Bible Commentaries

Compare the margin references and notes.

Dodanim - See the Genesis 10:4 note.

The Zemarite - See Genesis 10:18 note. The inscriptions of the Assyrian monarch, Sargon, (720 B.C.) mention Zimira, which is joined with Arpad (Arvad); and there can be little doubt that it is the city indicated by the term “Zemarite.”

The sons of Shem - i. e., descendants. Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech (or Mash), are stated to have been “sons of Aram” Genesis 10:23. Meshech is the reading of all the MSS., and is supported by the Septuagint here and in Genesis 10:23. It seems preferable to “Mash,” which admits of no very probable explanation. Just as Hamites and Semites were intermingled in Arabia (Genesis 10:7, note; Genesis 10:29, note), so Semites and Japhethites may have been intermingled in Cappadocia - the country of the Meshech or Moschi (Genesis 10:2 note); and this Aramaean ad-mixture may have been the origin of the notion, so prevalent among the Greeks, that the Cappadocians were Syrians.

Isaac and Ishmael - Isaac, though younger than Ishmael, is placed first, as the legitimate heir, since Sarah alone was Abraham‘s true wife (compare the 1 Chronicles 1:36 note).

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These are their generations - As Shem was reserved until after Japheth and Ham 1 Chronicles 1:5-16, because in him the genealogy was to be continued (Genesis 10:2 note), so Isaac is now reserved until the other lines of descent from Abraham have been completed. The same principle gives the descendants of Esau a prior place to those of Jacob 1 Chronicles 2:1.

Hadad here and in 1 Chronicles 1:50 is the well-known Syrian name, of which Hadar (margin) is an accidental corruption, consequent on the close resemblance between “d” (daleth) and “r” (resh) in Hebrew, the final letters of the two names.

Keturah, Abraham‘s concubine - This passage, and Genesis 25:6, sufficiently prove that the position of Keturah was not that of the full wife, but of the “secondary” or “concubine wife” Judges 19:1 so common among Orientals.

Timna - In Genesis 36:11, Eliphaz has no son Timna; but he has a concubine of the name, who is the mother of Amalek, and conjectured to be Lotan‘s sister 1 Chronicles 1:39. The best explanation is, that the writer has in his mind rather the tribes descended from Eliphaz than his actual children, and as there was a place, Timna, inhabited by his “dukes” (1 Chronicles 1:51; compare Genesis 35:40), he puts the race which lived there among his “sons.”

Amram (rather Hamran), and Hemdan (margin), differ in the original by the same letter only which marks the difference in 1 Chronicles 1:30.

The slight differences favor the view, that the writer of Chronicles has here, as elsewhere, abridged from Genesis (see the marginal references).