"No one must lightly dismiss the question of race. It is the key to world history and it is precisely for this reason that written history so often lacks clarity�it is written by those who do not understand the race question and what belongs to it. Language and religion do not make a race, only blood does that" – Benjamin Disraeli
Genesis 10 is a prophecy that establishes the origins, and reveals the traits that have determined the future history and fixed the ultimate destiny of each branch of the human race in their journey from their Genesis through to their reward or loss as described in the Books of Ezekiel and Daniel and expounded by Jesus through His angel, the late William Branham (Revelation 1:1; 10:7).
In the Table of Nations, seven sons of Japheth are named. The sons are peoples or countries, only Japheth remains a person. The same holds for Shem and Ham who do not belong to the Table of Nations. So the record is not merely or mainly a genealogy of individuals but of family houses by which earth was divided into nations according to the number of the children of Israel. Hence:-
a) The dual form of names such as "Mizraim" which is probably meant to represent the two Egypts.
b) The plural form such as Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Nephthuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, Caphthorim, represent the nations named after a patriarch such as "Lud".
c) The tribal or gentile forms like Jebusite, Amorite, Girgasite, Hivite, Arkite, Sinite, Arvadite, Zemarite, Hamathite.
d) Forms for "groups" of tribes, such as Canaanites.
e) Forms for nations, such as Gomer, Magog, and Madai.
Trees represent people and like the two trees in the Garden of Eden, Shem and Canaan were initially side by side in the midst. In general terms, we may say that the north was assigned to Japheth, the south to Ham, and the middle territory to Shem, whereas Canaan was beaten asunder or "scattered abroad" throughout the earth.
Five words are translated "nation" in the Old Testament. "Goy" means a non-Hebrew nation or multitude of creatures (people, animals or insects). "Am" means a collection of people, a nation, attendants, troops, a tribe or compatriots. "L'owm" means a gathering or community of people. "Erets" means nations, land or country. "Ummah" means a community of people, a tribe or nation.
Four words are translated "nation" in the New Testament. "Ethnos" which refers to a race of the same culture or habits: specifically gentile, heathen or pagan customs foreign to Israel. "Genos" means kindred breed, stock, race born of a common descent. "Genea" means a group of kindred people at a point in time, era or generation. "Allophulos" means another (non-Israelite) nation or tribe.
Genesis 10:1 gives the "generations" (Heb. "towldah"�pedigree or genealogical lists of the blood-descendants) of Noah's three sons who are named in order of their theocratic importance, not their age. Shem represented the believer, Ham the make-believer, and Japheth the unbeliever. However the descendants of Japheth, Noah's first-born, are treated first in this prophecy. They occupied the desirable lands of the "goy" beyond the sea from Israel, families of a common language settling under the headship of patriarchs following the dispersal from Babel and taking their identity from their names.
Next, the descendants of Noah's younger son, Ham, are discussed. Clearly, Ham, whose estate has been degraded in that his firstborn was the illegitimate Canaan, who is cursed with his Serpent's seed forebears, is not one to passively submit to Noah's prophecy. His practical nature rebelled against that Word in his son Cush; and in his son Nimrod, who became a mighty hunter, blessed of God. And this became a proverb among the people.
When wild animals overran the land making it unsafe, Nimrod culled the beasts, restoring peace and safety, thus earning the gratitude of the people who made him their leader. He then organized them into cities with walls for protection, and teaching his huntsmen the art of war, established his kingdom and built more cities.
Many generations after the confusion of tongues, Ham's other sons settled in Africa, establishing nations under their names. Canaan and his descendants are listed separately in this genealogy and in the genealogy of I Chronicles 1:13-16 because they are accursed, not being in Adam's race. All the sons of Ham gave their names to families of a common language who eventually settled their nations following the dispersal from Babel.
It must be remembered at this point that the descendants of Cain, the family of Canaan on this side of the Flood, have no inheritance in the earth, and can never enter the Presence of the Lord (Genesis 4:11-15). Thus God commanded Moses to utterly exterminate all the Canaanites found living in the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 7).
Portions of land were also divided among the descendants of Noah's second son Shem, and so the whole earth was divided among the sons of Noah and their descendants. Seventy nations, countries and tongues were named after these men.
