Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 10:6 - 10:14

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 10:6 - 10:14


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The Sons of Ham

v. 6. And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
Their descendants are to be found later in Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, and the land of Canaan.

v. 7. And the sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Ra amah: Sheba and Dedan.
Their descendants afterward lived in Northeastern Africa, in Arabia, and along the Gulf of Persia.

v. 8. And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

v. 9. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord.

v. 10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
One son of Cush is here singled out on account of his extraordinary ability and mighty conquests. This was Nimrod, whose feats of hunting were not only so unusual as to become proverbial among all the nations of his day, but who also established a great kingdom on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, with Babylon as its capital and other mighty cities, the ruins of which have in part been discovered. But his work was undertaken over against God, in opposition to Jehovah, in the haughtiness and pride of his own mind, a fact which also made him a tyrant toward men, as the text implies.

v. 11. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,


v. 12. and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city.
Out of the land of Babylon Nimrod, not satisfied with his conquests, marched forth into the land toward the north, which was afterwards known as Asshur, or Assyria. Here he built the great city of Nineveh, which consisted of four quarters, Nineveh proper, the southern section, Rehoboth, the eastern section, Calah, toward the north, and Resen, in the center. So great was this complex of cities that it was afterward described as having a circumference of four hundred and eighty stadia, or about fifty-five miles, which agrees well with the account in the book of Jonah, Gen_3:3.

v. 13. And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Baphtuhim,


v. 14. and Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
These nations were afterwards found in Egypt proper, along the Mediterranean toward the northwest and northeast as far as Philistia, and on the islands of the Mediterranean.