Genesis 10:21-25

10:21 And sons were also born ¹  to Shem (the older brother of Japheth), ²  the father of all the sons of Eber.

10:22 The sons of Shem were Elam, ³  Asshur, ⁴  Arphaxad, ⁵  Lud, ⁶  and Aram. ⁷  10:23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ⁸  10:24 Arphaxad was the father of ⁹  Shelah, ¹⁰  and Shelah was the father of Eber. ¹¹  10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his days the earth was divided, ¹²  and his brother’s name was Joktan.

[10:21]  ¹ tn Heb “And to Shem was born.”

[10:21]  ² tn Or “whose older brother was Japheth.” Some translations render Japheth as the older brother, understanding the adjective הַגָּדוֹל (haggadol, “older”) as modifying Japheth. However, in Hebrew when a masculine singular definite attributive adjective follows the sequence masculine singular construct noun + proper name, the adjective invariably modifies the noun in construct, not the proper name. Such is the case here. See Deut 11:7; Judg 1:13; 2:7; 3:9; 9:5; 2 Kgs 15:35; 2 Chr 27:3; Neh 3:30; Jer 13:9; 36:10; Ezek 10:19; 11:1.

[10:22]  ³ sn The Hebrew name Elam (עֵילָם, ’elam) means “highland.” The Elamites were a non-Semitic people who lived east of Babylon.

[10:22]  ⁴ sn Asshur is the name for the Assyrians. Asshur was the region in which Nimrod expanded his power (see v. 11, where the name is also mentioned). When names appear in both sections of a genealogical list, it probably means that there were both Hamites and Shemites living in that region in antiquity, especially if the name is a place name.

[10:22]  ⁵ sn The descendants of Arphaxad may have lived northeast of Nineveh.

[10:22]  ⁶ sn Lud may have been the ancestor of the Ludbu, who lived near the Tigris River.

[10:22]  ⁷ sn Aram became the collective name of the northern tribes living in the steppes of Mesopotamia and speaking Aramaic dialects.

[10:23]  ⁸ tc The MT reads “Mash”; the LXX and 1 Chr 1:17 read “Meshech.”

[10:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “fathered.”

[10:24]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “Arphaxad fathered Shelah”; the LXX reads “Arphaxad fathered Cainan, and Cainan fathered Sala [= Shelah].” The LXX reading also appears to lie behind Luke 3:35-36.

[10:24]  ¹¹ sn Genesis 11 traces the line of Shem through Eber (עֵבֶר, ’ever ) to Abraham the “Hebrew” (עִבְרִי, ’ivri).

[10:25]  ¹² tn The expression “the earth was divided” may refer to dividing the land with canals, but more likely it anticipates the division of languages at Babel (Gen 11). The verb פָּלָג (palag, “separate, divide”) is used in Ps 55:9 for a division of languages.