Genesis 10

them give it to decrepit persons (as many, particularly Bochart, have observed); and it became a proverb in that country/’ older than Japetns " AYhoui their poets feign to have attempted war against Jupiter; because? of the dissensions which the unlikencss of their manners begat between them. Which seems to be nothing but the story in chapter ix. of this book, ver. 22. For Hain, as I said, is the heathen Jupiter. Insula?. Into which country the offspring of Ashkenaz brought colonics from Goiner, or the Greater Phrygia: and extended themselves to the sea. Which being called by the people upon the coast A’scenaz, was pronounced by the Greeks w A&p6£ t Which being an odious name in their language, signifying inhospitable, they changed it into the contrary, and called it Evfyipoc, the Euxine Sea. See more in the forenamed author, (lib. iii. cap. 9.) Ludovicus Capellus happened upon the same conjecture. Riphath, or Diphath, as it is written in 1 Chron. i. 6. whose posterity Josephus thinks to have inhabited Paphlagonia: which is a country near to Phrygia, upon the Euxine Sea: aif$ there arc remainers of the name in several places, both ways written with Resh, or with Daleth: as Bochart shews, (lib. iii. cap. 10.) Mela places the Riphaces in this country, as Grotius observes, Annot. in lib. i. de V.R. C. Togarmah.] His posterity, it is manifest, settled northward of Judea, by that place in Ezekiel (xxxviii. 6.) where the Greek scholiast saith, some hereby understand the Cappadocians and Galatians. And, indeed, Cappadocia lies near to Gomer or Phrygia, with whom Togarmah is wont to be joined: and in respect of Judea, it lies northward; and was most famous for excellent horses; which the prophet saith came from Togarmah. (Ezek. xxvii. 14.) The Greek interpreters constantly write it Torgama, or Thorgama; from whence the name of theTrogmi, orTrocmi, may well be thought to be derived: who, Strabo saith, (lib. xii.) lived near Pontus and Cappadocia: and it appears by PiOlcmy, they possessed some cities in Cappadocia itself. This people are called by Stephanus, Trocmeni, and in the council of Chalcedon, Trocmades, or Trogmades: for their bishop is often mentioned, ^Ett/o-cottoc TpoKfiaSwv. See Bochart in the same book, cap. 11. as, he confesses, the Hebrews call isles, Moses might well say, the isles of the gentiles were parted among them, though Media be comprehended, which was not such an isle. But there is no need of all this, if we take the word we translate isle, for a region, country, or province. And so it plainly signifies, Job xxii. 30. Isai. xx. H. where, in the margin, we translate it country. And then the word Goim, which we render Gentiles, signifies a multitude of people: as it dolh often hi Scripture: particularly Gen. xvii. 4. 1G. And so we translate it, nations, in the last words of this verse; and in the last clause of this chapter; “by these were the [Goim] nations divided in the earth.” Which may serve to explain this phrase here; which we may thus interpret, u by these (or among these) were divided the regions of the people or nations (descended from Japheth) in their lands;" in the several countries which they possessed. Divided.] It appears by the following words (according to his language, family, and nation), this great division of the earth was made orderly, and not by a confused irregular dispersion, wherein every one went whither he listed, and seated himself where he thought good. This, Mr. Mede thinks, is also suggested in the very word we translate divided; which signifies not a scattered, but a distinct partition. Every one after his tongue, or language.] The same is said (ver. 20. and ver. 31.) of the posterity of Cham and Shem. Which signifies they did not all speak the same, language, but doth not prove that any one of the forementioned people had a language peculiar to themselves, distinct from the rest, and not understood by them. As, when Ahasuerus is said to have caused letters to be written to a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, according to their language and their writing, (Esth. viii. 9.) it doth not prove there were so many several sorts of writing, and so many several languages in his empire; but only that to each of them was directed a letter, in that language which they spake. After their families, in their nations.] The particle in denotes, as Mr. Mede observes, families to be subordinate to nations, as parts to a whole. Families are parts of a nation, and a nation is an offspring containing many families. So here was a twofold order in this division. First, they were ranged according to their nations; and then, every nation was ranked by his families. So that every nation had his lot by himself; and in every nation, the families belonging to it had their portion by themselves. The number ofnations descended from Japheth were seven, according to the number of his sons, who were all founders of several nations. But the number of families is not here entirely set down: for Moses names only the families of Gomer and Javan: whose children, perhaps, are rather to be looked upon as founders of nations; and therefore mentioned by Moses, when tho posterity of the rest are omitted. (Gen. xlvi. 10.) the son of a Canaanitish woman: whom in Exod. vi. 15. they call the son of. a Phoenician woman. And so in the New Testament/ the woman whom St. Matthew calls a woman of Canaan, (xv. 22.) St. Mark calls a Syrophceniciati,(vn. 2G.) We never, indeed, find the Phoenicians called Canaanites by the Greeks: for their posterity, being ashamed (as we may suppose) of that jiame, because of the curse pronounced upon Canaan, chose to be called rather Syrians, or Assyrians, or Sidonians, or Phoenicians. For Syria, which was a common name to a great many people round about, was at first proper to them; from the metropolis of Phoenicia, which was TyTe, in Hebrew, Sor or Sur; from whence Surim, and thence the Greek Ivpoi. They that would see more of this, may read the forenamed author, (lib. iv. Phaleg. cap. 34.) Sheba (i.e. of this country) and Sebft shall offer gifts." And sometimes Sheba and Raamah (for Rhegma) are joined; (Ezek. xxvii. 22.) where the prophet speaks of this Sheba, the son, or Rhegma; who brought those precious commodities there mentioned out of Arabia: they lying very commodiously for traffic upon the Persian Gulf. And these are the people also mentioned, ver. 23. of that chapter, with sundry other nations; who lived upon Tigris and Euphrates, which run into the Persian Sea; and therefore it is reasonable to think that Sheba’s posterity lived near tho same sea. adding greater splendour to it. And this also must be understood not of the wife of Ninus, for it is a question whether he had any wife of that name: or, if he had, she was different from her whom the Greeks so much magnify, who lived almost two thousand years after the son of Belus, as Salmasius observes (Exereit. in Solin. p. 1228.) out of Philo-Byblius. AndErec, &e.] Having built Babel, which he made the chief city of his kingdom, he proceeded to build three cities more in the same country. Which they that think he won by conquest, imagine also that he made Babel the head city, because he’iron it first; and then the other. And all this, say some, before the dispersion we read of in the next chapter: which others think happened after the dispersion. Erec seems to have been the city which Ptolemy calls Areeca, and Ammianus, Arceha; which lay in the country of SuSiana upon the river Tigris. Whence the Areccaji Campi in Tibullus, as Salmasius observes in his Exereit. in Solinum, p. 1194. From whence, Huetius thinks the country below it was called Iroquc; mentioned by Alferganus, and other Arabian writers. AcchadJ] It is a hard matter to give any account of this city; but the LXX. calling it Arehad, from the Chaldee idiom, which is wont to change the Daghes, which doubles a letter, into R, (as Darmasek for Dammasek, i. e. Damascus; and, by the same reason, Arehad for Acchad) the footsteps of this name may be thought to remain in Argad, a river of Sittacene in Persia. For nothing is more common, than to change eft into g. Chalne.] It is sometimes called Chalno, (Isai. x.!).) and Channe, (Ezek. xxvii. 23.) From whence the country called Chalanitis (mentioned by Pliny and Strabo, Polybius, and Dionys. Periegetes) may well be thought to have taken its name: whose chief city was called Chalne, or Chalone, (which is the same) and afterwards changed by Pacorus, king of Persia, into Ctesiphon. the Ethiopians wcro a colony of the Egyptians, (lib. iv. Phalcg. cap. 26.) For it appears by Diodorus that they were near of kin; having many things common to both nations; which ho reckons up, and are suflicient to persuade those who consider them, that they had the same original: the only difference among them being this — which of them was of greatest antiquity. The Egyptians fancied they were the first of all men; and the Ethiopians pretended that they, living more southerly, had a stronger sun; which contributed more efficaciously to natural generation; and that Egypt was a country thrown up by the mud which Nilus left, and so got out of the sea. But Moses hath determined this controversy in these words, and by the rest of his history; which shews, that the first men after the flood came from the mountains of Armenia, which is in the north; and consequently they went to the southerly countries, by degrees, through Assyria, Babylon, Syria, and Egypt, into Ethiopia. And their discourse is ridiculous about the original of Egypt, unto which wc see nothing added by the Nile, in many ages. Anamim.] Our Broughton takes these to be the Numidians, among whom he finds Anubis. Others take them for the Anaita in Ethiopia. But these Anamims being derived from Mizraim, we are rather to seek them about Egypt: and the opinion of Bochartusis probable, that they are the Nomades, who lived about Ammon and Nasamonitis; and called Anamii from Aham, which signifies a sheep among the ancient Egyptians, as it doth among the Arabians. For the Nomades fed sheep, as Herodotus tells us, and lived upon them (whereas they abstained from eating cows or swine); and their garments also, as he tells us, were of sheep-skins. Lehabim.] These are thought to be the Lybians; but that being a name which belongs to the greatest part of Africa, it cannot be well thought that so great a portion fell to this son of Mizraim, or that so many people were descended from him. Therefore Bochart, with great reason, thinks the Lehabsei were not all the Lybians; but those whom Ptolemy, Pliny, and others, call Lybisegyptii; because they lived next to Egypt on the west of Thebais, in a sandy, adust soil, burnt by excessive heat; from whence he thinks they had the name of Lehabim. For lehaba signifies both a flame and heat: as in Joel i. 19. " The flame (lehaba in the Hebrew, or scorching heat) hath burnt all the trees of the field." Naphtuhim.] These seem to be the people of Nephthuah; and what that is we may learn from Plutarch: who, in his book Dc Iside et Osiride, says, the Egyptians call the country and the mountains that lie upon the sea Nephthun; which may incline us to think that the Naphtuhim were those people thatlivcd upon the shore of the Mediterranean in Marmarica: for the people upon the Bed Sea belonged to Arabia, not to Egypt. It is not improbable that from hence came the name of Neptune, who originally was a Lybian god; and known to none but that people. There was a city called Nepata by Pliny, which Grotius thinks may explain this name: but it was in Ethiopia; and Moses is speaking of the sons of Mizraim.. abounded with fish. However, the Sidonians came from this son of Canaan; and some of them (if he did not found it himself), called the city by this name, in memory of him. It was far more ancient and famous than Tyre: for we read of it in the books of Moses, and Joshua, and the Judges: but nothing of Tyre till the days of David. Nor doth Homer mention Tyre; though he speaks of Sidon and the Sidonians in many places. Heth.] His second son, was the father of the Hittites, or the children of Heth, often mentioned in Scripture; who dwelt about Hebron and Beersheba, in the south of the land of Canaan. They were a very warlike people, and struck a terror into their neighbours: from whence the word Hittha seems to be derived, which signifies fright and sadden consternation; such as came upon the Syrians, when they thought the kings of the Hittites were coming against them, (2 Kings vii.6.) This was the country of the Anakims: for from Arba, who.was a Hittite, descended Anak; and from him those three giants, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, and the rest of the Anakims, (Numb. xiii. 22, 23. Josh. xv. 13, 14.) [chap. but we do not know from which. We shall meet with it in the 15th chapter of this book. lay between Tyre and Babylon, we must not take all the people of them to have been the posterity of Araui. For it is evident some of them descended from Canaan, others from Ashur,.others from Arphaxad. Therefore, those are to be thought to have come from him, to whom the name of Aram is prefixed or subjoined, as Aram-Naharajira, and Padan-Aram (i. e. the Mesopotamians), Aram: Soba (the people of Palmyra and the neighbouring cities), Aram- I>amasek (situated between Libamis and Anti-Libanus, whose chief city was Damascus), and, perhaps, Aram- Maacha, and Aram-Bethrehob, which were places beyond Jordan, one of which fell to the share of Manasseh, the other of Asser. &c. From whence the name of Catanike, a people in Arabia Felix, mentioned by Ptolemy; and a city, in tho territory of Mecha, still retains the very name of Jektan, being called Baisath-Jcktan, t. e. the seat or habitation of Jektan, in the Arabian geographer. See Mr. Pocock’s notes upon Abul-Farajus concerning the original of the Arabians, p. 38, 39. Ver. 2G. Ahnodad.] The eldest son of Joktan seems to ha vc^ given name to the people whom Ptolemy calls’AWovpaiutTai, in the middle of Arabia Felix, near the original of the river Lar, which runs into the Persian Gulf. The Greeks, who knew little of this people, who lived a great way from the sea, might easily mispronounce their name, calling them Allumaotce, instead of Almodai. Sheleph, or Saleph.] Was, it is likely, tho father of the Salapeni. For such a people there were, mentioned by Ptolemy, who calls them laXairfivoi: who were remote from tho rest, about the neck of Arabia, not far from the spring of the river Betius. Hatzermaveth.] Though the Arabians write this name with the very same letters, yet it sounds among them thus, Hadramnth, or Cadramuht: which the Greeks pronounce divers ways, because of tho ambiguous sound of the two letters, tzadi and cheth; for sometimes he is called Asarmoth, sometimes (without an A) Sarmoth, and Armoth, and Atermoth, as Bochartus hath observed; who thinks the country called Chatramitis or Atramitis, Chatramotis or Atrimotis, to have been peopled by the children of this Hadramuth, as the Arabians pronounce this name Hatazmaveth.‘Afya^vra, Salmasius shews, is the name of a city or place, and’Atyapirat, of a people or nation. (Exercit. in Solin. p. 489.) And the same people, he observes, (p. 490.) are called by Artcmidorus,‘Arpa/furirat, whose country was that part of Arabia which abounded with frankincense, myrrh, cassia, and cinnamon, as Thcophrastus tells us. And Strabo calls them (as he there notes) Xarpa/iwrifac, and Uranius in Stcphanus, Xarpa/iwrcu; so differently was this hard word pronounced: who were so famous, that Eustathius Antioch. Eusebius, and others, make this Hatzermaveth the father of the Arabians, and Epiphanius derives their language from him; which they (as was said before) derive from Jektan himself; looking upon the dialect of Chadramites as barbarous. See Bochartus, % lib. ii. Phaleg. cap. 16. where he observes, that Hatzermaveth in Hebrew signifies the entrance of death, and Hadhramauth in Arabic the region of death. Because the air of that country was very thick and foggy (and consequently unwholesome), as Arrianns relates, who saith, that tho frankincense and myrrh were therefore gathered only by the king’s slaves, and by condemned persons. Jerah, or Jerach.] From whom came the people called Jerachrei, who lived near the Red Sea; called by Agatharcides, and others, y A\t\alot,‘Alil<ei: which is the very same in Arabic with the other in Hebrew. For llilal is the moon in that language, as Jerach is in Hebrew. And the Nubiensian geographer mentions a people about Mecha, who, at this day, are called Bene-hilal, the children of Jerach, as the Hebrews would have expressed it. It seems they are come more towards the east, when anciently they dwelt in the south. Ptolemy mentions also an island, upon the coast of the Alilaei, which he calls iepfavy vyoroc: but it doth not signify the Isle of Hawks (as the Greeks fancied, who imagined all these old words to come from their tongue), but of the Jeraclueu 1116. Which Pliny saith signifies as much as " dominos omnium," the lords of all: for from Rabba, to rule, comes Marab, which signifies in their language (as Bochart observes) the seat of those that rule: that is, the royal city, where their kings lived. The Nubiensian geographer saith, the Queen of Sheba came from hence to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