"Philology," which is the science of the structure and development of language, has discovered three parent groups of languages and peoples: Aryan, Semitic, and Turanian (who are Asiatic and neither Aryan nor Semitic)�Japheth, Shem, and Ham. Family traits are evident in the languages of the different groups as language determines or reflects the way men conceive of things.
The Japhetic or the Indo-Europeans have maintained the evident relationships in their particular family of languages. And the same observation applies to the Semitic languages. Even though they have spread so widely, they have continued to share a certain way of viewing things. Indo-Europeans philosophically with an emphasis on the abstract, and the Semites with their emphasis upon behaviour from a more transcendential point of view.
From all over the world, wherever Ham and Canaan are found, the witness is to an entirely practical view of the world, rooted in the present, wise in a canny sort of way, specific, particular, uninterested in the abstract, always inventing new words or new terms for things, interested in particulars rather than categories, earthy, and very largely disinterested in unlikely possibilities.
The family of the Indo-European languages is readily identifiable as a family, as are the Semitic tongues. The Hamites, however, have been so inventive, they devise terms with equal facility and their languages are in such a state of flux that within a few generations, even tribes living just across the river will find themselves scarcely able to converse.
This strange tendency which has prevented the Egyptians, Hittites, Sumerians, Chinese and Central American Indians from developing an alphabetical script may have been Providence, guaranteeing the quick dispersal of Ham all over the world. Many cuneiform scholars have noted the similarities between Sumerian and Chinese. "Civilization has travelled with the sun, from the east, coming west. . . . The oldest civilization is China, . . . And sin has travelled with civilization" (63-1216.htm, We Have Seen His Star and Have Come to Worship Him, par. 188).
What divided the Hamites in this way was not a difference in language structure, for the philosophy of their languages remained remarkably similar, so that the ways of thinking of the African native, the Chinese peasant, and the American Indian have remained for a very long time comparable: it was the vocabularies which changed.
According to Genesis 10:32, the families of the sons of Noah are divided or separated by languages into tribes and nations. These boundaries also knit them together in their generic group. This is a protective measure to ensure each people would be separate yet interdependent in order to realize the maximum capacity of man with his tremendous creative potential.
Any attempt to unify the world's language, to co-mingle the races or nations with the overt intention of making all men share equally in this potential will only serve to defeat its own purpose in the end. Thus Esperanto, "multiculturalism", gender equality, the UN, WCC and "the brotherhood of all mankind", are artificial, in direct opposition to God's purposes, and in a manner of speaking, a repetition of the hubris of Babel (Genesis 11:1-6; Matthew 24:37-38).
Japheth, literally means "opened" or "expanded". Naturally in the sense that his descendents settled all Europe and the greater part of Asia, and later colonised and developed the Western Hemisphere previously ruled by Ham and Canaan, as Shem replaced Canaan in the Promised Land. For obvious reasons, Japheth never expanded to the Far East. And Spiritually through the fulfilment of Genesis 9:27 and Matthew 21:43 wherein Jesus said to Shem, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation, ("ethnos" or Gentile culture), bringing forth the fruits thereof". That is, a people with the faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:26-29).
From Japheth derive the Indo-Europeans and the Medes (58-0108, The Handwriting of the Wall, par. 21). The early Aryans knew Japheth as Djapatischta (chief of the race); Greeks referred to Japheth as Iapetos or Japetos; East Indians called him Iyapeti or Pra-Japati; Romans deified him by the name Ju-Pater or Jupiter. The Saxons perpetuated his name as Iafeth, subsequently transliterated as Sceaf (pronounced sheef or shaif), and recorded in their early genealogies as the son of Noah the forebear of their various peoples (Anglo-Saxon Chronicles). The variant Seskef was used by the early Scandinavians. All of these peoples, we must remember, were pagans whose knowledge or even awareness of the book of Genesis was non-existent.
The Japhetic tribes being furthest from the theocratic centre were last in attaining to historic eminence, and "enlarging" with much greater minuteness to detail the Hamitic and Arabian nations which were soonest developed and with which the Hebrews came most into contact in the initial stages of their journey through time.
