Passing the Torch

Good morning from the Panhandle.  

Sorry I haven't posted from this study of Genesis in a couple of weeks. In quick review we just finished up Chapter nine and looking at Noah, the flood and the establishment of a covenant with Noah and his sons. Now we see that the whole earth was populated by the descendants of Noah's three sons.

As we have seen, the style of Genesis is to introduce the affairs of one man and follow them through to his demise and then to introduce his sons briefly before focusing on the one through whom God would work out His unique purposes through His chosen people and the eventual Messiah. Noah passed from the scene. His sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—stepped into the spotlight. Shem, father of the Semitic races, took center stage after the explanation of the activities of his brother Ham’s descendants which were to have profound impact on the development of the human race.

This chapter presents first a genealogy of the nations, and then an account of the distribution of mankind into nations, and their dispersion over the earth. This is the last section which treats historically of the whole human race. Only in incidental, didactic, or prophetic passages do we again meet with mankind as a whole in the Old Testament. - (from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

From Shem to Abraham were ten generations inclusive; and, therefore, if we suppose the same rate of increase after as we have supposed before, there would be about fifteen million inhabitants when Abraham was thirty years of age. If, however, we take eight as the average of a family, and suppose eleven generations after Shem at the one hundredth year of Abraham's life, we have about thirty million people on the earth. The average of the three sons of Noah is higher than this; for they had sixteen sons, and we may suppose as many daughters, making in all thirty-two, and, therefore, giving ten children to each household. The present chapter does not touch on the religious aspect of human affairs: it merely presents a table of the primary nations, from which all subsequent nationalities have been derived.

I. Of the posterity of Japheth v. 2-5.

II. The posterity of Ham v. 6-20, and in this particular notice is taken of Nimrod v. 8-10.

III. The posterity of Shem v. 21, etc..

(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

This chapter is a veritable gold mine of information for those who are interested in the geography of the ancient world and the ethnic divisions and dispersions of the ancient people. It should also be noted that the genealogies recorded are not intended to be complete and that the events of this chapter happened after the events recorded in Genesis 11:1–9.

The Formation of the Nations

When is a nation not a nation? When the United Nations was founded fifty nations were involved. Forty years later more than three times that number were member nations. The impression is sometimes given that a nation is a nation when it produces a flag, starts an airline, establishes a mission to the U.N., and gets an invitation to the Olympics! But clearly there is much more to nationhood than that! - Bisco Stuart

The sons of Japheth developed nations with unique identities. “The Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations” (Gen. 10:5). They had their own territorial identity, there was a social identity in their clans or families, they had a historical identity which was carefully recorded in their genealogies, and they had distinctive cultural identity in their unique languages.

Nimrod, descendant of Ham, “a mighty one on the earth … a mighty hunter before the Lord” (vv. 8–9), whose prowess was recognized by his contemporaries and whose exploits in building, developing, and expanding remind one of a modern-day entrepreneur, was also a prominent force in the division of the human race into its national groupings.

What little we know of Nimrod comes from what is mentioned here and in 1 Chronicles 1:10 which is evidently a copy of the text in Genesis. He is called a mighty hunter before the Lord; and from Genesis 10:10, we learn that he founded a kingdom which included the cities Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Though the words are not definite, it is very likely he was a very bad man.

His name Nimrod may come from maarad, he rebelled; and the Targum, in 1 Chronicles 1:10, says: Nimrod began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men and a rebel before the Lord. The Jerusalem Targum says: "He was mighty in hunting (or in prey) and in sin before God, for he was a hunter of the children of men in their languages, and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem, and cleave to the institutes of Nimrod." The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel says: "From the foundation of the world none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, and in rebellions against the Lord."

The Syriac calls him a warlike giant. The word tsayid (OT:6718), which we render "hunter", signifies prey; and is applied in the Scriptures to the hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny. Hence, it is likely that Nimrod, having acquired power, used it in tyranny and oppression, and by plundering and violence founded that domination which was the first distinguished by the name of a kingdom on the face of the earth. How many kingdoms have been founded in the same way, in various ages and nations from that time to the present! From the Nimrods of the earth, God deliver the world!

Baabel (OT:894) signifies confusion; and it seems to have been a very proper name for the commencement of a kingdom that appears to have been founded in apostasy from God, and to have been supported by tyranny, plundering, and oppression.

[In the land of Shinar.] The same as mentioned in Gen 11:2. It appears that, as Babylon was built on the river Euphrates, and the tower of Babel was in the land of Shinar, consequently Shinar itself must have been in the southern part of Mesopotamia.

The marginal reading is to be preferred here. He-Nimrod, went out into Assyria and built Nineveh; and hence, Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, Mic 5:6. Thus did this mighty hunter extend his dominions in every possible way. The city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, is supposed to have had its name from Ninus, the son of Nimrod, but probably Ninus and Nimrod are the same person. This city, which made so conspicuous a figure in the history of the world, is now called Mossul; it is an inconsiderable place, built out of the ruins of the ancient Nineveh.- (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)