q} Ibid. {r} Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. {s} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 11. {t} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {u} Geograph. l. 6. c. 7. {w} Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. {x} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {y} Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 7.) {z} Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 1. p. 198. {a} Phaleg l. 4. c. 4. col. 218. {b} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {c} De Situ Orbis, l. 3. c. 8. {d} Geograph. l. 16. p. 536. {e} Via. Pocock. Specimen Arab. Hist p. 57. {f} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.) {g} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 6. col. 219. {h} Ut supra, (Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 1.) p. 197.
Genesis 10:8
Ver. 8. And Cush begat Nimrod,.... Besides the other five sons before mentioned; and probably this was his youngest son, being mentioned last; or however he is reserved to this place, because more was to be spoken of him than of any of the rest. Sir Walter Raleigh {i} thinks that Nimrod was begotten by Cush after his other children were become fathers, and of a later time than some of his grandchildren and nephews: and indeed the sons of Raamah, the fourth son of Cush, are taken notice of before him: however, the Arabic writers {k} must be wrong, who make him to be the son of Canaan, whereas it is so clear and express from hence that he was the son of Cush. In the Greek version he is called Nebrod, and by Josephus, Nebrodes, which is a name of Bacchus; and indeed Nimrod is the same with the Bacchus of the Heathens, for Bacchus is no other than Barchus, the son of Cush; and Jacchus, which is another of his names in Jah of Cush, or the god the son of Cush; and it is with respect to his original name Nebrod, or Nebrodes, that Bacchus is represented as clothed with the skin of
nebriv, "nebris", or a young hind, as were also his priests; and so in his name Nimrod there may be an allusion to armn, "Nimra", which, in the Chaldee language, signifies a tiger, and which kind of creatures, with others, he might hunt; tigers drew in the chariot of Bacchus, and he was sometimes clothed with the skin of one; though the name of Nimrod is usually derived from drm, "to rebel", because he was a rebel against God, as is generally said; and because, as Jarchi observes, he caused all the world to rebel against God, by the advice he gave to the generation of the division, or confusion of languages, the builders of Babel: he seems to be the same with Belus, the founder of Babel and of the Babylonian empire, whom Diodorus Siculus {l} confounds with Ninus his son:
he began to be a mighty man in the earth: that is, he was the first that formed a plan of government, and brought men into subjection to it; and so the Jews {m} make him to be the first king after God; for of the ten kings they speak of in the world, God is the first, and Nimrod the second; and so the Arabic writers {n} say, he was the first of the kings that were in the land of Babylon; and that, seeing the figure of a crown in the heaven, he got a golden one made like it, and put it on his head; hence it was commonly reported, that the crown descended to him from heaven; for this refers not to his gigantic stature, as if he was a giant, as the Septuagint render it; or a strong robust man, as Onkelos; nor to his moral character, as the Targum of Jonathan, which is,
"he began to be mighty in sin, and to rebel before the Lord in the earth;''
but to his civil character, as a ruler and governor: he was the first that reduced bodies of people and various cities into one form of government, and became the head of them; either by force and usurpation, or it may be with the consent of the people, through his persuasion of them, and on account of the mighty and heroic actions done by him.
{i} History of the World, B. 1. ch. 10. sect. 1. p. 109. {k} Elmacinus, p. 29. apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 270. See the Universal History, vol. 1. p. 276. {l} Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 90. {m} Pirke Eliezer, c. 11. {n} Elmacinus, p. 29. Patricides, p. 16. apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 271, 272. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 18.
