Genesischapter 10
32 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
This chapter was written for Israel in the wilderness, a people about to meet many of the nations named in it, and tradition gives it to Moses. It is a map written as a family tree, tracing the peoples of the known world back to the three sons of Noah. Most of its names are nations and places a first hearer would recognise. Listen for the formula that closes each branch, and for the one man whose entry runs longer than the rest. Notice where the list slows down to trace the borders of Canaan. The next chapter goes back to say why the nations were scattered.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, about to meet many of these peoples by name
- What
- A table of the nations descended from Shem, Ham and Japheth, set out by their clans, languages, lands and nations.
- Where
- The ancient Near East, from the Aegean coasts to Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt and Canaan.
- When
- Before any dated history; the peoples named are known from records of the second and first millennia BC.
- Why
- To show Israel that every nation came from one family under God, and to place the peoples they would meet.
Historical context
The chapter opens the fourth named section of the book, the generations of the sons of Noah at Genesis 10:1, and it is a map written as a family tree. Most of its names are places or peoples that can be identified from other records.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
Javan is the Ionian Greeks, Madai the Medes, Kittim is Cyprus, Tarshish lies far to the west, Mizraim is Egypt, Asshur is Assyria, and Sidon and Heth head the Canaanite list.
Nimrod takes the longest entry, a mighty hunter whose kingdom began at Babel, Erech and Akkad in Shinar and who then built in Assyria. Erech is Uruk and Akkad is the capital of Sargon's empire, the two oldest imperial centres in Mesopotamia. Royal lion hunting was a standing boast of Assyrian kings and was carved on their palace walls.
The Canaanite list runs down the coast from Sidon to Gaza and then inland, and it names the peoples Israel is told they will dispossess, among them the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite and the Hivite.
The refrain a first hearer would have caught is the closing formula of each branch, by their families, their languages, their lands and their nations. Seventy nations stand in the list, all from one man and all placed.
Significance
Israel was one small people among many, and this chapter told them that the many were their relatives.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also set up the next chapter, since the nations are already scattered here and Genesis 11 goes back to say why.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the second portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the flood and the tower (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). The list of the seventy nations is chanted between the going out of the ark and the scattering at Babel. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
The chapter is a genealogy, and the classical comment on it works name by name. Rashi is quoted here from the public domain Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, and Radak from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash.
Both read the names as peoples rather than as men alone. Rashi reads Tiras as Persia and the great city of the twelfth verse as Nineveh, taking the second from the words of Jonah (Rashi on Genesis 10:2:1 and 10:12:1, both citing Yoma 10a). Radak reports that "people say" Ashkenaz is the people living in Germany, and he gives the saying as a saying (Radak on Genesis 10:3:1). He reads the islands of the fifth verse as the islands of the Aegean, settled by the sons of Japheth after Babel (Radak on Genesis 10:5:1).
Radak reads the order of the three branches as deliberate. Japheth is named before Ham for his character or for his years. The line of Shem is left to the end so that the account can run on into the lives of the patriarchs (Radak on Genesis 10:6:1). He notes that Rav Saadiah Gaon wrote a commentary on the whole list of names in the seventh verse (Radak on Genesis 10:7:1). On the sons of Canaan he reports a commentator who counted eleven sons, and read the number against the nations of Deuteronomy 32:8 (Radak on Genesis 10:15:1).
Rashi reads Nimrod against the chapter that follows. The might of the eighth verse is might in making the world rebel. The hunting of the ninth verse is the ensnaring of minds by words (Rashi on Genesis 10:8:1 and 10:9:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 23:7 and 37:2). He reads the eleventh verse as Asshur going out from among them, because Asshur would have no part in the tower (Rashi on Genesis 10:11:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 37:4).
Ibn Ezra and Radak carry two comments the corpus holds by reference alone, because the licence Sefaria reports for the English versions keeps the text out. They are Ibn Ezra on Genesis 10:4:1 and Radak on Genesis 10:29:1.
What the rabbis say
Rashi carries three sayings of the rabbis on this chapter, and each stands here as what they taught.