History has recorded Japheth's geographical enlargement. The entire Western hemisphere of our globe is settled by Japhetic peoples, and East Indians are of the same stock. The record of Japheth's spread (enlargement) over the earth has been marred consistently by his destruction of the cultures which were already in existence wherever he arrived in sufficient force to achieve dominion. It happened in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and only numerical superiority of the native population has hitherto preserved parts of Africa from the same fate. Indeed, in early historic times the pattern of events is repeated again and again, whatever cultural advances the pioneering Hamites had achieved tended to be swallowed up by the succeeding Japhethites. The "enlargement" of Japheth has continued to this day, an enlargement greatly accelerated geographically in the last few centuries�frequently at the expense of the Hamites (or Canaanites) who first possessed the land.
Gomer, literally means "completion" and is the progenitor of the early Cimmerians and other branches of the Celtic family. Settling in eastern Europe near the Black Sea, he became the Gauls/French, Galatians, Gaels/Scots, Celts/Irish, Goths/Germans/Scandinavians, Saxons/Britons/Welsh, Dutch, Armenians, Romans and related groups.
Magog, means "overtopping" or "covering". Settling first in Georgia, a region between the Black and Caspian Seas south of the Caucasus Mountains, he became the Scythians, Russians, Belorussians and Ukrainians.
Madai, means "middle land". He settled northwest of Persia proper, south and southwest of the Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, and west and northwest of the great salt desert of Iran in the ancient kingdom of Media, now Iraq and the northern part of Iran. He is the father of the Medes and East Indians.
Javan, means "effervescing" or one in a state of bubbling heat." He fathered the Ionians and Greeks. His sons occupy Cyprus, Rhodes, and other islands and coasts of the Mediterranean and the coast of Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Tubal, means, "thou shalt be led". The city of Tobolsk was named after him. He settled near Cappadocia in Asia Minor and fathered the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Albanians, Romanians, other related groups.
Meshech means "led along". The city of Moscow (Muskovi) is named after him. Initially settling in northern Turkey south east of the Caspian Sea, he fathered the Poles, Finns, Czechs, Yugoslavs and other related groups.
Tiras, means "expulsion," "impoverish" or "disinherit." He settled across the Propontis and fathered the Thracians, maritime groups, and possibly the Etruscans of Italy.
Through his sons Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah, Gomer peopled much of Armenia and the Carpathian Mountains.
Ashkenaz, means "a man as sprinkled: fire as scattered." He settled first in Armenia, migrating thence to Bithynia, the northern islands of Europe and European west coast: Germany, Scandinavia and Denmark.
Riphath, means "slander: fault." He settled in Czechslovakia, Romania, and Turkey.
Togarmah, means "thou wilt break her". His earliest descendants settled in Armenia, Turkey and Germany. In the late eighth century BC, Assyria probably uprooted and transported most of those still living in Armenia.
Elishah, means "my God has disregarded." The Greek translation is "Hellas." His descendants settled in Greece.
Tarshish, means "she will cause poverty: she will shatter". He settled Spain.
Kittim, means "beaters-down" or "bruisers." Kittim settled Cyprus, other Mediterranean islands, and Macedonia.
Dodanium, means "leaders". He settled Rhodes and the Dardanelles and was subsequently deified and worshipped as Jupiter Dodonaeus.
Ham, literally means "warm" or "passionate" as revealed by his sin with his father's wife. Although Ham first established himself in Sumer, the land of Ham is Africa; more particularly Egypt (Psalms 78:51; 105:23; 106:22). His descendants, however, were first to leave the territory assigned them, emigrating from Asia to the islands and the Americas.
The Shemites were still in the area at the time of Abram. It is the Canaanites who were "spread abroad" or driven out and scattered (Genesis 10:18) in the days of Peleg (Genesis 10:25).
Looking at history, whichever region we consider, Africa, Europe, Australia, or America, the major migrations have always been from Asia (Genesis 10:18). In every area of the world where Japhethites have subsequently settled, they have always been preceded by Hamites. This pattern applies in every continent, as the earliest fossil remains of man have been Mongoloid or Negroid in character and head shape, whereas those that came last belong to the family of Japheth (Caucasoid). If we study ancient history and technological achievements, which were in many ways the equal of, or superior to much of what we have today, they were founded and carried to that high technological proficiency by Hamitic people, showing an amazing adaptability to the world in which they lived. Their achievements were exploited by the Japhetic people, who became great scientific discoverers.
