Peleg

Son of Eher. (Gen. xi. 16.) So called from Pillig, to cut or divide. it is bette

Pe´leg, son of Eber, and fourth in descent from Shem. His name means division, and is said to have been given him ’because in his days the earth was divided’ (Gen 10:25; Gen 11:16).

Son of Eber, and fourth in descent from Shem. He was called Peleg, division, because in his time the earth was divided, Gen 10:25 ; 11:16.\par

Pe’leg. (division, part). Son of Eber, and brother of Joktan. Gen 10:25; Gen 11:16. The only incident connected with his history is the statement that "in his days was the earth divided." An event embodied in the meaning of his name -- "division." The reference is to a division, of the family of Eber himself, the younger branch of which, (the Joktanids), migrated into southern Arabia, while the elder remained in Mesopotamia.

("division".) Eber’s son, Joktan’s brother (Gen 10:25; Gen 11:16). "In his days the earth was divided." His name marks an epoch in the world’s history:

(1) God’s intimation of His will that the earth was to be divided in an orderly distribution of the various families of mankind, which order the Hamitic Babel builders tried to contravene (Gen 11:4), in order to concentrate their power; also the Hamite Canaanites in "spreading abroad" broke the bounds assigned by God, seizing the sacred possession of Shem where Jehovah was to be blessed as "the Lord God of Shem" (Gen 9:26; Gen 9:18-20).

(2) The division of Eber’s family; the younger branch, the Joktanids, migrating into S. Arabia the elder Peleg remaining in Mesopotamia.

[Pe’leg]

Son of Eber, a descendant of Shem. The name signifies ’division,’ and apparently he was so called because ’in his days was the earth divided.’ Gen 10:25. This doubtless means, as is said in Gen 10:5, "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; " and again in Gen 10:32, "By these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood." In the next chapter is the account of the confusion of tongues and the scattering of the people generally. Gen 11:16-19; 1Ch 1:19; 1Ch 1:25.

PELEG.—Mentioned as a link in our Lord’s genealogy (Luk 3:35, Authorized Version Phalec).

PELEG.—A descendant of Shem in the fourth generation, according to the table of peoples given in Gen 10:1-32. In Luk 3:35 he stands a generation further off through the interpolation of Cainan from the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] . The etymology of the name is uncertain. Its reference may be geographical, or racial, or, as the word means ordinarily ‘a water-course,’ it may denote a land cut up by streams.

W. F. Cobb.

pē´leg (פּלג, pelegh, “watercourse,” “division”): A son of Eber, and brother of Joktan. The derivation of the name is given: “for in his days was the earth divided” (niphl^eghāh) (Gen 10:25; compare Luk 3:35, the King James Version “Phalec”). This probably refers to the scattering of the world’s population and the confounding of its language recorded in Gen 11:1-9. In Aramaic p^elagh and Arabic phalaj mean “division”; in Hebrew pelegh means “watercourse.” The name may really be due to the occupation by this people of some well-watered (furrowed), district (e.g. in Babylonia), for these patronymics represent races, and the derivation in Gen 10:25 is a later editor’s remark.