Chapter 10
Table of nations. Tells where the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth settled after the flood. These each founded ancient cities. Ham had a son named Canaan. Each of the sons named seems to have had a city named after him - an ancient city that is. Implication is that as each son reached adulthood, he took a wife and likely some others and moved into a new area, in compliance with God's command in 9:7.
Interesting that all these cities that we consider to be ancient, but sometimes thousands of years apart in founding, all started within a few generations of each other, at about the same time. In archeology, it would look like a sudden explosion of people and technology. Which is what they say.
There is a reference elsewhere, and an MSB note about it, that there were 70 nations originally, and that it is from this that the Septuagint of 70 men came, and somehow the world will end with 70. Maybe I can find that and paste it in here also. Japheth had 7 sons and 7 grandsons, all descended from Gomer or Torgamah. Descendants of the other five sons of Japheth are not named. Ham had 4 sons. It is a little more complicated after that. Shem had 5. ((((I want to come back to this, but need to move on since it is Monday morning.)))))
I never noticed this before:
5 From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations. [Gen 10:5 ESV]
Each with his own language...so there was more than one language pre-Babel. All the translations say it unequivocally. I just never noticed it before.
(And again here: 20 These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. [Gen 10:20 ESV], and one last time, to cover all three of the sons of Noah: 31 These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. [Gen 10:31 ESV]) HOWEVER, MSB says this describes the situation AFTER the Tower of Babel. Wonder how he knows? Must be some very specific language in Chapter 10. Yep...11 begins with a pretty emphatic statement about this.
2026 - If you accept the worldwide nature of the flood, and I do, then this genealogy means that all the countries and cities of NE Africa were the descendants of Ham. Just that one man for the most part fathered what is today 100's of millions. It also means that when Assyria fought with Egypt it was Ham fighting with Japheth. All wars are family affairs according to this conception of civilization after the flood. And no China, no Russia, no India, no SE Asia and no US. None of these is accounted for in this Genealogy. Where did we all come from?
2026 - The details of this expansion make it hard to claim fabrication. It reads more like a verbal account, passed down, not a fiction created to...what? Why create such a story if it wasn't true?
8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. [Gen 10:8 ESV]
Nimrod was the first post-flood. There were others before. Cush is descended from Ham, who was the one cursed, and these built the tower that led to the dispersal.
Babel was in the land of Shinar, settled by Nimrod, descended from Ham via Cush. Hmm...Nimrod, the first mighty man post flood, was very likely a black man. Nimrod also went into Assyria, and built Ninevah. Nimrod was the second generation after the flood. Noah was his Great Grandfather.
In the genealogy of "Egypt", everyone's name ends in -im. Older translations like KJV don't call him Egypt, they call him Mizraim. So each of his son's had that same ending to his name. Not sure if the -im has a specific connotation.
2024 - What about Rephaim, the giants? Are they from Ham? Some verses:
5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, [Gen 14:5 ESV]
10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ... 20 (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there--but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim-- 21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, [Deu 2:10-11, 20-21 ESV]
It is an interesting speculation, that all these 'im's came from Egypt. All the giants came from there...from Ham. Cursed Ham, doomed to be a slave to his brothers. The Philistines are also descended from an -im, and so have Egyptian heritage. Wouldn't you think, based on this, that the Palestinians could/should go home to Mizraim?
Gen 10:21 tells us that Shem was the elder brother of Japheth. Japheth's descendants are mentioned first, then Ham, then Shem. Youngest, middle, then oldest? Hard to tell really.
2024 - First, Nimrod was considered a "mighty man", but there is no mention of angels in his ancestry. No mention of any of that kind of thing going on. So someone classed "mighty man" can be descendant exclusively from human parents. Ham was in NE Africa. Nimrod, who built the Tower of Babel as far as it went, was his grandson. The beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is listed as "Babel, and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar". I don't know enough about Hebrew to know if this means all four of these places were in Shinar, or just that last. Depends on where you put the commas and Hebrew does not have commas. Notice that none of these four are listed on the map above. Shinar is shown well over to the East of the lands of Ham, isolated over there all by itself. Why would Nimrod go way over there to start a country? Note also that this is very near - probably includes - the location of future Babylon, and to the south - again probably within Shinar - we find all those extremely old cities like Uruk that are credited with being the first to develop agriculture and so grow into truly large places. We know that Abel was already practicing ag though, way before this. Perhaps Nimrod, post-flood, in the very fertile Tigris Euphrates valleys, organized the labor into those who grew much more than they needed in order to supply the city/cities. isn't this exactly the kind of ambition that might make one try building a tower all the way up to heaven? I found several maps showing a location for Babel, all are over here in Shinar.
From MSB, Genesis 10/11 page.
https://www.biblecartoons.co.uk/images/1057.jpg