The first is on Peleg. Rashi reports that Eber named his son for a division that had not yet happened, and that this makes Eber a prophet (Rashi on Genesis 10:25:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 37:7). He adds the reckoning of Seder Olam, that the scattering fell in the last of the days of Peleg.
The second is on the Philistines of the fourteenth verse. Rashi reports the saying that they came of two of the peoples named there together, the Pathrusim and the Casluhim (Rashi on Genesis 10:14:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 37:5). The third is on Hazarmaveth, whose name Rashi reports was taken from his city, in the words of the Aggadah (Rashi on Genesis 10:26:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 37:8). He reads Lehabim as a name given for faces like flame (Rashi on Genesis 10:13:1).
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty nine under Midrash and one under Talmud, which is the lightest Talmud weight of any chapter in these twenty five. It carries the locator for each one with no text.
Bereshit Rabbah runs the length of the list. It reads the second verse at 36:6 and 36:8, the sixth at 36:7, the seventh at 16:2 and 63:7, and the eighth at 23:7 and 26:4. It reads the ninth verse at 37:3, the tenth at 37:4, the twelfth at 75:1 and the thirteenth at 37:5. It reads the fifteenth verse at 37:6, the seventeenth at 44:23, the twenty first at 37:7, the twenty second at 16:3 and 44:7, the twenty fifth at 6:4 and the twenty sixth at 37:8. Bereshit Rabbati reads four verses in Parashat Noah, at 25, 24, 2 and 26.
Bamidbar Rabbah reads the first verse at 2:21, the sixth at 16:13, the seventeenth at 16:25 and the twenty first at 4:8. Sefer HaYashar reads the fourteenth verse at Noach 16, and the Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai reads the fifteenth at 13:10. The one Talmud locator is Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:9:2, on the eighteenth verse.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 10, in Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain, about 1090; Radak, Radak on Genesis 10:1:1, 10:3:1, 10:5:1, 10:6:1, 10:7:1, 10:10:1, 10:15:1, 10:16:1 and 10:23:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; Ibn Ezra, his comment on Genesis 10:4:1, cited by reference; the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out of the corpus; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 10 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/10.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Sons of Japheth
This is the account of Noah’s sons: This is the fourth of the eleven accounts that divide Genesis, and it opens on Noah's sons after the flood. Each account narrows the field, and this one carries the widest list in the book, every nation out of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Babel tells in the next chapter how they were scattered.
Genesis 10:1
Those descendants, with one or two exceptions, are described by names indicative of tribes and nations and ending in the Hebrew im, or the English "-ite."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 10:2-4
The sons of Japheth: Japheth's line is taken first, though he is named last in verse 1, which clears the outer nations before the story narrows. Ezekiel 38:2 and 6 name Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Togarmah again in the oracle against Gog. Noah had asked God to expand the territory of Japheth at 9:27. This list is that expansion counted out.
Genesis 10:2
“The sons of Japheth - Japheth is supposed to be the same with the Japetus of the Greeks, from whom, in an extremely remote antiquity, that people were supposed to have derived their origin. Gomer - Supposed by some to have peopled Galatia; so Josephus, who says that the Galatians were anciently named Gomerites. From him the Cimmerians or Cimbrians are supposed to have derived their origin. Bochart has no doubt that the Phrygians sprang from this person, and some of our principal commentators are of the same opinion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 10:2
“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 ιαπετιονιδης, "Iapetionides", and him ιαπετος, "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.”
The sons of Gomer: Adam Clarke sets Ashkenaz in Armenia, and Jeremiah 51:27 calls Ashkenaz up against Babylon. Later Jewish writers gave Ashkenaz to Germany. Riphath is Diphath in the Hebrew of 1 Chronicles 1:6, and Togarmah is named again at Ezekiel 27:14.