Genesis 10:9
Ver. 9. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord,.... Which might be literally true; for, from the time of the flood to his days, wild beasts might increase very much, and greatly annoy men who dwelt very likely for the most part in tents scattered up and down in divers places: so that he did a good office in hunting and destroying them. An Arabic writer {o}, of some authority in the eastern parts, says, that by hunting he got food sufficient for the builders of Babel, while they were employed therein; and Aben Ezra interprets it in his favour, that he built altars, and the creatures he took in hunting he offered them on them a burnt offering to God. But neither of these is probable; however, it may be observed, that in this way by hunting he arrived to the power and dominion over men he afterwards had; for not only he ingratiated himself into their favour by hunting down and destroying the wild beasts which molested them, but by these means he might gather together a large number of young men, strong and robust, to join him in hunting; whereby they were inured to hardships, and trained up to military exercises, and were taught the way of destroying men as well as beasts; and by whose help and assistance he might arrive to the government he had over men; and hunting, according to Aristotle {p}, is a part of the military art, which is to be used both on beasts, and on such men who are made to be ruled, but are not willing; and it appears, from Xenophon {q}, that the kings of Persia were fitted for war and government by hunting, and which is still reckoned in many countries a part of royal education. And it may be remarked, that, as Nimrod and Bacchus are the same, as before observed, one of the titles of Bacchus is zagreuv, "an hunter". Cedrenus {r} says, that the Assyrians deified Nebrod, or Nimrod, and placed him among the constellations of heaven, and called him Orion; the same first discovered the art of hunting, therefore they joined to Orion the star called the dog star. However, besides his being in a literal sense an hunter, he was in a figurative sense one, a tyrannical ruler and governor of men. The Targum of Jonathan is;
"he was a powerful rebel before the Lord;''
and that of Jerusalem,
"he was powerful in hunting in sin before the Lord,''
and another Jewish writer {s} says, he was called a mighty hunter, because he was all his days taking provinces by force, and spoiling others of their substance; and that he was "before the Lord", truly so, and he seeing and taking notice of it, openly and publicly, and without fear of him, and in a bold and impudent manner, in despite of him, see Ge 6:11. The Septuagint render it, "against the Lord"; he intended, as Jarchi's note is, to provoke him to his face:
wherefore it is said; in a proverbial way, when any man is grown mighty and powerful, or is notoriously wicked, or is become a tyrant and an oppressor of the people, that he is
even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. This was a proverb used in the times of Moses, as it is common now with us to call a hunter Nimrod.
{o} Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 18. {p} Politic. l. 1. c. 8. {q} Cyropaed. l. 1. c. 5. {r} Apud Abrami Pharum, l. 5. sect. 6. p. 128. {s} R. Gedaliah, Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 76. 2.
Genesis 10:10
Ver. 10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel,.... The city of Babel, or Babylon, which was built by his direction; for though Babylon is by some writers said to be built by Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, and others by Ninus himself, yet the truest account is, that it was built by Belus, the same with Nimrod. Curtius {t} says, Semiramis built it; or, as most believe, adds he, Belus, whose royal palace is shown: and Berosus {u}, the Chaldean, blames the Greek writers for ascribing it to Semiramis; and Abydenus {w}, out of Megasthenes, affirms, that Belus surrounded Babylon with a wall: however, this was the head of the kingdom of Nimrod, as Onkelos renders it, or his chief city, or where he first began to reign. Here he set up his kingdom, which he enlarged and extended afterwards to other places; and from hence it appears, that what is related in this context, concerning Nimrod, is by way of anticipation; for it was not a fact that he was a mighty man, or a powerful prince possessed of a kingdom, until after the building of Babel, and the confusion of languages there; when those that continued on the spot either chose him for their ruler, or he, by power or policy, got the dominion over them. Artapanus {x}, an Heathen writer, relates, that the giants which inhabited Babylon being taken away by the gods for their impiety, one of them, Belus, escaped death and dwelt in Babylon, and took up his abode in the tower which he had raised up, and which, from him the founder of it, was called Belus; so that this, as Moses says, was the beginning of his kingdom, together with
