Page 8 Bible Empires:Ham
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3. THE SONS OF HAM
EGYPT is the land of Ham.
| “Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.” |
| “He sent Moses His servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed His signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.” |
| “And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.” |
| “They forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.” |
All of the sons of Ham except Canaan established themselves in Africa. The first named of these is -
CUSH
3.
As the children of Ham settled in clusters, it will be most convenient to consider each family in its full connection, before naming the next. Therefore we shall notice here in connection with their father, -
THE SONS OF CUSH
4. Seba - Ethiopia
| The place of Seba is shown by the words of Isaiah just quoted, to be in the region of Ethiopia - Ethiopians and Sabeans, men of stature. |
“Antiquities,” book i, chap. vi, par. 2.
| It was, in fact, what is now Soudan, that is, the country that lies east of the main, or White Nile, and between the River Atbara and the Blue Nile. This country was first called Seba, or Saba, and its people Sabeans. |
McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia, art. Cush.
Cambyses, king of Persia, in an attempt to invade Ethiopia, 523 BC, reached the border of Saba, and bestowed upon it and its chief city the name of Meroe, after the name of his sister, who was also his wife; and by that name it was known for ages. From its being long an important commercial center, Meroe
| “became owner of the richest countries on earth,” |
Book iii, 114.
and so powerful that at the beginning of the Christian era it ruled Ethiopia itself. For many years it was ruled by queens named Candace. Id., 20.
| “Pliny says that the centurions whom Nero sent to explore the country reported ‘that a woman reigned over Meroe, called Candace, a name which had descended to the queens for many years.’“ |
Mc Clintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia, art. Candace.
It was the chief treasurer of one of these queens Candace who had been to Jerusalem to worship; who while returning was reading the prophecies of Isaiah; to whom the Spirit of God sent Philip to preach the gospel; and who, when he had been baptized, went on his way rejoicing. Acts 3: 27-39.
5. Arabia
All the rest of the sons of Cush settled in Arabia, and have of themselves no particular name or place in history.
6.
Havilah dwelt in the modern Khawlan, the northwestern portion of Yemen on the Red Sea.
7.
Sabtah dwelt east of Yemen in what in ancient times was Chatramotitae in southern Arabia, in the place called Sabota.
8.
Sabtecha was in the eastern part of Arabia on the western shore of the Persian Gulf.
9.
Raamah, with his two sons Sheba and Dedan, peopled the eastern coast of Arabia on the Persian Gulf. Raamah and Sheba traded in Tyre with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold; and the eastern shore of Arabia in all ages has been famed for its spices.
| “There can be little doubt that in the classical name Regma, which is identical with the Septuagint equivalent for Raamah, we have a memorial of the Old-Testament patriarch and of the country he colonized. The town of Regma was situated on the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf, on the northern side of the long promontory which separates it from the ocean. It is interesting to note that on the southern side of the promontory, a few miles distant, was the town called Dadena, evidently identical with Dedan. Around Regma, Ptolemy locates an Arab tribe of the Anariti. Pliny appears to call them Epimaranitae, which, according to Forster, is just an anagrammatic form of Ramanitae, the descendants of Raamah. . . . Of Sheba, the other son of Raamah, there has been found a trace in a ruined city so named (Sheba) on the island of Awal belonging to the province of Arabia called El-Bahreyn, on the shores of the Gulf. . . . There can be no doubt that the original settlements of the descendants of Raamah were upon the southwestern shores of the Persian Gulf.” |
McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia, art. Raamah.
The people of Dedan were caravan merchants from their coast to Palestine and to Tyre.
10.
The last named but the greatest of the sons of Cush is - Nimrod, the mighty hunter, who began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was the founder of the first kingdom on earth.
| “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” |
11.
It will thus be seen that there was a line of Cushite settlements extending from Ethiopia eastward across the whole southern part of Arabia to Babylon. Nor did they stop there, for traces of them have been found on the coasts of Carmania and Gedrosia, along the Indian Ocean; and they even penetrated to the mountainous region of central Asia, and the name of Cush still appears in the name of the mountains
of Hindu Kush.
MIZRAIM - Egypt
12.
The place of Mizraim is Egypt itself, both Upper and Lower, extending from the cataracts of Syene about the twenty-fourth parallel north latitude, over all the valley of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea.
| “In Hebrew, Egypt is called Mizraim. . . . It describes the country with reference to its two great natural divisions, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, or the Delta. In the prophets, Mazor occurs as the singular form, and means Lower Egypt, Pathros being used for Upper Egypt. . . . The Hebrew Mazor is preserved in the Arabic Misr, pronounced Masr in the vulgar dialect of Egypt. It occurs in the Koran as the name of Egypt.” |
Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Egypt.
Says Josephus,
| “The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name; for all who inhabit this country of Judea call Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mestreans.” |
“Antiquities,” book i, chap. vi, par. 2.
In the account of the funeral of Jacob, the record says:
| “And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he Joseph made a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim that is, the mourning of the Egyptians - margin, which is beyond Jordan.” |
Genesis 50: 10, 11.
13.
The sons of Mizraim all dwelt in the land of their father. They were
| “Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim.” |
These seem to have inhabited the valley of the Nile, from Upper to Lower, almost in the order in which they are named. The Philistim were the Philistines, who dwelt a little above the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, and from whom comes the name Palestine, which the ancient “land of Canaan” still bears.
PHUT - Libya
14.
