a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Shem
שֵׁ֖םshem
H8035
Shem · proper noun, a man's name
Elam
עֵילָ֣ם'ei.Lam
H5867
Elam · proper noun, a man's name
Asshur
וְאַשּׁ֑וּרve.'a.Shur
H804
Ashshur · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
Arphaxad
וְאַרְפַּכְשַׁ֖דve.'ar.pakh.Shad
H775
Arpakshad · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
Lud
וְל֥וּדve.Lud
H3865
Lud · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
Aram
וַֽאֲרָֽםVa.'a.Ram
H758
Aram or Syria · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 66:19 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,…
Genesis 9:26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Genesis 14:1-9 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;
Numbers 23:7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curs…
2 Kings 15:19 And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to con…
1 Chronicles 1:17-27 The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.
Job 1:17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried…
Isaiah 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which sh…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 10:21–end
Two things especially are observable in this account of the posterity of Shem: -
I. The description of Shem, Gen 10:21. We have not only his name, Shem, which signifies a name, but two titles to distinguish him by: -
1. He was the father of all the children of Eber. Eber was his great grandson; but why should he be called the father of all his children, rather than of all Arphaxad's, or Salah's, etc.? Probably because Abraham and his seed, God's covenant-people, not only descended from Heber, but from him were called Hebrews; Gen 14:13, Abram the Hebrew. Paul looked upon it as his privilege that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, Phi 3:5. Eber himself, we may suppose, was a man eminent for re…
Unto Shem--The historian introduces him with marked distinction as "the father of Eber," the ancestor of the Hebrews.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 10:22
Elam - From whom came the Elamites, near to the Medes, and whose chief city was Elymais.
Asshur - Who gave his name to a vast province (afterwards a mighty empire) called Assyria.
Arphaxad - From whom Arrapachitis in Assyria was named, according to some; or Artaxata in Armenia, on the frontiers of Media, according to others.
Lud - The founder of the Lydians. In Asia Minor; or of the Ludim, who dwelt at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, according to Arias Montanus.
Aram - The father of the Arameans, afterwards called Syrians.
John Gill on Genesis 10:22
The children of Shem,.... Whose names are
Elam and Ashur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram; and who, as Josephus (f) says, inhabited Asia, from Euphrates to the Indian ocean: his first born, Elam, was the father of the Elymaeans, from whom sprung the Persians, as the same writer observes, and his posterity are called Elamites, Acts 2:10 their country Elam, and is sometimes mentioned with Media, when the Persians and Medes are intended, Isaiah 21:2 see also Isaiah 22:6, &c. in Daniel's time, Shushan, in the province of Elam, was the seat of the kings of Persia: the country of Elymais, so called from this man, is said by Pliny (g) to be divided from Susiane by the river Eulaeus, and to join wi…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 22.) The sons of Shem, Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. These hold the part of Asia from the Euphrates River to the Indian Ocean. Now Elam, from whom the Elamite princes of Persia descend. Concerning Asshur, it has already been said that he founded the city of Nineveh. Arphaxad, from whom the Chaldeans descend. Lud, from whom the Lydians descend. Aram, from whom the Syrians descend, with Damascus as their metropolis.
The sons of Shem: Elam, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. "These occupied part of Asia from the Euphrates river to the Indian Ocean. Now, Elam is from whom the Elamites, the chiefs of Persia, come. Of Assur, it has already been said before, that he founded the city of Nineveh. Arphaxad, from whom the Chaldeans come. Lud, from whom Lydia. Aram, from whom the Syrians, whose metropolis is Damascus. For in Hebrew, Syria is called Aram.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Arabia — Arid, an extensive region in the south-west of Asia. It is bounded on the west by the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the east by the Persian Gulf and the…
Aram — The son of Shem (Gen. 10:22); according to Gen. 22:21, a grandson of Nahor. In Matt. 1:3, 4, and Luke 3:33, this word is the Greek form of Ram, the father of Amminadab (1 Chr. 2:10). The word means…
Architecture — The book of (Genesis 4:17,20,22) appears to divide mankind into two great characteristic sections, viz., the “dwellers in tents” and the “dwellers in cities.” To the race of Shem is attributed…
Arphaxad — Son of Shem, born the year after the Deluge. He died at the age of 438 years (Gen. 11:10-13; 1 Chr. 1:17, 18; Luke 3:36). He dwelt in Mesopotamia, and became, according to the Jewish historian…
Asshur — Second son of Shem (Gen. 10:22; 1 Chr. 1:17). He went from the land of Shinar and built Nineveh, etc. (Gen. 10:11, 12). He probably gave his name to Assyria, which is the usual translation of the…
