The Nations of Shem
Shem The father of
all the Semitic nations.
Sons of Shem
Elam The founder of the Elamites, who were known to the Babylonians as the Elamtu, to the Greeks as Elymais, and whom the Romans knew as the Elymaei. The Elamites recorded their own name as the Haltamti. Subsequently, in the Old Persian inscriptions their name is rendered (h)uju, and huz in the Middle Persian, which is the archaic form of the modern Persian name of Khuzistan, which now covers what used to be the land of Elam.
- Asshur The founder of the nation to whom he gave his name, Assyria. It may be possible to identify Asshur in the early king-lists of Assyria as Puzur Asshur I. According to these lists, Puzur Asshur I would have lived and reigned ca 1960 BC, which accords rather well with the biblical chronology. Asshur was one of the earliest men to be deified and worshipped by his descendants. Indeed, as long as Assyria lasted, that is until 612 BC, accounts of battles, diplomatic affairs and foreign bulletins were daily read out to his image and every Assyrian king held that he wore the crown only with the express permission of Asshur’s deified ghost.
- Arphaxad He was the progenitor of the Chaldeans, his name, apparently, corresponding to that of arp-keshed, the border marches of Chaldea. That he was indeed the forebear of the Chaldeans is confirmed by the Hurrian (Nuzi) tablets, which render the name as Arip-hurra—the founder of Chaldea. The name was also known to the Akkadians as Arraphu. The Assyrians knew his descendants as the Kaldu, who were adept astrologers, magicians, and mathematicians. Ptolemy recorded the name of their land as Arrapichitis, known to others as Arphaxitis. Their very earliest settlement, however, would appear to be what is today a 2½ acre ruin that still bears the name Aspachiya. It lies some four miles to the east of ancient Ninevah, and is the remains of a very early farming community.
- Lud The early descendants of Lud, the Ludim, were known to both the Assyrians and Babylonians as the Ludu. Josephus tells us that their land was later known as Lydia (a Greek derivation of the name Lud) which lay in western Asia Minor. (Josephus rendered the name Laud.) The Lydians were famed in the old world for the skill of their archers. They spoke an Indo-European (Japhetic) language, examples of which are to be found on certain Egyptian monuments. The land of Lydia was finally conquered by Cyrus, king of Persia, in the year 546 BC.
- Aram He was the founder of the Aramaeans, known to the Akkadians as the Aramu, but who were later known to the Greeks as the Syrians. In an Assyrian inscription of Tiglath-pileser I, from ca 1100 BC, the Aramaeans are depicted as living to the east of the river Tigris. By the time of Tiglath-pileser III, however, some 400 years later, they were living all over Mesopotamia. After this they settled to the west, occupying roughly the same area that makes up modern Syria. A clay tablet from Ur bears the name of Aramu, and it is of interest to note that Aramaic is still spoken today.
Son of Arphaxad
Sons of Aram
Uz There is still considerable disagreement as to the precise area in which the descendants of Uz settled, and given the somewhat nomadic nature of the Aramaeans, this is hardly surprising. Northern Arabia, between Babylon and Edom, seems to be the most likely area of settlement. Josephus identifies it as the classical Trachonitis.
- Hul His descendants settled to the north of the Sea of Galilee, where they gave their name to the lake and vale of Huleh (the biblical Waters of Merom, which were known to Josephus as Ul). The modern Israelis know the place under its ancient name of the vale of Hula. The lake of Hula is formed by the accumulation of water from the two sources of the Jordan before beginning their descent to Galilee.
- Gether His descendants settled to the south of Damascus. Known to Josephus as Gather, he identifies them as the latter-day Bactrians, famous amongst other things for a breed of camel. Whether this identification is correct or not cannot now be determined. It should, however, be noted that Bactria was populated by Aryan, or Japhetic, tribes in late Assyrian times.
- Mash The Akkadians rendered the name Mashu, which in turn was known to the Egyptians as Mshr. It was also rendered Mishal, all of which names referred to a people that dwelt in Lebanon. However, in 1 Chronicles 1:17, the name is rendered Meshech, and this should not be confused with the Japhitic Meshech, as did Josephus.