Genesis 10:1

1\ OW these are the generations of the sons of Noah, &c. As he had often before mentioned the three sons of Noah, so now he mentions them again, being to give an account of their children, by whom the earth was peopled after the flood. And he reckons them in the same order he had always done, (vi. 10. vii. 13. ix. 18.) first Shem, then Ham, and last of all Japheth. But it is observable, that, in the next verse, he gives an account first of the sons of Japheth, who was, indeed, the eldest. There.is great use of this genealogy, as Maimonidcs shews, (par. iii. More Nev. cap. 50.) because the doctrine of the creation of the world, which is the foundation of the law (i. e. of religion), would not have been so easily believed, if Moses had not given an account of the succession of mankind, from the first man to the flood; and from the flood to his own time: shewing from whom all nations were derived, and how they came to be dispersed. Shem is named first of Noahs sons, because the blessed seed was to spring out of his family; in which the true religion was preserved: which was soon lost in the posterity of the other two; among whom their names remained in great honour. For, Ham w r as the heathen Jupiter, who was called Hammon in Egypt; which, it will appear, was part of Ham’s portion, and is called the Land of Ham, as every one know T s, in many places of the Psalms. And, accordingly, the same countiy is called >y Plutarch, Xijftla. Japheth also seems to have been the same with Japetus, whom the Greeks own to have been their father. Nor do they know any name of greater antiquity: which mado