Erech, and Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar, where the city and tower of Babel were built: for of these four cities, which were all in the same country, did the kingdom of Nimrod consist; they all, either by force or by consent, were brought into subjection to him, and were under one form of government, and is the first kingdom known to be set up in the world. Erech, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, is Hades, or Edessa, a city in Mesopotamia; but it is rather thought to be the name with the Aracca of Ptolemy {y}, and the Arecha of Marcellinus {z}, placed by them both in Susiana; though one would think it should be that city in Chaldea which took its present Arabic name of Erak from Erech: the Arabic writers say {a}, when Irac or Erac is absolutely put, it denotes Babylonia, or Chaldea, in the land of Shinar; and they say that Shinar is in Al-Erac. The next city, Accad, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, is Netzibin, or Nisibis, a city in Mesopotamia; in the Septuagint version it is called Archad; and Ctesias {b} relates, that at the Persian Sittace was a river called Argad, which Bochart {c} thinks carries in it a manifest trace of this name; and observes, from Strabo {d}, that that part of Babylon nearest to Susa was called Sitacena. And the other city, Calneh, according to the above Targums, is Ctesiphon, and is generally thought to be the place intended, and was a town upon the Tigris, near to Seleucia in Babylon; it was first called Chalone, and its name was changed to Ctesiphon by Pacorus, king of the Persians. It is in
Isa 10:9 called Calno, and by the Septuagint version there the Chalane, which adds,
"where the tower was built;''
and from whence the country called the Chalonitis by Pliny {e} had its name, the chief city of which was Ctesiphon; and who says {f} Chalonitis is joined with Ctesiphon. Thus far goes the account of Nimrod; and, though no mention is made of his death, yet some writers are not silent about it. Abulpharagius {g}, an Arabic writer, says he died in the tower of Babel, it being blown down by stormy winds; the Jewish writers say {h} he was killed by Esau for the sake of his coat, which was Adam's, and came to Noah, and from him to Ham, and so to Nimrod. When he began his reign, and how long he reigned, is not certain; we have only some fabulous accounts: according to Berosus {i}, he began to reign one hundred and thirty one years after the flood, and reigned fifty six years, and then disappeared, being translated by the gods: and, indeed, the authors of the Universal History place the beginning of his reign in the year of the flood one hundred and thirty one, and thirty years after the dispersion at Babylon {k}; and who relate, that the eastern writers speak of his reign as very long: a Persian writer gives his name a Persian derivation, as if it was Nemurd, that is, "immortal", on account of his long reign of above one hundred and fifty years: and some of the Mahometan historians say he reigned in Al-Sowad, that is, the "black country", four hundred years {l}.
{t} Hist. l. 5. c. 1. {u} Apud Joseph. contra Apion. l. 1. c. 20. {w} Apud. Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457. {x} Apud. Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 18. p. 420. {y} Geograph. l. 6. c. 3. {z} Lib. 23. {a} Vid. Hyde in notis ad Peritsol. Itinera Mundi, p. 65. {b} Apud Aelian. Hist. Animal. l. 16. c. 42. {c} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 17. {d} Geograph. l. 15. p. 503. {e} Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26. {f} Ibid. c. 27. {g} Hist. Dynast. p. 12. {h} In Pirke Eliezer, c. 24. {i} Antiqu. l. 4. p. 28, 29. {k} Vol. 1. p. 282. and vol. 21. p. 2. {l} Apud Hyde's Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 2. p. 43.