Son of Shelah
Eber Known to
Josephus as Heber, he gave his name to the Hebrew race. Some have tried to identify him with Ebru,
king of Ebla, but this is unlikely
on both chronological and ethnic grounds.
The attempt to identify the children of Eber with the Habiru of the
Egyptian chronicles may also be somewhat forced, although it is fair to add
that, although we tend today to think only of the Jewish nation as Hebrews, in
fact all of Eber’s descendants, technically speaking, would have been Hebrew
also, the Joktanite Arabs included.
Sons of Eber
Peleg Genesis tells us that in his day the earth was divided. The meaning of his name, as rendered in Hebrew, corresponds exactly with the Akkadian noun pulukku, which means a dividing up of territory by means of boundaries and borders (the Akkadian verb for ‘to divide’ is palaku). Likewise, the Assyrian word, palgu, refers to the dividing up of land by canals and irrigation systems. It is in this sense that the Hebrew word peleg is used in Job 29:6 and 38:5. The man named Peleg (whose name is Phaleg in Josephus), was so named , however, after the division and scattering of the nations from Babel. In fact, one of the ancient names of Babylon (Babel) is nowadays translated as ‘the place of canals’, or ‘the place of division’, or even the place of Peleg. There is an ancient city that bore the name of Peleg, the Akkadian town of Phalgu, whose ruins lie at the junction of the Euphrates and Chaboras (Chebar) rivers.
- Joktan The progenitor of no less than thirteen southern Arabian tribes, he is remembered amongst modern Arabs as Yaqtan. Only the purest Arabs, it is still maintained, are those Semitic Arabs descended from Joktan; while Hamitic Arabs are referred to somewhat disdainfully as Musta’rabs, pretended Arabs. Joktan’s name is preserved in that of the ancient town of Jectan near present-day Mecca. Josephus knew him is Joctan.
Son of Peleg
Reu This name appears
as a personal name in Akkadian records where it is rendered Ra’u. The early Greeks knew it a Ragau, as did
Josephus. Reu was to give his name to an
island in the Euphrates that lies just below the city of
Anat, and which the Akkadians knew
as Ra’ilu. It was known to the Greeks as
Ragu.
Sons of Joktan
Almodad Some give Almodad’s name as meaning ‘the agitator’, which, if correct, hides what is mo doubt a most interesting background. The name is certainly Arabic, his descendants being known to early Arab historians as the al-Morad tribe, who are seemingly to be identified with the Gebonites. The name is rendered Elmodad in Josephus. Their precise area of settlement cannot now be determined.
- Sheleph Rendered Saleph in Josephus, the name is that of a southern Arabian tribe who were known to the pre-Islamic Arabs as the Salif. They were a Yemeni tribe whose capital, Sulaf, lay some sixty miles north of present-day San’a.
- Hazarmaveth Known as Asermoth in Josephus, his descendants populated the 200 mile long valley that runs parallel to the southern coast of Arabia. It is known to this day as the Hadramaut, a direct transposition into Arabic of the name Ahzarmaveth. In pre-Islamic inscriptions, the name is variously rendered hdrmt and hdrmwt. Strabo tells us that the tribe of Hazarmaveth was one of the four main tribes of Arabs in his day. The name seems to mean ‘town of death’, although we can now only ponder the possible tragedy that lies behind it.
- Jerah There lies, on the shores of Galilee, a ruined mound that is named Beth-Yerah, the house of Jerah, although this may not refer to the subject here. It is more likely that his descendants migrated into the southern regions of Arabia. Indeed, the Arab city that bore Jerah’s name, and which was rendered by Ptolemy as Jerakon Kome, lay on the Mara coast close to the Hadramaut. The name appears as Jera in Josephus and as Yarki in the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal.
- Hadoram Rendered Adoram in Josephus, it is that of a southern Arabian tribe, the name of whose town appears a s Hurarina (Haroram) in the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal. It lay close to Yarki.
