Genesis 10:21

Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber,.... And for the sake of those Shem is particularly said to be the father of, is this genealogy given, and indeed the whole book of Genesis

Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.

Of all the children of Eber, i.e. of the Hebrews, the only church and people of God when Moses wrote, who are called Eber, , as here, the children of Eber. And he is here called the father of them peculiarly, though he had other children, because he was their father not only by natural generation, but also in respect of the promise of God, which was conveyed to them through Shem’ s hands, and of that faith and holiness wherein he was their predecessor and eminent pattern; even as Ham, though he had other sons, is specially called the father of Canaan, , because his father’ s curse rested upon him, . Object. Eber had many other children here recorded, and therefore in that sense Shem was not the father of all the children of Eber. Answ. Though Eber had other children, yet none are called in Scripture the children of Eber, or, which is all one, the Hebrews, but Abraham’ s posterity; even as though Abraham had divers other children, yet the Israelites are in many places peculiarly called the children of Abraham. And the ungodly Jews, when they degenerate from God and godliness, God takes away their name, and denieth them to be Jews, , and calls them Sodomites, . And therefore no wonder if Joktan and his posterity, having, as it is probable, forsaken their father’ s God, and turned idolaters, be here disowned as bastards, and blotted out of the honourable catalogue of the children of Eber: see . Japheth alone is here mentioned as his brother, and not Ham, because he was deservedly shut out from Shem’ s blessing pronounced by Noah, and was accursed of God, whereas Japheth was partaker with Shem, both in the piety exercised towards their father, and the blessing thereupon pronounced; the word brother being often applied to persons alike in condition, disposition, or manners: see . The elder. Though the words in Hebrew may seem ambiguous, yet other texts make it probable that Japheth was the elder. For Noah began to beget children in his five hundredth year, . And Shem was but a hundred years old two years after the flood, . Therefore he was not the eldest. And Ham is concluded not to be the eldest, from ; of which see Poole ""; if so, Japheth must be the eldest. And Shem is generally named first, not because he was the first-born, but because he had the privileges of the first-born, and was chief in dignity and authority in the church of God.

Genesis 10:21 Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were [children] born.Ver. 21. Unto Shem also.] His issue is set down last, because to be most insisted on in the holy history.

(21-23) shem . . . the brother of Japheth the elder.—Really, the elder brother of Japheth. Though the rules of Hebrew grammar will admit of no other rendering, it is remarkable that both the Syriac and the Vulg. make the same mistake as our own version. In designating Shem as “the father of all the children of Eber,” attention is called to the fact that the descendants of Peleg, his elder son, are omitted from this table, and reserved for the Tôldôth Shem. (See Genesis 11:10.) The nations descended from Shem were:— 1. Elam.—According to Mr. Sayce (Chald. Gen., p. 196), “the primitive inhabitants of Elam were a race closely allied to the Accadians, and spread over the whole range of country which stretched from the southern shores of the Caspian to the Persian Gulf.” But just as the Semitic Asshur expelled a Hamite race from Assyria, so another branch of this conquering family occupied Elymais. It is now called Chuzistan, and was the most easternly of the countries occupied by the Semites. But see Excursus to Genesis 14 on the conquests of the Elamite Chedorlaomer. 2. Asshur.—This Semitic stock seems to have been the first to settle on the Tigris, as the Hamites were the first to settle on the Euphrates. Finally, as we have seen (Genesis 10:11), they conquered the whole country. 3. Arphaxad.—Heb., Arpachshad. We may dismiss the idea that he was connected with the region called Arrapachitis, for this correctly is Aryapakshata, “the land next the Aryans.” Really he appears as the ancestor of Eber and the Joktanite Arabs. 4. Lud.—Probably the Lydians, who, after various wanderings, settled in Asia Minor. 5. Aram.—As Asshur means plain, so Aram means highland. It was originally the name of the Lebanon ranges, and thus Damascus is called Aram in 2 Samuel 8:5. Subsequently the race so extended itself as to possess Mesopotamia, a lowland country, but called, as early as Genesis 24:10, “Aram of the two rivers.” The greatness of Aram will be best seen by examining those places in our version where Syria and Syrian are spoken of, and which, in the Hebrew, are really Aram. To the Aramæan stock belonged also four outlying dependencies—(1) Uz, the land of Job, a district in the northern part of Arabia Deserta; (2) Hul and (3) Gether, regions of which nothing is known; and (4) Mash, a desert region on the western side of the Euphrates (Chald. Gen., p. 276).

Verse 21. Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber] It is generally supposed that the Hebrews derived their name from Eber or Heber, son of Shem; but it appears much more likely that they had it from the circumstance of Abraham passing over (for so the word עבר abar signifies) the river Euphrates to come into the land of Canaan. See the history of Abraham, Genesis 14:13.

21–31. The Sons of Shem (J and P) 21. And unto Shem, &c.] The brief account in verse is from J. the father of all the children of Eber] This is the point in the description of Shem which would seem most honourable to Israelite readers. The names “Eber” and “Hebrew” are almost identical in the Hebrew language. “Eber” was accepted as the ancestor of the Hebrew-speaking peoples. In the widest sense of the word, “Hebrews” are a group of Semitic peoples who issued from the Arabian Peninsula. They are included among the descendants of Joktan and Peleg, as well as of Terah. For the ordinary derivation of the word “Hebrew,” as = “the man from the further side” of the river, see Genesis 10:24 and Genesis 14:13. The term “Hebrew” is racial, “Israelite” national; though ultimately used as synonyms. the elder brother of Japheth] These words seem to be inserted, in order to remind the reader that Shem, though here mentioned last, was the eldest of Noah’s sons. The rendering of R.V. marg., the brother of Japheth the elder, is very improbable.

- XXXIII. Shem 21. אבר 'eber, “‘Eber, yonder side; verb: pass, cross.” 22.

THE FAMILY, Genesis 10:21-31. 21. Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born — That is, older than Ham, though younger than Japheth. Comp.