Genesis 10:3
“Ashkenaz - Probably gave his name to Sacagena, a very excellent province of Armenia. Pliny mentions a people called Ascanitici, who dwelt about the Tanais and the Palus Maeotis; and some suppose that from Ashkenaz the Euxine Sea derived its name, but others suppose that from him the Germans derived their origin. Riphath - Or Diphath, the founder of the Paphlagonians, which were anciently called Riphataei. Togarmah - The Sauromates, or inhabitants of Turcomania. See the reasons in Calmet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
And the sons of Javan: Javan is the Ionians, and Jerome reads Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites as Greek peoples. The Hebrew of Genesis has Dodanim, while 1 Chronicles 1:7 has Rodanim, the form that points to Rhodes. Josephus, Jerome reports, took Tarshish for Tarsus, Paul's city.
Genesis 10:4
“Elishah - As Javan peopled a considerable part of Greece, it is in that region that we must seek for the settlements of his descendants; Elishah probably was the first who settled at Elis, in Peloponnesus. Tarshish - He first inhabited Cilicia, whose capital anciently was the city of Tarsus, where the Apostle Paul was born. Kittim - We have already seen that this name was rather the name of a people than of an individual: some think by Kittim Cyprus is meant: others, the isle of Chios; and others, the Romans; and others, the Macedonians.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the maritime peoples separated into their territories: The peoples are already separated by language here, one chapter before the languages are confused at Babel. Adam Clarke reads the verse as written from the far side of that event, looking back on it. The same formula closes each of the three lists, clans and languages and lands and nations. The maritime peoples are the coastlands, reached by sea.
Genesis 10:5
“Isles of the Gentiles - Europe, of which this is allowed to be a general epithet. Calmet supposes that it comprehends all those countries to which the Hebrews were obliged to go by sea, such as Spain, Gaul, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Every one after his tongue - This refers to the time posterior to the confusion of tongues and dispersion from Babel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ham's Sons and Nimrod the Hunter
Genesis 10:6-7
The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan are the four sons of Ham. Mizraim is Egypt, named here for the first time in Scripture. Every going down in Genesis runs to that name, Abram in chapter 12 and Jacob's whole house in chapter 46. Canaan is the son Noah had cursed, and his line gets more room here than any other.
Genesis 10:6
“Cush - Who peopled the Arabic nome near the Red Sea in Lower Egypt. Some think the Ethiopians descended from him. Mizraim - This family certainly peopled Egypt; and both in the East and in the West, Egypt is called Mezr and Mezraim. Phut - Who first peopled an Egyptian nome or district, bordering on Libya. Canaan - He who first peopled the land so called, known also by the name of the Promised Land.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Cush: Sheba and Havilah stand in Ham's line here and again among the sons of Joktan in verses 28 and 29. Adam Clarke counts three peoples called Seba or Sheba in the chapter and a fourth at 25:3, where Sheba and Dedan descend from Abraham through Keturah. Psalm 72:10 names Sheba and Seba together.
Genesis 10:7
“Seba - The founder of the Sabaeans. There seem to be three different people of this name mentioned in this chapter, and a fourth in Gen 25:3. Havilah - Supposed by some to mean the inhabitants of the country included within that branch of the river Pison which ran out of the Euphrates into the bay of Persia, and bounded Arabia Felix on the east. Sabtah - Supposed by some to have first peopled an isle or peninsula called Saphta, in the Persian Gulf.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 10:8-9
who began to be a mighty one on the earth: Nimrod, the son of Cush, is the one man in this chapter given a story. He began as a mighty one on the earth, and a saying was made of him, Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD. Matthew Henry takes before the LORD as defiance, a hunter against the LORD. Others hear plain emphasis, the greatest hunter anywhere.