Genesis 10:2

The sons of Japheth. Were seven; the eldest of which, Gomer, had three sons; and the fourth, Javan, had four: whose names we have in the following verses. Gomer.] It is hard, at this distance, to find what country was peopled by his posterity; but Bochartus, in his Phaleg. hath made such probable conjectures, about this and all that follow, from other Scriptures, and from neighbouring places, and the relics of their names in ancient geographers, and such-like things, that they carry a great appearance of truth in them. Our famous Camden (in his account of the first inhabitants of Britain), thinks that the Cimbri and Ciramerii descended from this Gomcr, who gave them their name; and that the old Britons came from him, because they call themselves Kumcro, Cymro, and Knmeri; which seems to denote them the posterity of Gomer. But this, as also the notion of Ludov. Capcllus in his Chron. Sacra, p. 104. (who, if this of Mr.. Camden be not accepted, propounds another, of the Comari and Chomari, a people in Scythia, mentioned by Ptolemy, within the mountain Imaus, ncarBactriana), is confuted by what we read in Ezekiel, who makes Gomer to have been a neighbour of Torgamah. (Ezek. xxxviii. G.) And Torgamah was a nation that usually went to the marts of Tyre, (xxvii. 34.) and consequently were not seated in the furthermost part of the north; but, as will appear afterward, not very far from Tyre. And in some countries thereabouts we must seek for Gomcr: who, it is likely, gave Phrygia its denomination. For a part of it w T as called KaraKek-aviitrt) by Diodorus and Hesychius, because it looked as if it were burnt. Such was all the country about Caystcr, Moeander, and the city Philadelphia. Now this is the very signification of Gomcr. For in the Hebrew Gomer is to consume; and so the Chaldcc and Syriac frequently use it; whence Gumra, or Gumro, is a coal. And Phrygia is of the same signification (for typvyuv in Greek ip to toirify), which, being the name ofpart of the country, in time became the name of the whole. Magog.] The second son of Japhcth, was in all likelihood the father of the Scythians; which is the opinion of Josephus, Theodorct, St. Jerome, and others. For all that is said in Scripture about Magog exactly agrees to them; as Bochartus hath shewn at large, out of Ezekiel. lib. jii. Phalcg. cap. 13. MadaiJ] From hiin the country of Media took its name; where he and his children settled: and it is the farthermost country eastward, where any of the posterity of Japheth inhabited. What is the name of this country, at present, is not easy to tell; the ancient name and limits of countries so remote, heing quite worn out of memory. But it is no improbable conjecture of Bochartus, (lib. iii. cap. 14.) that the ancient Sarmatoe took their name from this man, Sear, or Sar-Madai, being, in Chaldec, as much as the relics of Madai or the Mcdes. Dr. Jackson, I think, hath well observed, (book i. chap. lG.)that Scythia, or the north part of Asia Minor, and other parts adjacent, were inhabited by the sons of Japhcth, before they came into Greece (where the next son set led), or the other parts of Europe. • Javan.] Planted himself in Greece; under which word is comprehended, not only Achaia and the rest of the countries thereabout; but even Macedonia, and the nations neighbouring to it, towards the west: the sea that washes them, being called the Ionian Sea. And, indeed, the Hebrew word TV taking away the vowels, may bo cither read Javan or Ion. From whence the lones; whom Homer calls Jaones, which is near to Javan; which a Persian, in Aristophanes’s Acharncnses, pronounces Jaonau: as Grotius observes, Annot. in lib. i. de V. R. C. Hence Daniel calls Alexander, who came out of Macedonia, the King of Javan, (viii. 21.) And the Chaldec paraphrase hath here, instead of Javan, Macedonia. See Bochart. lib. iii. cap. 3. Tubal and Meshech.] These two are constantly joined together by Ezekiel in many places, (xxvii. 13. xxxii. 26, &c.) Which is a sign these two brothers planted themselves not far from one another. And no conjecture seems so probable as that of Bochartus, who takes these to be the people whom the Greeks call Moschi and Tibareni: who are as constantly joined together in Herodotus, as Mcschech and Tubal are in Ezekiel, and none need wonder that Tubal was changed into Tuber, and then into Tiber: for nothing w T as more “common, among the Greeks, than to change the letter L. into R. as BtXtap for Belial, and $ix*V for Phicol, &c. The Moschi inhabited the mountains called Moschici, N. E. of Cappadocia, and all the mountains (as Bochart thinks) from the river Phasis to the Pontus- Cfippadodicus. The Tibareni were in the middle between the Trapezunfii and the inhabitants of Armenia the Less. So Strabo describes them, who was born not far from thesQ countries, and had reason to know them. Nor is this a new opinion of Bochart’s, that the Tibareni came from Tubal: for Epiphanius, in his Ancorats, mentions amongthc descendants of Japheth, Ti/3ftpirowc, togetherwith the Chalybcs and Mossynscci; whom our Broughton follows. Tiros.] Or Thiras, the youngest of the sons of Japheth, possessed Thrace and Mjsia, and the rest of Europe towards the north. For 0/oaJ is Thiras or Thras, by the change of the letter Samech into Xi: which in the Greek alphabet (received from the Phoenicians) answers to the letter Samech; so that some of the Hebrews write Thracia with an S, Thrasia: and a Thracian woman is called by the Greeks themselves 0pa<r<7aand Opuvaa: which comes very near to Thiras. And that great man Bochartus says a great deal more to confirm this; which was the opinion, he shews, of many of the ancients. (Phaleg. lib. iii. cap. 2.) And in late times, of Lndovicus Capellus; who adds, that possibly Tros and Troas were derived from this Thiras.

Genesis 10:3

And the sons of Gomer. Now T follows an account of those that descended from the eldest son of Japheth. Ashkenaz was the eldest son of Gomcr, whose posterity settled in Bithynia (where we find the footsteps of his name, in the Sinus Ascanius, and Ascanius Lacus, and Amnis), and in Troas, and the Lesser Phrygia: in which is a country and a city called Ascania and Ascanice-

Genesis 10:4

And the sons of Javan. Having told us what sons Gomer had, he informs us who had descended from Javan: who had four sons, that gave names to four provinces. Elishah.] His first-born inhabited Peloponnesus: in which there was an ample country, called by the ancients Elis: and one part of it called by Homer, Alisium.. I omit the other arguments whereby Bochartus proves this to be the part of the earth where Elishah’s posterity settled, not far from their father Javrin. Nay, Ludovicus Capellus (p. 105. Chron. Sacra,) thinks the’AioXeTc, JEoles, and the country iEolia had its name from thence Tarshish] (or Tarsis)’ Neither peopled Cilicia, where we meet with a like name, nor the coast about Carthage, as some of the ancients thought; but, as Eusebius, and from him our Broughton, and lately Bochart, have observed, from him came the Iberi in Spain. Qapaeic t£ ov “Ifiripec. Which name of Iberi came, as Bochart thinks, from the Phoenicians, who called the bounds and utmost limits of any thing Ebrim or Ibrim; a word often used in the Syriac version of the Psalms and the New Testament. From whence, it is not unlikely, the Spaniards were called by this name of Iberi, because they were thought to possess the utmost ends of the earth westward. However, we may well think Tarshish to be Spain, or that part of it which was most frequented by the Phoenicians, viz. about Gadcs and Tartcssus, as Bochartus, I think, hath proved by evident arguments, fetched chiefly from what Ezekiel says of Tarsis, (xxvii. 12.) and comparing it with this country. (Lib. iii. Phaleg. cap. 7.) Kittim.] The same author hath proved by fcolid arguments, and by good authority, that from him came the people who Inhabited Italy: in which there were anciently many footsteps of this name. For there was in Latium itself a city called KeHa, as Halicarnasscus tells. us: which was one of those great and populous Cities taken by Coriolanus, as Plutarch, in his life, tells us. There was a river called Ksros about Cmnas, mentioned by Aristotle, as turning plants into stones. And the very name of Latiries answers to Chittim: for most say it comes a latendo, being formed to express this ancient Scripture name. For Chetema, in Arabic (which is a branch of the Hebrew tongue) is to hide: and Chetim is hidden, and lament. And so, no doubt, it was anciently used in Hebrew: for what better sense can we make of those words of Jeremy, ii. 22. " thy iniquity, DJIOJ, is hidden or laid up with me?” according to an usual expression in Scripture, (Deut. xxxii. 34. Job xxi. 9. Hos. xiii. 12.) where there arc words of the like import with this. That famous man Bochart saith a great deal more, to assert this, (lib. iii. cap. 5.) Dodanim.] He is called Rhodanim, ml Chron. i.7. by whom the Greek interpreters understand the people of Rhodes (and so do several of the ancients), but the name of that island is much later than Moses’s time: and therefore it is better to understand hereby, that country now called France; which was peopled by the posterity of this son of Javan: who, when they came to this Coast, gave name, as Bochart conjectures, to the great river Rhodanus; where it is likely they first seated themselves, and called the adjacent coast Rhodanusia: which had anciently in it a city of the same name, mentioned by Stephanus; and said to be seated in MwraaXfo, in tractu Massiliensi, where now stands Marseilles. (See Bochart, lib. iii. cap. G.) These Dodanites are never mentioned in any other places of Scripture, which makes it the more difficult where to find them; but this account seems more probable than that of our learned Mede, who places them in Epirus (where there was a city called Dodona), and part of Peloponnesus: all which, and several countries thereabout, seem to be comprehended under the name of Javan.

