26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. f Ps. 144. 15. Heb. 11. 16. 27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. g Eph. 2. 13, 14. & 3. 6. strictly be called any more the God of should receive from Him tokens of fathe one than of the other. The declar- vour and blessing which were not ation therefore carries a higher import. vouchsafed to other people. This preFrom a view of the whole prophecy diction as the time drew near for its it cannot be doubted, we think, that further fulfilment was renewed in a whatever patriarchal prerogatives would still more clear and definite form to otherwise have accrued to Ham as an el- Abraham, Gen. 17. 7, 8, 'I will estabder brother they are here in fact transfer- lish my covenant between me and thee red to Shem, the younger, and conse- and thy seed after thee in their generaquently that both the spiritual and tem- tions for an everlasting covenant, to be poral blessings which constituted the a God unto thee, and to thy seed after birthright henceforth devolved upon thee. And I will give unto thee and to Shem as the appointed heir. In these thy seed after thee, the land wherein were included mainly the promise of thou art a stranger, all the land of the Messiah as a natural descendant, Canaan for an everlasting possession; and of the land of Canaan as a destined and I will be their God.' We find, inheritance. This land, thus taken moreover, that as the time of the ultiaway from the Canaanites, and they mate accomplishment of the promise reduced to bondage, was to be confer- drew still nearer, the peculiar approred upon the posterity of Shem, and priated title of God, as the God of that too in order that they might come Shem, viz. Jehovah, begins to be more into a close covenant relation to God; frequently employed, a fact which afhe becoming in a preeminent sense fords the genuine clew to the remarkatheir God, and they his people, to ble passages, Ex. 3. 14. and 6. 3. And which this earthly possession was to be it is especially worthy of note, that this entirely subordinate; 'for the Lord's peculiar privilege of Shem, of having portion is his people; Jacob is the lot | God for his God, is more than once alof his inheritance.' In these words, luded to as distinguishing the Israelites therefore, is mainly set forth the spirit- from the Canaanites, when the former ual distinction of Shem, viz. that God went to take possession of their inhershould be his God, to which the prom-itance, and is mentioned as a special ise of the earthly Canaan is subjoined. reason for their obeying all the precepts Viewed in this light, the words, 'Bless- enjoined upon them, and for abstained be the Lord God of Shem,' importing from those abominations of the that Jehovah, the true God, should, as devoted race, which had subjected the God of Shem, be the object of praise, them to the curse. It will be nohomage, and blessing; that his wor- ticed that throughout the eighteenth, ship should be established and perpet- nineteenth, and twentieth chapters uated among them; that his name in of Leviticus, a large proportion of the opposition to that of idols should be ac- statutes and judgments there deliverknowledged as known and reverenced ed are accompanied with the solemn in the line of this father of the chosen affirmation 'I am the Lord your God' race, and that they on the other hand and finally it is said, ch. 20. 26, ‘Ye 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. shall be holy unto me; for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.' The reason of this mode of address is to be sought for in the remarkable prophecy respecting Shem which we are now considering.- -T Canaan shall be his servant. Heb. 3 servant to them. So also the Chal., Syr., and Arab. The Sept. and some others render in the sing. 'his servant,' but it is certain that according to prevailing usage the Heb. pronoun 3 is plural, and we incline to believe with Gesenius that it is always so used except when referring to a singular of the collective kind. By the phrase 'servant to them,' therefore, is to be understood either that Canaan was to be servant to Shem and Japheth successively, or, as we think still more probable, to Shem and Jehovah conjointly; for the intimate covenant relation between Shem and the God of Israel would naturally lead to their being spoken of together. The words of Joshua to the Gibeonites Josh. 9. 23, seem to favour this interpretation, 'Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers .of water for the house of my God.' Comp. v. 27, with my notes on the passage. By being given, or made Nethinims, to the house of God they were at the same time given to the service of Israel, and vice versa. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died. take the word in the sense of increasing both the progeny and the territories of Japheth; and this, as a temporal promise, has been most remarkably fulfilled, for Japheth who had several more sons than either of his brethren, appears to have been the progenitor of more than half the human race. The whole of Europe and a considerable part of Asia were originally peopled, and have ever since been occupied, by Japheth's offspring. But it is supposed by some commentators that the mere promise of a vast posterity and extensive territory did not exhaust the full measure of Japheth's blessing. This opinion they found not only on the ensuing clause, which indeed supports it, but on the original term ( yapht) here employed. This they render persuade instead of enlarge, from the fact of the root n being generally used in the sense of persuade, entice, allure, by fair and kind words. Accordingly the phrase - yapht leyepheth, in which there is a paranomasia or play upon the words, they would translate God 'shall persuade Japheth,' or still more literally, 'God shall persuade the persuasible,' i. e. God shall so work upon and allure Japheth that he shall be brought to the faith and obedience of the Gospel, and thus made to dwell in the tents of Shem. But to this interpretation it is a serious objection, (1.) That the original, wherever it signifies to persuade or allure, is always, with perhaps the single exception of Jer. 20. 7, used in a bad sense implying that kind of persuasion which is connected with deception. (2.) That when thus used it is always followed 27. God shall enlarge Japheth. Rather, according to the Heb. (3 yapht leyepheth) 'shall enlarge or make room for Japheth,' very similar to the expression Gen. 26. 22, 'Now the Lord hath made room for us (by the simple accusative of the object, 73). Thus the Gr., Chal., Syr., Arab. Erp., and Lat. Vulg., all which instead of the dative with a preposition as here. (3.) That none of the more ancient versions give it the sense of persuading, though the Targum of Jonathan, supposing the root of the verb to be to be beautiful, instead of E, translates it, 'Jehovah will beautify the bounds of Japheth.' But grammatical propriety absolutely forbids such a derivation of the word and of course the sense grafted upon it. To all which may be added, that the promise interpreted in this sense could not be said to be peculiar to Japheth, for Ham was also finally as much to be persuaded or allured into the Christian church as Japheth. We are therefore thrown back upon the former as the true rendering; 'God shall enlarge or make room for Japheth,' in bestowing upon him a vast increase of offspring and a proportionately large extent of territory. This was perhaps by way of offset and concession for the spiritual blessings of the birthright which were transferred to Shem.-T And. hc shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Heb. Here again the language is ambiguous, and probably designedly so, that a twofold sense might be included. The letter of the clause leaves it doubtful whether 'God' or 'Japheth' is the intended subject of the affirmation. The Chaldee supports the former; 'He shall make his glory (his Shekinah) to dwell in the tents of Shem.' Interpreted thus the prophecy was fulfilled by the visible presence of God in the tabernacle and temple of the Jews, to which the Psalmist so strikingly alludes, Ps. 33. 12, 'In Judah God is known: his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion.' It was still more signally accomplished when the Word was made flesh and dwelt (soknywoεv tabernacled) among the Jews the children of Abraham and of Shem. On the other hand, if the 'he' be referred to Japheth the declaration is equally true. And so it will appear, whether we consider the imagery here em .shall tabernacle יסכן ployed or the history which confirms the event. As to the imagery, its leading point is in the words and translated dwell and tents. Now we know that the Jewish tabernacle, in which dwelt the Shekinah, was the most prominent object of their economy, and the principal means of preserving the true religion in the family of Shem. But under what description is it likely that the tabernacle, which was not erected till the days of Moses, should be mentioned in prophecy so early as the days of Moses? Most obviously under that of a tent, as a tent and a tabernacle are in effect one and the same thing, and the word in the Hebrew is the same. This holy tent or tabernacle was Shem's tabernacle, because it was erected among the sons of Shem, and because none might bear a part in the whole service of it who did not incorporate with the chosen family. This tabernacle and the service performed in it were emblems of the Christian church and the Christian service. In the mention of the tents of Shem therefore the Holy Spirit had allusion to the Jewish tabernacle as an emblem of the Christian church. Accordingly the dwelling of Japheth in these tents of Shem took place when the idolatrous nations of Japheth's line were converted to the faith of Christ, and became worshippers of the God of Shem in Shem's tabernacles. It appears therefore that the ultimate uniting of all nations in the faith of Christ was a purpose of heaven announced at as early a period as that of selecting a peculiar people to be for a season the sole depositaries of the true religion. It is remarkable too that the images of this prediction bear a near affinity to those under which later prophets have described the same event. Isaiah especially announces the calling of the Gentiles in the following words addressed to the Jewish church as the emblem of the Christian; Isaiah, 54. CHAPTER X. Ham, and Japheth: and unto NOW these are the generations them were sons born after the flood. of the sons of Noah; Shem, a ch. 9. 