Assyria — The name derived from the city Asshur on the Tigris, the original capital of the country, was originally a colony from Babylonia, and was ruled by viceroys from that kingdom. It was a mountainous…
Assyria, Asshur — was a great and powerful country lying on the Tigris, (Genesis 2:14) the capital of which was Nineveh. (Genesis 10:11) etc. It derived its name apparently from Asshur, the son of Shem, (Genesis…
Canaanites — The descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. Migrating from their original home, they seem to have reached the Persian Gulf, and to have there sojourned for some time. They thence “spread to the west,…
Dodanim — Leaders, a race descended from Javan (Gen. 10:4). They are known in profane history as the Dardani, originally inhabiting Illyricum. They were a semi-Pelasgic race, and in the ethnographical table…
Elam — Highland, the son of Shem (Gen. 10:22), and the name of the country inhabited by his descendants (14:1, 9; Isa. 11:11; 21:2, etc.) lying to the east of Babylonia, and extending to the shore of the…
Unto Shem also , the father of all the children of Eber. Moses, being about to speak of the sons of Shem, makes a brief introduction, which he had not done in reference to the others. Nor was it without reason; for since this was the race chosen by God, he wished to sever it from other nations by some special mark. This also is the reason why he expressly styles him the father of the sons of Eber,' and the elder brother of Japheth. [320] For the benediction of Shem does not descend to all his grandchildren indiscriminately, but remains in one family. And although the grandchildren themselves of Eber declined from the true worship of God, so that the Lord might justly have disinherited them;…
Descendants of Shem. - Gen 10:21. For the construction, vid., Gen 4:26. Shem is called the father of all the sons of Eber, because two tribes sprang from Eber through Peleg and Joktan, viz., the Abrahamides, and also the Arabian tribe of the Joktanides (Gen 4:26.). - On the expression, "the brother of Japhet הגּדול," see Gen 9:24. The names of the five sons of Shem occur elsewhere as the names of the tribes and countries; at the same time, as there is no proof that in any single instance the name was transferred from the country to its earliest inhabitants, no well-grounded objection can be offered to the assumption, which the analogy of the other descendants of Shem renders probable, that t…
The descendants of Elam lived in the region of modern southwestern Iran (see 14:1, 9; Ezra 4:9; Isa 11:11). • The descendants of Asshur were later Assyrians who lived under Nimrod’s jurisdiction (see Gen 10:11). Sumerians descended from Ham were ousted by Mesopotamian Semites. • Arphaxad possibly settled northeast of Nineveh; his descendants are further described in 11:12-26. • Lud was near the Tigris River; its people were related to the Lydians (see 10:13). • Aram was a kingdom of tribes that lived in the Mesopotamian plains.
Rashi on Genesis 10:21
אבי כל בני עבר THE FATHER OF ALL THE CHILDREN OF EBER — (עבר means the “side” or “ other side” of a river) — The father of all the children of עבר הנהר, the other side of the River (Euphrates), was Shem.
אחי יפת הגדול [SHEM …] THE BROTHER OF JAPHETH, THE ELDER — (The Hebrew is ambiguous: “the elder” may refer either to Shem or to Japheth). One cannot from here determine whether Japheth was the elder or Shem. Since, however, it states (10:10) “Shem was a hundred years old … two years after the flood” you must admit that Japheth was the elder. Because Noah was 500 years old when he first had children (5:32), and the Flood happened in the six hundredth year of his life (7:11), consequently the…
Elamites — This word is found only in (Ezra 4:9) The Elamites were the original inhabitants of the country called Elam; they were descendants of Shem, and perhaps drew their name from an actual man Elam.…
Ham — Warm, hot, and hence the south; also an Egyptian word meaning “black”, the youngest son of Noah (Gen. 5:32; comp. 9:22, 24). The curse pronounced by Noah against Ham, properly against Canaan his…
Japheth — Wide spreading: “God shall enlarge Japheth” (Heb. Yaphat Elohim le-Yephet, Gen. 9:27. Some, however, derive the name from yaphah, “to be beautiful;” hence white), one of the sons of Noah, mentioned…
Lud — (1.) The fourth son of Shem (Gen. 10:22; 1 Chr. 1:17), ancestor of the Lydians probably. (2.) One of the Hamitic tribes descended from Mizraim (Gen. 10:13), a people of Africa (Ezek. 27:10; 30:5), on…
Lydia — (1.) Ezek. 30:5 (Heb. Lud), a province in the west of Asia Minor, which derived its name from the fourth son of Shem (Gen. 10:22). It was bounded on the east by the greater Phrygia, and on the west…
Aram · 3. — 3.
Arphaxad · General references — General references
Asshur · General references — General references
Eber · 1. The probable foun — 1. The probable foun
Elamites · Elam — Elam
Lud · A — A
Medo-Persian Kingdom · Peopled by descendants of Eliam — Peopled by descendants of Eliam
Sciences · Geography — Geography
Shem · General references — General references
Syria · General references — General references
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