Genesis 10:11
Ver. 11. Out of that land went forth Ashur,.... It is a question whether Ashur is the name of a man or of a country; some take it in the latter sense, and render the words, "and out of that land he went forth into Assyria"; so Onkelos; and in this way go Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, Bochart, Cocceius, and others, and the margin of our Bible, and interpret it of Nimrod; and the Targum of Jonathan is express for him, which is this:
"out of that land went forth Nimrod, and reigned in Assyria, because he would not be in the council of the generation of the division, and he left four cities; and the Lord gave him therefore a place (or Assyria), and he built four other cities, Nineveh, &c.;''
so Theophilus of Antioch says {m}, that Nebroth (Nimrod) built the same; but then the generality of interpreters which take this way give another and better reason for Nimrod's going out of Shinar or Babylon into Assyria than the Targumist gives; which is, that not content with his own dominions, and willing to enlarge them, he went out and made war upon Assyria, and seized upon it, and built cities in it, and added them to his former ones; in favour of this sense it is urged, that Moses is speaking of what Nimrod the son of Cush did, of the line of Ham, and not of the sons of Shem, among whom Ashur was; and that it is not probable he should introduce a passage relating to a branch of Shem, when he is professedly writing about that of Ham; nor is it agreeable to the history to speak of what Ashur did, before any mention of his birth, which is in Ge 10:22 nor was it peculiar to him to go out of the land of Shinar, since almost all were dispersed from thence; add to which, that Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, Mic 5:6 to which it may be replied, that parentheses of this sort are frequent in Scripture, see 2Sa 4:4 besides, it seems appropriate enough, when treating of Nimrod's dominion and power, in order to show his intolerable tyranny, to remark, that it was such, that Ashur, a son of Shem, could not bear it, and therefore went out from a country he had a right unto; and as for the text in Mic 5:6 the land of Nimrod and the land of Assyria are manifestly distinguished from one another: add to this, that, if Nimrod so early made a conquest of Assyria, it would rather have been called by his own name than his uncle's; and it is allowed by all that the country of Assyria had its name from Ashur, the son of Shem; and who so likely to have founded Nineveh, and other cities, as himself? Besides these, interpreters are obliged to force the text, and insert the particle "into", which is not in it; and the order and construction of the words are more natural and agreeable to the original, as in our version and others, which make Ashur the name of a man, than this, which makes it a country: but then it is not agreed on who this Ashur was; some will have him to be of the posterity of Ham, and a son of Nimrod, as Epiphanius {n} and Chrysostom {o}; but this is not probable, nor can any proof be given of it; Josephus {p} is express for it, that Ashur, the son of Shem, built Nineveh, and gave the name of Assyrians to those that were subject to him. The reason of his going out from Shinar, as given by Jarchi, is, when he saw his sons hearkening to Nimrod, and rebelling against the Lord, by building a tower, he went out from them; or it may be, he was drove out by Nimrod by force, or he could not bear his tyrannical government, or live where such a wicked man ruled: and as Nimrod built cities and set up an empire, Ashur did the same in his own defence and that of his posterity:
and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah. The first of these cities, Nineveh, the Greeks commonly call Ninus, is placed by Strabo {q} in Atyria, the Chaldee name of Assyria, who generally suppose it had its name from Ninus, whom Diodorus Siculus {r} makes the first king of the Assyrians, and to whom he ascribes the building of this city; and who, one would think, should be Ashur, and that Ninus was another name of him, or however by which he went among the Greeks; and so this city was called after him; or rather it had its name from the beauty of it, the word signifying a beautiful habitation, as Cocceius {s} and Hillerus {t} give the etymology of it; or perhaps, when it was first built by him, it had another name, but afterwards was called Nineveh, from Ninus, who lived many years after him, who might repair, adorn, and beautify it. It was destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians, as foretold by Nahum, and it is difficult now to say where it stood; the place where it is supposed to have been is now called Mosul; of which place Rauwolff {u} says, who was there in 1574, that
"there are some very good buildings and streets in it, and it is pretty large, but very ill provided with walls and ditches;--besides this, I also saw, (says he,) just without the town, a little hill, that was almost quite dug through, and inhabited by poor people, where I saw them several times creep in and out as pismires in ant hills: in this place, or thereabouts, stood formerly the potent town of Nineveh, built by Ashur, which was the metropolis of Assyria;--at this time there is nothing of antiquities to be seen in it, save only the fort that lieth upon the hill, and some few villages, which the inhabitants say did also belong to it in former days. This town lieth on the confines of Armenia, in a large plain:''
See Gill on "Jon 1:2" see Gill on "Jon 3:1" see Gill on "Jon 3:2" see Gill on "Jon 3:3" see Gill on "Na 1:8" The next city, Rehoboth, signifies "streets", and so it is rendered in the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; and, because in the Chaldee language streets are called "Beritha", Bochart {w} thinks that this Rehoboth is the city which Ptolemy {x} calls Birtha, on the west of Tigris, at the mouth of the river Lycus, though he places it by Euphrates; wherefore it should rather be Oroba, he places at the river Tigris {y}, near to Nineveh also. The last city, Calah, or Calach, was a principal city in the country, by Ptolemy {z} called Calacine, and by Strabo {a} Calachene, and mentioned by both along with Adiabene, a country in Assyria.