Genesis 10:5

By these were the isles of the gentiles divided!. By the word isles we commonly understand countries compassed round about by the sea. But there were not such islands enough to contain the sons of Japheth(thougli these were part of their portion), and therefore we’ must seek for another sense of this word. Which the Hebrews use (as Mr. Mede hath observed), to signify " all those countries divided from them by the sea;” or, such as they used not to go to, but by sea. (See book i. disc* 47.) Many places testify this, (Isai. xi. 10, 11. xli 15. Jer. ii. 10, &c.) Now, if Moses wrote this book in Egypt, as fie thinks it probable, they commonly went from thence to Phrygia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, by sea, as well as to Greece, Italy, &c. To Media, indeed, he thinks, they did not use to go by sea, and therefore makes this an objection against Madia being the father of the Medes: for their* country cannot be called an isle. But the far greater part of the regions, peopled by the sons of Japheth, being sucji

Genesis 10:6

And the sons of Ham. Having given an account of the sons and grandsons of Japheth, the eldest son of Noah, he next proceeds to the sons of Ham, the second son of Noah, which were four: and gives an account also of every one of their sons, and of some of their grandsons. Citsh] Gave name to a country very often mentioned in Scripture; which most of the ancients take for Ethiopia, and so we commonly translate the word Cush. But if by Ethiopia they meant that country south of Egypt, and not an eastern country (which may be a question), Jonathan is rather to be followed, who here paraphrases it Arabia. For Cush is the same with Chusan (only this latter is a diminutive), which is made the same with Midian, (Habak. iii. 7.) And so Moses’s wife is called a Chushite (we render it Ethiopian), for she was a Midianite, (Exod. ii. 1G. 21.) and therefore was of Arabia, not of Ethiopia: and so we should translate it, (Numb. xii. 2.) an Arabiun woman. And there is a demonstration of it in Ezek. xxix. 10. that Cush cannot be Ethiopia; for, when God saith he will make Egypt desolate, " from the tower of Syene to the border of Cush," if we should understand by’ Cush the country of Ethiopia, it would be as if he had said, ** from Ethiopia to Ethiopia." For every one knows Syene was the border of Egypt towards Ethiopia: and therefore here being two opposite borders, it is manifest that Cush, which is the opposite term to Syene, cannot be Ethiopia, but Arabia: which bounded that part of Egypt, which is most remote from Ethiopia. A great number of other arguments, out of the Scriptures, evince this: which Bochartus hath collected, (lib. iv. Phaleg. cap. 2.) and Philip. Beroaldus asserted the same thing before him. Mizraim.] The father of them who inhabited Egypt, whose metropolis [Alcairo] the Arabians at this day call Meser; and the first month among the ancient Egyptians was called Mesori: and Cedrenus calls the country itself Mestra, as Grotius observes in his Annot. in lib. i. de V. R. C. and Lud. Capellus, in his Chronol. Sacra, p. 109, And this word Mizraim being of the dual number (which shews it to be the name of the country rather than of a person), denotes two Egypts, as Bochart observes. For so there were, the higher and the lower. All that country was called the higher, where Nile runs in one stream; the lower was that, where it is divided into many: which the Greeks call Delta, from its triangular form. Phut.] All Africa was divided between Mizraim and Phut, as Bochartus observes. For all Egypt, and several other parts of Africa, as far as the lake Tritonidcs (which divides Africa into twb almost equal parts), fell to Mizraim. The rest, beyond that lake, to the Atlantic Ocean, was the portion of Phut. Of which name there are some footsteps, in the city Putea, which Ptolemy, (lib. iii. cap. 1.) calls 4>oiJn;c; and the river called Phut, mentioued by Pliny, as Grotius notes; and a country, which St. Jerome, in his time, says, was called Kegio Phutensis: wiiich lies not far from Fez. Another name of Africa is Lub, which we often meet withal in Scripture: whence the name of Lybia. Concerning which, and a great many other proofs that Phut was planted in Africa, see the famous Bochartus, (lib. iv. Phaleg. cap. 33.) Canaan.] The youngest son of Ham, every one knows, gave name to that country, which God gave afterwards to the Israelites. Which the Phoenicians, who descended from the Canaanites, called Xvd, by a contraction of the word Canaan, as many have observed out of Eusebins, (lib. i. Prnepar. cap. 10.) who quotes Sanchoniathon and Philo-Biblius for it. It is so certain that the Phoenicians had their original from the Canaanites, that the LXX. use their names promiscuously. For example, Shual is called,

Genesis 10:7

In this verse Moses acquaints us, what people descended from the eldest son of Ham; viz. Cush, who had five sons: and the fourth of them had two. Seba. There were four nations, that had the name of Seba, or Shebah, as Bochart observes, (lib* ii. cap. 25.) Three of them are mentioned here in this chapter. The first of them, this son of Cush, is written with Samech, all the rest with Schin; viz. the grandson of Cush, who was the son of Raamah or Rhegma, in the end of this verse. The third was the son of Joktan, the son of Shem, (ver. 28.) And the fourth was a grandchild of Abraham, by his son Jokshan, (xxv. 3.) They that descended from the three first of these, were a people given to trade; from the fourth came a people addicted to robbery. The first, the second, and the fourth, were seated near the Persian Sea; the third near the Arabian; whence Pliny saith the Sabeans stretched themselves to both seas, (lib. v. cap. 28.) For all these four people were comprehended under the name of Sabeans, though very different one from another. But it may be doubted, whether the Sabeans, who descended from Jokshan the grandchild of Abraham, did live near the Persian Sea. And I shall shew upon xxv. 3. that Bochart himself thought otherwise, upon further consideration. And as for this Seba, he was the father of a people in Arabia called Jemamites, as Alcamus, an Arabian writer, tells us: whose words are, " A certain man called Saba gathered together the tribes of the Jemamites:" i. e. He was the founder of the people called by that name, from a famous queen of that country called Jemama. See Bochartus, lib. iv. cap. 8. where he shews where they were situated: and that they are the Sabeans who are said* by Agathercides to have been a very tall proper people, mentioned Isa. xlv. 14. Havilah.’] Or Chavilah. There were two Havilahs also: one the son of Cush here mentioned; another the son of Joktan, (ver. 29.) From this Havilah seem to have come the people called Chaulothaei by Eratosthenes: who were.seated in Arabia Felix (as Strabo tells us) between the Nabataei and the Agraei, i. e. the Hagerens. By Pliny they are called Chavelaei (which comes nearest to the Hebrew name), who were seated in that part of the country which lay towards Babylon: as.appears by this, that, in the Scripture, the wilderness of Shur (nigh Egypt) and Havilah are opposed, as the most remote opposite bounds of Arabia. Thus the Ishmaelites are’said to have dwelt " from Havilah to Shur," (Gen. xxv. 18.) that is, before Egypt^ e regione Egypti, " over against Egypt," as Bochart translates it. That is, Havilah bounded them on the northeast; and Shur on the south-west: which Shur was near to Egypt. And so Saul is said to have smitten the " Amalekites from Havilah to Shur," &c. (1 Sam. xv. 7.) where we translate the last words, " over against Egypt." Sabta.] Or Sabtha, (whom the ancients call Sabatka, or Sabathes) seems to have been settled in that part of Arabia Felix called Leanites, upon the Persian Sea; where there was a city, not far distant from the sea, called by Ptolemy laf&a; from whence they sent colonies over the Sea into Persia, as Bochart shews by several arguments, (lib. iv. cap. 10.) For there is an island on that coast called Sophtha; and a people called Messabatae, or Messabathae, upon the confines of Media; from the Chaldean word Mesa (which signifies middle) and Sabatha; as if one would say, the Mediterranean Sabta. Raamah] Or, as the ancients pronounce his name, Rhegma, was situated in the same Arabia, upon the Persian Sea. Where there is a city mentioned by Ptolemy’s tables Rhegama; in the Greek text expressly, Tcy^a, Rhegma. And so Stephanus mentions both T?iy^a w6\tg and koXttoq T??77ia,about the Persian Gulf. Sabtecha] Or Sabthecha, as some read it, was the youngest son of Cush, except Nimrod, who is mentioned by himself. It is hard to find the place of his habitation: but the rest of the sons of Cush being seated about the Persian Sea (except Nimrod, who, as Moses tells us, went to Babylon), Bochartus thinks it reasonable to seek for him in that part of Caramania, where there was a city called Samydace, and a river Samydachus: which, he thinks may have come from Sabetecha, by the change of the letter B into M. Which was very frequent in Arabia, and the neigbbouring countries. For Merodach is also called Berodacb, in the Book of the Kings: and in the Chaldee paraphrase, Basan is called Bathnan and Matbnan: and Abana (the famous river of Damascus), is expounded Amana: and Mecca and Beccha, are the same city among the Arabians. In like manner, Sabtecha, or Sabithace,. might be changed into Samydace. Now, into Caramania there was a short cut over the streights oi tbe Persian Gulf out of Arabia. I see nothing any where more probable than this conjecture of that very learned man. (Lib. iv. Phaleg. cap. 4.) And the sons of Ramah, Shebr, and Dedan.] He gives an account of none of Cush’s other sons’ posterity, but only of this: whose two sons were seated near him and one another. For the younger of them, Dedan, seems to have left his name in a city now called Dadan, hard by Rhegma, upon the same shore, eastward. And from this Dadan the country now hath its name: of which Ezekiel speaks,(xx vii.l5.)as Bochart shews plainly,(lib.iv. cap.G.) And Sheba (or, as others read it, Seba or Saba), his elder brother, was seated in the same’eountry not far from Dedan, where Pomponius mentions a people called Sabcei: and Arrianus speaks of a great mountain not far off, called Sabo, from this Saba: whose posterity, easily passing over the streights beforementioned into Caramania, might possibly give name to a city there, which Ptolemy calls Sabis: and Pliny mentions a river of the same name: and Dionys. Periegetes speaks of a people called Saba;. Of whom the Scripture seems to speak, in those places where Sheba and Seba are joined together: (Ps. Ixxii. 10.) " The kings of

Genesis 10:8

And Cush begat Nimrod. Besides all the forementioned, he also begat this son; whom Moses distinguishes from the rest, and mentions him alone by himself, because he was the most eminent among his brethren, though born the last; a mighty commander, as Moses here describes him. Thus in the title of Psal. xviii. it is said, David was delivered out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: who is particularly mentioned by himself because he was his chief enemy. SirW. Raleigh thinks he was begotten by Cush when his other children were become fathers; and so, being younger than his grandsons, he is named after an account is given of every one of them. Nimrod.] The author of the Chronicon Alexandr. thinks he was the same with Ninus: but Vossius rather takes him for him whom the Greek writers call Belus, that is Lord: And that Ninus was his son, so called from the very thing itself, Nin in Hebrew signifying a son, (lib.i. de Idolol. cap. 24.) The same Chronicon saith, that Nimrod taught the Assyrians to worship the fire: and both Elmacinus and Patricides affirm the same. (See Hotting. Smegma, Orient. lib. i. cap. 8. p. 272.) Which, if it be true, I doubt not was as an emblem of the Divine Majesty; which used to appear in a glorious flame. Ur, a city of Ghaldea, seems to have had its name from the fire which was there worshipped: and that Ur also, from whence Abraham came, the Hebrews fancy had the same original; for their fable is, that Abraham was thrown into the tire, because he would not worship it; and by the power of God delivered, as St. Jerome tells us in his Questions upon Genesis. He began to be a mighty one in the earth.] He was the first great warrior and conqueror; so Gibbor is to be understood; not for a giant, or man of great stature, but for a potent person: and, as some will have it, a more severe governor than they had been, who only exercised paternal authority. For he was the first that put down the government of eldership, or paternity (as Sir Walter Raleigh speaks), and laid the foundation of sovereign rule.

