This chapter gives an account of the posterity of the three sons of Noah, by whom the world was peopled after the flood, Gen. 10:1 of the posterity of Japheth, Gen. 10:2–5 of the posterity of Ham, Gen. 10:6–20 and of the posterity of Shem, Gen. 10:21–32.

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,…

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 [[24]] often calls (ιαπετιονιδης) , “Iapetionides”, and him (ιαπετος) , “Iapetus”.

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…

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 [[10]] says; hence the country…

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…

And the sons of Ham Next to the sons of Japheth, the sons of Ham are reckoned; these, Josephus [[24]] 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…

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…

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.

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…

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…

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…

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 The conjecture of Bochart [[1]] is more probable, that it is the Larissa of Xenophon, situated on the…

And Mizraim begat Ludim Mizraim was the second son of Ham, of whom (See Gill on Gen. 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…

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, and these Pathrusim were doubtless the inhabitants of it; which,…

And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn Canaan is the fourth son of Ham; the posterity of Phut, his third son, are omitted: the firstborn of Canaan was Sidon, from whom the city of Sidon had its name, being either built by himself, who called it after his own name, or by some of his posterity, who…

And the Jebusite Who had their name from Jebus, a third son of Canaan, and from whom Jerusalem was called Jebus, and where his posterity continued to dwell when the land of Canaan was possessed by the Israelites; for they were so strong and powerful, that the men of Judah could not drive them out…

And the Hivite These dwelt in Hermon, a part of Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal Hermon unto the entering in of Hamath, to the east of the land of Canaan; hence they were sometimes called Kadmonites, or Easterlings, and are thought to have their name from dwelling in holes and caves like serpents;…

And the Arvadite The inhabitants of Arvad, or Aradus, an island in the Phoenician sea; it is mentioned with Sidon, so Josephus says [[15]], the Arudaeans possessed the island Aradus: it is about a league distant from the shore; Strabo [[16]] says it is twenty furlongs from land, and about seven in…

And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon This is to be understood, not of the Canaanites, properly so called, but of them in general; and is a description of the bounds of the land of Canaan, as possessed by the people of Israel: the northern or north west border of it was Sidon, see and is…

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,…

Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, &c.] And for the sake of those Shem is particularly said to be the father of, is this genealogy given, and indeed the whole book of Genesis wrote: Eber was the great-grandson of Shem, and is here spoken of by anticipation, and Shem is called…

The children of Shem Whose names are Elam and Ashur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram; and who, as Josephus [[5]] says, inhabited Asia, from Euphrates to the Indian ocean: his first born, Elam, was the father of the Elymaeans, from whom sprung the Persians, as the same writer observes, and his…

And the children of Aram The four following persons are called the sons of Shem, being his grandsons, which is not unusual in Scripture, Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash: the first of these sons of Aram, Uz, is generally thought to be the founder of Damascus; so Josephus [[18]] says.

And Arphaxad begat Salah Or Shelach which signifies “a sending forth”; that is, of waters: it is part of the name of Methuselah, given him by his father, as prophetic of the flood, see and Arphaxad, who was born two years after the flood, gives this name to his first born, as commemorative of it:…

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg Bochart [[9]] thinks, that either Peleg, or one of his posterity, in memory of him, gave the name of Phalga to a town situated on the Euphrates; though the reason of the name, as given by Arrianus, as he himself observes, was because it…

And Joktan begat Almodad And twelve more mentioned later: the Arabic writers [[13]] say be had thirty one sons by one woman, but all, excepting two, left Arabia, and settled in India; the Targum of Jonathan adds, “who measured the earth with ropes,” as if he was the first inventor and practiser of…

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 [[5]], but Bochart [[6]] thinks they are the Drimati of Pliny [[7]], who dwelt in the extreme corner of Arabia, to the east, near the Macae, who were at…

And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba. ] The first of these, Obal, or Aubal, as the Arabs pronounce, Bochart [[18]] is obliged to make his posterity pass over the straits of the Arabian Gulf out of Arabia Felix into Arabia Troglodytice; where he finds a bay, called by Pliny [[19]] the Abalite bay, which…

And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab If several of the sons of Joktan went into India, as the Arabs say, one would be tempted to think that Ophir in India, whither Solomon sent his ships once in three years, had its name from the first of these; (See Gill on Gen.

And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Zephar, a mount of the east. ] Mesha, which is thought to be the Muza of Ptolemy and Pliny, was a famous port in the Red sea, frequented by the merchants of Egypt and Ethiopia, from which the Sappharites lay directly eastward; to whose country…

These are the sons of Shem His sons, and grandsons, and great grandsons, in all twenty six, no doubt but there were many more, but these are only mentioned; for none of the sons of Elam, Ashur, and Lud, are named, and but one of Arphaxad’s, and one of Salah’s, and two of Eber’s, and none of…

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations This is the account of their families, from whom the several nations of the earth sprung: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood; not immediately, not till they were so increased as to…