{m} Ad Autolycum, l. 2. p. 106. {n} Contra Haeres. l. 1. p. 3. {o} In Genes. Homil. 29. {p} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 4. {q} Geograph. l. 16. p. 507. {r} Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 90, 91. {s} In Jonam, 1, 2. {t} Onomast. Sacr. p. 304, 431. {u} Travels, part 2. c. 9. p. 166. {w} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 21. col. 256. {x} Geograph. l. 5. c. 19. {y} Ibid. l. 6. c. 1. {z} Ibid. {a} Geograph. l. 11. p. 347, 365. & l. 16. p. 507.
Genesis 10:12
Ver. 12. And Resen, between Nineveh and Calah,.... This was another city built by Ashur, situated between those two cities mentioned: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem call it Talsar, or Thalassar, see Isa 37:12 The conjecture of Bochart {b} is more probable, that it is the Larissa of Xenophon, situated on the Tigris; though Junius thinks it is either Bassora, or Belcina, which Ptolemy {c} places on the Tigris, near Nineveh:
the same is a great city: which Jarchi interprets of Nineveh, called a great city, and was indeed one, being sixty miles in circumference, Jon 1:2 but the construction of the words carries it to Resen, which might be the greatest city when first built; and, if understood of Larissa, was a great city, the walls of it being one hundred feet high, and the breadth twenty five, and the compass of it eight miles. Benjamin of Tudela says {d}, that in his time Resen was called Gehidagan, and was a great city, in which were 5000 Israelites; but according to Schmidt, this refers to all the cities in a coalition, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, which all made that great city Nineveh; or were a Tetrapolis, as Tripoli was anciently three cities, built by the joint interest of the Aradians, Sidonians, and Tyrians, as Diodorus Siculus {e} relates.
{b} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 23. {c} Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 5. c. 19.) {d} Itinerarium, p. 75. {e} Bibliothec. l. 16. p. 439.
Genesis 10:13
Ver. 13. And Mizraim begat Ludim,.... Mizraim was the second son of Ham, of whom See Gill on "Ge 10:6". Ludim he is said to beget, the word being plural, is not the name of a man, but of his posterity; and the sense is, that Mizraim begat the father of the Ludim, whose name very probably was Lud, which name is preserved in Isa 66:19. These Ludim are the same with the Lydians, Jer 46:9 and whose country is called Lydia, Eze 30:5 but to be distinguished from Lydia in Asia Minor, and the Lydians there who sprung from Lud, a son of Shem, Ge 10:22 for, as these sprung from Mizraim, the founder of Egypt, they must be somewhere thereabout; and Bochart {f} has proved, by various arguments, that they are the Ethiopians in Africa, now called Abyssines, whose country lies to the south of Egypt, a people formerly famous for archery, as Lud and the Lydians are said to be, Isa 66:19 and whoever reads the accounts Diodorus Siculus {g} gives of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, will easily discern a likeness between them, and that the one sprung from the other; both deifying their kings; showing a like carefulness about their funerals; both using hieroglyphics; having the like order of priests, who used shaving; and circumcision was common to them both, as Herodotus observes {h}:
and Ananzim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim: the name of the father of the Anamim very probably was Anam, though we have no account of him elsewhere: according to Hillerus {i}, the Anamim were called so from the pastoral life they led; and, by a transposition of letters, were the same with the Maeonians, who inhabited that tract of land in Asia which was washed by the river Maeonia, or Maeander, and bordered on Lydia; but, as these were the descendants of Mizraim, they must be sought for somewhere about Egypt: much better therefore does Mr. Broughton {k} take them to be the Nubians and Numidians, which were near both Egypt and Ethiopia; though Bochart {l} seems to be most correct, in making them to be the Ammonians, who, Herodotus says, were a colony of the Egyptians and Ethiopians; these lived about