'By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every

one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations' (Gen.

10:5, cf. 10:20,31).

In the covering title the word 'generations' is used, but this is only

repeated in the pedigree of the line of Shem (Gen. 10:1,32; 11:10).  The

reason seems to be that the Sacred Record is primarily concerned with the

life story of the chosen people, and to establish an unbroken chain of

ancestry, linking the line of Shem with the Advent of the Messiah in the

fulness of time.  No interruption is found in the record of Japheth's

descendants, but in verse 5 we learn that by these the isles of the Gentiles

'were Divided in their lands'.  A break is found in the record of Ham, where

Nimrod is introduced (Gen. 10:8 -11); and again in the line of Shem where we

learn that the earth was Divided in the days of Peleg.  Two different words

are translated 'divided' in this chapter.  Verses 5 and 32, the Hebrew word

is parad, and in verse 25 the Hebrew word is palag, and peleg, the name of

the son of Eber, is a most evident play on this word.  The word palag gives

the noun peleg 'river', and a river is a natural boundary of a country or an

estate.  The form p'lag -gah (pelaggah) refers to the division of an

inheritance in Judges 5:15,16 or to a river in Job 20:17.  'Families' were

divided according to 2 Chronicles 35:5, and the 'priests' were divided

according to Ezra 6:18.

There is no necessity to teach that in the days of Peleg, that is, less

than 4,000 years ago, such geological disruptions took place as to divide the

earth up into continents, and form the oceans that intervene.  Human

life would have been impossible in such catastrophic circumstances.  The

reference is nearer to hand.  In Genesis 11 we see the Babylonian resistance

to this division of the nations (verse 4) and the subsequent scattering in

judgment in verse 8.  This took place in the days of Peleg. Deuteronomy 32:8

refers to the original Divine programme, one of beneficence, and not one of

'When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He

separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according

to the number of the children of Israel' (Deut. 32:8).

Two extracts from Rabbinical writings will show how Israel esteemed

themselves as compared with the nations enumerated in Genesis 10.

'Seventy souls went down with Jacob unto Egypt, that they might restore

the seventy families dispersed by the confusion of tongues.  For those

seventy souls were equal to all the families of the whole world' (Zohar

in Exod. col. 22).

'How good is Thy love towards me, O thou congregation of Israel?

It is

more than that of the seventy nations' (Targ. in Cant 4:10).

The structure of Genesis 10 suggests this relationship of the dividing

of the land to the nations, the days of Peleg, and the scattering after the

confusion of tongues.

A

2.

The sons of Japheth.

B

5.

Divided in their lands.