- Uzal Arab historians render the name as Azal, Josephus gives Aizel, and it is the ancient, pre-Islamic name for the city of San’a, the modern capital of the Yemen. Uzal’s descendants are still doubtless thriving in the area. The Assyrians knew the tribe of Uzal as the Azalla.
- Diklah The name Diklah appears in Akkadian records as Diklat, the Aramaeans knew it as Diklath, and the Assyrians gave it as Idiklat, all of which transpose into Greek as Tigris, the name of the valley and river that cuts through Mesopotamia. Josephus renders it Decla. This would give a clear indication as their place of settlement, either north of the Persian Gulf or in the north-east extremity of the Arabian peninsula.
- Obal A southern Arabian tribe whose name was rendered by Arab historians, as well as by Josephus, as Ebal. Ancient inscriptions from the Yemen give it as Abil, which elsewhere appears as Ubal. The location of this tribe’s place of settlement lies between the ancient Yemeni cities of Hadeida and San’a.
- Abimael His descendants settled in southern Arabia, where their existence is known from ancient Sabean inscriptions.
- Sheba There are no less than three Shebas in the Table of Nations! Due to the presence in Arabia of bothe the Cushite and Jokshanite tribes of Sheba, it is impossible to determine where this particular patriarch’s descendants settled. Josephus may give a clue in rendering the name as Sabeus.
- Ophir Its existence being noted in the pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions, this tribe’s area of settlement is given by them as lying between Saba in the Yemen and Hawlan, or Havilah. The name has been preserved in that of the coastal town of Ma’afir in southwest Arabia.
- Havilah There were two Arabian tribes known under the name of Havilah, the other being a descendant of Ham. This Semitic tribe, however, remained distinct, and occupied areas on the opposite side of the peninsula from the Hamitic tribe. In Strabo’s day, they were still occupying areas of northern Arabia, their name being recorded by him as the Khaulotaei. Josephus knew them as the Euilat. The Arabian cosmographer, Yakut, informs us that their dialect, Hawil, was spoken by ‘the descendants of Midian, the son of Abraham’. This Semitic tribe of Havilah also occupied the southernmost tip of the Arabian peninsula, crossing from there the Bab-el-Mandeb to the African coast. Here, both Ptolemy and Pliny refer to their city of Aualis on the Red Sea coast of Africa, which lay next to the modern state of Djibouti. This city is known today as Zeila.
- Jobab His descendants were known to the Akkadians as the Iabibi. They settled in the town that has long borne their founder’s name, Juhaibab, which, according to Sabean inscriptions, lay close to modern Mecca.
From this point forward, the descendants are not listed in the table of nations, but are given to include what nations were derived from Peleg after the dispersal from Babel.
Son of Reu
Serug He gave his
name to the city and district that was known to the Akkadians as Sarugi. This lay to the west of Haran. It is normally assumed that the name of the land
of Syria came about because the
Greeks confused it with Assyria. But it is more likely that Syria
is merely a transposition into Greek of the name of Serug, who settled in that
part of the world.
Son of Serug
Son of Nahor
Terah The father of
Abraham, he later settled in Haran,
where he died. The name Terah is
associated in Jewish literature with the moon-god, and there seems to be a
direct etymological link between his name and the teraphim, small idolatrous
images that were kept in most households.
In this context, it is interesting to note that Joshua 24:2 describes
Terah as an idolater. Near to the city
of Haran, there was a place that
bore Terah’s name, known to the Assyrians as Turahi and to the Akkadians as
Truahu, the ruins of which were later known to them as Til-Sa-Turahi.
Sons of Terah
Abraham The well-known founder of the Jewish people. There exists from Babylonia an early clay tablet that bears the name of a man called Abi-ramu, which is rendered Abarama in the Eblaite tablets. Another bears the name of Sarai. Josephus quotes the Babylonian historian, Berosus, as saying, ‘In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was a man among the Chaldeans who was righteous and great…’ Josephus regarded this remark as a direct reference to Abraham, even though Berosus didn’t name him. Josephus tells us also that Hecataeus and Nicolaus of Damascus both mention Abraham in their own histories.
