3. Havilah: the Chaulotæ in Southern Arabia. 4. Sabtha: Sabota in Southern Arabia. 5. Ragma: Rhegma in the south-east of Arabia, or the Persian Gulf. Descendants or colonies were, A. Sheba: probably a tribe in South Arabia. B. Dedan: Dedan an island in the Persian Gulf. 6. Sabtecha: the inhabitants of the cast coasts of Ethiopia. II. MIZRAIM: the Egyptians. Their descendants were, 5. Pathrusim: the inhabit-I. ELAM: ants of the Egyptian can 3. SHEMITES. the Persians, particularly of the province of Elymais. ton of Pathures (Pathros). II. ASSHUR: the Assyrians, founders 2 The sons of Japheth; Go- | shah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and mer, and Magog, and Madai, and Dodanim. Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. 3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. 5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations. 6 ¶a And the sons of Ham; 4 And the sons of Javan; Eli-Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, b 1 Chron. 1. 5, &c. and Canaan. c Ps. 72. 10. Jer. 2. 10. & 25. 22. Zeph. 2. 11. d 1 Chron. 1. 8, &c. and Mespotamia. Their operations, the Messiah himself is indescendants; : 1. Uz the inhabitants of a 3. Gether: unknown. troduced by Isaiah as addressing himself to its inhabitants;-'Listen, Oh isles, unto me; and hearken ye people from afar! Jehovah hath called me from the womb; and hath said unto me, It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be my salvation to the ends of the earth.' In this call to the Gentiles we of this Western Continent may thankfully ac5. The isles of the Gentiles. In or knowledge ourselves included, as ours der to understand this expression it is is a European ancestry.-T Divided necessary to be borne in mind, that the in their lands. Heb. 177 dispersed, Heb. word isles was used to de- spread abroad; from which it is plain note not only such countries as are sur-that the word 'isles' must be underrounded on all sides by the sea, but stood metonymically for 'islanders,' those also which were so situated in re- or inhabitants of the isles, as otherwise lation to the Jews that people could the phrase is scarcely intelligible.—¶ not or did not go to them or come from Every one after his tongue. them except by water. Thus it meant elearly evincing that this dispersion all countries, generally, beyond sea; took place after the confusion of tongues, and the inhabitants of such countries though related before it. See above. were to the Jews 'islanders' though occupying continental regions. The term applies, therefore, for the most part to the countries west of Palestine, the us-dual form. Mizraim is evidently the ual communication with which was by the Mediterranean. In a general sense the term may be understood to apply to Europe, as far as known, and to Asia Minor. Accordingly the Scripture foreseeing that Europe would from the first embrace the Gospel, and for many ages be the principal seat of its Thus 6. Mizraim. No proper name of an individual in Hebrew, we believe, ever terminates in im, which is the plural or name of a family or tribe taking name from the second son of Ham, who was probably called Mizr, and who is generally allowed to have settled with his family in Egypt. The Egyptians are always called Mizraim (¬¬n Mitzraim) in the Bible, and their country to this day throughout the East is gen earth. 7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, | began to be a mighty one in the and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. 8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he erally known as the 'land of Mitzr;' an appellation which has been preserved especially by the Arabs, in regard to whom, as preservers of primitive names, Prideaux makes the following important remark; 'These people being the oldest in the world, and who had never been by any conquest dispossessed or driven out of their country, but have always remained there in a continued descent from the first planters until this day; and being also as little given to alterations in their manners and usages as in their country; have still retained the names of places which were first attached to them; and on these aboriginal people acquiring the empire of the East, they restored the original names to many cities, after they had been lost for ages under the arbitrary changes of successive conquerors.' This accounts for the just importance which is given to existing Arabic names in attempting to fix the sites of ancient places. 8. And Cush begat Nimrod. Heb. e 9 He was a mighty nunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 6 e Jer. 16. 16. Mic. 7. 2. f ch. 6. 11. 9. A mighty hunter. Heb. Ty a giant, or mighty one, in hunting. Gr. a hunting giant.' Arab. 'a terrible tyrant.' Syr. 'a warlike giant.' The original term for 'hunting' occurs elsewhere, not so much in reference to the pursuit of game in the forest, as to a violent invasion of the persons and rights of men. 'Thou huntest my soul (i. e. my life) Thus 1 Sam. 24. 12, to take it.' Lam. 3. 15, 'Mine enemies chased (Heb. hunted) me sore.' Jer. 16. 16, 'I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them (i. e. the people) from every mountain.' This Nimrod's true character. Though probusage undoubtedly affords us a clew to ably, like most of the heroes of remote classical antiquity, addicted to the hunting of wild beasts, yet his bold, aspiring, arrogant spirit rested not content with this mode of displaying his prowess. With the band of adventurous and lawless spirits which his predatoproceeded gradually from hunting ry skill had gathered around him, he subjugating his fellow-men. That the beasts to assaulting, oppressing, and inhuman practice of war, at least in the ages after the flood, originated with this daring usurper, is in the highest degree probable. -marad, to re מרד Nimrod from נמרד bel, accordant with which is the Arabic Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began, A mighty hunter-and his prey was man. With this view of the character of Nimrod the ancient testimonies strikingly accord. They uniformily represent him, not only as the first of tyrannical oppressors of their kind, but also as the prominent instigator of a widespread apostacy from the faith and wor 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, g Mic. 5. 6. and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Jo ship of his patriarchal ancestors. sephus says of him that 'he was a bold man, and of great strength of hand; and that he gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them to a constant dependance on his own power.' The Targum of Onkelos on 1 Chron. 