Genesis 10:9

He was a mighty hunter. Or rather, mighty in hunting: for the word tzid doth not signify a hunter, but hunting. Which shews by what means he came to be so great a monarch. He hardened himself to labour by this exercise (which was very toilsome), and drew together a great company of robust young men to attend hiin in this sport: who were hereby also fitted to pursuo men, as they had done wild beasts. For this was looked upon, in all ages, as the rudiment of warfare, (as Bochart shews out of a great many authors, lib. iv. cap. 12.) all the heroes of old/ such as Nestor, Theseus, Castor, Pollux, Ulysses, Dioraedcs, Achilles, yEneas, &c. being all bred up to hunting, as Xcnophon informs us. And it was not without some such reason, that noble families carry in their coats of arms (as ensigns of their valorous achievements) lions, bears, tigers, &c. from their kiKing such-like fierce creatures. For it must be farther noted, that, in this age of Nimrod, tho exercise of hunting might well be the more highly esteemed, and win him the hearts of mankind; because he delivered them, by this means, from those wild beasts, whereby they were much infested, and very dangerously exposed, while they were but few, and lived scattered up and down, in the open air, or in tents but weakly defended. The destroying of wild beasts (and, perhaps, of thieves whom he hunted also) was a great service in those times, and made many join with him in greater designs which he had at last; to subdue men, and make himself master of the people who were his neighbours, in Babylon, Susiana, and Assyria. The memory of this hunting of his, was preserved by the Assyrians (who made Nimrod the same with Orion), who joined the dog and the hare (the first creature perhaps that was hunted) with his constellation. This, Mr. Selden observes in his Titles of Honour, (parti, cap.l.) where he farther notes, that he is to this day called, by the Arabians, Algebar, the mighty man, or the giant: from the Hebrew Gibbor here in the text. Before the Lord.] i.e. To the highest degree. For so " a great city to God," is a very great city, (Jonah iii. 3.) and a child very beautiful is called aorcToc 0c£, fair to, or before God, (Acts vii. 20.) Or the meaning may be> he was trxdy so, not only in common opinion. For that is said to he before God, which really is: because God cannot be deceived with false appearances. Wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty, &c] i.e. Thence came the common proverb: which Moses alleges as a proof of the truth of what he delivered. Nothing being more usual, in his days, than for men to say when they would express how exceeding great any man was, " He is like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord." Thus common sayings are quoted in other places, nothing being more notorious than such proverbial speeches, (Numb. xxi. 27. 1 Sara. x. 12.) It is not improbable that Nimrod is the same with him whom the Greeks call Bacchus; whose conquests: in the east, as far as India, are nothing else but the expeditions of Nimrod and his successors. The very name of Bacchus imports this, which was made out of Bar-Chus, the son of Cush, as Dammasek (i. e. Damascus)was out of Darmasek. Many other arguments for this are collected by Bochartus, (lib. i. Phaleg. cap. 2.)

Genesis 10:10

The beginning of his Mngdomwas Babel. (See xi. 5. 8.) Which, according to the gentile writers, was built by Belus, (the same with Nimrod, who was called Belus, as I noted before, from Baal, because of his dominion and large empire, over which he was an absolute lord.) They that say, his son Ninus (or, as Philo-Byblius, his son Babylon) was the builder, may be thus reconciled with the foremeritioncd opinion, that Belus began it, and his son much augmented it See Voss. lib. i. De Idol, cap. 24. and lib. vii. cap. 1). There aro those that say it was built by Semiramis; but as they have it only from Ctesias, who is not to be relied on against Berosus and Abydenus, who wrote the history of that country out of the ancient records, and say Belus built it; so, if it be true, we must understand it of.her rebuilding it, after it was decayed, or

Genesis 10:11

Out of that, land went forth Ashur.". This translation is not so likely as that in the margin, " He went out. into Assyria." For Moses is speaking of what Nimrod the son of Cush did, and not of the sons of Shem, among whom; Ashur was one. Nor is it agreeable to the order of history to tell us here what Ashur did, before there be any mention of his birth, which follows, (ver. 22.) Besides, it was not peculiar to Ashur, the son of Shem, that he went out of the land of Shinar: for so did almost all men who were dispersed from thence. Add to this, that Assyria is called “the land of Nimrod,” by Micah: (v. 6.) “They shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with their lances;” or, ce in the entrance thereof," as we translate it. Therefore it is very reasonable to take Ashur here, not for the name of a man, but of a place, as it is frequently: and expound the word Ashur, as if it were Lcashur into Ashur; as Beth in 2 Sam. vi. 10. is put for Lcbeth; other examples there are of this, (2 Sam. x. 2. 1 Chron. xix. 2.) By “going forth” into Ashur, Bochart thinks, is meant Nimrod’s making war there: for so the Hebrew phrase " go forth" imports, in 2 Sam. xi. 1. Psalm lx. 12. Isai. xlii. Zac. xiv. 3. So Nimrod went forth into Assyria, which helonged to the children of Shem: but was usurped, he thinks, by the son of Cush, who had no right to it, but what he got by his sword. If this be true, Mr, Mede’s observation which I mentioned upon ver. 27. of the foregoing chapter, [That the posterity of Cham never subdued either those of Japheth or Shem,] must be understood of such large conquests as they two made over one another, and over him. And builded Nineveh.] Which Nimrod so called frbm his son Ninus: the very word Nineveh being as much as Ninus’s habitation, rrti ]^L Thus Cain built a city, and called it not by his own but his son’s name, (iv. 17.) This was the chief city of Assyria, and flourished in great glory till it was utterly razed by the Medes, and never again rebuilt. It stood on the east side of Tigris. Rehoboth.] There was a city of this name upon Euphrates, which was famous for the birth of Saul, one of the kings of Edorn, (Gen. xxxvi. 37.) which the Arabians call Rahabath-Mdic, i.e. Rahabath of the Kings, a little below Ccreusium, at the mouth of the river Chaboras. But this being too far distant from Nineveh (to which this and the two following cities were neighbours), Bochart’s conjecture is not unreasonable, thaUhis is the city which Ptolemy calls Birtha, on the west of Tigris, at the mouth of the river Lycus. For in the Chaldee tongue, Streets are called Birtha; and that is the signification of Rehoboth, as the margin of our Bible will inform the reader. Calah, or Calacli.] Seems to have been the chief city of the country called Calachene; about the fountain of the river Lyeus: which Strabo often mentions.

Genesis 10:12

And Resen, &e. The forenamed great man conjectures this to have been the city which Xenophon calls Larissa, situate upon the Tigris: which Moses might well call a great city. For so Xenophon says it was, and describes the height of the walls to have been a hundred foot, the breadth five-and-twenty, and the compass of it eight miles about. The Greeks found it in ruins, and uninhabited, when they came into those parts; being destroyed by the Persians, when they spoiled the Medes of their empire. And it is possible, as Bochart goes on, the Greeks asking whose city that was, and the Assyrians answering Leresen, i. c. Resen’s, (adding, as is usual, le, the note of the genitive ease) they might thence call it Larissa. Such a mistake, he shews, there is in the Vulgar translation of the Bible, which takes this particle le for part of the name. For in 1 Chron. v. 26. where it is said the king of Assyria carried the Israelites to Halah, the Vulgar says unto Lahelah. Whereas it is certain, from 2 Kings xvii. 6. that it should be unto Halah, or Helah. However, it is reasonable to think that these words, this is a great city, belong to Besen, not to Nineveh: whose greatness, as well as Babylon’s, was very well known; and therefore thdsc words seem to be added to denote Besen to be a great deal bigger than the two beforenamed, Rehoboth and Calah. See Boeharf, lib. iv. cap. 23. They that think Nimrod settled his kingdom in Babel before the dispersion, by confusion of tlicir languages, imagine that he made this expedition into Assyria (where he built Nineveh, and the rest of the cities here mentioned), after they were forced to leave off their vain-glorious building at Babel, and to disperse themselves into other countries.

