Genesis 10 – The Table of Nations Part 3

The Descendants of Shem

 21Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. 

22The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.

 23And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.

 24And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.

 25And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

 26And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

 27And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,

 28And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,

 29And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.

 30And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.

 31These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.

 32These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

1 Chronicles 1

17The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.

 18And Arphaxad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber.

 19And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother’s name was Joktan.

 20And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

 21Hadoram also, and Uzal, and Diklah,

 22And Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba,

 23And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.

 24Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah,

 25Eber, Peleg, Reu,

 26Serug, Nahor, Terah,

 27Abram; the same is Abraham.

 28The sons of Abraham; Isaac, and Ishmael.

Abraham comes from the lineage of Eber, or where the name “Hebrew” comes from. Eber means “crossing over” and his descendants would cross over into Canaan more than once.

 

Here we see the beginning of the Nation of Israel and the Hebrew people through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the Middle- Eastern countries through Abraham, Ishmael, and E

Genesis 10 – The Table of Nations Part 2

The Descendants of Ham

 6And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.

 7And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

 8And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

 9He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.

 10And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

 11Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,

 12And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

 13And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

 14And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.

 15And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,

 16And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

 17And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

 18And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

 19And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

 20These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

Now we get a glimpse of the sons of Japheth and we watch as his descendants spread from Africa to possibly China. We also see the birth of a picture of the coming Anti – Christ and a perverse and horrible people.

1 Chronicles 1

 8The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

 9And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

 10And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth.

 11And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

 12And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (of whom came the Philistines,) and Caphthorim.

 13And Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn, and Heth,

 14The Jebusite also, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,

 15And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

 16And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.

 

Cush – This is modern day Ethiopia

Mizraim – Egypt

Phut – This is Africa or Lybia

Canaan – A perverse and wicked people, who received the curse of Noah. His people would become servants and they would occupy what would one day become the land of Israel. God gave them 4 centuries to repent from their horrible and perverse ways but they did not and were destroyed.

Genesis 15

13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

 14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

 15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

 16But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Sheba and Dedan – Saudi Arabia

Sidon – Phoenicia

Heth – Hittites

Jebus – The Jebusites occupied Jerusalem before David’s reign

Philistim – The Philistines

Sin – The possible founder of  the Oriental race – China, Japan, India, etc

Nimrod – The founder of Babylon and Assyria. Two nations that would really cause trouble later on for Israel. Nimrod’s name means “rebel” and he was a prototype of the ultimate rebel – the Anti-Christ, who some believe will be based out of the revised Roman Empire or the European Union.

The Anti-Christ will seek to create a one-world government and usher in a one-world religion. Many believe that Nimrod began this religion.

 

 8And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

The Anti-Christ will be a charismatic leader. He will be very, very persuasive and he will become mighty, or powerful. Nimrod amazed and confounded people.

 9He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.

Some believe that this should say – “A mighty hunter against the Lord” or “in the face of the Lord” as in rebelliousness or mocking

Meaning that Nimrod hunted more than animals, he hunted the souls of man. Nimrod became a leader in apostasy, developer of a great religious system later to become known as the Babylonian religious system or the “mystery Babylon”.

Notes from the church fathers:
Fallen angels taught men the use of magical incantations that would force demons to obey man. After the flood Ham the son of Noah unhappily discovered this and taught it to his sons. This became ingrained into the Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians. Ham died shortly after the fall of the Tower of Babel. Nimrod, called Ninus by the Greeks, was handed this knowledge and by it caused men to go away from the worship of god and go into diverse and erratic superstitions and began to be governed by the signs in the stars and motions of the planets. Taken from Recognitions of Clement 4.26-29.

Here is some information from the book “The Two Babylons”

‘The Two Babylon’s, was written by the late Reverend Alexander Hislop in pamphlet form in Edinburgh in 1853, greatly expanded 5 years later and has since appeared in many editions in both Great Britain and the United States. This book is considered by many Christians to be a/the classic in apologetics.’

‘See how a religion that was started by Nimrod and his wife spread to various regions, taking on different names, but keeping the same pagan rituals and trappings. These same rituals embody the Catholic church of today.’

Many have taught that Semiramus was the wife of Nimrod and Tammuz was said to be their son, as was chronicled in the Two (2) Babylon’s by Alexander Hislop.

Hislop identified Nimrod with the Mesopotamian ruler Ninus. Based on this supposed connection, and on selected readings of the older legends, he created a new image of Nimrod as a central part of his theory that the Roman Catholic Church grew from Babylonian paganism. A summary of his ideas follows:

According to ancient Egyptian and Babylonian traditions, his mother was Semiramis; sometimes Semiramis is referred to as the mother of Nimrod, and sometimes as his wife, leading to the belief that Nimrod married his mother. Also according to these traditions, Semiramis, who rose to greatness because of her son, was presented with a difficulty when her son died, so instead she pronounced him to be a god, so that she herself would become a goddess.

One story says that after Nimrod was killed, Semiramis claimed that an evergreen tree sprouted from a tree stump, which she said indicated the entry of new life into the deceased Nimrod; every year on the anniversary of Nimrod’s birth (December 25) they would leave gifts at this evergreen tree. This is presented by some as a possible explanation the origin of the Christmas tree.

Even though Semiramis claimed to be a virgin she had another son, named Tammuz, who she said was the reincarnation of Nimrod. She became known as the “Virgin Mother”, “Holy Mother” and the “Queen of Heaven” and was symbolized by the Moon. So began the worship of Semiramis and the child-god, and the whole paraphernalia of the Babylonian religious system.