The evidence appears to point consistently that not only Africa with its black races, but the Far East, the Americas, and other Island nations with their coloured races were all descendants of Ham. Hamitic people were the first to reach the far and distant lands of the world as prophesied by Genesis 10:18, preparing the way for the future. Their inventions and discoveries made a significant impact on the world, and provided inspiration for the Japhethites. Their Babylonish religion however, was most certainly not the original religion of earth's early peoples.
Ham's "religion gained prominence as proven by the fact that Scripture identifies it with Satan completely in Isaiah Chapter 14 and in Revelation Chapters 17-18. And by history we can prove that it invaded the whole world and is the basis for every system of idolatry, and the theme of mythology, though the names of the gods differ in various sections of the land according to the language of the people."
The polytheistic religion of the enemy began with the trinitarian doctrine. It was way back there in antiquity that the "one God in three persons" idea came into existence . . . our modern theologians have not spotted this . . . Is it not strange that while the descendants of Ham went on their way in Satanic worship which involved a basic concept of three gods that there is not one trace of the descendants of Shem believing such a thing or having any ceremonial worship that involved even a type of it?"
"And Cush begat Nimrod." "Not only is this so but we find that Ham begat Cush. Now, in the Egyptian culture Bel was called Hermes, and Hermes means, "THE SON OF HAM." According to history Hermes was the great prophet of idolatry. He was the interpreter of the gods. Another name by which he was called was Mercury" (Acts 14:11-12).
"Cush, then, was the father of the polytheistic system and when men were deified by men, he of course, became the father of the gods. Cush introduced ancestor worship and also the trinity. Now Cush was called Bel. And Bel in Roman mythology was Janus. He is pictured as having two faces and he carried a club by which he confounded and "scattered" the people. Ovid writes that Janus said concerning himself, "the ancients called me Chaos". Thus we find that the Cush of the Bible, the original rebel against monotheism was called Bel, Belus, Hermes, Janus, etc. amongst the ancient peoples. He purported to bring revelations and interpretations from the gods to the people. In so doing he caused the wrath of God to scatter the people, bringing division and confusion (William Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 182:1; 184:1; 186:2; 187:2).
Cush, means "black," a metaphor for "wickedness" or "terror." Cush settled first in Shinar, thence south Arabia, southern Egypt, the Sudan and northern Ethiopia.
Mizraim, means "double straitness" and is a plural word, perhaps prophetic of the division of upper and lower Egypt where he settled in North Africa.
Phut, means "a bow." Jeremiah 46:9 calls his people archers. They settled Libya and are the Cyrenaeans and North Africans.
Canaan settled in the land of Canaan. The Hamitic origin of his name means, "belonging to the land of red purple" after the murex sea shells from which this dye was extracted. In Akkadian it meant "red-coloured wool." The Greeks renamed them "Phoenicians" from the Greek "Phoniki" which means dark red. The Romans transcribed the Greek "phoenix" to "poenus", thus calling the emigres to Carthage "punic." In Hebrew it means "merchant," or "trafficer"�"to bend the knee," "humiliate," "bring down low," or "vanquish." Genesis 10:18 said, "the families of the Canaanites (would be scattered, vanquished, or) spread abroad".
Seba, the firstborn son of Cush, whose name literally means "drink up," settled the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula, founding the nation of the Sabaeans, nowadays called Yemen.
Havilah, literally means "anguish," "pain," or "travail." Settled on the eastern coast of northern Arabia near present-day Kuwait.
Sabtah, literally means "he compassed the mark." He Settled on the east coast of southern Arabia.
Raamah, literally means "thunder." He settled on the east coast of southern Arabia, possibly in present-day Oman.
Sabtechah, means "striking." He settled in Yemen.
Sheba, means "seven" or "an oath". He settled north of Yemen in a fertile land known as the "Spice Kingdom" whence the queen brought oil of spikenard as a gift to king Solomon.
Dedan, means "low country." He settled in the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf.
Nimrod, literally means "the rebel". He pushed his own designs in open defiance of God and is discredited with instigating the Great Rebellion at Babel and founding the very features of paganism by introducing magic, astrology and human sacrifice.