1. 10, informs us, that he began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord.' In the Jerusalem Targum it is written; 'He was a hunter of the children of men in their languages, and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem and cleave unto the in stitutes of Nimrod.' It was doubtless the original design of the Most High that the earth should be settled in small colonies, tribes or communities, under the patriarchal form of government, Deut. 32. 8, and Nimrod's sin consisted in boldly contravening the divine counsel in this respect, and in laying the foundation, by means of rapine, violence, and usurpation, of that species of dominion ever since distinguished by the name of kingdoms, empires, monarchies, &c., by which the great mass of mankind have been in fact doomed to ignorance, and held in degrading servitude. It is proper then that every mention of Babylon in the sacred writings, should recall to righteous reproach the memory of Nimrod. Before the Lord. That is, highhandedly, presumptuously; an expression which would scarcely have been used, had nothing more been intended than that he was a courageous hunter of wild beasts. The phrase denotes his daring spirit, that he did what he did in the face of heaven, in defiance of the divine authority. Thus ch. 13. 13, the inhabitants of Sodom are said to be wicked and 'sinners before the Lord,' or in an aggravated degree.Wherefore it is said, &c. Nimrod's fame was so great that his name became proverbial. In after times any one who was a daring plunderer in defiance of heaven was likened to him, just as the wicked kings of Israel were likened to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He became the type, pattern, or father of usurpers and martial marauders, and just one of those kind of men whom history and poetry are prone to celebrate as 'a hero;' their admirers little thinking that things which are highly esteemed among men are held in abomination with God. 10. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, &c. The original word for kingdom ( mamlekah) signifies more properly the act of ruling than the territorial limits over which a governed country extends; and here the idea is, that the beginning, i. e. first theatre, of his active ruling or sovereignty was the cities or towns here mentioned, which in that age could have been but inconsiderable places, to whatever pitch of power or population they may afterwards have attained. Babel (i. e. confusion) is but another name for Babylon which, from its being the primitive seat of despotical empire, and probably of idolatrous worship, has come to be employed in the Scriptures, particularly in the Apocalypse, as a typical or symbolical designation of oppressive governments both civil and ecclesiastical. When we learn, therefore, from the prophetic oracles, that 'Babylon the great' is to be destroyed before the complete establishment of the kingdom of Christ 11 Out of that land went | veh, and the city Rehoboth, and forth Asshur, and builded Nine- Calah, on earth, we are virtually taught that the entire fabric of civil and spiritual oppression is to be demolished, that all vestiges of the organized despotic rule which commenced under Nimrod on the plains of Shinar are to be for ever done away. In the land of Shinar. | There are no data to enable us to fix the limits of this land with precision. By some it is confined to lower Mesopotamia, or Babylonia, including both banks of the Euphrates and Tigris; while others make it extend through the whole region included between these two rivers, into Mesopotamia Proper, beyond Nisibis, and the similarity of sound between Shinar and the city and mountain of Sinjara, is enlisted in the argument. That the former territory, which nearly corresponds to the modern Irak Arabi, is part of what was the land of Shinar, is admitted on all hands; the only question is, now far it extended northward in Mesopotamia Proper; and this question we must be content for the present to leave unresolved. or nominative to the verb. As to the objection urged by Bochart, that there would be an impropriety in introducing Asshur, the son of Shem, in the midst of the genealogy of Ham; it may be answered, that as Moses is here relating the history of the rebel Nimrod with his Cushite followers, who had invaded the territories already occupied by the descendants of Shem, it was very natural that he should allude to one of the principal results of that invasion, viz. the expulsion of Asshur from his former possessions and his seeking a country for himself elsewhere. Indeed the fortunes of Asshur are so intimately connected with the history of Nimrod, that the impropriety would have been in disjoining them, particularly in this place, where the writer is describing the first great cities after the flood. We infer therefore that it was Asshur, and not Nimrod, who went forth out of the land of Shinar, especially as otherwise we should be required to read the original N 3N or 1 to Assyria. Asshur, being ei11. Out of that land went forth ther unable to resist the progress of Asshur, &c. This is a much disputed Nimrod's arms, or unwilling to tolerate passage. As the Heb. will admit of his idolatrous practices, probably rebeing rendered, 'Out of that land he tired before him, and following the up(Nimrod) went forth to Assyria,' many ward course of the Tigris fixed himself distinguished commentators are dis-on the site of Nineveh, which he built, posed to adopt this as the true sense, and which subsequently became the principally for the reason, that Moses seat of the Assyrian empire. Accordis here speaking, not of the posterity of ing to this, which we regard as the Shem, to which Asshur belonged, but true intrepretation, we recognise in of that of Ham; and it perfectly ac- Nimrod and Asshur the respective cords, they say, with Nimrod's charac-founders of the Babylonian and Assyrter to represent him as hunting from ian monarchies.- -T Builded Nine to be compounded of Nin and Naveh, i. e. habitation of Nin or Ninus; but who he was, or for what reason the city was called after him, the scanty records of those remote ages leave us land to land for the purpose of extend- veh. Heb. 7 Nineveh; supposed ing his dominion. But the more obvi ́ous grammatical construction is that given in the text, the word 'Asshur,' whether meaning the son of Shem or his descendants, being the true subject |