- Nahor The name Nahor is known from Babylonian inscriptions, and from the clay tablets of Mari, which render the name Nahur. He settled in Haran which was later to become known as the town of Nahor. This appears in inscriptions from the reign of Ashurbanipal as Nahuru, the ruins being known to the Assyrians as til-Nahiri, the mound of Nahor.
- Haran Haran was the youngest of Terah’s sons. He was born at Ur and died there at a young age. To his father is attributed the building of the city of Haran, Terah naming the place in his son’s memory and honor. The city lay of the main highway to Ninevah from Carchemish, and it is interesting to note in this context that the Assyrian noun for main road is harranu. From its earliest days, Haran was one of the chief centers of moon-worship, and we frequently read of its temple being restored and embellished by successive kings of Assyria. Its temple was, indeed, every bit as famous and well-subscribed as that at Ur, where the family originated. Nimrod was also worshipped here, being referred to in inscriptions as the ‘prince of the
men of Haran’.
Sons of Abram
Ishmael Among the Babylonian documents that have come down to us from the days of Hammurabi, there is a list of witnesses to certain documents, one of whom is ‘Abuha, son of Ishmael’.
- Isaac No mention of him is found thus far in extra-biblical sources.
- Zimran The chieftain and founder of an Arab tribe whose chief city lay to the west of Mecca. Ptolemy recorded its name as Zabram, the letters ‘m’ and ‘b’ being interchangeable in Arabic.
- Jokshan Seemingly unknown outside the biblical records, he appears to have settled with his descendants in northern Arabia.
- Medan He founded various northern Arabian tribes, and his name is still preserved in the modern family name of Abd-al-Madan. His descendants settled in the town of Madan, which is mentioned in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pilesar III that date to the year 732 BC. He renders the name as Badan, but the letters ‘m’ and ‘b’ are interchangeable in Arabic. The town lay to the west of Tema.
- Midian The founder of the Midianite tribe of Arabs. The Arabian historian, Yakut, tells us that they spoke the Hawil dialect of Arabic. He also confirms the fact that Midian was the son of Abraham. The tribes of Midian are also known from Egyptian and other sources. Ptolemy records the name as Modiana, while the ancient pre-Islamic Arab city of Madyan is today known as Magha’ir Shu’aib.
- Ishbak He was the progenitor of a tribe who seem to have settled to the east of Canaan. Otherwise, secular records seem to be silent concerning them.
- Shuah The founder of the biblical Shuites, one of whose descendants (Bildad) counseled Job. The Assyrians knew Shuah’s descendants as the Suhu, and describe their land as lying adjacent to the Euphrates, south of Carchemish, between the Balikh and Khabur (recorded by Ptolemy as the Chaboras, by Ezekiel as the Chebar) rivers.
Son of Haran
Sons of Ishmael
Nebaioth He settled with his descendants to the south of the Dead Sea, where they were known to the Chaldeans as the Nabat, and to the Assyrians as the Nabaiate. Their own inscriptions render the name as ‘nbtw’. The Greek historian, Diodorus, mentions them, and Ptolemy knew them as the Nabatei. The Nabataeans’ final demise was brought about by Augustus Caesar, who cut off the trade routes of Arabia. By the time of Tiberius Caesar, all the land east of Judea was known as Nabataea.
- Kedar Known to the Hebrews as the Qedar, and the Assyrians as the Qidri, his descendants became the great tribe of Arabs who settled in the northwest Arabian peninsula, and whose black tents were to become proverbial in the ancient world. We are informed in Babylonian sources that the armies of Nebuchadnezzar confronted the tribe of Kedar in a major skirmish of the year 599 BC, an incident that was foretold by Jeremiah (49:28-29). The tribe of Kedar is also mentioned in the annals of Ashurbanipal, with whom they clashed, and in various other Assyrian documents. In these, the men of Kedar are mentioned in close association with the men of Nebaioth. The founder of Islam, Mohammed, was to trace his own direct descent from Kedar.