Genesis 10:8
“Nimrod - Of this person little is known, as he is not mentioned except here and in 1Ch 1:10, which is evidently a copy of the text in Genesis. He is called a mighty hunter before the Lord; and from Gen 10:10, we learn that he founded a kingdom which included the cities Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Though the words are not definite, it is very likely he was a very bad man.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 10:8
“Note, Great conquerors are but great hunters. Alexander and Cesar would not make such a figure in scripture-history as they do in common history; the former is represented in prophecy but as a he-goat pushing, Dan. viii. Nimrod was a mighty hunter against the Lord, so the LXX; that is, (1.) He set up idolatry, as Jeroboam did, for the confirming of his usurped dominion.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 10:8
“Nimrod--mentioned as eclipsing all his family in renown. He early distinguished himself by his daring and successful prowess in hunting wild beasts. By those useful services he earned a title to public gratitude; and, having established a permanent ascendancy over the people, he founded the first kingdom in the world [Ge 10:10].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 10:8
“The same spirit that the giants before the flood were acted by, chap. vi, 4, now revived in him; so soon was that tremendous judgment, which the pride and tyranny of those mighty men brought upon the world, forgotten.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
a mighty hunter before the LORD: The saying made Nimrod a byword for a mighty hunter. Mighty is gibbor, the word used at 6:4 for the mighty men of old, and John Wesley saw their spirit revived in Nimrod. Micah 5:6 later calls Assyria the land of Nimrod.
Genesis 10:9
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 10:9
“Note, Great conquerers are but great hunters. Alexander and Caesar would not make such a figure in scripture history as they do in common history. The former is represented in prophecy but as a he-goat pushing, Dan. viii, 5.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 10:10-12
His kingdom began in Babylon: Babylon, Erech, Accad and Calneh are the first cities of his kingdom, all in the land of Shinar. Nimrod went on from there into Assyria and built Nineveh and Calah. Babylon and Nineveh both begin in one man's reign, and both later carry Israel and Judah into exile. Shinar becomes a fixed address in Scripture.
Genesis 10:10
“The beginning of his kingdom was Babel - בבל babel signifies confusion; and it seems to have been a very proper name for the commencement of a kingdom that appears to have been founded in apostasy from God, and to have been supported by tyranny, rapine, and oppression. In the land of Shinar - The same as mentioned Gen 11:2. It appears that, as Babylon was built on the river Euphrates, and the tower of Babel was in the land of Shinar, consequently Shinar itself must have been in the southern part of Mesopotamia.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 10:10
“The beginning of his kingdom was Babel - Some way or other, he got into power: and so laid the foundations of a monarchy which was afterwards a head of gold.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
he went forth into Assyria: Older translations made Asshur the one who went out, and Adam Clarke preferred Nimrod as the subject. The Berean text follows Clarke's reading. Jerome read rehoboth as streets, so Rehoboth-Ir names the streets of Nineveh itself.
Genesis 10:11
“Out of that land went forth Asshur - The marginal reading is to be preferred here. He - Nimrod, went out into Assyria and built Nineveh; and hence Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, Mic 5:6. Thus did this mighty hunter extend his dominions in every possible way. The city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is supposed to have had its name from Ninus, the son of Nimrod; but probably Ninus and Nimrod are the same person.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 10:11
“This raid into Assyria was an invasion of the territories of Shem, and hence the name "Nimrod," signifying "rebel," is supposed to have been conferred on him from his daring revolt against the divine distribution.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the great city of Calah: The Hebrew leaves open which city is the great city, and the Berean text gives the title to Calah. Jerome gave it to Nineveh, and Jonah 1:2 calls Nineveh the great city. Resen lay between the two, near the Tigris.
Genesis 10:13-14
Mizraim was the father of the Ludites: Mizraim is the father of the Casluhites, and the Philistines come out of them. They stand apart from the Canaanite nations listed below. Abraham deals with a king of the Philistines at Gerar in chapter 20 and Isaac with a king of that name in the same town in chapter 26. Amos 9:7 has the LORD bringing the Philistines up from Caphtor, the last name on this list.
Genesis 10:13
“Mizraim begat Ludim - Supposed to mean the inhabitants of the Mareotis, a canton in Egypt, for the name Ludim is evidently the name of a people. Anamim - According to Bochart, the people who inhabited the district about the temple of Jupiter Ammon. Lehabim - The Libyans, or a people who dwelt on the west of the Thebaid, and were called Libyo-Egyptians. Naphtuhim - Even the conjectures can scarcely fix a place for these people. Bochart seems inclined to place them in Marmarica, or among the Troglodytae.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
(from whom the Philistines came): Jerome reads the Philistines as a people that came from the Casluhites, a clan of Mizraim. Amos 9:7 and Jeremiah 47:4 bring them from Caphtor, the land of the Caphtorites. Calmet, as Adam Clarke reports, set the Caphtorites in Cyprus.