Genesis 10:13

And MizrUim (the second son of Cham) begat Ludim. By* whom we are to understand the Ethiopians, as Bochart hath proved by many arguments (which I shall not mention), and therefore, understands by these words, t hat

Genesis 10:14

And Patlmtsim. Who were the inhabitants, it is likely, of Patros: which was a part of Egypt; though represented sometime in Scripture as a country distinct from it:, just as Thebais is, in some authors, said to be, whereas it was the Upper Egypt. Bochart hath brought a great many arguments to prove this: particularly from Ezekiel xxix. 14. which shews clearly that Pathros belongs to Egypt: for the prophet foretelling that God would bring again the captivity of Egypt, he sailh he would " cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation/’ or nativity: that is, into Thebais, which Nebuchadnezzar had principally afflicted, carrying most of the inhabitants of Thebes into captivity. This seems a more probable account of the Pathrusim than theirs, who take them to be the Pharusi (as Grotius doth), or Phautusii; who were a people of Ethiopia. Caslnhim, or Caslnchim.] These were the Colchi, who, though they lived far from Egypt, from whence they are said here to descend, yet there are a great many arguments that they had their original from that country. For several ancient authors say so; as Herodotus, Diodorus/ Strabo, and Ammianus: all of great credit. And there are many reasons whereby Herodotus proves it (as Bochart shews in his admirable work, often mentioned, lib. iv. Phaleg.cap.31.) they agreeing in so many things, especially in their manners and language, that one can scarce have any doubt of it. These people were seated at the eastend of ihe Euxine Sea. Out of whom came Philistim.] They were the offspring of the people of Colchis, as will appear in what follows. And Caphtorim.] These were a people near to Colchis, as appears from hence; that the Philistim, who are said hereto come from Casluchim, in other places are said to have come from Caphtor, Jer. xlvii. 4. Amos ix. 7. And Moses himself relates how the Avims, nigh to Gaza (a famous city of the Philistim), were driven out by the Caphtorim, Deut. ii. 23. All the ancients therefore are in the right, who take the Caphtorim for the Cappadocians: yet, not all the inhabitants of that country (part of which was possessed by other people, as was said before), but that part of Cappadoeia which was next to Colchis, viz. about Trapezund, where Colchis ended. For there we find the city called Side, and the country Sidene, mentioned by Strabo. Now Side in Greek (as Bochart ingeniously observes), signifies the same with Caphtor in Hebrew, viz. Malum punictim: and therefore, in all likelihood, the same country was called by the Hebrews Caphtor, and by the Greeks Sidene. What invited the Caphtorim out of Egypt into this country is hard to tell, at this distance of time. But Strabo thinks it was the fame of the gold wherewith this country abounded. And as this drew them thither, so perhaps the coldness of the country, very much different from that wherein they were born; or else their neighbours the Scythians, and Mesech and Tubal, (viz. the Moschi and Tibareni) who dwelt near them, and might be troublesome to them, made them think of returning back again. And “in their way through Palestine they fell upon the Avim, whom they dispossessed of their country, and settled there (Dent. ii. 23.) by the name of Philistim.

Genesis 10:15

And Ca?iaan. Now follows an account of the posterity of Ham’s youngest son. Sidon.] Was his first-born: who was the founder of ihe famous city called by his name, Sidon: which Tragus saith was so called from plenty of fish on that coast. And so the present name of it, Said, signifies fishing or fishery: as the town in Galilee called Bethsaida, is as much as the place of fishing: for that sea upon which it lies, the Hebrews say,

Genesis 10:16

The JebusiteJ. This people, who were situated near to the former, descended from Jebus, the third son of Canaan: and were a very warlike people also: for they kept Jerusalem and the fortress of Zion to the times of David, notwithstanding all the power of the Benjamites. And when David besieged it, they mocked at his attempt, (2 Sam. v. 8.) And the EmoriteJ] They came from Emor, the fourth son of Canaan, and are commonly called Amorites; who possessed the mountainous parts of Judea: and many of them passed over Jordan, and, making war upon the Moabites and Ammonites, seized upon Bashan and Heshbon, and all the country between the rivers of Jabbok and Arnon, (Numb. xiii. 29. Josh. v. 1.) in memory of which victory some Canaanite poet made a triumphing song, which Moses hath recorded, (Numb. xxi. 27.) What a mighty people these were we learn from Amos ii. 9. Gergasite.] There was a remnant of this people about Gerasa, or Gadara, beyond Jordan, in our Saviour’s time, (Matth. viii. 28. Mark v. 1. Luke viii. 20.) And they were called, perhaps, by this name from the fat clayey soil of the country where they lived; for gorges in Hebrevris white clay.

Genesis 10:17

And the Hivite, or Hevite. They lived in and about Mount Hermon, as we read Josh. xi. 3. which being toward the east of the land of Canaan, they are called Kadmonites, i.e. orientals or easterlings, (Gen. xv. 19.) The Gibconites and Sichcmitcs were colonies from them, (Josh, xi. 19. Gen. xxxiv. 2.) who dwelt more westward: the former of them neighbours to Jerusalem; and the latter to Samaria. Arkite.] This people, Bochart thinks, inhabited Mount Libanus, where Ptolemy and Joscphus mentioned a city called Area, or Arce: in which, he thinks, was the temple Veneris Archi tides, worshipped by the Phoenicians, as Macrobius tells us, lib. i. Saturn, cap. 27. Pliny also mentions Area among the. cities of the Decapolitan Syria, and saith it was one of those which had a royal jurisdiction, under the name of a tetrarchy, as Salmasius observes in his Exerc’. in Solin. p. 570. Smite.] St. Jerome saith, that not far from Area there was a city called Sin; where we may suppose these people to have dwelt. But Bochart rather by the Sinites understands the Peleusiots, whose city was called Sin; which is of the very same signification with Pelusium.

Genesis 10:18

And the Arvadite. These people are the same with the Aradii, who possessed the island called Aradus upon the coast of Phoenicia, and part of the neighbouring continent: where a place called Antaradus, opposite to the island, was seated. Strabo and others speak of this island, and mention another of the same name in the Persian Gulf, (as Salmasius observes upon Solinus, p. 1023.) whose inhabitants said, they were a colony from this island I now speak of, and had the same religious rites with these Aradians; who were very skilful in navigation, and therefore joined by,Ezekiel with Zidon, xxvii. 8. where he makes them also a warlike people, ver. 11. Zemarite.] They who make these the same with the Samaritans, do not observe that these names are written quite differently in the Hebrew; and that the Samaritans, so much spoken of in Scripture, had their names from Somron. And therefore Bochart thinks these arc the Samarites mentioned by St. Jerome, who says, they inhabited the noble city of Edessa in Coelosyria (it should be the city of Emesa, or Emisa, which was in that country, but Edessa in Mesopotamia, beyond Euphrates), and so both the Chaldee paraphrases have here for Zemarite, Emisaei. But I do not see why we should not rather think this son of Canaan (Zemarus), from whom the Zemarites came, was the founder of the city of Zemaraim (Josh, xviii. 22.) which fell to the lot of the tribe of Benjamin… - Hamathite.] These were the posterity of the last son of Canaan; from whom the city and country of Hamah took its name: of which name there were two; one called by the Greeks Antiochia, the other Epiphania: the former called the Great, (Amos vi. 2.) to distinguish it from this, which St. Jerome says, in his time, was called Epiphania, and by the Arabians (in the Nubian geographer) llama. This is the city which is meant when we so often read that the bounds of Judea were to the’’entrance of Hamath,” northward, (Numb. xiii. 21. xxxiv. 8. and other places.) For it is certain they did not reach to Antiochia, but came near to Epiphania. Afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.] In process of time they enlarged their bounds: for they possessed all the country which lies from Idumsea and Palestine to the mouth of Orontes: which they held for seven hundred years, or thereabout. Moses, indeed, confines the land of Canaan in narrower bounds toward the north (as hath been said), but we must consider, that he describes only that part of Canaan which God gave to the Israelites for their portion. Now, there being eleven nations who had their original (as appears from this and the foregoing verses) from so many sons of Canaan; we do not find that the first and the five last were devoted by God to destruction, as the rest were. For we read nothing of the Zidonians, Arkites, Sinites, Aradites, Zemarites, and Hamathites, among those nations upon whom the sentence of excision was pronounced by God, and their country bestowed upon the Israelites. But we read of two others, not here mentioned, who made up the seven nations, whom God ordered to be cut off; viz. the Pcrizzites, and those who were peculiarly called Canaanites, who sprang from some of the forcnamed eleven families;

Genesis 10:19

And the border of the Canaanites, &c. Here Moses describes the bounds of that country, which was given by God to the Jews. From Sidon.] i. e. The country of Sidon, which extended itself from the city so called, towards the east, as far as Jordan, or near it. This, therefore, may be looked upon ns the northern bounds of the promised land. As thou contest to Gerar unto Gaza, &c] These, and all the rest, belong to the southern bounds: for these two were cities near to the Philistines. We often read of Gaza; and Gerar was famous for Abraham’s and Isaac’s sojourning there, (Gen. xx. 1. xxvi. 1.) and for the overthrow of the Cnshitcs, (2 Chron. xiv. 13.) Sodom and Gomorrah, &c.] These four cities are famous for their destruction, by fire and brimstone from heaven. Even unto Lashah.] Or Lasa, w T hich St. Jerome takes for Callirrhoc, as doth Jonathan also: a place famous for hot waters, which run into the Dead Sea. But Bochartus (lib. iv. Phaleg. cap. 37.) doubts of this, because Callirrhoc was not in tho southern part of Judca, as Lashah was: he propounds it therefore to consideration, whether it may not be a city of the Arabs called Lusa: which Ptolemy places in the middle way, between the Dead Sea and the lied.

