Genesis 10 - Nations descended from Noah
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Read Genesis 10 |
At first this chapter appears to be a most uninteresting list of names. When we come to such sections of the Bible we should try to remember that God has a purpose behind the words, so it is up to us to attempt to understand the message that the chapter contains for us. The first and last verses tell us what the chapter is all about:-
10 v 1 Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood …
10 v 32 These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.
The chapter describes how the nations developed after the flood from the three sons of Noah - Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Japheth and his descendants - verses 2 to 5
Fourteen
nations descended from Japheth, and they ‘enlarged their possessions’,
as was predicted in the first half of the prophetic blessing made in Genesis
9 v 27. As Japheth’s descendants grew in numbers and wealth they moved
north towards Europe, as the map shows. 
The
map indicates the positions, where known, of the tribes by the time of
the Kings of Israel. Click on it to enlarge it.
Ham and his descendants - verses 6 to 20
There are thirty nations listed between verses 6 and 20. Most of these are also shown on the map in the approximate areas where they are thought to have settled.