Genesis 10:14
“Pathrusim - The inhabitants of the Delta, in Egypt, according to the Chaldee paraphrase; but, according to Bochart, the people who inhabited the Thebaid, called Pathros in Scripture. Casluhim - The inhabitants of Colchis; for almost all authors allow that Colchis was peopled from Egypt. Philistim - The people called Philistines, the constant plagues and frequent oppressors of the Israelites, whose history may be seen at large in the books of Samuel, Kings, etc. Caphtorim - Inhabitants of Cyprus according to Calmet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 10:15-18
Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn: Canaan's sons are the nations Israel would later meet in the land, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites and Hivites. John Wesley notes that this line is set out more particularly than any other in the chapter. The only ground Abraham ever owns in the land of promise is the cave at Machpelah, bought from the Hittites for four hundred shekels in chapter 23. It is a grave.
Genesis 10:15
“The account of the posterity of Canaan, and the land they possessed is more particular than of any other in this chapter, because these were the nations that were to be subdued before Israel, and their land was to become Immanuel's land.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the Jebusites, the Amorites: The Jebusites held Jerusalem until David took it in 2 Samuel 5, and Jebus stayed an old name for the city. Amorite can stand for all the land's peoples, as at 15:16. The Girgashites appear mostly in the lists of the nations Israel was to subdue, such as Deuteronomy 7:1.
the Hivites, the Arkites: The Hivites of Shechem and Gibeon are among the Canaanite clans Israel later meets in the land. John Gill places them under Hermon. Jerome sets the Arkites and Sinites near Tripolis, north of Sidon on the coast.
the Arvadites, the Zemarites: Arvad was an island city off the Phoenician coast. John Gill runs the Hivite country north toward Hamath, the city on the Orontes that later marks the northern edge of Israel's land. The verb for scattered is the one used at 9:19 for the peopling of the whole earth.
Genesis 10:19-20
the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon: The border drawn here is the country Abram will be promised. Sidon, Gaza and Lasha mark its edges, and Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim sit inside it as living cities. That is three chapters before Lot pitches his tent toward Sodom and nine before the fire falls.
Genesis 10:19
“And the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon as one enters Gerar, reaching to Gaza, until one enters Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. The ancient translation has Lyce for Lasha.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
These are the sons of Ham: John Gill counts Ham's sons and grandsons at thirty, or thirty-one with the Philistines, holding Africa and part of Asia. Adam Clarke warned that the lands and nations named here changed so often that many can no longer be placed. Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan head the four branches.
Genesis 10:20
“These are the sons of Ham,.... His sons and grandsons, which some reckon to be thirty, others thirty one, if the Philistines are taken in: after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations: families of the same language joined together and dwelt in the same country; see Gill on Gen 10:5 all Africa and a considerable part of Asia were possessed by the four sons of Ham and their posterity; Mizraim had Egypt, and Phut all the rest of Africa; and Cush and Canaan had a large portion in Asia.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 10:20
“These are the sons of Ham after their families - No doubt all these were well known in the days of Moses, and for a long time after; but at this distance, when it is considered that the political state of the world has been undergoing almost incessant revolutions through all the intermediate portions of time, the impossibility of fixing their residences or marking their descendants must be evident, as both the names of the people and the places of their residences have been changed beyond the possibility of being recognized.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Sons of Shem
Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber: Sons are born to Shem last, though he is named first everywhere else, and the rest of the book follows his line. The verse names him forefather of all the sons of Eber, a descendant four generations down, whose name stands behind the word Hebrew. The clause about the older brother is read two ways. John Wesley takes Japheth as the elder, others Shem.
Genesis 10:21
“He was the brother of Japheth the elder; by which it appears, that though Shem be commonly put first, yet he was not Noah's first-born, but Japheth was elder. But why should this also be put as part of Shem's description, that he was the brother of Japheth, since that had been said before?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 10:21
“Shem, the third son of Noah, had five sons, who inhabited the land that began at Euphrates, and reached to the Indian Ocean. For Elam left behind him the Elamites, the ancestors of the Persians.”