"Cush introduced a three god worship of father, son and spirit. Three gods who were all equal. But he knew about the seed of the woman coming, so there would have to be a woman and her seed come into the picture. This was brought to pass when Nimrod died. His wife, Semiramis deified him, and thus made herself the mother of the son and also the mother of the gods. (Just exactly as the Roman church has deified Mary. They claim she was without sin and was the Mother of God.) She (Semiramis) called Nimrod "Zeroashta" which means, "the woman's promised seed" (William Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 187:3). Nimrod is also known as "the husband of the mother," (reminiscent of Ham's relationship with Noah's wife which spawned Canaan).
Semiramis is said to have ruled for 42 years gloriously after Nimrod's death, conquering Persia, Libya and Ethiopia, being unsuccessful in India alone (Lenurmant, La Legende de Semiramis, 1873; Historical Review, January 1888, The Legend of Semiramis, A. H. Sayce).
Ludim, literally means "firebrand" or "travailing." They settled Libya on the northern coast of Africa.
Anamim, means "affliction of the waters." They settled in the Nile Delta but as little is known of this tribe they may have been devastated by the Ethiopic War.
Lehabim, means "flames" or "a glittering blade." They settled in Libya but perhaps this tribe was destroyed in the Ethiopic War.
Naphtuhim, means "openings." This people are known to have settled in the Nile Delta and the western parts of Egypt. Early records refer to them as "they of the delta" or "marshland." Josephus says they were destroyed in the Ethiopic War.
Pathrusim, means "a morsel moistening." They settled Pathros in upper Egypt.
Casluhim, means "forgiven ones." They are the Colchihans of the Egyptian town Chemnis, Panoplis, in northern Egypt.
Philistim, means "immigrants." These are the Philistines who migrated to and occupied the lower part of the Mediterranean coast belonging to Shem.
Caphtorim, means "knob" or "bud." They also migrated to the lower part of the Mediterranean coast belonging to Shem and are the Philistines.
Canaan receives his first Biblical definition in the Table of Nations as the father of Sidon and Heth, of the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgasites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. The five names following Sidon are familiar as the inhabitants of the "Promised Land" (Exodus 13:5). They occupied the area enclosed by the border of Genesis 10:19, running south from Sidon towards Gaza, through Gerar and across to the cities of the Dead Sea plain. No eastern limit is drawn. At the time of the conquest, the land as a whole was named Canaan (Numbers 35:10), a usage understandable in light of Canaan's place at the head of the peoples of Genesis 10:15-19.
The Canaanites practiced the most sordid and evil religions based on ritual murder and sexual perversion. Their idol, Baal, was the son of El, the head of a pantheon of decadent deities. God commanded Israel to completely destroy these corrupt civilizations including their animals.
The vast aggregate of peoples generally classified as Mongoloid, who settled the Far East are descendants of the Canaanites, including the people of the South Sea Islands, Eskimos and most of the native Indian tribes of North and South America. These Asian people have a "Mongoloid Spot," a blue or blue-gray spot on their tailbones at birth.
Sidon, means "to hunt." Sidon is in Palestine on the Mediterranean coast north of Tyre.
Heth, literally means "terror." He was progenitor of the Hittite nation, whose name was known to the Assyrians as the Khatti. The Hittites were apparently the first nation to smelt iron. The Armarna tablets contain letters that were sent from the Hittite emperor Subbiluliuma to the Pharoah Amenhotep IV. Rameses II also tells us how he engaged the Hittites in what was the earliest recorded battle involving massed chariots. This was the famous battle of Kadesh, and it appears that the Hittites got the better of the Egyptian forces. Heth's name was perpetuated in the Hittite capital Hattushash; modern Boghazkoy in Turkey. Rome's ancient rival, Carthage, was colonized through Canaan's sons Sidon and Heth.
Jebusite, literally means "trodden down by armies" (Daniel 9:27; Luke 21:24). Jebus was the original name for Jerusalem around which the Jebusites settled.