After the decline of Babylon, the religion was transported to Egypt where the people worshipped Isis and her son Osiris (otherwise known as Horus). The same mother and child deities appeared in Pagan Rome as Fortuna and Jupiter, and in Greece as Ceres, the Great Mother, with the babe at her breast, or as Irene, the goddess of Peace, with the boy Plutus in her arms.

 

Nimrod was said to be Ninus and later Baal?

Some writers claim that Nimrod was slain by Shem his great-uncle, because of his unrighteousness. Others say he was beheaded by Esau the son of Abraham. 

‘Nimrod was slain by Esau, between whom and himself jealousy existed owing to the fact that they were both hunters (Targ. pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. xxv. 27; “Sefer ha-Yashar,” section “Toledot,” p. 40b; Pirḳe R. El. l.c.; comp. Gen. R. lxv. 12).W. B. M. Sel.’

The punishment visited on the builders of the tower did not cause Nimrod to change his conduct; he remained an idolater. He particularly persecuted Abraham, who by his command was thrown into a heated furnace; and it was on this account, according to one opinion, that Nimrod was called “Amraphel” ( = “he said, throw in”; Targ. pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. xiv. 1; Gen. R. xlii. 5; Cant. R. viii. 8).

Nimrod was informed that Abraham had come forth from the furnace uninjured, he remitted his persecution of the worshiper of the Creator of all things, weh; but on the following night he saw in a dream a man coming out of the furnace and advancing toward him with a drawn sword. Nimrod thereupon ran away, but the man threw an egg at him; this was afterward transformed into a large river in which all his troops were drowned, only he himself and three of his followers escaping.

Then the river again became an egg, and from the latter came forth a small fowl, which flew at Nimrod and pecked out his eye. The dream was interpreted as forecasting Nimrod’s defeat by Abraham, wherefore Nimrod sent secretly to kill Abraham; but the latter emigrated with his family to the land of Canaan.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Ten years later Nimrod came to wage war with Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, who had been one of Nimrod’s generals, and who after the dispersion of the builders of the tower went to Elam and formed there an independent kingdom. Nimrod at the head of an army set out with the intention of punishing his rebellious general, but the latter routed him. Nimrod then became a vassal of Chedorlaomer, who involved him in the war with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, with whom he was defeated by Abraham (“Sefer ha-Yashar,” l.c.; comp. Gen. xiv. 1-17).

Those who identify Nimrod with Marduk, however, object that the name of Izdubar must be read, as is now generally conceded, “Gilgamesh,” and that the signs which constitute the name of Marduk, who also is represented as a hunter, are read phonetically “Amar Ud”; and ideographically they may be read “Namr Ud”—in Hebrew “Nimrod.” The difficulty of reconciling the Biblical Nimrod, the son of Cush, with Marduk, the son of Ea, may be overcome by interpreting the Biblical words as meaning that Nimrod was a descendant of Cush.

Two prominent theories are now held in regard to Nimrod’s identity:

One, adopted by G. Smith and Jeremias, is that Nimrod is to be identified with the Babylonian hero Izdubar or Gishdubar (Gilgamesh).

The second, that of Sayce,Pinches, and others, identifies Nimrod with Marduk, the Babylonian Mercury. The former identification is based on the fact that Izdubar is represented in the Babylonian epos as a mighty hunter, always accompanied by four dogs, and as the founder of the first great kingdom in Asia.

By the Arabs Nimrod is considered as the supreme example of the tyrant (“al-jabbar”). There is some confusion among Arabian historians as to Nimrod’s genealogy. According to one authority he was the son of Mash the son of Aram, and consequently a Semite; he built the Tower of Babel and also a bridge over the Euphrates, and reigned five hundred years over the Nabatæans, his kinsmen.

But the general opinion is that he was a Hamite, son of Canaan the son of Cush, or son of Cush the son of Canaan (Ṭabari gives both); that he was born at the time of Reu (a bright idea), and was the first to establish fire-worship.

Another legend is to the effect that there were two Nimrods:

1. The first was the son of Cush.

2. The second was the well-known tyrant and contemporary of Abraham; he was the son of Canaan and therefore a great-grandson of the first Nimrod. According to Mas’udi (“Muruj al-Dhahab,” ii. 96), Nimrod was the first Babylonian king, and during a reign of sixty years he dug many canals in ‘Irak.

The Koran says: After these adventures Nimrod continued to reign wickedly. Four hundred years later an angel in the form of a man appeared to him and exhorted him to repent, but Nimrod declared that he himself was sole ruler and challenged God to fight with him. Nimrod asked for a delay of three days, during which he gathered a considerable army; but this was exterminated by swarms of gnats. One of these insects is said to have entered Nimrod’s nose, reached the chambers of his brain, and gnawed at it. To allay the pain Nimrod ordered some one to strike with a hammer upon an anvil, in order that the noise might cause the gnat to cease gnawing (comp. the same story in connection with Titus in Giṭ. 56b). Nimrod died after forty years’ suffering.

Taken from wikipedia

 

 

 10And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

 11Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,

Babel means “Gateway to God” but it will mean “Confusion” very quickly and we will see the birth of the Babylonian Empire.

Nimrod also founded the Assyrian Empire as well. Nineveh was it’s capitol.

Both Baylon and Assyria would cause great trouble for Israel later on.

Assyria carried away the 10 tribes of Israel into captivity in 722 B.C.

The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem 130 years later in 586 B.C.