Genesis 10

Genesis 10:1

It all begins with God An EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of Genesis www.easyenglish.info Marie Wetherill and Keith Simons This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

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Chapter 10 v1 Noah’s sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth. This is their families’ history. They had sons after the flood.

v2 Japheth’s sons were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras. v3 Gomer’s sons were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. v4 Javan’s sons were Elishah, Tarshish, the people called Kittim and the people called Dodanim. v5 The nations spread along the coasts from those families. Each nation got its own language.

v6 Ham’s sons were Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. v7 Cush’s sons were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca. Raamah’s sons were Sheba and Dedan.

v8 Cush was also Nimrod’s father. Nimrod began to be a powerful man on the earth. v9 He was a powerful hunter. The *Lord could see what Nimrod was doing. Therefore people often say, ‘like Nimrod, who is a powerful hunter. The *Lord can see what Nimrod is doing.’ v10 The beginning of Nimrod’s *kingdom consisted of Babel, Erech and Accad. Those are all in the country called Shinar. v11 From Shinar, Nimrod went into Assyria. He built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah and Resen. v12 Resen is between Nineveh and Calah. That is the great city.

v13 Egypt was the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, v14 Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim. The *Philistines came from Casluhim’s family.

v15 Canaan was the father of Sidon, his oldest son. Canaan was also the father of Heth. v16 He was also the father of the people called Jebusites, *Amorites, Girgashites, v17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, v18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

Later the families that came from Canaan scattered. v19 And the country of those people spread from Sidon up to Gerar. It spread as far as Gaza. And it spread towards Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

v20 Those are Ham’s sons in their families, languages, countries and nations.

v21 Shem also had children. Shem was Japheth’s older brother. Shem was the *ancestor of all Eber’s children.

v22 Shem’s sons were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram. v23 Aram’s sons were Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash. v24 Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber. v25 Eber had two sons. One son was called Peleg because the earth became divided during his life. Peleg’s brother was called Joktan. v26 Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, v27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, v28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, v29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All those were Joktan’s sons.

v30 They lived in a country that spread from Mesha toward Sephar. It spread to the hilly country in the east. v31 Those are Shem’s sons in their families, languages, countries and nations.

v32 Those are the *descendants of Noah’s sons. The *descendants are in their families and they are in their nations. From those people, the nations scattered over the earth. That happened after the flood.

A new part of Genesis starts here. People’s life on the earth was starting again after the flood.

The actual names are not very important to us. But they do show that this account is true. These people were real. They actually lived. The account shows how quickly new families were born. And it shows how quickly they grew up. Some names here are probably places’ names rather than people’s names. People did not stay close together. They moved to new places and they became many nations.

In this list here, we read that Japheth had 7 sons and 7 grandsons. Cush’s sons and grandsons together were 7 in total. (That does not include Cush’s other son Nimrod, whom the writer talks about separately.) The writer mentions 70 nations as *descendants of Noah’s sons. People often used the number 70 to mean a large number. And 7 was a ‘special’ number too. Japheth’s family, 10:2-5 The writer begins with Japheth’s sons and grandsons. Their names show us that their families moved north, towards Europe. And they moved round the sea called the Mediterranean. Ham’s family, 10:6-20 Ham’s family moved towards the south and into North Africa. Canaan was the original name of the country that became Israel. So Canaan’s *descendants are important to the history in the Bible. But Ham’s *descendants lived across a much larger area.

Nimrod’s *descendants were especially powerful. Babylon would become the greatest city in the world for a short time. And Nineveh was also a very powerful city.

Verse 12 mentions ‘the great city’. It is not clear whether that means Nineveh or Calah. It seems as if it is Calah. But in the Book of Jonah, Nineveh is called a ‘great city’. Shem’s family, 10:21-32 Shem’s family comes last in this chapter, although his name comes first in verse 1. We do not know why that is so. Perhaps it is because the Book of Genesis continues with the story of Shem’s *descendants.

Many of Shem’s *descendants moved east. But this list also contains the names of places that are elsewhere.

© 2006, Wycliffe Associates (UK)

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

May 2006

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