Through the Bible Part 4

CSB Study Bible table of Nations

9:24–27 When Noah learned what his youngest son had done, he placed the curse on Ham’s son, Canaan, who would be the lowest of slaves to his brothers, that is, the slave of the descendants of Shem and Japheth. This curse on Canaan had prophetic implications. In later centuries the Canaanites, the descendants of Canaan, were pressed into slavery by the Israelites (Jos 17:13; Jdg 1:28–35; 1Kg 9:20–21). This curse does not refer to the descendants of Ham who settled in Africa.

9:28–29 Noah’s 950 years mark him as the third-oldest human in biblical history, behind Methuselah (969 years) and Jared (962 years).

10:1 The family records of Noah’s sons is the fourth of eleven (Hb) toledoth sections in Genesis (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1, 9; 37:2). The purpose of this section is twofold: to show that Noah’s sons fulfilled the command to be fruitful, multiply, and spread out over the earth (9:7), and to distinguish the “unchosen” lines of Noah’s descendants (the Japhethites and Hamites) from the line that would be both the recipient and the agent of God’s special blessing to the rest of humanity (the Shemites). Gn 10:1–32 lists a total of seventy descendants in the family lines of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Seventy, a multiple of two numbers that suggest completeness (seven, the number of days of creation week; ten, the number of fingers), would have suggested to ancient Israelites a satisfying completeness to the quantity of persons and nations that came into being after the flood. This is labeled a list of clans, languages, nations, and lands (vv. 5, 20, 31; cp. Rv 14:6). Thus some of the names refer to the regions where that person’s descendants settled; some refer to people groups.

10:2–5 Fourteen of Japheth’s descendants are listed here. Peoples of the coasts and islands refers to people living in areas reachable by ship, especially in the Mediterranean basin. The fact that each group had its own language suggests that this listing refers to the situation after the Tower of Babylon event (11:1–9).

10:6–7 Thirty of Ham’s descendants are included in this list. The geographic or ethnic identifications of most of the names have been lost in history, but they are associated with regions in Africa and Arabia. Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt. Havilah probably refers to a different geographic region than the Havilah of 2:11. Two different persons by the name of Sheba are listed in Genesis genealogies (v. 28; 25:3); Dedan is also found in 25:3. It is best to understand each of these as different persons, and the founders of different people groups.

10:8–12 Nimrod … began to be powerful in the land, that is, he was successful as an aggressive empire builder. Like many other ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian kings, he was also famous as a powerful hunter. Nimrod’s origins are from Cush, that is, Africa; his empire was Asian, stretching across the Tigris-Euphrates river basin. The order of place names suggests that Nimrod’s empire expanded from south to north, and included Babylon and Nineveh, the capital cities of two of Israel’s most formidable future enemies. Shinar corresponds to the ancient regions of Sumer and Accad; Erech to ancient Uruk; Calah to Nimrod; Rehoboth-ir may be ancient Asshur.

Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, eds., CSB Study Bible: Notes (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017). Page .  Exported from Logos Bible Study, 3:51 PM June 18, 2025.

AI Overview:

Near East, including Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. Here's a more detailed breakdown:Japheth:

Gomer: Often associated with regions in or near Asia Minor, including Ashkenaz,Riphath, and Togarmah. 

Javan: Associated with the Greeks, including Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim. 

Other descendants include Magog, Madai, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras, who are linked to various regions in and around Europe and Asia Minor. 

Ham:

Cush: Associated with Ethiopia and Nubia, according to some historical and biblical sources.

Mizraim: Identified as Egypt.

Put: Often linked to Libya or North Africa.

Canaan: The ancestor of the Canaanites, including the Phoenicians and other groups in the Levant. 

Shem:

Elam: Located in the mountainous region east of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley in what is now modern southwest Iran, according to biblical scholars. 

Asshur: Associated with the Assyrian people and the land of Assyria. 

Arphaxad: Possibly the ancestor of the Chaldeans. 

Lud: The location and people are still uncertain. 

Aram: Associated with Syria. 

Shem is also considered the ancestor of the Israelites and Arabs.