Of Cush's sons, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Sabtacha, and Raamah; and the sons of Raamah, Sheba, and Dedan, seem to have settled in Idumæa and Arabia, from the similar names of places there and of his descendants, Nimrod, the mighty hunter, first founded the kingdom of Babylon, and afterwards of Assyria, invading the settlements of the Shemites, contrary to the divine decree. His posterity were probably distinguished by the title of Chusdim. Isa. xxiii. 13. 2. The second son of Ham was Misr, or Mizraim. He settled in Egypt, whence the Egyptians were universally styled in Scripture, Mizraim, or Mizraites, in the plural form. But the country is denominated in the east, to this day, “the land of Misr;" which, therefore, seems to have been the name of the patriarch himself. The children of Misr, like their father, are denominated in Scripture by the plural number. Of these, the Ludim and Lehabim were probably the Copto-Libyans; Ezek. xxx. 5: the Naphtuhim occupied the sea-coast, which by the Egyptians was called Nephthus; whence, probably, originated the name of the maritime god Neptune. Plut. de Isid. The Pathrusim occupied a part of lower Egypt, called from them Pathros. Is. xi. 11. The Caphtorim and the Casluhim, (whose descendants were the Philistim of Palestine) occupied the district which lies between the delta of the Nile and the southern extremity of Palestine. Deut. ii. 23. Amos ix. 7. 3. Phut is merely noticed, without any mention of his family. But the tribes of Phut and Lud are mentioned together, with Cush, or Ethiopia; Jer. xlvi. 9. Ezek. xxx. 5. And Jerome notices a district in Libya, called Regio Phutensis, or "the land of Phut." 4. Canaan has been noticed already; and the original extent of the land of Canaan is carefully marked by Moses. Its western border, along the Mediterranean Sea, extended from Sidon, southwards, to Gaza; its southern border from thence, eastwards, to Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, the cities of the plain, afterwards covered by the Dead Sea, or Asphaltite Lake; its eastern border extending from thence, northwards, to Laish, Dan, or the springs of the Jordan; and its northern border, from thence to Sidon, westward. Of Canaan's sons, Sidon, the eldest, occupied the north-west corner, and built the town of that name, so early celebrated for her luxury and com merce in Scripture; Judg. xviii. 7; 1 Kings v. 6: and by Homer, who calls the Sidonians, Toλvdaudado, "skilled in many arts." Iliad. XXIII. 743; Odys. XV. 114, &c. And Tyre, so flourishing afterwards, though boasting of her own antiquity, Isa. xxiii. 7, is styled "a daughter of Sidon," or a colony from thence; Isa. v. 12. Heth, his second son, and the Hittites, his descendants, appear to have settled in the south, near Hebron, Gen. xxiii. 3—7; and next to them, at Jerusalem, the Jebusites, or descendants of Jebus, both remaining in their original settlements till David's days; 2 Sam. xi. 3; v. 6—9. Beyond the Jebusites, were settled the Emorites, or Amorites, Numb. xiii. 29, who extended themselves beyond Jordan, and were the most powerful of the Canaanite tribes, Gen. xv. 16; Numb. xxi. 21; until they were destroyed by Moses and Joshua, with the rest of the devoted nations of Canaan's family. III. Shem and his family are noticed last; Gen. x. 21-30. His posterity were confined to Middle Asia. 1. His son Elam appears to have been settled in Elymais, or Southern Persia, contiguous to the maritime tract of Chusistan. Dan. viii. 2. 2. His son Ashur, planted the land thence called Assyria; which soon became a province of the Cushite, or Cuthic empire, founded by Nimrod. 3. Arphaxad, through his grandson Eber, branched out into the two houses of Peleg and Joktan. Peleg probably remained in Chaldea, or southern Babylonia, at the time of the dispersion; for there we find his grandson, Terah, and his family, settled, at "Ur of the Chaldees," Gen. xi. 31. Of the numerous children of Joktan, it is said by Moses, that "their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east." Faber is inclined to believe that they were the ancestors of the great body of the Hindus, who still retain a lively tradition of the patriarch Shem, Shama, or Sharma; and that the land of Ophir, abounding in gold, so called from one of the sons of Joktan, lay beyond the Indus eastward. 4. Lud was probably the father of the Ludim or Lydians, of Asia Minor: for this people had a tradition that they were descended from Lud or Lydus, according to Josephus, Ant. i. 6, 4. 5. The children of Aram planted the fertile country north of Babylonia, called Aram Naharaim, "Aram between the two rivers," the Euphrates and Tigris, thence called by the Greeks, Mesopotamia, Gen. xxiv. 10. and Padan Aram, the level country of Aram, Gen. xxv. 20. This country of Aram is frequently rendered Syria in Scripture; Judges x. 6; Hosea xii. 12, &c.; which is not to be confounded with Palestine Syria; into which they afterwards spread themselves, still retaining their original name, of Apoi, or Arameans, noticed by Homer, Il. ii. 783. THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES AT BABEL. This miraculous event, though recorded after the Division of the Earth among the families of Noah's sons, must have happened before it in the order of time: and it must have been universal, or equally affected them all; for the settlements of each of the three primitive families are said to have been, "after their tongues, in their lands or countries, in their nations." Gen. x. 5, 20, 31. And the account given of it, in the eleventh chapter, corresponds therewith. "And the whole earth was of one lip [or language,] and of one speech, [or dialect]. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach into heaven; and let us make us a name, [or a sign] lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. And the Lord came down to see the city which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one lip, [or language], and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their lip [or language] that they may not understand each other's lip, [or language]. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the whole earth. And they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the lip [or language] of all the earth." Gen. xi. 1–9. From this concise account we may collect, that when the families of Noah's sons had sufficiently encreased in population, and the lower grounds were sufficiently dried, so as to require, or encourage emigration, they took their journey in one community, while they all spake the same language, and the same speech, tongue, or dialect, from the original settlement, in the mountainous region of Armenia, to the fertile plain of Shinar in Mesopotamia. Here they settled themselves, with a firm determination not to separate from each other, in obedience to the divine decree; but to found a single universal empire. For that purpose, they proceeded to build a city, and a lofty tower. But God miraculously confounded their language, so that they were no longer intelligible to each other: and from Babel they were scattered over the face of the earth. Respecting the particular route by which they arrived at the plain of Shinar, Scripture is silent: but the Chaldean historian, Berosus, informs us, that "they proceeded circuitously to Babylonia *" And Mr. Penn †, guided only by a geographical view of the country, happily conjectures, that they followed the course of the great river Euphrates; which rising in the mountains of Armenia, flows at first in a westerly direction; then it turns to the south, and at length, bending eastward, it reaches Babylon from the north-west. Its progress, therefore, is circuitous; and as the approach to Shinar would be most easily and naturally effected by following its winding course; so, in that case, the route of the einigrants would minutely correspond with Berosus and with Scripture, which represent them as travelling from the original settlement, eastward of the springs of the Euphrates; whose circuitous course, according to the ingenious remark of Faber, is described in the Sanscrit word Uratta, pronounced Urat, and signifying "a circle;" so nearly analogous to the Hebrew name of the river, Phrat. Origin of Idolatry, Vol. III. pp. 374-376. The lofty tower which they built of bricks, burned and baked in the sun, and cemented with bitumen, was a pyramidal temple, of a quadrangular base, nearly of the same size of the great pyramid of Egypt, but somewhat loftier. The Tower of Belus, at Babylon, was probably the original Tower of Babel, built by Nimrod, and afterwards repaired by Nebuchadnezzar, and again ruined by Xerxes. See the following article of Babylon. The prime author of this rebellion against the divine decree, and grand corrupter of the pure patriarchal religion, by Sabaism and Demonolatry, was the Cushite Nimrod, "the Rebel,” as the Περιξ πορευθηναι εις Βαβυλωνιαν. Euseb. Chron. p. 8. Περιξ κυκλῳ. Hesych. Remarks on the Eastern Origination of Mankind, by Granville Penn, Esq. Oriental Collect. Vol. II. Numb. 1 and 2. name implies, who was afterwards deified himself, under the title of Belus, and supposed to be translated to the constellation Orion, in the heavens. See his history, Vol. II. of this work. And from the central region of Babel, this grand apostacy from the primitive faith seems to have been transplanted into the four quarters of the world; as proved from the remarkable fact of the general resemblance of the Pagan Mythology, in these its two leading outlines, in Asia, Africa, Europe, and America; and from the conformity between the leading doctrines of the primitive Pagan priesthood, the Magi in Chaldea, the Brahmins in the East, and the Druids in the West, as circumstantially proved by Faber, in his elaborate work. That great linguist, Sir William Jones, in the Asiatic Researches, has discovered traces of three primeval languages, corresponding to the three grand aboriginal races, which he calls the Arabic, the Sanscrit, and the Slavonic, into which all others resolve themselves. 1. From the Arabic or Chaldee, spring the dialects used by the Assyrians, Arabs, and Jews *. 2. From the Sanscrit, which is radically different from the Arabic, spring the Greek, Latin, and Celtic dialects, though blended with another idiom, the Persian, the Armenian, and the old Egyptian or Ethiopic +. 3. From the Sclavonic or Tartarian, which again is radically different both from the Arabic and Sanscrit, spring (so far as Sir William can venture to pronounce upon so difficult a point) the various dialects of northern Asia, and north-eastern Europe ‡. VARIETIES OF MANKIND. The derivation of the human species, all from one stock, Noah, the second father of mankind, has proved a great stumblingblock to minute philosophers. "Though we cannot doubt the authority of Moses," says Lord Kaims, " yet his account of the creation of man is not a little puzzling, as it seems to contradict every one of the forementioned facts;" namely, the varieties of the human species in different countries, as to colour, size, shape, disposition, &c. Sketches of the History of Man, Vol. I. p. 36. * Asiat. Research. Vol. II. p. 5. Vol. III. p. 419. Asiat. Research. Vol. I. p. 422. Vol. III. 15, 418, 419. |