Josephus · written before 100 · Antiquities of the Jews - Book I, Chapter 6, Sections 4jewish
Genesis 10:22-24
The sons of Shem: Asshur stands in both halves of the chapter, in verse 11 in Nimrod's Assyria and here as a son of Shem. That is the ground of the old reading that Nimrod pushed into land given to another man's line. Aram gives his name to the country the family's wives come from, and Jacob is sent to Paddan-aram for a bride. The list drops to one thread, Arphaxad to Shelah to Eber.
Genesis 10:22
“Elam - From whom came the Elamites, near to the Medes, and whose chief city was Elymais. Asshur - Who gave his name to a vast province (afterwards a mighty empire) called Assyria. Arphaxad - From whom Arrapachitis in Assyria was named, according to some; or Artaxata in Armenia, on the frontiers of Media, according to others. Lud - The founder of the Lydians. In Asia Minor; or of the Ludim, who dwelt at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, according to Arias Montanus. Aram - The father of the Arameans, afterwards called Syrians.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sons of Aram: Uz, named first among the sons of Aram, gives his name to Job's country at Job 1:1. Jerome and Adam Clarke tie Uz to Damascus, and Clarke reads Mash as Mount Masius in Mesopotamia. Clarke puts Hul in Armenia and Gether beyond the Jordan.
Genesis 10:23
“Uz - Who peopled Caelosyria, and is supposed to have been the founder of Damascus. Hul - Who peopled a part of Armenia. Gether - Supposed by Calmet to have been the founder of the Itureans, who dwelt beyond the Jordan, having Arabia Desert on the east, and the Jordan on the west. Mash - Who inhabited mount Masius in Mesopotamia, and from whom the river Mazeca, which has its source in that mountain, takes its name.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Arphaxad was the father of Shelah: The Greek adds Cainan between Arphaxad and Shelah, as Adam Clarke notes. Luke 3:36 keeps Cainan in the line of Jesus. The Hebrew runs straight from Arphaxad to Shelah to Eber, the forefather named in verse 21.
Genesis 10:24
“Salah - The founder of the people of Susiana. Eber - See Gen 10:21. The Septuagint add Cainan here, with one hundred and thirty to the chronology.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
in his days the earth was divided: Peleg's name records a division, and the verse says it fell in his days. Jerome takes that as Babel, where the languages were divided. Adam Clarke reports a second reading, a physical dividing of the land itself. Two sons are born here, and the book follows Peleg and lets Joktan go.
Genesis 10:25
“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, Gen 10:5, is spoken by way of anticipation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 10:26-31
Joktan was the father of Almodad: Joktan's thirteen sons are counted out in full and then never taken up again. Three of the names carry weight elsewhere. Havilah is the country the Pishon ran through at 2:11, where the gold was, while Sheba and Ophir stand behind the queen who came to Solomon and the fleet that fetched his gold. Their territory ran from Mesha to Sephar, in the eastern hills.
Genesis 10:26
“Joktan - He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah: Arab tradition takes Uzal as the old name of Sanaa, which puts this son of Joktan in Yemen. Diklah is the Aramaic word for a date palm. Jerome spells Hadoram and Diklah as Aduram and Decla.
Genesis 10:27
“And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah. The posterity of Hadoram, from the likeness of the name and sound, might seem to be the Adramitae of Ptolemy (f), but Bochart (g) thinks they are the Drimati of Pliny (h), who dwelt in the extreme corner of Arabia, to the east, near the Macae, who were at the straits of the Persian Gulf; and he observes, that the extreme promontory of that country was called Corodamum, by transposition of the letters "D" and "R": Uzal gave name to a city which is still so called; for R.”
John Gill · Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed Baptist
Obal, Abimael, Sheba: Obal is Ebal in the Hebrew of 1 Chronicles 1:22, and Jerome's list gives Ebal as well. Abimael joins the words for father and God. This Sheba, a son of Joktan, is a second Sheba beside the grandson of Cush at verse 7.
