2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah from the uttermost north, and all his bands; -- many peoples with thee.
And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow; to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory: and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
and shall go out to deceive the nations which [are] in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war, whose number [is] as the sand of the sea.
And to Shem -- to him also were [sons] born; he is the father of all the sons of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder.
Byssus with broidered work from Egypt was thy sail, to serve thee for a banner; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thine awning.
Tarshish dealt with thee by reason of the abundance of all substance; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they furnished thy markets. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy traffickers: they bartered with thee the persons of men, and vessels of bronze. They of the house of Togarmah furnished thy markets with horses, and horsemen, and mules.
Vedan and Javan of Uzal traded in thy markets: wrought iron, cassia, and calamus were in thy traffic.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 10
Commentary on Genesis 10 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 10
This chapter shows more particularly what was said in general (ch. 9:19), concerning the three sons of Noah, that "of them was the whole earth overspread;' and the fruit of that blessing (ch. 9:1, 7), "replenish the earth.' Is is the only certain account extant of the origin of nations; and yet perhaps there is no nation but that of the Jews that can be confident from which of these seventy fountains (for so many there are here) it derives its streams. Through the want of early records, the mixtures of people, the revolutions of nations, and distance of time, the knowledge of the lineal descent of the present inhabitants of the earth is lost; nor were any genealogies preserved but those of the Jews, for the sake of the Messiah, only in this chapter we have a brief account,
Gen 10:1-5
Moses begins with Japheth's family, either because he was the eldest, or because his family lay remotest from Israel and had least concern with them at the time when Moses wrote, and therefore he mentions that race very briefly, hastening to give an account of the posterity of Ham, who were Israel's enemies and of Shem, who were Israel's ancestors; for it is the church that the scripture is designed to be the history of, and of the nations of the world only as they were some way or other related to Israel and interested in the affairs of Israel. Observe,
Gen 10:6-14
That which is observable and improvable in these verses is the account here given of Nimrod, v. 8-10. He is here represented as a great man in his day: He began to be a mighty one in the earth, that is, whereas those that went before him were content to stand upon the same level with their neighbours, and though every man bore rule in his own house yet no man pretended any further, Nimrod's aspiring mind could not rest here; he was resolved to tower above his neighbours, not only to be eminent among them, but to lord it over them. The same spirit that actuated the giants before the flood (who became mighty men, and men of renown, ch. 6:4), now revived in him, so soon was that tremendous judgment which the pride and tyranny of those mighty men brought upon the world forgotten. Note, There are some in whom ambition and affectation of dominion seem to be bred in the bone; such there have been and will be, notwithstanding the wrath of God often revealed from heaven against them. Nothing on this side hell will humble and break the proud spirits of some men, in this like Lucifer, Isa. 14:14, 15. Now,
Gen 10:15-20
Observe here,
Gen 10:21-32
Two things especially are observable in this account of the posterity of Shem:-