- Adbeel The founder of a tribe known to the Akkadians as the Idibilu. This same people were subsequently mentioned in the annals of Tiglath-pileser III, who tells us how he conquered the Idiba’leans and employed them to guard the approaches to Egypt’s borders. Their area of settlement was in northwest Arabia, close to the lands of Kedar and Nebaioth.
- Mibsam An otherwise unknown Bedouin chieftain.
- Mishma He settled with his descendants in what is known today as Jebel Mishma in the vicinity of Tema.
- Dumah The Assyrians and Babylonians knew Dumah’s descendants as the Adammatu. Nabonidus later tells us how he conquered the Adummu. Ptolemy referred to them as the Domatha; and Porphyry recorded their name as the Dumathii. We know them today as the Idumaeans. The name of Dumah is still preserved in the modern Arab city of Dumat-al-Jandal, the capital of this tribe.
- Massa The descendants of Massa were known to the Assyrians as the Mas’a, who with the tribe of Tema, were forced to pay tribute to Tiglath-pileser III. He tells us how he conquered them along with the peoples of Haiappa, the Idiba’leans, and others. Ptolemy knew the tribe as the Masanoi, who lived to the northeast of Dumah. Josephus records their name as the Mesanaeans, and that in his day their lands were known to the Romans as Charax Spasini.
- Hadad The name is rendered as Haddu in Akkadian inscriptions as the name of a pagan god. Hadad himself, however, seems to be unknown in extra-biblical sources.
- Tema Still known by today’s Arabs as Taima’, the city of Tema’s descendants lise some 70 miles northeast of Dedan. Nabonidus, king of Babylon (556-539 BC), passed his years of exile in this city, which he also knew as Tema. Along with Dedan and Dumah, it formed stages in the caravan route from Babylon to Sheba.
- Jetur He was the progenitor of the Ituraeans, who were known to the Greeks as the Itouraia. The Ituraeans are mentioned in the works of Dio Cassius, Josephus, Pliny, Strabo, and others; and were known to the Roman authorities as a tribe of robbers. The descendants of Jetur perpetrated a massacre of Lebanese Christians in AD 1860.
- Naphish He and his lineage are variously known in the biblical records as Nephish, the children of the Nephusim, and the Nephishesim. They are seemingly unknown from extra-biblical sources.
- Kedemah He and his descendants settled in what was later known as the Wilderness of Kedemoth. The tribe dwelt in the city that is known today as es-Za’feran.
Sons of Jokshan
Sons of Midian
Ephah His descendants settled in what is now Ghuwafa, to the southwest of Tebuk in the northwest Arabian peninsula. They are known to us in the annals of Tiglath-pilesar III, who refers to them as the Hayapa. They are last heard of in an inscription of Sargon II that dates to the year 715 BC.
- Epher Known to Arab cosmographers as ‘ofr, Ashurbanipal of Assyria recorded the name of Epher’s descendants and the Apparu. The city in which they settled still bears the name of their founder, Ghifar. It lies close to Medina.
- Henoch He founded the famous Kenite tribe of Midianite Arabs. They were coppersmiths who settled to the southwest of the Gulf of Aqaba.
- Abidah Minean inscriptions from the Yemen record the name of Abidah’s descendants as the Abiyadi’. Their precise area of settlement is unknown, although it must have been in the southwest regions of the Arabian peninsula.
- Eldaah His descendants are known to us from ancient Sabean inscriptions, which refer to them as the Yada’il. We do not know their precise area of settlement, although it was certainly within the Yemen.
Sons of Lot
Sons of Dedan
These founded the three tribes of Dedanite Arabs, of whom nothing further is learned from extra-biblical sources save that in later Jewish literature we learn: the Asshurim were described as traveling merchants; the Letushim were those who sharpened weapons and cutlery; and the Leummim were somewhat enigmatically described as the ‘chief of those who inhabit the isles’, the significance of which is lost to us today.
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