1 Chronicles 1:8

[See comments on 1 Chronicles 1:5]

The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. No JFB commentary on these verses.

THE SONS OF HAM, THE DARK-SKINNED OR SWARTHY (1 Chronicles 1:8-16). (8) Cush.—The Greek Meroλ, Assyrian Miluhha, or Kϋsu, south of Egypt, in our Bibles often called Ethiopia (Isaiah 19:1). The Arabic gives Habesh, i.e., Ethiopia. Mizraim.—The common Hebrew name of Egypt: strictly, “the two Miηrs”—i.e., Upper and Lower Egypt. But the name should rather be spelt Mizrim—the Egyptians; the form Mizraim being probably a mere fancy of the Jewish punctuators. The Assyrians wrote Muηum, Muηru, Muηur. The Inscription of Darius has Miηir. Maητr was the name of the wall which protected Egypt on the north-east. Hence it gave its name to the whole of Lower Egypt.—Cush and Muηur are coupled together in the inscriptions of Esarhaddon and his son Assurbanipal. Put.—Perhaps the Egyptian Punt, on the east coast of Africa. King Darius mentioned Pϋta and Kϋsu as subject to him (Behist, Inscr.). Comp. Nahum 3:9; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5. The Arabic has Kibtu, i.e., Coptland. Canaan.—There are many proofs of an early connection between Egypt and Canaan. The Philistines were colonists from the Delta (1 Chronicles 1:12), and Ramses II. had wars and made alliance with the Hittites. (9) Seba.—Capital of Meroλ. The other names represent Arabian tribes and their districts. Sheba.—The famous Sabaeans, whose language, the Himyaritic, has quite recently been deciphered from inscriptions. (10) Cush begat Nimrod.—Micah (Micah 5:6) speaks of the “land of Nimrod” in connection with the “land of Asshur.” The land of Nimrod is plainly Babylonia; and some have supposed the primitive inhabitants of Babylonia—“the black-headed race” (zalmat qayqadi) as they styled themselves—to have been akin to the peoples of Muηur and Cush. At all events, Cush in this table of races appears as father of a series of mixed populations, ramifying from the north-west of the Persian Gulf in a southernly direction to the coast of Arabia. The Asiatic Cush represents that primitive Elamitic Sumerian race which occupied the north-west and north coast of the Persian Gulf; or rather that portion of it which attained to empire in Babylonia. The name Nimrod appears to be identical with Merodach, the Accadian Amar-utu, or Amar-utuki, Assyrian Maruduk. Merodach was the tutelar deity of Babylon, as Asshur was of Assyria; and many Babylonian sovereigns bore his name. (Comp. Merodach-baladan, Isaiah 39:1.) He began to be.—He was the first to become. Tradition made Nimrod the first founder of a great Oriental empire. The statement about his four cities (Genesis 10:10), the first of which was Babel (Babylon), is omitted here. Mighty.—Literally, a hero, warrior (gibbτr); a title of Merodach. (11, 12) The names in these verses are all in the masculine plural, and obviously designate nations. Mizraim, the two Egypts, is said to have begotten the chief races inhabiting those regions—a common Oriental metaphor. The Ludim are the Ludu, or Rudu, of the hieroglyphs (Prof. Sayce thinks, the Lydian mercenaries of the Egyptian sovereigns); the Anamim are perhaps the men of An (On, Genesis 41:50), Lehabim, the Lybians. The Naphtuhim seem to get their name from Noph, i.e., Memphis, and the god Ptah.

Verse 8. The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim] "Arabia and Egypt." - T.

8, 9 (= Genesis 10:6-7). The Sons of Ham 8. The sons of Ham] Passing over for the present the Central “zone,” the writer now describes the Southern. Cush] The Heb. name here transliterated Cush is several times translated “Ethiopia” (e.g. 2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 18:1) no doubt rightly. On the inscriptions of Assur-bani-pal frequent mention is made of Ku-su (Ku-u-su) “Ethiopia” in connexion with Mu-ṣ ?ur “Egypt.” The Cushites were not Negroes but a brown race like the modern Nubians (Soudanese). Mizraim] is without doubt Egypt. In form the word seems to be dual, and it is generally said to mean the two Egypts, Upper and Lower. A singular “Mâzôr” is translated “Egypt” In 2 Kings 19:24 (R.V.). Neither form is the native name of the kingdom. Put] In Genesis 10:6 “Phut” (R.V. Put). This people is mentioned among the helpers of Egypt in Jer., in Ezek. (twice) and in Nahum; “the Libyans” A.V. In Ezekiel 27:10 it appears among the auxiliary troops of Tyre; “Phut” A.V. In all these passages R.V. has “Put.” “Put” is probably the Punt of the Egyptian monuments, i.e. the Somali coast with the parts of the coast of Arabia nearest to it. Canaan] In Genesis 9:25-27 “Canaan” is not the son of Ham, but takes Ham’s place among the sons of Noah. Canaan (“lowland”) is applied to the whole country W. of Jordan including the Hill Country of Judah and Ephraim, but perhaps the name was originally given to the sea-coast only. This coastland (including both Philistia and Phœnicia) had close political connexions with Egypt, being indeed Egypt’s highway to the E., and hence Canaan is described as the brother of Mizraim, although no near ethnological relationship existed between the mass of the population of Canaan and the Egyptians.