1 Chronicles 1:17

THE SONS OF SHEM, OR THE SEMITES (1Ch_1:17-23).

(17) Blam.—The Elamtum of the Assyrian inscription, the classic Susiana, a mountainous land eastward of Babylonia, to which it was subject in the days of Abraham (Genesis 14). The names Assurû, Elamû, Kassû, and Accadû occur together in an old Assyrian list of nations. Êlama, from which the Assyrian and Hebrew names are derived, is Accadian. The native designation was Ansan. The Sargonide kings of Assyria had frequent wars with Elam.

Asshur.—Assyria proper, i.e., a district on the Tigris, about twenty-five miles long, between the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh parallels of latitude. Asshur was the name of its older capital and tutelar god. The Semitic Assyrians appear to have been settled at Asshur as early as the nineteenth century B.C. They were emigrants from Babylonia (Gen_10:11). The original name was A-usar, “water-meadow.”

Arphaxad apparently means Babylonia, or, at least, includes it. Babylonian monarchs styled themselves “King of the Four Quarters” (of heaven); and Arphaxaa may perhaps mean land of the four quarters or sides, and be derived from the Assyrian arba-kisâdi “four sides” (Friedrich Delitzsch). More probably it is Arph-chesed, “boundary of Chaldea.”

Lud, usually identified with the Lydians (Assyrian Luddi), perhaps their original home in Armenia. The name has also been compared with Rutennu, the Egyptian name of the Syrians (I and r being confused in Egyptian). But comp. Eze_27:10; Eze_30:5.

Aram.—The high land—that is, eastern and western Syria, extending from the Tigris to the Great Sea. The name is constantly used for the Arameans, or Syrians.

Uz.—An Arab tribe, called Hâsu by Esarhaddon, who reduced them. Perhaps, however, Uz (Heb., Ûç), is the Assyrian Uçça, a district on the Orontes, mentioned by Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 860-825). Job lived in the “land of Uz.” The remaining names appear to be also those of Arab tribes, who must have lived northward in the direction of Aram; these are called sons of Aram in Genesis 10

Hul is the Assyrian Hûlî’a, which formed a part of the mountain land of Kasiar or Mash (Inscription of Assurnâçirpal, B.C. 885-860). For Meshech Genesis 10 has Mash, which is compared with Mount Masius, near Nisibin. (So the Syriac and some Heb. MSS.)

(18) Eber.—The land on the other side (Gr., ἡ πέραν) Peræa. Here the land beyond the Euphrates is meant, from which “Abraham, the Hebrew” (i.e., Eberite), migrated.

(19) Two sons.—This indicates the ancient consciousness that the Hebrew and Arabian peoples were akin.

The earth was divided.—Or, divided itself. (Comp. Deu_32:7-9.) The words probably refer to a split in the population of Mesopotamia.

(20) Joktan begat Almodad.—The Joktanite tribes lived along the coast of Hadhramaut (Hazarmaveth) and Yemen, in southern Arabia. The tribes of Yemen call their ancestor Qahtân (= Joktan). The names in 1Ch_1:20-21, are all explicable from Arabic sources.

(22) Ebal.—Gen_10:28. Obal, where, however, the LXX. read Εὐάλ (Ebal). The different spelling is due to the common confusion in MSS. of the Hebrew letters w and y. Both Ebal and Abimael are unknown.

(23) Ophir.—Abhîra, at the mouth of the Indus.

Jobab.—Probably a tribe of Arabia Deserta. (Comp. the Arabic yabâb, a desert.)

All these were the sons of Joktan.—Gen_10:30 adds a definition of their territory: “Their dwelling was from Mesha” (Maisânu, at the head of the Persian Gulf), “until thou comest to Sephar” (probably Zafâru or Isfor, in South Arabia) “and the mountains of the east” (i.e., Nejd, a range parallel to the Red Sea).

From the whole section we learn that the Elamites, Assyrians, Chaldees, Arameans, Hebrews, and Arabs, were regarded as belonging to the great Semitic family. In regard to Elam, modern philologers have questioned the correctness of this view. It is, however, quite possible that at the time when the original of this table of nations was composed, some Semitic tribes were known to have effected a settlement in Elam, just as kindred tribes occupied Babylonia and Assyria.

The fourteen sons of Japheth and the thirty sons of Ham, and the twenty-six sons of Shem, make a total of seventy eponyms of nations. The number seventy is probably not accidental. Comp. the seventy elders (Num_11:16); the seventy members of the Sanhedrin; and even the seventy disciples of Christ (Luk_10:1). The seventy nations of the world are often mentioned in the Talmud. Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning Tyre, and the peoples that had commerce with her (Ezekiel 27), is a valuable illustration of the table.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ch 1:17-19. The sons of Shem — Either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, or the children of Aram are understood before Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed. Arphaxad begat — Either immediately, or mediately by his son Canaan, who is expressed Luk 3:35. Divided — In their languages and habitations.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of whom came the Syrians, and therefore they are called Aramites throughout all the Scripture.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech--or, "Mash"; these were the children of Aram, and grandsons of Shem (Gen 10:23).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 (= Gen_10:22-23). The Sons of Shem

17. The sons of Shem] These occupied the middle geographical “zone.”

Elam] “Semites neither in blood nor in speech” (Sayce, Higher Criticism, p. 122). If this be so, the reason of their being reckoned to Shem must be that they were in the geographical zone which belonged to the Semites.