Ammon and Nasamonitis, and in that part of Lybia in which the temple of Jupiter Ammon stood, and are the Nomades, that lived a pastoral life; and Bochart {m} thinks they are called Anamim, from Anam, which, in the Arabic language, signifies a "sheep", because they fed sheep, and lived upon them, and clothed themselves with their skins. The word Lehabim, the name of another people from Mizraim, signifies "flames"; and were so called, as Jarchi observes, because their faces were like flames, see Isa 13:8 burnt with the heat of the sun, living near the torrid zone; and therefore could not be the Lycians, as Hillerus {n} thinks, the inhabitants of a country in Asia, between Caria and Pamphylia, formerly called Lycia, now Aidimelli, which he observes abounds with places that have their names from fire and flames, as Mount Chimaera, the cities Hephaestium, Myra, Lemyra, Habessus, Telmessus, Balbura, and Sirbis; but these were too far from Egypt, near which it is more probable the Lehabim were, and seem to be the same with the Lubim, which came with Shishak out of Egypt to invade Judea,
2Ch 12:3 and who were called Lybians, Jer 46:9 and their country Lybia, Eze 30:5 of which Leo Africanus {a} says, that it is a desert, dry and sandy, having neither fountains nor springs; which was near Egypt as well as Ethiopia, with which it is joined in the above place, see Ac 2:10. The word Naphtuhim, the name of another people that sprung from Mizraim, according to Hillerus {o}, signifies "open"; and he thinks they are the Pamphylians, who used to admit promiscuously all into their ports and towns, which were open to all strangers, and even robbers, for the sake of commerce; but, as these were a people in lesser Asia, they cannot be the people here meant. Bochart {p} observes, from Plutarch, that the Egyptians used to call the extreme parts of a country, and abrupt places and mountains adjoining to the sea, Nepthys, the same with Nephthuah; and therefore he is of opinion, that these Naphtuhim dwelt on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, near Egypt, in Marmorica; not far from whence was the temple of Aptuchus, mentioned by Ptolemy {q}, and placed by him in Cyrene, which carries in it some trace of the name of Naphtuhim; and he suspects that Neptune had his name from hence; he being a Lybian god, as Herodotus {r} says; for none ever used his name before the Lybians, who always honoured him as a god: and it may be observed, from Strabo {s}, that many of the temples of Neptune were on the sea shore. Some place these people about Memphis, the name of which was Noph,
Isa 19:13 but perhaps it may be much better to place them in the country of Nepate, between Syene and Meroc, where Candace, queen of Ethiopia, had her royal palace in the times of Strabo {t}.
{f} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 26. {g} Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 143, &c.; {h} Euterpe sive, l. 2. c. 104. {i} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 283. {k} See his Works, p. 4, 60. {l} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 30. col. 284. {m} Ib. c. 42. {n} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 281, 583. {a} Descriptio Africae, l. 1. p. 74. {o} Onomastic Sacr. p. 161, 178, 283, 421. {p} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 26. {q} Geograph. l. 4. c. 4. {r} Herodot. Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 21. Euterpe sive, l. 2. c. 50. {s} Geograph, l. 8. p. 237. {t} Geograph. l. 17. p. 564.
Genesis 10:14
Ver. 14. And Pathrusim,.... These are other descendants of Mizraim, the name of whose father very probably was Pathros, from whom the country of Pathros was called, and which is not only spoken of in Scripture along with Egypt, but as a part of it, Isa 11:11 and these Pathrusim were doubtless the inhabitants of it; which, as Bochart {u} has shown, is no other than Thebais, or the upper Egypt. Hillerus {w} takes the word to be compounded of tap and Myowr, and renders it the corner of the Rosians, and makes it to be the same with the bay of Issus, where was a colony of Egypt, called Cilicians; but the former is more probable.
And Casluhim