1, 7, 19. od of the world, that degree of definite 2, 'Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations.' Here the image presented to the prophet is that of an enlargement of the sacred tent, to contain new crowds of worshippers; and the stakes are to be driven deep and firm, and the cords to be lengthened and drawn tight, that the sides of the tent may be able to sustain the pressure of the multitudes within it. Noah's allusion is also to the tabernacle and the image presented is the admission of foreign worshippers. It is therefore one and the same scene which the patriarch and the prophet have before them; and except in the distinct mention of the particular circumstance that the new worshippers should be chiefly of Japheth's stock, Noah's prophecy differs not from Isaiah's, otherwise than as an outline differs from a more finished drawing of the same objects. And then if we turn to history, the fact is notorious that the gospel from the beginning to the present time has made the greatest progress in Europe, and in those parts of Asia which were first peopled by the posterity of Japheth. So that in every sense the oracular promise has been most signal-quaintance shall be formed with the Asily fulfilled. CHAPTER X. The object of the present chapter is to furnish a brief but authentic record of the origin of the principal nations of the earth. In the form of a genealogical table or roll of the descendants of Noah it contains a view of the pedigree of nations in the then known world. As such it is a record of inestimable value, being the most ancient ethnographic document which we possess. It does not indeed afford to us, at this late peri atic regions by some one who shall be master of the various dialects spoken from the Indus to the Nile and from the Arabic gulf to the Caspian Sea.In considering this record, it is important to remark, (1.) That the names of individuals are for the most part names of the nations descended from them, just as Judah and Israel, though names of single persons are also names of whole nations. This is evident not only from the fact that many of them are in the plural number, as all those ending in im in v. 13, 14; but also from the termination of many of them, 1. JAPHETITES. especially those ending in ite, v. 16—18, I. GOMER: the Cimmerians on the being descriptive of tribes and not of individuals. (2.) Although this chapter is placed before the eleventh, yet in the order of time it properly belongs after it; for the confusion of tongues at Babel, which was the principal occasion of the dispersion of mankind, must of course have preceded that dispersion. This is still farther evident from the expression 'after their tongues,' north coast of the Black Sea. Their descendants were, 1. Ashkenaz: an unknown people, perhaps between Armenia and the Black Sea. 2. Riphath: the inhabitants of the Riphæan Mountains. 3. Togarmah: Armenia. implying a diversity of languages, II. MAGOG: the inhabitants of the which we know did not exist prior to the confusion of tongues mentioned in Caucasus and adjacent the Ionians or Greeks. Their descendants were, 1. Elishah: the Hellenes, strictly so called. the eleventh chapter. But such trans-III. MADAI: 2. Tarshish: Tartessus in the 4. Dodanim: the Dodonæi, in the globe particularly Africa; and the Shemites, the countries of Central VI. Asia, particularly those around the Euphrates. In accordance with this, a tradition has long and extensively pre vites), in the Moschian mountains, between Iberia, Armenia, and Colchis. vailed throughout the East, particular- VII. TIRAS: the Thracians, or per ly among the Arabs and Persians, that Noah divided the earth among his three sons. But as this tradition rests upon no express authority of Scripture, the presumption, we think, is that it arose from some confused recollection or in haps the dwellers on the rivers Tiras, t'18 Dniester. 2. HAMITES, terpretation of Noah's prophecy men- I. CUSH: the Ethiopians and South tioned and explained at the close of the preceding chapter. 1. These are the generations, &c. For the sake of conciseness and perspicuity, the genealogical table here given may be thrown into the following tabular form along with the most probable explanations which the labours of the learned have enabled us to offer. ern Arabians. Their descendants were, 1. Nimrod: the first king of Sinear (Shinar), i. e. Babylon and Mesopotamia, where he founded Babel, Erech, Calneh, and Accad. 2. Seba: Meröe. |