The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
17 (= Gen 10:22-23). The Sons of Shem
17. The sons of Shem ] These occupied the middle geographical “zone.”
Elam ] “Semites neither in blood nor in speech” (Sayce, Higher Criticism, p. 122). If this be so, the reason of their being reckoned to Shem must be that they were in the geographical zone which belonged to the Semites.
Asshur ] The Assyrians, who spoke a Semitic dialect and were doubtless Semites.
Arphaxad ] R.V. Arpachshad. The second half of the word (“chshad”) contains the name of the Casdim, the “Chaldeans” or “Chaldees” of the A.V.
Lud ] Perhaps the Lydians. In 1Ch 1:11, which is an extract from an earlier document (“J”), Ludim (“the Lydians”) are reckoned as the children of Mizraim (Egypt). Lydia itself was in the Japhetic “zone,” but the people may have been recognised as Semites independently of their geographical position.
Aram ] the “Syrians” of the A.V.; better called Aramaeans. In Damascus they held an independent power for centuries and were constantly at war with Israel. Further north they seem to have been under the hegemony of the Hittites.
Uz ] From Gen 10:23 it appears that in Chron. the words “And the children of Aram [1] ” have dropped out, so that “Uz” etc. appear as the immediate descendants of Shem.
[1] The Alexandrine MS (A) of the LXX. has the words.
Neither Uz nor the three following names have been satisfactorily identified. For “Meshech” Gen 10:2 (Heb. not LXX.) reads “Mash.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sons of Shem – i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been sons of Aram Gen 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Gen 10:23. It seems preferable to Mash, which admits of no very probable explanation. Just as Hamites and Semites were intermingled in Arabia (Gen 10:7, note; Gen 10:29, note), so Semites and Japhethites may have been intermingled in Cappadocia – the country of the Meshech or Moschi (Gen 10:2 note); and this Aramaean ad-mixture may have been the origin of the notion, so prevalent among the Greeks, that the Cappadocians were Syrians.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The sons of Shem; either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, who are called sons, Gen 29:5; 2Sa 19:21; or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood and inserted before
Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Uz, and Hul, and Gether, andMeshechor, “Mash”; these were the children of Aram,and grandsons of Shem (Ge10:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[See comments on 1Ch 1:5].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
THE SONS OF SHEM, OR THE SEMITES (1Ch. 1:17-23).
(17) Blam.The Elamtum of the Assyrian inscription, the classic Susiana, a mountainous land eastward of Babylonia, to which it was subject in the days of Abraham (Genesis 14). The names Assur, Elam, Kass, and Accad occur together in an old Assyrian list of nations. lama, from which the Assyrian and Hebrew names are derived, is Accadian. The native designation was Ansan. The Sargonide kings of Assyria had frequent wars with Elam.
Asshur.Assyria proper, i.e., a district on the Tigris, about twenty-five miles long, between the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh parallels of latitude. Asshur was the name of its older capital and tutelar god. The Semitic Assyrians appear to have been settled at Asshur as early as the nineteenth century B.C. They were emigrants from Babylonia (Gen. 10:11). The original name was A-usar, water-meadow.
Arphaxad apparently means Babylonia, or, at least, includes it. Babylonian monarchs styled themselves King of the Four Quarters (of heaven); and Arphaxaa may perhaps mean land of the four quarters or sides, and be derived from the Assyrian arba-kisdi four sides (Friedrich Delitzsch). More probably it is Arph-chesed, boundary of Chaldea.
Lud, usually identified with the Lydians (Assyrian Luddi), perhaps their original home in Armenia. The name has also been compared with Rutennu, the Egyptian name of the Syrians (I and r being confused in Egyptian). But comp. Eze. 27:10; Eze. 30:5.
Aram.The high landthat is, eastern and western Syria, extending from the Tigris to the Great Sea. The name is constantly used for the Arameans, or Syrians.
Uz.An Arab tribe, called Hsu by Esarhaddon, who reduced them. Perhaps, however, Uz (Heb., ), is the Assyrian Ua, a district on the Orontes, mentioned by Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 860-825). Job lived in the land of Uz. The remaining names appear to be also those of Arab tribes, who must have lived northward in the direction of Aram; these are called sons of Aram in Genesis 10
Hul is the Assyrian Hla, which formed a part of the mountain land of Kasiar or Mash (Inscription of Assurnirpal, B.C. 885-860). For Meshech Genesis 10 has Mash, which is compared with Mount Masius, near Nisibin. (So the Syriac and some Heb. MSS.)
(18) Eber.The land on the other side (Gr., ) Pera. Here the land beyond the Euphrates is meant, from which Abraham, the Hebrew (i.e., Eberite), migrated.
(19) Two sons.This indicates the ancient consciousness that the Hebrew and Arabian peoples were akin.
The earth was divided.Or, divided itself. (Comp. Deu. 32:7-9.) The words probably refer to a split in the population of Mesopotamia.
(20) Joktan begat Almodad.The Joktanite tribes lived along the coast of Hadhramaut (Hazarmaveth) and Yemen, in southern Arabia. The tribes of Yemen call their ancestor Qahtn (= Joktan). The names in 1Ch. 1:20-21, are all explicable from Arabic sources.
