Genesis 10:13

10:8-14 Nimrod was a great man in his day; he began to be mighty in the earth, Those before him were content to be upon the same level with their neighbours, and though every man bare rule in his own house, yet no man pretended any further. Nimrod was resolved to lord it over his neighbours. The spirit of the giants before the flood, who became mighty men, and men of renown, Ge 6:4, revived in him. Nimrod was a great hunter. Hunting then was the method of preventing the hurtful increase of wild beasts. This required great courage and address, and thus gave an opportunity for Nimrod to command others, and gradually attached a number of men to one leader. From such a beginning, it is likely, that Nimrod began to rule, and to force others to submit. He invaded his neighbours' rights and properties, and persecuted innocent men; endeavouring to make all his own by force and violence. He carried on his oppressions and violence in defiance of God himself. Nimrod was a great ruler. Some way or other, by arts or arms, he got into power, and so founded a monarchy, which was the terror of the mighty, and bid fair to rule all the world. Nimrod was a great builder. Observe in Nimrod the nature of ambition. It is boundless; much would have more, and still cries, Give, give. It is restless; Nimrod, when he had four cities under his command, could not be content till he had four more.

It is expensive; Nimrod will rather be at the charge of rearing cities, than not have the honour of ruling them. It is daring, and will stick at nothing. Nimrod's name signifies rebellion; tyrants to men are rebels to God. The days are coming, when conquerors will no longer be spoken of with praise, as in man's partial histories, but be branded with infamy, as in the impartial records of the Bible.

And Mizraim begat Ludim,.... Mizraim was the second son of Ham, of whom See Gill on Genesis 10:6 . Ludim he is said to beget, the word being plural, is not the name of a man, but of his posterity; and the sense is, that Mizraim begat the father of the Ludim, whose name very probably was Lud, which name is preserved in Isaiah 66:19 .

These Ludim are the same with the Lydians, Jeremiah 46:9 and whose country is called Lydia, Ezekiel 30:5 but to be distinguished from Lydia in Asia Minor, and the Lydians there who sprung from Lud, a son of Shem, Genesis 10:22 for, as these sprung from Mizraim, the founder of Egypt, they must be somewhere thereabout; and Bochart (f) has proved, by various arguments, that they are the Ethiopians in Africa, now called Abyssines, whose country lies to the south of Egypt, a people formerly famous for archery, as Lud and the Lydians are said to be, Isaiah 66:19 and whoever reads the accounts Diodorus Siculus (g) gives of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, will easily discern a likeness between them, and that the one sprung from the other; both deifying their kings; showing a like carefulness about their funerals; both using hieroglyphics; having the like order of priests, who used shaving; and circumcision was common to them both, as Herodotus observes (h): and Ananzim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim: the name of the father of the Anamim very probably was Anam, though we have no account of him elsewhere: according to Hillerus (i), the Anamim were called so from the pastoral life they led; and, by a transposition of letters, were the same with the Maeonians, who inhabited that tract of land in Asia which was washed by the river Maeonia, or Maeander, and bordered on Lydia; but, as these were the descendants of Mizraim, they must be sought for somewhere about Egypt: much better therefore does

(13, 14) “With Mizraim are connected seven inferior African races, the names of which are given in the plural, namely:— 1. The Ludim.—There were two races of this name: one Semitic, descended from Lud, the son of Shem (Genesis 10:22), and mentioned in Isaiah 66:19; the other Hamite, and subject to the Pharaohs ( Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5). They seem to have inhabited the Nile valley, but their exact position is unknown. 2. The Anamim.—Knobel gives some reasons for supposing this race to have inhabited the Delta. 3. The Lehabim.—Probably the same as the Lubim of 2Chronicles 12:3; 2Chronicles 16:8; Daniel 11:43; Nahum 3:9. Their home was on the western side of the Delta. 4. The Naphtuhim.—Knobel explains these as “the people of Phthah, the deity worshipped at Memphis.” If so, they were the true Egyptians, as Egypt is Kah-Phthah, “the land of Phthah,’ or more correctly, according to Canon Cook, Ai-Capth. (See Note on Capthorim.) 5. The Pathrusim.—People of Pathros, or Upper Egypt. According to Canon Cook, Pa-t-res means “the land of the south.” 6. The Casluhim.—Probably the people of Cassiotis, a mountainous district to the east of Pelusium. 7. The Philistim.—The word Philistine means emigrant, and is translated alien, foreigner, by the LXX·We are here told that they came into Palestine as colonists from the Casluhim; but in Jeremiah 47:4, Amos 9:7, they are described as a colony from Caphtor.