Asshur] The Assyrians, who spoke a Semitic dialect and were doubtless Semites.

Arphaxad] R.V. Arpachshad. The second half of the word (“chshad”) contains the name of the Casdim, the “Chaldeans” or “Chaldees” of the A.V.

Lud] Perhaps the Lydians. In 1Ch_1:11, which is an extract from an earlier document (“J”), Ludim (“the Lydians”) are reckoned as the children of Mizraim (Egypt). Lydia itself was in the Japhetic “zone,” but the people may have been recognised as Semites independently of their geographical position.

Aram] the “Syrians” of the A.V.; better called Aramaeans. In Damascus they held an independent power for centuries and were constantly at war with Israel. Further north they seem to have been under the hegemony of the Hittites.

Uz] From Gen_10:23 it appears that in Chron. the words “And the children of Aram[1]” have dropped out, so that “Uz” etc. appear as the immediate descendants of Shem.

[1] The Alexandrine MS (A) of the LXX. has the words.

Neither Uz nor the three following names have been satisfactorily identified. For “Meshech” Gen_10:2 (Heb. not LXX.) reads “Mash.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Gen 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Gen 10:23. It seems preferable to “Mash,” which admits of no very probable explanation. Just as Hamites and Semites were intermingled in Arabia (Gen 10:7, note; Gen 10:29, note), so Semites and Japhethites may have been intermingled in Cappadocia - the country of the Meshech or Moschi (Gen 10:2 note); and this Aramaean ad-mixture may have been the origin of the notion, so prevalent among the Greeks, that the Cappadocians were Syrians.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hus and Hul were the immediate sons of Aram, as well as....Mosoch, or Mes; (Genesis x. 23.; Calmet) so that there seems to be here some transposition. (Du Hamel)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The sons of Shem; either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, who are called sons, Gen 29:5; 2Sa 19:21; or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood and inserted before

Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 17-27. D. THE LIST OF SHEM"S DESCENDANTS TO ABRAM. This list is broken in two; it pauses a moment exactly halfway to Abram, at the name Peleg, to mention Peleg"s brother Joktan and Joktan"s thirteen sons. Then, repeating the first five names of lineal descent, and picking up the thread at Peleg, the list gives the remaining five to Abram. In the first half of this list, we have apparently the names of nine sons of Shem, but, as Genesis explains, really the names of five sons, and through Aram, the last of them, the names of four grandsons. Another grandson, through Arphaxad the third son, follows, and through this grandson two consecutive lineal descents bring us, in the name Peleg, half-way to Abram. It is here the lineal table pauses to give Joktan and his thirteen sons. The names then in this portion of the list are twenty-six in number. In the Authorized Version they correspond with those in Genesis, except that Meschech ( here is called Mash (vmw;) there; Shelah here is spelled Salah there; and Ebal (lbye) here is written Obal (lbwO) there. The difference between the Hebrew texts justifies the first and last of these variations in the Authorized Version, but in all other respects those texts are in entire accord with one another, for this paragraph. The Septuagint gives very little of this portion of the list. It corresponds, whether with the Hebrew or the Authorized Version, only as far as to the name Arphaxad, after which it carries down the line at once to Abram by the remaining eight names as given in our twenty-fourth to twenty-seventh verses. Nor is it in agreement with its own version in Genesis, which has points of important variation with the Hebrew text also. It is then at this break of the list that, after the names of Joktan"s sons, we have in Genesis these words, "And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east. These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lauds, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the Flood." Upon this follows the account of Babel, in nine long verses, and then a chronological summary is furnished in lineal descent only from Shem to Abram. It is with the names in this chronological summary that those in this second part of our list (vers. 24-27) are found to agree. But any attempt at reproduction of the chronology found in Genesis is again absent here. At this point a significant stage of these genealogies is reached. The ever-broadening stream of population now narrows again. Two thousand years have flown by, then Abraham appears on the stream and tide of human life. Of that long period the life of Adam himself spanned nearly the half. So far we learn without partiality of all his descendants in common. But henceforth, the real, the distinct purpose of the genealogy becomes apparent, in that the line of the descendants of Abraham, and that by one family, alone is maintained, and proves to be a purpose leading by one long straight line to Christ himself. With Abraham "the covenant of innoceney," long forfeited in Adam, is superseded by the everlasting "covenant of grace," and we lose sight in some measure of Adam, the "common father of our flesh," to think of a happier parentage found in Abraham, the "common father of the faithful."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sons - Either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood before Uz, out of Gen. x, 23, where they are expressed.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

All of the names here are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Shem

Elam

Aram

Meshech

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.