Genesis 10:28
“And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba.”
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab: The Greek ending of Job makes Job one with Jobab, an Edomite king named at 36:33. Ophir is later the gold country of 1 Kings 9:28. Jerome, who writes Havilah as Evila, set all of Joktan's sons in India.
from Mesha to Sephar: Calmet, as Adam Clarke reports, set Mesha at Mount Masius, the mountain Clarke gives for Mash. He put Sephar and the eastern hills in Armenia or Media. Genesis marks the territory by its two ends, Mesha and Sephar.
Genesis 10:30
“And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Zephar, a mount of the east.”
These are the sons of Shem: Josephus set Shem's peoples between the Euphrates and the Indian Ocean, with Elam the father of the Persians. The word Semitic was later coined from his name. Genesis 11:10 takes up his line again and runs it through Peleg to Abram.
the clans of Noah’s sons: All the clans of Noah's sons are set down here, and the nations of the earth spread out from them after the flood. The names have been counted at seventy since antiquity, and seventy is the number of Jacob's house going down into Egypt at 46:27. Every people on earth is traced to one family. Paul stands on that at Athens, that God made every nation of men from one, at Acts 17:26.
Genesis 10:32
“These are the families of Noah according to their peoples and nations. From these were the nations divided on the earth after the flood.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)patristic
How this psalm is built
The form: Genealogy, a register in which the names are tribes and nations rather than single men, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown classes it.
A Shem named first in the heading
Genesis 10:1
B Ham named second in the heading
Genesis 10:1
X Japheth named last in the heading and taken first in the lists
Genesis 10:2-5
B′ The sons of Ham taken second, with Canaan given the longest place
Genesis 10:6-20
A′ The sons of Shem taken last, and the thread the book follows
Genesis 10:21-31
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The nations counted out by name | The chapter is a list and it works as a list. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that the descendants here, with one or two exceptions, are described by names that indicate tribes and nations and that end in the Hebrew im or the English ite, so a reader who looks for individuals is reading past the form. John Gill reckons the sons and grandsons of Ham at thirty, or thirty one if the Philistines are taken in, and Adam Clarke counts thirteen sons for Joktan.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 10:1. | Genesis 10:2, Genesis 10:6, Genesis 10:22, Genesis 10:26 |
| The heading reversed in the lists | Verse 1 names the sons in the order Shem, Ham and Japheth, and the lists then run in the opposite order, Japheth first and Shem last. John Gill names the figure where he reaches verse 2, observing that though Japheth is mentioned last the genealogy begins with him, by a figure which rhetoricians call a chiasm. The reversal puts the line the book will follow at the end, where the next chapter picks it up.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 10:2. | Genesis 10:1, Genesis 10:2, Genesis 10:6, Genesis 10:21 |
| The same four words closing each list | Each of the three lists ends on the same four terms, clan and language and land and nation, and the chapter closes on them once more. The site's published exposition of verse 5 records that the same formula closes each of the three lists. John Gill reads the formula as a statement of how the earth was settled, families of one language joining together and dwelling in one country.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 10:20. | Genesis 10:5, Genesis 10:20, Genesis 10:31, Genesis 10:32 |
| The names that carry their own meaning | Two names in the chapter are explained by what they mean. Adam Clarke derives Peleg at verse 25 from the verb to divide, since a division of the earth fell in that man's lifetime, and he places it about a hundred years after the flood. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report that the name Nimrod signifies rebel and is supposed to have been given him for his revolt against the divine distribution of the lands, and Matthew Henry reads the same name as rebellion. Adam Clarke reads Babel at verse 10 as confusion, a fit name for the beginning of that kingdom.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 10:25. | Genesis 10:10, Genesis 10:11, Genesis 10:25 |
The debate over Nimrod
13 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter gives Nimrod five verses and no verdict, and the commentators supply four different ones.