Amorite, means "a boaster". The Amorites dwelt east of Canaan by the Dead Sea and the Jordan (Joshua 24:11). They were to conquer Babylonia, subsequently producing one of the most famous kings in the ancient world, Hammui, whose own name contains the designation Amarru. God told Abraham, "Israel will return to Canaan when the iniquity of the Amorites is come to the full" (Exodus 15:16).
Girgasite, means "dwelling on clayey soil." They lived east of the river Jordan and the Sea of Galilee.
Hivite, means "villager." They dwelt at the base of Mount Hermon in the Valleys of Lebanon, and at Shechem (Genesis 34:2; Joshua 9:7-17; 11:19).
Arkite, means "my annoyance." They dwelt near Mount Lebanon.
Sinite, means "thorn," "clay" or "mire." They dwelt on the coast, west of Mount Lebanon.
Heth (Hittites) and Sin (Sinites) are the progenitors of Chinese and Mongoloid stock. "Hittite" in Cuneiform appears as Khittae, representing a once powerful nation from the Far East, preserved through the centuries in the more familiar Chinese term, Cathay. The Cathay were Mongoloids and considered a part of early Chinese stock. Links between the known Hittites and Cathay include, for example, their modes of dress, their shoes with turned-up toes, and the custom of wearing their hair in a pigtail. Representations show them to have possessed high cheekbones, and craniologists have observed that they had the common characteristics of Mongoloids.
"Sin," a brother of Heth, has many occurrences in variant forms in the Far East. The place most closely associated by the Chinese themselves with the origin of their civilization is the capital of Shensi, namely, Siang-fu or "Father Sin," on the Wei, a tributary of the Yellow River, near important gold and jade mines. The Chinese have a tradition that their first king, Fu-hi, made his appearance on the Mountains of Chin after the world had been covered with water. Their character for ship signifies eight souls in a boat. Sin himself was the third generation from Noah, a circumstance which would provide about the right interval of time. (J. Pye Smith and J. Inglis, Notes on the Book of Genesis, Gall & Inglis, London, 1977, p. 89).
Moreover, those who came from the Far East to trade with the Scythians were called Sinae (Sin). Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, referred to China as the land of Sinim or Sin. Reference to the Sinim in Isaiah 49:12 notes they came "from afar," specifically not from the north and not from the west (see Revelation 16:12). Arabs called China Sin, Chin, Mahachin, or Machin. The Sin were spoken of as a people in the remotest parts of Asia. Their most important town was Thin, a great trading emporium in western China. This city is now known as Thsin or simply Tin, and it lies in the province of Shensi. The Sin became independent in Western China, their princes reigning there for some 650 years before they finally gained dominion over the whole land. In the third century BC, the dynasty of Tsin became supreme. In 217BC, Prince Cheng, founder of the Ch'in Dynasty (from which the name "China" is taken) unified China and took the title of Shih Hwang-ti (First Emperor). Shih Hwang-ti built much of the Great Wall of China, and a network of roads and canals that converged on his capitol, near modern Sian, in Shensi province.
The word Tsin itself came to have the meaning of purebred. Hence non-Chinese are regarded as barbarians. This word was assumed as a title by the Manchu Emperors and is believed to have been changed by the Malays into the form Tchina and brought into Europe by the Portuguese as China. Chinese and surrounding languages form part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Years ago, newspapers regularly carried headlines with reference to the conflict between the Chinese and Japanese in which the ancient name reappeared in its original form, for they commonly spoke of the Sino-Japanese war.
With respect to the Cathay people of historical reference, it would make sense to suppose that the remnants of the Hittites, after the destruction of their empire, travelled towards the east and settled among the Sinites who were relatives, contributing to their civilization, and thus becoming the ancestors of many Asian people groups including the Khazar or Ashkenazim "Jews." Still others migrated throughout the region and beyond, making up the present-day Mongoloid races in Asia and the Americas. What the Chinese call "Hsiung-nu" are the Turko-Mogul nomad tribes we know as "Huns".
China is unique among the great civilizations in that at no time in its long history has it produced a strong, priestly group. Chinese attitudes towards religion are a mixture of superstition and practicality. They have never persecuted on religious grounds and there are few Chinese martyrs.
