Genealogy of Nations - Babel - Confusion of Tongues

(GENESIS 10-11:10)

IT was the Divine will, that after the flood the whole earth should be repeopled by the descendants of Noah.

For this purpose they must, of course, have separated and spread, so as to form the different nations and

tribes among whom the world should be apportioned. Any attempted unity on their part would not only be

contrary to the Divine purpose, but also, considering the universal sinfulness of man, prove dangerous to

themselves, and even be untrue, since their inward separation had already appeared in the different

characters and tendencies of Ham and his brothers. But before recording the judgment by which the Divine

purpose was enforced, Scripture gives us the genealogy of the different nations, and this with a threefold

object - to show how the earth was all peopled from the descendants of Noah; to define the relation of Israel

towards each nationality; and, best of all, to register, as it we re, their birth in the book of God, thereby

indicating, that, however "in time past He suffered all nations to walk in their own ways," (Acts 14:6) they

also were included in the purposes of mercy, and intended finally to "dwell in the tents of Shem."

In accordance with the general plan on which Holy Scripture is written, we read after the prophecy of Noah,

which fixed the future of his sons, no more of that patriarch than that he "lived after the flood three hundred

and fifty years," and that he died at t he age of nine hundred and fifty years. Regarding the division of earth

among his three sons, it may be said generally, that Asia was given to Shem, Africa to Ham, and Europe to

Japheth. In the same general manner a modern scholar has traced all existing languages to three original

sources, themselves, no doubt, derived from a primeval spring, which may have been lost in the "confusion

of tongues," though its existence is attested by constant and striking points of connection between the

three great familie s of languages. The more we think of the allotment of Europe, Asia, and Africa among the

three sons of Noah, the more clearly do we see the fulfillment of prophecy regarding them. As we run our

eye down the catalogue of nations in Genesis 10, we have little difficulty in recognizing them; and beginning

with the youngest, Japheth, we find of those known to the general reader, the Cymry of Wales and Brittany

(Gomer), the Scythians (Magog), the Medes (Madai), the Greeks (Ionians, Javan), and the Thracians (Tiras).

Among their descendants, the Germans, Celts, and Armenians have been traced to the three sons of Gomer.

It is not necessary to follow this table farther, though all will remember Tarshish, or Spain, and the Kittim, or

"inhabitants of the isles."

Passing next to Shem (ver. 21), we notice that he is called "the father of all the children of Eber," because in

Eber the main line divided into that of Peleg, from whom the race of Abraham sprang, and the descendants

of Joktan (ver. 25). The descendants of Sh em are exclusively Asiatic nations, among whom we only notice

Asshur or Assyria, and Uz, as the land which gave birth to Job.

We have reserved Ham for the last place, because of the connection of his story with the dispersion of all

nations. His sons were Cush or Ethiopia, Mizraim or Egypt, Phut or Libya, and Canaan, which, of course, we

know. It will be noticed, that the seats of all these nations were in Africa, except that of Canaan, whose

intrusion into the land of Palestine was put an end to by Israel. But yet another of Ham's descendants had

settled in Asia. Nimrod, the founder of the Babylonian empire, the conqueror of Assyria, and the builder of

Nineveh (ver. 11), was the son of Cush. Altogether this "mighty one in the earth," who founded the first

world-empire, reminds us of Cain and of his descendant Lamech. Leaving out of view the possible meaning

of his name, which some have explained as being "we will rebel," boastful violence and rebellion certainly

constitute the characteristics of his history . Most strangely have the Assyrian tablets of the royal

successors of Nimrod been made to furnish an explanation of his description as "a mighty hunter" - for this

is the title given in them to the great conquering warrior-monarchs, as "hunting the people." Thus we gather

the full meaning of the expression, "he began to be a mighty one in the earth." From Babylon, which was

"the beginning of his kingdom," Nimrod "went out into Assyria" (ver. 11, marginal rendering), "and builded