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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 10 The
Table Of Nations (ch. 10:1 - 32) Before commenting on this
chapter, it's pretty well accepted by most scholars that chapter 11
comes before chapter 10 chronologically speaking. Verse 1 tells us that
this is the account of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
What is seen in this chapter is the lineage of Noah's three sons.
I will not comment on every name. When the three sons of
Noah are mentioned in the Bible, they're mentioned as Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. You might think
that they are listed from oldest to youngest, but isn't so.
From chapter 9 verse 24 wee learn that Ham was the youngest.
From chapter 10 verse 21 we learn that Japheth was the oldest.
Concerning the oldest and
youngest of Noah's sons, Ham is mentioned in chapter 9 verse 24 as the
youngest son, even though he is always mentioned second when listed with
his brothers. Clearly, the
listing of Shem, Ham, and Japheth aren't in order of age.
We also need to note that
the names mentioned here are in terms of geography, that is, where these
people eventually moved to and lived.
We also see 70 names,
(some say 68, 69, or even 71) names and families here.
This may not be a full accounting of all the families.
Many commentators suggest these are a select group of people, not
the whole group. To remind you, Japheth's
descendents went westward into Europe, Ham's descendents went into As I said earlier, I
won't comment on each name mentioned in chapter 10, only a few.
There are some discrepancies between scholars to where some of
these people ended up. Some
are more obvious, with less of a debate, while others are hard to track
down. Verse 2 introduces us to
the sons of Japheth. Gomer
settled north of the Also in verse 2 we see
Magog. Magog settled
north of modern day We see the name Riphath.
The corruption of this name over time is how we get the name In verse 2 we see the
name Meshech. Many scholars
feel this name evolved into the city of We see the name Javan in
verse 4. His descendents
became
Greeks. Also in verse 4 we see
Tarshish. This is where
Jonah went when he tried to escape from the will of
God. Jonah went the
opposite direction from Verse 6 begins the
descendents of Ham. One son
of Ham was In verse 8 we have an
insertion of a story that involves Nimrod, a son of Ham.
He was a mighty hunter. The
name Nimrod means "I will rebel."
Verse 9 says that he was a mighty man before the Lord, but his
mightiness is seen in opposition to the Lord. Verse 10 tells us that
Nimrod's kingdom began around what became Concerning Nimrod, we
should note that he was a son of Ham, whoso son We see Shem's descendents begin
in verse 21. We see
Eber as one of Shem's sons. The
word Eber means "to cross over."
The word "Hebrew" comes from Eber. Also in verse 21 we note
that Japheth is the oldest of these three sons of Noah.
Elam, in verse 22 became the Persians. In verse 23 we see Uz.
Uz is where Job lived. Again, in verse 24 we see
Eber. Abraham, the father of
the Hebrews came from Eber. In verse 25 we see Peleg,
which means "divided".
This may have something to do with God dividing and scattering
all people after the
Verse 32 tells us that from these three sons of Noah all the nations of the earth came from. This leads to the natural question; "Did Noah have other sons after the flood, especially in light of the face that God told him to have more children?" It would seem logical to me that he did have more sons. If so, why aren't they mentioned here, and would not the nations of the world have come from them as well ? We just don't know the answer to this, or at least, I don't know the answer at this time. |