Probably the first Philistine settlers in Gerar (Genesis 26:1), and in the towns conquered by Judah (Judges 1:18), were Casluchians; but afterwards, at the time when they struggled with Israel for empire, in the days of Samson, Eli, and Saul, there had been a second and larger immigration from Crete. As they seem to have spoken a Semitic tongue, they had apparently adopted the language of the Canaanites among whom they had settled, and especially of the Avim (Deuteronomy 2:23). The objection to their being of Egyptian origin, brought from their neglect of the rite of circumcision, has but little weight. The Israelites all but discontinued it (Joshua 5:5), and colonists escaped from the dominion of the priests might gladly dispense with such a custom. There is also much reason for believing that the institution of circumcision in Egypt was of a date subsequent to this emigration. 8. The Caphtorim are generally connected with Crete, but Egyptologers derive the name from Kah-Phthah, “the land of Phthah.” According to this, the Caphtorim, like the Naphtuhim, would have been true Egyptians, and the Delta, with Memphis, for their capital, would have been their original home. The need of expansion, joined to the seafaring habits learnt on the shores of the Delta, may easily have led them to colonise Crete, while others of the race were going as settlers into Palestine.

13 . Mizraim ] In Genesis 10:6 , “the sons of Ham” are Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The “sons of Cush” were given in Genesis 10:7 . In Genesis 10:13-14 the genealogy is continued with the “sons of Mizraim.” The intervening passage ( Genesis 10:8-12 ) has been a parenthesis. The names here mentioned are probably tribes on the borders of Egypt. Ludim ] Mentioned also in Jeremiah 46:9 ; presumably the same as Lud in Isaiah 66:19 ; Ezekiel 27:10 ; Ezekiel 30:5 . the Anamim ] W. Max Müller suggests that these are the Kinamim who dwelt in the largest and southernmost oasis, designated in the Egyptian inscriptions K’n’mt . Very strange is the reading of the LXX Αἰνεμετιείμ . Cf. 1 Chronicles 1:11 . Lehabim ] Possibly the same as the “Libyans,” who appear as Lubim in 2 Chronicles 12:3 ; 2 Chronicles 16:8 ; Daniel 11:43 ; Nahum 3:9 . The Libyans were the African tribes west of Cyrene. Naphtuhim ] The Egyptologist Erman suggests that this name is the corruption of the word P-t-mḥi , the Egyptian designation for the dwellers in the north, i.e. the Delta of Egypt ( Z. A. T. W . 1890, pp. 118, 119). Another suggestion is that it represents the name of the third great oasis, between Ammon and K’n’mt , bearing the name of Ferâfia. Cf. 1 Chronicles 1:11 .

Of Ludim and the following names here and Genesis 10:14 , observe two things: 1. They are not the names of persons, but of people or nations; and the word father is here understood; Ludim, for the father of the people called Ludim, and so the rest. 2. That they are the several nations dwelling in Africa, springing from the Egyptians, which, as they multiplied, went further and further westward and southward from Egypt.

11. Out of that land went forth Asshur—or, as the Margin has it, "He [Nimrod] at the head of his army went forth into Assyria," that is, he pushed his conquests into that country. and builded Nineveh—opposite the town of Mosul, on the Tigris, and the other towns near it. This raid into Assyria was an invasion of the territories of Shem, and hence the name "Nimrod," signifying "rebel," is supposed to have been conferred on him from his daring revolt against the divine distribution.

Verse 13. - And Mizraim begat Ludim . An African tribe, a colony of the Egyptians, like the next seven, which are "nomina non singulorum hominum sed populorum" (Aben Ezra, Michaelis, Rosenmüller, Kalisch, Murphy); probably referred to in connection with Tarshish and Put ( Isaiah 66:19 ), with Kush and Put ( Jeremiah 46:9 ), and in connection with Put ( Ezekiel 27:10 ; Ezekiel 30:5 ). Lud (ver. 22) was Shemitic. And Anamim . Not elsewhere mentioned; the inhabitants of the Delta (Knobel). And Lehabim . Lubim ( 2 Chronicles 12:3 ; Daniel 2:43 ; Nahum 3:9 ); Libyans ( Daniel 11:43 ); probably the Libyaus west of Egypt (Michaelis, Kalisch, Murphy). And Naphtuhim . Nephthys, near Pelusium; on the Lake Sirbenis (Bochart); the Libyan town Napata (Kalisch); the people of Middle Egypt (Knobel). Genesis 10:13