1 Chronicles 1:7

1:1-27 This chapter, and many that follow, repeat the genealogies, or lists of fathers and children in the Bible history, and put them together, with many added. When compared with other places, there are some differences found; yet we must not therefore stumble at the word, but bless God that the things necessary to salvation are plain enough. The original of the Jewish nation is here traced from the first man that God created, and is thereby distinguished from the obscure, fabulous, and absurd origins assigned to other nations. But the nations now are all so mingled with one another, that no one nation, nor the greatest part of any, is descended entirely from any of one nation, nor the greatest part of any, is descended entirely from any of these fountains. Only this we are sure of, that God has created of one blood all nations of men; they are all descended from one Adam, one Noah. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Mal 2:10.

The sons of Japheth, Gomer,.... Here begins the genealogy of the sons of Noah after the flood; of the sons of Japheth the elder, in this and the two following verses; next of the sons of Ham, the younger brother, 1 Chronicles 1:8 , then of Shem, whose posterity are mentioned last, because from him, in the line of Heber, sprang Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish nation, of whom the Messiah was to come, for whose sake this genealogy is given, 1 Chronicles 1:17 . The whole is the same with the account in

7 . Elishah ] Ezekiel ( 1 Chronicles 27:7 ) addressing Tyre, “Blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thine awning.” Elishah clearly denotes some islands or coastlands near the territory of Javan, but no closer identification is at present possible. If it be the Alashya of the Tell-el-Amarna Letters (cp. Flinders Petrie, Syria and Egypt , p. 161), it may be Cyprus or some part of Cyprus ; cp. note on Kittim . Tarshish ] Probably Tarsus in Cilicia is meant, for the next people mentioned are its near neighbours, the Kittim, i.e. the inhabitants of Cyprus. Tarsus was early colonised by the Greeks and was the capital of the country as early as the close of the fifth century b.c. It is to be distinguished from the Tarshish (= Tartessus in the south of Spain) of Ezekiel 27:12 . Kittim ] spelt in A.V. Chittim (R.V. Kittim ) in Numbers 24:24 ; Isaiah 23:1 ; Isaiah 23:12 ; Jeremiah 2:10 ; Ezekiel 27:6 , and Daniel 11:30 . The inhabitants of Cyprus are meant, and “Kittim may be a reminiscence of Citium, the name of one of its oldest towns. In later times Kittim” (Chittim) is used vaguely of Western nations; “the ships of Kittim” ( Daniel 11:30 ) are the Roman ships; “the land of Chittim” ( Χεττιείμ , 1Ma 1:1 ) is Macedonia ( ib. 1Ma 8:5 ). Dodanim ] R.V. Rodanim , so Heb. and LXX. ( Ῥόδιοι ). In the A.V. the spelling is made to agree with that of Genesis 10:4 , where, however, the LXX. has again Ῥόδιοι .

The peoples and races descended from the sons of Noah. - These are enumerated according to the table in Genesis 10 ; but our author has omitted not only the introductory and concluding remarks ( Genesis 10:1 , Genesis 10:21 , Genesis 10:32 ), but also the historical notices of the founding of a kingdom in Babel by Nimrod, and the distribution of the Japhetites and Shemites in their dwelling-places ( Genesis 10:5 , Genesis 10:9-12 , Genesis 10:18-20 , and Genesis 10:30 and Genesis 10:31 ).

The remaining divergences are partly orthographic, - such as תּבּת, 1 Chronicles 1:5 , for תּוּבל, Genesis 10:2 , and רעמא, 1 Chronicles 1:9 , for רעמה, Genesis 10:7 ; and partly arising from errors of transcription, - as, for example, דּיפת, 1 Chronicles 1:6 , for ריפת, Genesis 10:3 , and conversely, רודנים, 1 Chronicles 1:7 , for דּדנים, Genesis 10:4 , where it cannot with certainty be determined which form is the original and correct one; and finally, are partly due to a different pronunciation or form of the same name, - as תּרשׁישׁה, 1 Chronicles 1:7 , for תּרשׁישׁ, Genesis 10:4 , the aa of motion having been gradually fused into one word with the name, לוּדּיּים, 1 Chronicles 1:11 , for לוּדים, Genesis 10:13 , just as in Amos 9:7 we have כּוּשׁיּים for כּוּשׁים; in 1 Chronicles 1:22 , עיבל for עובל, Genesis 10:28 , where the lxx have also Εὐάλ, and משׁך, 1 Chronicles 1:17 , for משׁ, Genesis 10:23 , which last has not yet been satisfactorily explained, since משׁך is used in Psalm 120:5 with קדר of an Arabian tribe. Finally, there is wanting in 1 Chronicles 1:17 ארם וּבני before עוּץ, Genesis 10:23 , because, as in the case of Noah's sons, 1 Chronicles 1:4 , where their relationship is not mentioned, so also in reference to the peoples descended from Shem, the relationship subsisting between the names Uz, Hul, etc., and Aram, is supposed to be already known from Genesis. Other suppositions as to the omission of the words ארם וּבני are improbable.

[Bible] 1 Chronicles Chapter 1 Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashchenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. And the sons of Javan; Elisha, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod. He began to be mighty upon the earth. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (of whom came the Philistines,) and Caphthorim. And Canaan begat Zidon his first-born, and Heth, The Jebusite also, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite, And the Hivite, and the Archite, and the Sinite, And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech. And Arphaxad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber. And to Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother's name was Joktan. And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah, Hadoram also, and Uzal, and Diklah, And Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba, And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abram; the same is Abraham. The sons of Abraham; Isaac, and Ishmael. These are their generations. The first-born of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, Mishma, and Dumah, Massa, Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael. Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bore Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan; Sheba, and Dedan.