Matthew Henry reads the man as a tyrant and the phrase at verse 9 as defiance. He follows the Septuagint in taking the hunting as done against the LORD rather than in His presence, holds that Nimrod set up idolatry as Jeroboam later did in order to confirm a usurped dominion, and states the general rule that great conquerors are only great hunters, so that Alexander and Caesar make a smaller figure in Scripture history than in common history. His strongest ground is the chapter's own placing of the man at the head of Babylon and Nineveh, the two cities that later carried Israel and Judah away. The objection is that the chapter records the saying about him and passes no judgment on him, and the site's published exposition of verses 8 and 9 records that others hear plain emphasis in the phrase, the greatest hunter anywhere.
John Gill reads the hunting literally and kindly. He holds that between the flood and Nimrod's day the wild beasts may have increased greatly and annoyed men who mostly lived in scattered tents, so that in hunting and destroying them Nimrod did a good office. That reading takes the verse at its plain sense and explains why a saying about him was remembered at all. The objection is that it leaves verse 10 unexplained, since a man who clears beasts does not thereby found a kingdom in Shinar.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take a middle road. They hold that Nimrod eclipsed his family in renown, distinguished himself early by daring and successful prowess against wild beasts, earned a title to public gratitude by those useful services, and on the strength of the ascendancy they gave him founded the first kingdom in the world. They then read his move into Assyria at verse 11 as an invasion of the territories of Shem, which is why the name signifying rebel is supposed to have been given him. The strength of this reading is that it accounts for both halves of the passage, the service and the empire. The objection is that the raid into Shem's territory depends on reading verse 11 of Nimrod rather than of Asshur, and Adam Clarke notes that the margin, which makes Nimrod the subject, is the reading to be preferred, so the point turns on a translation choice rather than on the Hebrew alone.
Adam Clarke keeps the question open and states what can be known. He observes that little is known of the man, that he is mentioned only here and in the copy at 1 Chronicles 1:10, that the words of verse 9 are not definite, and that it is nevertheless very likely he was a very bad man. That is the most honest of the four positions and the least useful, and the objection to it is that a reader still has to decide what the saying at verse 9 meant to the people who made it.
The debate over the division in Peleg's days
Verse 25 says the earth was divided in Peleg's days and leaves the sentence there.
The first reading takes the division as Babel. The site's published exposition of verse 25 records that Jerome takes it so, the languages divided and the peoples scattered from one place, which is what the next chapter describes. Its strength is that the division it names is the only division the book actually narrates, and it stands one chapter away. Its difficulty is the ordering, since the name is given in a list that has already spoken of separate languages at verses 5, 20 and 31.
The second reading takes the division as a physical one. Adam Clarke reports it and inclines to it, a separating of continents and islands from the main land, the earthy parts having been united into one great continent before Peleg's day, and he adds that on that reading verse 5 is spoken by way of anticipation. Its strength is that it gives the word its fullest sense and answers why the event marked one man's lifetime. Its difficulty is that Scripture nowhere else reports such a separation, and Clarke offers the reading as an opinion that appears to him the most likely rather than as a demonstration.
The New Testament's use
The New Testament takes up this chapter in two ways, and both of them run past the words of the text to what the list itself carries. No verse of Genesis 10 is quoted in the New Testament.
The first is the line of names. Adam Clarke notes at verse 24 that the Septuagint adds Cainan between Arphaxad and Shelah, with a hundred and thirty years added to the chronology, and at 11:12 he notes that Luke follows the Septuagint and brings the same person into his genealogy, while the Hebrew text here and at 1 Chronicles 1 says nothing of him. So the thread this chapter drops to at verses 22 to 25, Arphaxad to Shelah to Eber to Peleg, is the thread the third Gospel walks back up, and the chief textual question in Luke's list is raised by this chapter's own verse.
The second is the doctrine of one human family. The site's published exposition of verse 32 records that Paul traces every nation of men to one at Acts 17:26, which is the claim this chapter makes by listing every nation it knows under three brothers. The same note records that the names here have been counted at seventy since antiquity, and sets that number beside the seventy of Jacob's house going down into Egypt at 46:27.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 10:20; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 10:1; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Genesis 10:2 and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 10:15.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Chuck Missler, The Book of Genesis; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews - Book I, Chapter 6, Sections 4 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.