1 Chronicles 1:17

[See comments on 1 Chronicles 1:5].

The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech. Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech - or Mash: these were the children of Aram, and grandsons of Shem (Genesis 10:23).

The sons of Shem; either the name of sons is so taken here as to include grandsons, who are called sons, ; or, these words, the children of Aram, are understood and inserted before Uz, out of , where they are expressed.

THE SONS OF SHEM, OR THE SEMITES (1 Chronicles 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 Assurϋ, Elamϋ, Kassϋ, and Accadϋ occur together in an old Assyrian list of nations. Κlama, 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 (Genesis 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-kisβdi “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. Ezekiel 27:10; Ezekiel 30:5. Aram.—The high land—that 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 Hβsu by Esarhaddon, who reduced them. Perhaps, however, Uz (Heb., Ϋη), is the Assyrian Uηηa, 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 Hϋlξ’a, which formed a part of the mountain land of Kasiar or Mash (Inscription of Assurnβηirpal, 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., ἡπέραν) Perζa. 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. Deuteronomy 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 Qahtβn (= Joktan). The names in 1 Chronicles 1:20-21, are all explicable from Arabic sources. (22) Ebal.—Genesis 10:28. Obal, where, however, the LXX. read Εὐάλ (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.

17 (= Genesis 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 1 Chronicles 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 Genesis 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” Genesis 10:2 (Heb. not LXX.) reads “Mash.”

The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Genesis 10:23.