In spite of their Hamitic descent, the Canaanites spoke a Semitic language . . . "so close as would deceive the very elect if it were possible" (Matthew 24:24). At last we can understand the motives behind "multiculturalism" as we realize that the tribe who proposed and forced this curse of God upon Adam's race today are kin to the tribes being imposed upon us, fulfilling the prophecy of our Lord Jesus: that "as it was in the days of Noah"�miscegenation with these immoral people would repeat (Genesis 1:11; 6:1-4; Matthew 24:37-38).
Arvadite, means "breakaway" or "restless wanderer." Arvad settled on the Phoenician Island of Arad off the coast of Lebanon near Tripoli.
Zemarites, means "double woollens." They settled the coast adjacent to the Arvadites
Hamathites, means "fortress" or "enclosure of wrath." They dwelt in Hamath, the chief city of upper Syria on the Orontes river.
Shem, literally means "renown." His descendants settled in Arabia. Shem is so familiar to us that we have no need to discuss him in this study, the purpose of which is to identify the peoples of Japheth, Ham and Canaan.
Elam, means "eternity." He settled a province east of Babylon and northeast of the lower Tigris and just north of Persia. He is the father of the Kurds and Iranians.
Asshur is the same name as Asher and means "happy" or "successful." He is ancestor to the Assyrians or Northern Iraqis.
Aprhaxad, means "he cursed the breast bottle." He was the ancestor of the Chaldeans of Southern Iraq, Hebrews, Arabians, Amorites, and the Moabites/Jordanians.
Lud, means "firebrand" or "travailing." He is the ancestor of the Lydians who settled in Asia Minor and spoke an Indo-European language.
Aram, means "highland." He became the Aramaeans or Syrians and Lebanese.
Uz, means "counsel." Northern Arabia, the land of Job (Job 1:1) between Babylonia and Edom, seems his most likely area of settlement.
Eber, means "emigrants" or "to vanish to the region beyond." Eber is the father of the Hebrews.
Peleg, comes from the root word "palag," which means (literally or figuratively) "division" or to split (Genesis 10:25). This notice refers not to the general dispersion subsequent to the Deluge, but to the division of the Semitic family of Eber himself between the Abrahamic line in Peleg, who remained in Mesopotamia (there is a town named Phaliga at the junction of the Chaboras with the Euphrates), and the Arabic line in Joktan who migrated into Southern Arabia.
Joktan, means "smallness" or "insignificance." He is the progenitor of no less than thirteen southern Arabian tribes. Only the purest Arabs (it is still maintained), are those Semitic Arabs descended from Joktan; whilst the Hamitic Arabs are referred to somewhat disdainfully as Musta 'rabs, that is, pretended Arabs.
Almodad, means "not measured." His area of settlement cannot be precisely determined, perhaps Yemen.
Sheleph, means "a drawing out." He became a Yemeni tribe of Arabs.
Hazarmaveth, means "settlement of death." He settled in south-east Arabia.
Jerah, means "new moon." He dwelt on the south-east Arabian coast.
Hadoram, means "noble honour." He dwelt in southern Arabia.
Uzal, means "I shall be flooded." He dwelt in Yemen.
Diklah, means "palm grove." Transposed into the Greek "Tigris," it is supposed that they settled in the north-eastern extremity of the Arabian peninsula.
Obal, means "stripped bare." He became a Yemeni tribe.
Abimael, means "my father is God." He became a Yemeni tribe.
Sheba, means "seven" or "an oath." He too became a Yemeni tribe.
Ophir, means "reducing to ashes." He dwelt on the coast of south-west Arabia.
Havilah, means "circle" or "writhe (in anguish)." He occupied the eastern shore of the gulf of Aquaba.
Jobab, means "He will cause crying." He settled close by present-day Mecca. Next
Bibliography
J. Pye Smith & J. Inglis, Notes on the Book of Genesis, Gall & Inglis, London, 1977, p.89; Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record, p.247-249; William M. Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages; The Revelation of the Seven Seals; and, We Have Seen His Star and Have Come to Worship Him; The Works of Josephus; Arthur C. Custance, Noah's Three Sons, Zondervan, 1975, p.368; Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons; Lenurmant, "La Legende de Semiramis", 1873; Historical Review, January 1888, "The Legend of Semiramis" A. H. Sayce; Anglo-Saxon Chronicles; Bill Cooper, Table of Nations bb000319.htm
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