(22) Ebal.Gen. 10:28. Obal, where, however, the LXX. read (Ebal). The different spelling is due to the common confusion in MSS. of the Hebrew letters w and y. Both Ebal and Abimael are unknown.
(23) Ophir.Abhra, at the mouth of the Indus.
Jobab.Probably a tribe of Arabia Deserta. (Comp. the Arabic yabb, a desert.)
All these were the sons of Joktan.Gen. 10:30 adds a definition of their territory: Their dwelling was from Mesha (Maisnu, at the head of the Persian Gulf), until thou comest to Sephar (probably Zafru or Isfor, in South Arabia) and the mountains of the east (i.e., Nejd, a range parallel to the Red Sea).
From the whole section we learn that the Elamites, Assyrians, Chaldees, Arameans, Hebrews, and Arabs, were regarded as belonging to the great Semitic family. In regard to Elam, modern philologers have questioned the correctness of this view. It is, however, quite possible that at the time when the original of this table of nations was composed, some Semitic tribes were known to have effected a settlement in Elam, just as kindred tribes occupied Babylonia and Assyria.
The fourteen sons of Japheth and the thirty sons of Ham, and the twenty-six sons of Shem, make a total of seventy eponyms of nations. The number seventy is probably not accidental. Comp. the seventy elders (Num. 11:16); the seventy members of the Sanhedrin; and even the seventy disciples of Christ (Luk. 10:1). The seventy nations of the world are often mentioned in the Talmud. Ezekiels prophecy concerning Tyre, and the peoples that had commerce with her (Ezekiel 27), is a valuable illustration of the table.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Ch 1:17. And Lud, and Aram, and Uz Lud and Aram. The sons of Uz, &c. Houbigant. See Gen 10:23.
REFLECTIONS.Adam begins and Abraham closes this first genealogical line. The one, our common father after the flesh; the other, the common father of the faithful. By the guilt of Adam’s sin, the universal curse descended on man: by Abraham’s promised seed, the curse is removed; and all who believe on him are re-instated in the favour of God.
The line of Christ, for whose sake the rest are preserved, reaches in the four first verses as far as Shem; and from him, in the four last, to Abraham: the others are more lightly passed over. Japhet’s posterity originally peopled Europe; Ham’s, Africa, Canaan, and Philistia; Shem’s posterity, Asia; and, probably, from the northern parts of Asia, America received its first inhabitants. Note; As we are originally of one stock, we should, undoubtedly love all mankind as brethren.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
It is truly interesting to observe, how faithfully the record of the genealogy from Adam to Abraham is preserved. What nation, beside the Jewish, can boast of so ancient and so correct a record? And Reader! think how lost to all sense of truth, as well as gratitude, must have been the Jews, who, with this record in their hand, could venture to say concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, when appearing before them, as the descendant of Abraham after the flesh, As for this fellow, we know not whence he is. Joh 9:29 . I would desire the Reader to pause, and contemplate with me, one thought in the review which ariseth out of these verses. How many ages are comprised in a little compass! Here is a period of nearly 2000 years, and it is contained in only seven and twenty short verses!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Uz . . . Mesheeh were sons of Aram (Shem’s youngest son). No error, for grandsons are often reckoned, by descent, as sons. See Laban (Gen 29:5), Mephibosheth (2Sa 19:24). Of the “sons of Judah” (1Ch 4:1-4) only the first-named was his son. It is assumed that we are acquainted with Genesis, and shall supply the links dealt with here with such brevity.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ch 1:17-23
1Ch 1:17-23
“The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech. And Arpachshad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joiaan. And Joiaan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah, and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah, and Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.”
E.M. Zerr:
1Ch 1:17-23. Shem was in the blood line, and from him came the great Israelite nation. There were other noted people who came from him. This is explained by the fact that the line always continued through only one of his sons, until the time of David, when two sons were admitted into it, carrying the blood stream down to the time of Christ and terminating on the two sides of his house namely, his mother and foster father. If one of the fathers of the line had more than one son, he might become the founder of a somewhat noted people, and they would be considered as indirectly related to the regular line. Thus we have the Assyrians springing from Asshur, one of the sons of Shem. Other branches of Shem’s family are mentioned in this paragraph, including a number who were directly in the line. However, they will be named distinctly from those on the outside in another paragraph.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
sons of Shem: Gen 10:22-32, Gen 11:10
Elam: Gen 14:1, Isa 11:11, Isa 21:2, Isa 22:6, Jer 25:25, Eze 32:24, Dan 8:2
Asshur: Num 24:22-24, Ezr 4:2, Psa 83:8, Assur, Eze 27:23, Eze 32:22, Hos 14:3
Lud: Isa 66:19, Eze 27:10
Aram: Num 23:7
Meshech: Gen 10:23, Mash
Reciprocal: Job 1:1 – Uz Jer 25:20 – Uz Luk 3:36 – Sem
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ch 1:17-19. The sons of Shem Either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, or the children of Aram are understood before Uz, out of Gen 10:23, where they are expressed. Arphaxad begat Either immediately, or mediately by his son Canaan, who is expressed Luk 3:35. Divided In their languages and habitations.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:17 The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and {d} Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
(d) Of whom came the Syrians, and therefore they are called Amramites throughout all scripture.