THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES THE ARGUMENT THESE Books of the CHRONICLES are not the same which are so called, 1 Kings 14:19, and elsewhere, (because some passages said to be there mentioned are not found here,) but other books, and written by other persons, and for other ends.

i.e. Adam begat Sheth; and so in the following particulars. For brevity sake he only mentions their names; but the rest is easily understood out of the former books, and from the nature of the thing; and from some following passages where the sense is completed.

Formerly he mentions only one son, but here he names and treats of Noah’s three sons, partly because they were all the founders of the new world, and partly because the accomplishment of Noah’s famous prophecy, Gen.

Riphath, or Diphath; for those two Hebrew letters which answer to our D and R, being very like, are oft confounded and exchanged, as 1 Chron. 1:7, 1 Chron. 1:41, 1 Chron. 1:46, 1 Chron. 1:50.

Of whom came the Philistines; of which See Poole “Gen. 10:14”.

The Jebusite; the people so called. So the names which follow until 1 Chron. 1:17, are not the names of particular persons, but of people or nations. And all these descended from Canaan, though some of them were afterwards extinct or confounded with others of their brethren by cohabitation or…

The sons of Shem; either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, who are called sons, Gen. 29:5, 2 Sam. 19:21; or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood and inserted before Uz, out of Gen. 10:23, where they are expressed.

Arphaxad begat Shelah; either immediately, or mediately by his son Cainan, who is expressed, Luke 3:35, of which, God assisting, I shall speak in its proper place.

The earth was divided in their languages and habitation; of which see Gen. 11:7.

Ebal, or Obal, as it is Gen. 10:28; such proper names being oft differently written, according to the difference of times, and people, and writers.

Arphaxad: having given a brief and general account of the original of the world, and the people in it, he now returns to a more large and particular account of the genealogy of Shem, from whom the Jews were descended.

Timna: there is another Timna, the concubine of Eliphaz, Gen. 36:12, but this was one of his sons, though called by the same name; there being some names common both to men and women in the Hebrew and in other languages.

The sons of Seir; one of another nation, prince of the Horims; whose genealogy is here described, because of that affinity which was contracted between his and Esau’s posterity; and those who were not united and incorporated with them were destroyed by them. See Deut. 2:12.

Of this and the following verses, See Poole “Gen. 36:31”, &c., whence this whole relation is taken.