Genesis 10:20

TJiese are the sotis of Ham, after their families, &c. This is sufficiently explained by what was said upon ver. 5. where Moses concludes his account of the sons of Japheth. Only it may be observed, in general, that these four sons of Ham, and their children, had all Africa for their portion (Mizrairn having Egypt, and Phut the.rest), and no small part of Asia, which fell to the share of Cush and Canaan.

Genesis 10:21

Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber. That is, of the Hebrew nation, whom Moses would have to know from what an illustrious original they sprung; and therefore breaks oft’ the thread of his genealogy, to give a short touch of it. I can give no reason so likely as this, why he calls Shem the father of Eber’s children, rather than of any other descended from him. He having told them before, that Ham was the father of Canaan, (ix. 22.) whom God cursed, and at the same time blessed Shem; he now tells them that this blessed man was the father from whom their nation was descended; that they might comfort themselves in their noble stock, and believe Canaan should be subdued by them. The brother of Japheth the elder.’] Scaliger translates these words, “Shem the elder brother of Japheth:” but the he which is prefixed togadol, i. e. greater, plainly directsus to refer the word greater, or elder; to him who was last spoken of, viz. Japheth: who may be plainly proved to have been the eldest son of Noah, from this observation; that Noah was five hundred years old, before any of his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, w r ere born, (v. 32.) When he was six hundred years old, ho entered into the ark with them, (vii. 11.) And when he came out, two years after tho flood, Shem begat Arphaxad, being then a hundred years old, (xi. 10.) and consequently Noah was six hundred and two. From whence it follows, that Shem was born when Noah was five hundred and two years old; and therefore Japheth must be two years older than he; for Noah began to have children when he was five hundred. But God preferred Shem before him; giving hereby an early demonstration (of which there were many instances afterward), that he would not be confined to the order of nature in tho disposal of his favours; which he frequently bestowed upon the younger children: as he did upon Jacob, and in after-times upon David, who was the youngest and meanest of all his father’s children. Even unto him were children born."] Perhaps he was the last of his brethren that married; and then Moses shews, in the following verses, had five sons: the progeny of two of which are mentioned, but the rest passed over in silence.

Genesis 10:22

Elam. Was his first-born; from whom came the Elamites, mentioned Acts ii. 9. whose metropolis was the famous city of Elymais. They lay between the Mcdes and Mesopotamians (as Bochart shews, lib. ii. Phaleg. cap. 2.) and were a very warlike and fierce people, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekicl testify. The Susians were a neighbouring people, but different from them; and therefore, when Daniel says Sushan was in the province of Elam, he takes Elam in a large sense; as Pliny and Ptolemy also do, who mention Elamites at the mouth of the river Eulaeus (Ulai in Daniel), which was below Susiania. See Salmasius Excrc. in Solin. p. 1193, 1194. And thus Josephus may be allowed to say, the Elamites were Uepcrwv ap^vy^ai, the founders of the Persians; who were a distinct people from them, though often comprehended under this name of Elam. Ashur.] From whom came the people called at first Assyres, and afterward Assyrians: which was a name as large as their empire, comprehending even Syria itself; which, in several authors, is the same with Assyria. But, in proper speaking, it was only that country, whose head was Nineveh, called sometimes Adiabene, and Aturia or Assyria… Arphaxad.] Many, following Josephus, make him the father of the Chaldees. But I find no good reason for it; and it seems more’ probable that the Chaldees (in Hebrew, Chasdim) came from Chcsed, one of Abraham’s brother’s sons, (Gen. xxii. 22.) which St. Jerome positively affirms. Therefore.it is more reasonable to think Arphaxad gave name to that country which Ptolemy calls Arraphachitis, which was a part of Assyria. Lud.] Seems to have given name to the country of Lydia, which lay about Mseandcr; and included in it Mysia and Caria, which lay on the south side of that river. Which, having the most windings and turnings in it of any river in the worid (for it returns sometimes towards its fountain), the Phoenicians call this country, and another, viz. Ethiopia, that lay upon the Nile (which, next to Mreandcr, -is the most crooked of all rivers), by the name of Lud, which, in their language, signified bending or crooked. See BochaTt. lib. ii. Phaleg. cap. 12. Aram.] From whom sprung the Syrians, wfcose name anciently was Aramaei, the children of Aram. A name not unknown to the ancient Grecians; for Homer mentions the “Apt/not in his second book of Iliads; and so doth Hcsiod; and Strabo also saith, that many understood by the Arimi, the Syrians. And the Syrians, at this day, call themselves Aramaeans. But Syria being so large a name, that ancient authors extend it to all those countries that

Genesis 10:23

And the children of Aram, &c. The four persons that follow in this verse are called the sons ofShem, (1 Chron. i.17.) Nothing being more ordinary in Scripture, than to call those the sons of any person, who were, his grandsons, (xxix. 5, &c.) Uz.] Or Utz, the first-born of Aram, is generally said to have been the builder of Damascus: the valley belonging to which is, by the Arabians, at this day called Gaut, and Gauta, which differs from Utz in the letters, but not in the pronunciation; it being common to pronounce the letter ajin by our G, as in the words Gaza and Gomorrah. Accordingly, the Arabic paraphrast for Utz hath here Algauta. There were two other Uz’s besides this, one the son of NahoT (Abraham’s brother), Gen. xxii. 21. whose country was Ausitis in Arabia Deserta: the other was of the posterity of Edom, (Gen. xxxvi. 28.) Hull.] Or ChuL Grotius observes out of Ptolemy, that there was a city in Syria called Choline, which, he thinks, might be founded by this second son of Aram. But Bochart more probably conjectures that his posterity possessed the country called Cholobetene, which was a part of Armenia. For the Armenians, and Arabians, and Syrians were much alike, as Strabo saith, in their shapo of body, speech, and manner of life. And there arc divers cities, which Ptolemy places in this country, that begin with Hoi or Choi; as Cholus, Choluata, Cholana: and Cholobetene (the name of the country), which in their language is Cholbetb, signifies as much as the house or seat of Choi.. Gether.] It is hard to give any account of the country where his posterity settled, unless they gave the river Getri its name, which the Greeks call Keyrplrrj; which runs between the Carduchi and the Armenians, as Xenophon tells us. This is Bochart’s conjecture, which is a little nearer, than that of Grotius, (Annot. in lib. i. de V. R. C.) who explains this by the city Gindarus in Ptolemy, and the people called by Pliny, Gindareni, in Ccelo-Syria. But after all, it may seem as probable that Gadara, the chief city of Peraea, which Ptolemy places in the Decapolis of Ccelo-Syria, had its name and original from this Gether. Mash.] Who is called Mesech, in 1 Chron. i.17. seated himself, as Bochart thinks, in Mesopotamia, about the mountain Masius (which is Grotius’s conjecture also), from whence there flowed a river which Xenophon calls Masca. The inhabitants of which mountain, Stephanus calls Masiceni; and perhaps the Moscheni, whom Pliny speaks of, between Adiabene and Armenia the Greater, were descended from this Mash, or Mcscch.

Genesis 10:24

And Arphaxad begat Salah. Having given an account of the posterity of,Shem’s youngest son, he now tells us what people descended from his third son. Salah.] In Hebrew Shelah. His father being born but two years after the flood, (xi. 10.) seems to have given this name to his son, to preserve the memory of that dreadful punishment; that his posterity might not incur the like by their sins. For Sela signifies the letting forth of waters, (Job v. 10.) He is thought to have been the father of the Susiani: the chief city of their country, next to’Susa, being called Sela, as we find in Ammian. Marcellinns: either because he was the founder of it, or in memory of him. And Salah begat Eber.] The father of those from whom came the Hebrew nation, (as was said before, ver. f 21.) Abraham being descended from him in the sixth generation. All other derivations of the name of Hebrew have great objectious lie against them; but this hath none that I can see, and is most agreeable to the grammar of that language, in which all such names ending in jod (as v-Q)J doth) are noted to come either from a place, or country, or people, or author: therefore, since there is no country or place from which the name of Hebrew can be derived, it is most reasonable to deduce it from the author of this people, Heber. And it is authorized by that speech of Balaam, (Numb. xxiv. 24.) Where, as by Ashur is meant the Assyrians, so by Heber, in all reason, we are to understand the Hebrews. *

