THE SONS OF HAM, THE DARK-SKINNED OR SWARTHY (1Chronicles 1:8-16).

(8) Cush.--The Greek Meroe, Assyrian Miluhha, or K-su, south of Egypt, in our Bibles often called Ethiopia (Isaiah 19:1). The Arabic gives Habesh, i.e., Ethiopia.

Mizraim.--The common Hebrew name of Egypt: strictly, "the two Micrs"--i.e., Upper and Lower Egypt. But the name should rather be spelt Mizrim--the Egyptians; the form Mizraim being probably a mere fancy of the Jewish punctuators. The Assyrians wrote Mucum, Mucru, Mucur. The Inscription of Darius has Micir. Macor was the name of the wall which protected Egypt on the north-east. Hence it gave its name to the whole of Lower Egypt.--Cush and Mucur are coupled together in the inscriptions of Esarhaddon and his son Assurbanipal.

Put.--Perhaps the Egyptian Punt, on the east coast of Africa. King Darius mentioned P-ta and K-su as subject to him (Behist, Inscr.). Comp. Nahum 3:9; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5. The Arabic has Kibtu, i.e., Coptland.

Canaan.--There are many proofs of an early connection between Egypt and Canaan. The Philistines were colonists from the Delta (1Chronicles 1:12), and Ramses II. (cir. 1350 or 1450 B.C. ) had wars and made alliance with the Hittites.

(9) Seba.--Capital of Meroe. The other names represent Arabian tribes and their districts.

Sheba.--The famous Sabaeans, whose language, the Himyaritic, has quite recently been deciphered from inscriptions.

(10) Cush begat Nimrod.--Micah (Micah 5:6) speaks of the "land of Nimrod" in connection with the "land of Asshur." The land of Nimrod is plainly Babylonia; and some have supposed the primitive inhabitants of Babylonia--"the black-headed race" (zalmat qayqadi) as they styled themselves--to have been akin to the peoples of Mucur and Cush. At all events, Cush in this table of races appears as father of a series of mixed populations, ramifying from the north-west of the Persian Gulf in a southernly direction to the coast of Arabia. The Asiatic Cush represents that primitive Elamitic Sumerian race which occupied the north-west and north coast of the Persian Gulf; or rather that portion of it which attained to empire in Babylonia.

The name Nimrod appears to be identical with Merodach, the Accadian Amar-utu, or Amar-utuki, Assyrian Maruduk. Merodach was the tutelar deity of Babylon, as Asshur was of Assyria; and many Babylonian sovereigns bore his name. (Comp. Merodach-baladan, Isaiah 39:1.)

He began to be.--He was the first to become. Tradition made Nimrod the first founder of a great Oriental empire. The statement about his four cities (Genesis 10:10), the first of which was Babel (Babylon), is omitted here.

Mighty.--Literally, a hero, warrior (gibbor); a title of Merodach.

(11, 12) The names in these verses are all in the masculine plural, and obviously designate nations. Mizraim, the two Egypts, is said to have begotten the chief races inhabiting those regions--a common Oriental metaphor. The Ludim are the Ludu, or Rudu, of the hieroglyphs (Prof. Sayce thinks, the Lydian mercenaries of the Egyptian sovereigns); the Anamim are perhaps the men of An (On, Genesis 41:50), Lehabim, the Lybians. The Naphtuhim seem to get their name from Noph, i.e., Memphis, and the god Ptah. Perhaps, however, the name is to be recognised in the town Napata.

(12) Pathrusim.--The men of the south (Egyptian, pe-ta-res, "the southland"), or Upper Egypt.

Casluhim . . . Caphthorim.--The men of Kaft-ra, or the Delta. (See Amos 9:7 : "Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Mizraim? and the Philistines from Caphtor?" and comp. Deuteronomy 2:23.) The Caluhim may have been a leading division of the Caphthorim.

Verses 8-16. - C. LIST OF THE SONS, GRANDSONS, AND GREAT-GRANDSONS OF HAM. This list consists of four sons of Ham, of six grandsons, including Nimrod, through Cush, the eldest son of Ham; of seven grandsons through Mizraim, the second son of Ham; of eleven grandsons through Canaan, the fourth son of Ham; of two great-grandsons through Raamah, Cush's fourth son; - thirty descendants in all. No issue is given of Put, the third son of Hem. The parallel list is found in Genesis 10:6-20. The names agree in the Authorized Version, with minute differences, e.g. Put here for Phut there, and so the Philistines for Philistine, Caphthorim for Caphtorim, Girgashite for Girgasite. They are similarly in agreement in the Hebrew text of the two places, with minute differences, e.g. וְסַבְתָּא here for וְסַבְתָּה there; וְרַעְמָא for וְרַעְמָה for לוּדיִים וְרַעְמָה for צִידון לוּדיִים for הַעַרְקִי צִידֹן. However, in Genesis the following statements are added to Nimrod's name: - "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty. hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city." And again, at the close of the enumeration of sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons, follow the statements, "And afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comsat to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations."

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