THE CITY ZIDON AND THE TEN RACES OF CANAAN (1Chronicles 1:13-16).

(13) Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn.--Or, in modern phrase, Zidon is the oldest city of Canaan. It is usually mentioned along with Tyre, the ruling city in later times. Sennacherib speaks of the flight of Luli, "king of Zidon," from Tyre. Esarhaddon mentions Baal of Tyre as a tributary. Of the eleven "sons of Canaan all but three or four have been identified in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria.

And Heth--that is, the Hittite race, called Heta by the Egyptians, and Hatti by the Assyrians. (See 1Chronicles 1:8, Note.) The Hittites were once the dominant race of Syria and Palestine. Carchemish, on the Euphrates, and Kadesh, as well as Hamath, appear to have been Hittite cities. Their kings had commercial relations with Solomon (1Kings 10:29). Inscriptions, in a kind of mixed hieroglyph, have been found at Hamath and Carchemish, but they still await decipherment.

(14) The Jebusite.--The men of Jebus, or Jerusalem (1Chronicles 11:4).

Amorite.--The hill-men of the trans-Jordan.

Girgashite.--Perhaps of Gergesa (Matthew 8:28).

(15) Hivite.--On the slopes of Lebanon (Joshua 11:3), "under Hermon," but also in Gibeon and Shechem (Joshua 9:7; Genesis 34:2). Delitzsch suggests that the name is connected with Hamath (Assyrian, Hammath as Hawath).

Arkite, and the Sinite.--Tribes living to the west of northern Lebanon. A fragment of the annals of Tiglath-pileser mentions along with Simyra the towns of Arqa and Sianu "on the sea-coast" (B C, 739). Jose-phus mentions a town Arka, which is otherwise known as the birthplace of the emperor Alexander Severus (Ruins: Tell'Araci).

(16) Arvadite.--Arvad, or Aradus, now Ruad, an island off Phoenicia. Assurnacirpal (B.C. 885) calls it "Arvada in the mid-sea." Its king submitted to Sennacherib.

Zemarite.--The people of Simyra, on the coast of Phoenicia, south-east of Arvad. Simyra (Assyrian, Cimirra) was a fortified town commanding the road from the coast to the upper valley of the Orontes (Ruins: Sumra).

Hamathite.--The people of Hamath (Hamah) on the Orontes, a Hittite state which made alliance with David (circ. 1040 B.C. ).

On a review of 1Chronicles 1:8-16 we see that the "sons of Ham" include Ethiopia, Egypt, and the neighbouring shores of Arabia, and perhaps the founders of Babylon (1Chronicles 1:8-10). The tribes of Egypt and Canaan are enumerated in 1Chronicles 1:11-16.

1:1-27 This chapter, and many that follow, repeat the genealogies, or lists of fathers and children in the Bible history, and put them together, with many added. When compared with other places, there are some differences found; yet we must not therefore stumble at the word, but bless God that the things necessary to salvation are plain enough. The original of the Jewish nation is here traced from the first man that God created, and is thereby distinguished from the obscure, fabulous, and absurd origins assigned to other nations. But the nations now are all so mingled with one another, that no one nation, nor the greatest part of any, is descended entirely from any of one nation, nor the greatest part of any, is descended entirely from any of these fountains. Only this we are sure of, that God has created of one blood all nations of men; they are all descended from one Adam, one Noah. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Mal 2:10.The sons of Japheth, Gomer,.... Here begins the genealogy of the sons of Noah after the flood; of the sons of Japheth the elder, in this and the two following verses; next of the sons of Ham, the younger brother, 1 Chronicles 1:8, then of Shem, whose posterity are mentioned last, because from him, in the line of Heber, sprang Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish nation, of whom the Messiah was to come, for whose sake this genealogy is given, 1 Chronicles 1:17. The whole is the same with the account in