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(Gen. 10: 15, "Heth"), their language, as yet undeciphered, shows now affinity to the
Semitic or the Aryan, and has been adjudged as Turanian or Hamitic. The Philistines
were descended from Casluhim, while the Phoenicians were called Kept by the Egyptians,
and the part of Egypt in which they lived was called Kept-ur (see Caphtorim, Gen. 10: 14).
Amos 9: 7 presents a problem as compared with Gen. 10: 14 which we are unable to
solve. There are thirty-one names given in the line of Ham.
THE SONS OF SHEM.--Shem is called the father of "all the children of Eber", for
Peleg's descendants, who carry us down to Abraham, are not named in this chapter, but
are reserved until the special section which gives the generations of Shem (Gen. 11: 10).
ELAM.--Josephus thought Elamites were Persians, but the Assyrian inscriptions
identify the Elam with Susiana, the ancient inhabitants of which were Semites.
ASSHUR.--The Assyrians, whose language is closer to Hebrew than French or Italian
is to Latin.
ARPHAXAD.--Prof. Sayce concludes that this refers to Chaldĉa, as the word may be
pronounced Arpa-Chesed, or "border of Chaldĉa".
ARAM.--Mesopotamia and Syria. The language of this people, called Aramaic, was
the language of Dan. 2: 4-7, the language of the common people of Palestine in the time
of Christ. Mark 5: 41 is an example. Very little is known of the other names figuring in
this list.
Uz was the name of the country of the Sabeans and Chaldeans (Job 1: 15, 17).
EBER.--The word indicates "one who passed over" (see Joshua 24: 2, 3, 14, 15),
and from this word we get the name Hebrew. Eber has two sons, Peleg and Joktan.
Attention is drawn to the fact that in Peleg's days the earth was divided, but nothing more
is said of him until chapter 11:, where he is seen in the direct line from Shem to Abraham.
Joktan is considered to be the father of the Saracens. He was the 13th from Shem, the
numerics of his name being 13*13, and he had 13 sons.
"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."
These nations, seventy in all, were divided by God into the various parts of the earth.
He set the bounds of their habitation (Acts 17: 26), and divided the earth and its peoples,
and separated the sons of Adam, "according to the number of the children of Israel
(Deut. 32: 8). So the great purpose of the Bible is steadily pursued, the list of Noah's
descendants being as vital to the theme as is the genealogy of Matt. 1:
None of these nations is "lost". They may be untraceable to man, but God knows
where they are, and what they are now called. Their names recur in the prophecies that
refer to the future day of the Lord, and when the Lord deals both in judgment and in