Genesis 10:25

Peleg. Either he, or some of his posterity in memory of him, it is not unlikely, gave name to a town, upon Euphrates, called Phalga, not far from the place where the river Chaborus runs into it: upon which Charrah stood, built by Charan, the brother of Abraham. For in his days was the earth divided.’] The great dispersion, which, we read of in the following chapter, fell out just when he was born; which made his father call him by this name, signifying division and separation. Which it appears, by the account given of his ancestors, (xi. from ver. 10 to 1G.) happened in the hundred and first year after the flood. In that year, the tower of Babel and their language were confounded; upon which necessarily followed the separation here mentioned. The age that preceded, from the deluge to this division, is called, by the ancient poets, the Golden Age, (as Bochart observes, lib. i. Phaleg. cap. 9.) because the earth not being divided, they enjoyed all things in common. And Noah (whom they called Saturn) governing them, not as kings do their subjects, but as parents their children, not so much with fear and dread, as with love and reverence to his fatherly authority; it made the world so happy as it hath not been since. Joktan, or Jektan.] The brother of Peleg, had a numerous offspring of thirteen sons; all seated in the inmost parts of Arabia Felix. ■ So the Arabians, it is certain, derive their own original: who in this may as well be credited as the Europeans, who derive themselves from Japetus or Japheth, and the Africans from Cham or Hammon. They call him Cahtan (as our Mr. Pocock, as well as others, observes), by which name the Arabic paraphrast, upon this place, explains that of Jektan. And this Cahtan they say expressly was the son of Eber, the son of Salah,

Genesis 10:27

HadoramJ. He seems to have fixed his scat in the utmost corner of Arabia towards the cast, where there was a people whom Pliny calls Drimati: a name easily made from Hadoramus. And the extreme promontory of that country is called by tho Greeks Corqdamon, by transposing the letters D and R from Hadoramus. I can find nothing more likely than this conjecture of that great man Bochartus, who hath outdone all that went before him in this argument, (lib. ii. Phaleg. cap. 20.) Uzal.] Abraham Zachut, as he also observes, says, the Jews (who in his time dwelt there) called the chief city of Aljeman by the name of Uzal. Now the kingdom of Aljeman, or Jeman, is the south part of Arabia Felix: as the very name of Jeman imports, which signifies both the right hand and the south. Diklah.] Both in the Chaldee and Syriac languages Dicla signifies a palm, or a grove ofpahns; which, led Bochartus to conclude, that the. Minaei, a people of Arabia Felix, whose country abounds with such trees, were the posterity of this Diklah. Both Pliny and Strabo mention them: And this is far more probable than the conjecture of Ludovicus Capellus, that the country of Dangala, in Ethiopia, near Egypt, might have its name from this man: for that is too remote from the rest of this man’s posterity: and so is AueXXcTov mentioned, as he observes, by Herodotus, (Chronolog. Sacra, p. 108.)

Genesis 10:28

And Obal. Which, in the Arabic pronunciation is Aubal, as cocab, a star in Hebrew, is in Arabic caucab, &c. The posterity of this Aubal, or Obal, Bochart thinks, passed over the streights of the Sinus Arabicus, out of Arabia Felix, into Arabia Troglodytica; where we meet with this name, in tho Sinus Abalites (which others call Aulites), and in a great trading town called by Arrianus’At/aXftn/c; and in a people who lived in that Sinus, called by Ptolemy,‘AvaXTrat, and *A?ovX7r«t; I believe it should be’ApovXirai, from this Obal. AbimaeL] Which the Arabians pronounce Abimal; i. e. the father of Mali, or the Malita; a people in Arabia next to the Minsei before mentioned. Theophrastus saith, Mali is the metropolis of a country in Arabia the. Spicy: from whence the people called Malitoe, whom Ptolemy calls Manitae, by an usual change of the letter L into 2V”, as Nabonidus is tho same with Labonidus, &c. And it is probable that Mali is the contraction of Abimali: nothing being more common than in compound names to omit the first part. As- Sittim (Numb. xxv. 1.) for Abel-Sittim (xxx. 49.) Hermon very often for Baal-Hermon, (Judg. iii. 3.) Nimrim for Bcth-Nimrim, and Salem for Jerusalem. Sheba.] From whom came the Sabeans, who sometimes comprehend a great many people, but here are to be taken strictly for those upon the Red Sea, between the Minaei and the Catabanes: whoso metropolis, which stood upon a high mountain full of trees, is called by ancient authors Saba and Sabai, Sabo and Sabas, as Salmasius shews out of Stcphanus, Agatharcidcs, and others; who say that this city was iro\v KaXXitrrov, much the fairest of all in Arabia. (Excrc. in Solin. p. 491, 492, &c.) In later times this name was changed into Mariaba, the nncient name being lost, as the same Salmasius there observes, p. 497, and

Genesis 10:29

And Ophir. Which the Arabians pronounce Auphir, signifying abundance: gold being found there in such plenty, that they exchanged it for brass and iron, giving a double or triple proportion of gold for them. Bochart thinks he gave the name of 0%>fj to an island in the lied Sea, mentioned by Eupolemus in Eusebius: and observes that there were two Ophirs, one belonging to India, whither Solomon’s ships went once in “three years (which he takes forTaprobana, now Zeilan), and the other belonging to Arabia, where the posterity of this Ophir, here mentioned, settled. Whose country he takes to have been near to the Sabeans, their brethren; which Stephanus and Ptolemy call Cassanitis. The same in sense with Ophir; for Chosan is a treasure, which the Arabians write Cha-> zan, from which comes the word Gaza, for abundance of riches. Havilah, or Chavilah.] See ver. 7. where we had this name before, among the sons of Cush; from whom the Havilah here spoken of is very different: giving name, it is probable, to the country which the Nubiensian geographer calls Chaulan: and says it was a part of Arabia Felix, nigh also to the Sabeans; which lie accurately describes. See Phaleg. lib. ii. cap. 28. Jobab.] The father of the Jobabites, near to the Sachalites, as Ptolemy expressly says, if, instead of Jobaritae in him, we should read Jobabitse, as Bochartus corrects the passage, with great reason. And thinks also the reason of this name to be plain: for Jebab in Arabic signifies a desert: and there are many such in the country of the Jobabites, above the Sinus of Sachalitcs.

Genesis 10:30

And their dwelling was from Mesha, &c. This conclusion confirms what hath been said, that all the thirteen sons of Joktan wero seated in Arabia Felix, except Obal, who went, it is likely, after Moses’s time, over into Abalites; the passage being short across that streight beforementioned, (ver. 28.) which was not above four or five miles broad. For Arabia Felix lies between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Now Mesa, or Musa, or Muza, was a famous port town in the Red Sea, which the Egyptians and Ethiopians frequented in their way to the country of the Sapharites, in the east; from whom they brought myrrh, frankincense, and such-like things. Ptolemy’s Tables plainly shew this, that from Musa the Sapharitse lay directly eastward; and Saphar was the metropolis of the country, at the foot of the mountain Climax: which, anciently, it is likely, was called Saphar, from the city at the bottom of it. And thus we are to understand Moses when he says here, that Sepher was a mountain of the east; not eastward from Judea, but from Mesha, which was in the west. See Bochart, (lib. ii. Phaleg. cap. 30.) where he observes, that the Arabic paraphrast (of the Pans edition) takes Mesha to be Meccha, and instead of " from Mesha to Sephar,” saith " from Meccha to Medina." Which is nearer truth than their opinion, who place the children of Joktan about Copctes, upon the coast of India. But he shews that some of the children of Cush settled between Meccha and Medina: and it sufficiently appears that Joktan’s children dwelt in the inmost part of Arabia Felix, and are the genuine Arabians.

Genesis 10:31

This is explained, ver. 5.

Genesis 10:32

By these were the nations divided after the flood. They and their descendants shared the whole earth among them, as it is said expressly, (ix. 18.) " Of then! was the whole earth overspread." But, according to the foregoing account, we find only three parts of the earth, Europe, Asia, and Africa, possessed by the three sons of Noah and their children. Which has made some so bold as to say, there were other people in America, who were not drowned by the flood. And one of their reasons why it was not peopled from any of the other three parts of the earth is, that we can give no account how lions, bears> wolves, foxes, and such-like creatures, should get thither: for none, sure, would carry them by shipping, though men themselves might, by that means, pass over into those regions. But this difficulty is not so great as they make it. For it is manifest, that, though the continent of America was found full of such beasts, when the Spaniards first came thither, yet none of the islands, though very large, which lay remote from the land, had any lions, tigers, or such-like creatures in them. Which is a demonstration, that these creatures were not originally from that part of the earth; for then the islands would have been furnished with them as well as the continent; just as they are with all sorts of vegetables: and consequently, the continent itself was stored with these creatures from some other part of the earth. Which might be done by some neck of land not yet discovered; which joins some part of Europe, or Asia, to the continent of America. Or, if there be no such neck of land now extant, yet there may have been such a bridge (as we may call it) between the northern parts of Asia, or Europe, and some northern part of America; or between the south-east part of China, or the Philippine islands, and the southern continent of that other part of this world, though now broken off (as manysuppose England to have been from France) by the violence of the sea, or by earthquakes; which have made great alterations in the earth. And truly, he thatobserves (as that great man the Lord Chief Justice Hales speaks, in his book of the Origin of Mankind, §. ii. chap. 7.) the infinite number of islands, lying between The continent of China and Nova Guinea, the most contiguous to each other; hath probable reasons to believe, that these were all formerly one continent, joining China and Nova Guinea together, though now, by the irruption of the -sea, crumbled into many small islands.