The country of Phut is Libya. Jeremiah. 46:9 speaks of “the Libyans that handle the shield,” and the margin reads, for Libyans, “Hebrew, Put.” Ezekiel 30:5 and 38:5 also speak of “Libya,” and the margin in each place reads “Phut.” Josephus says,
| “Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites from himself; there is also a river in the country of the Moors Mauritania which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention the river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut; but the name it has now, has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mestraim, who was called Libyos,” |
“Antiquities,” Id.
that is, the Lehabim.
| “The ancient Libyans possessed the whole northern coast of Africa, from the confines of Egypt to the Straits of Gibraltar, and all the country thence reaching to the southward as far as it was known to the Greeks and Romans. It would appear that they were the only inhabitants of all these coasts before the age which preceded the foundation of the Phenician colonies among them. . . . The Libyan speech is still preserved among the rustic tribes who inhabit Mount Atlas, and in various parts of the interior.” |
Prichard. “Natural History of Man,” Vol. i, book ii, chap. x, sec. ii.
Simon the Cyrenian, who bore the cross of the Saviour, was from Cyrene, the chief city of northern Libya. It stood on that part of the African coast which projects into the Mediterranean, directly south of Greece. The original Libyans and Phutites are represented in the present Berbers and Tauricks.
CANAAN - Palestine
15.
The land of Canaan, as everybody knows, was Palestine and Phenicia.
| “And 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.” |
Genesis 10: 19.
16. Phoenicians
Sidon, his first-born. Even in the time of Joshua, Sidon was known as the great Zidon. Joshua 11: 8; 10: 28. More than a thousand years before Christ the Sidonians were skilful workers in silver and gold. They stood for a long while pre-eminent in art, manufactures, and commerce. When Solomon began to build the temple, he said to Hiram, king of Tyre,
| “Thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.” |
1 Kings 5: 6.
The Sidonians furnished wives to Solomon; Jezebel to Ahab; and the god Baal and the goddess Ashtoreth to Israel. 1 Kings 11: 1, 5. When Xerxes, in his great expedition against Greece, reached Abydos at the Hellespont, he erected a lofty throne, and from it viewed all his forces of both land and sea. When this was over, he ordered a sailing match among the ships of the different nations of his fleet, which was won by the Sidonians, |
“much to the joy of Xerxes, who was delighted alike with the race and with his army.”|
The Sidonian ships were the most famous in the fleet. And when Xerxes made a grand review of his fleet, he chose a Sidonian galley, and sailed along the prows of the aligned ships. Herodotus, book vii, 45, 99, 100.
17.
A colony from Sidon founded Tyre, five geographical miles down the coast, which soon totally eclipsed the mother city, and became the most opulent city in the world, “the mart of nations.” Her builders were so skilful that they were said to have perfected her beauty. To make the metal work about the temple, Solomon sent and brought out of Tyre, Hiram, who was a son of a woman of Naphtali, “and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass.”
18.
Five hundred and eighty years before Christ, Tyre was so rich that she could make all her shipboards of fir, and her masts of cedar of Lebanon; her oars of oak of Bashan; and her benches of ivory from the isles of Chittim; her sails of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt; and her coverings of blue and purple from the isles of Elishah. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were her mariners, her own wise men were her pilots, and her army was hired from Persia, Lud, Phut, and Arvad. Because of the multitude of all kind of riches, and the multitude of the wares of her own making, Tarshish came to trade in her fairs with silver, iron, tin, and lead. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech came with persons of men and vessels of brass. The house of Togarmah came with horses, horsemen, and mules. Dedan came with horns of ivory and ebony and with “precious clothes for chariots.” Syria came with emeralds, purple and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate. Damascus came with the wine of Helbon and white wool. Judah and Israel brought wheat, and honey, and oil, and balm. Arabia came with lambs, and rams, and goats. Sheba and Raamah came with chief of all spices, and with precious stones and gold. Babylonia and Assyria came with “all sorts of things in blue clothes and broidered work,” and “chests of rich apparel bound with cords and made of cedar.” Thus Tyre enriched the kings of the earth with the multitude of her riches and her merchandise.
19.
From Tyre, about 850 BC., there went forth a colony and founded Carthage on the extreme northern point of Africa, where they built up an empire that
| “extended from the Straits of Gibraltar to the altars of the Philaeni, near the Great Syrtis, where she touched on the territory of Cyrene. She possessed as provinces Sardinia and the Balearic Islands and Malta and a few settlements in Spain and Gaul.” |
Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Carthage.
She also held a part of Sicily. For four hundred years Carthage stood as the rival of the power of Rome, and when in 146 BC. she was utterly destroyed, Rome speedily rose to universal dominion. Such was the course of Sidon, the first-born of Canaan.
20. Hittites
Heth was the second son of Canaan, and was the father of the Hittites. From the sons of Heth Abraham bought the burial place of Sarah, the field of Ephron the Hittite, and there
| “Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave in the field of Machpelah before Mamre; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.” |
Genesis 23: 3-20.
Esau took for wives two Hittite women
| “which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebecca.” |
Genesis 26: 34, 35.
One hundred years after the burial of Sarah, the Hittites had formed a considerable kingdom between the Euphrates, the valley of the Orontes, and the Sea. Two hundred years later they had established the most powerful monarchy in all that region, strong enough, indeed, to war and make treaties on equal terms with Egypt itself. Between them and the Pharaoh who began the oppression there was a war of fourteen years, terminated at last by a peace recognizing the independence of the Hittites and the integrity of their territory; and as a bond of the peace a daughter of the king of the Hittites was given to Pharaoh for a wife, to whom was given an Egyptian name meaning, “Gift of the great Sun of Justice.”
21.
One of the men who was with David in the mountains when he was hunted by Saul, was Abimelech, the Hittite. One of David’s thirty-seven valiant men was Uriah, the Hittite. Solomon brought horses and chariots out of Egypt for the kings of the Hittites, and took women of the Hittites for wives. 1 Kings 10: 29; 11: 1.
Even as late as the time of Elisha they had such a warlike reputation that when Ben-hadad king of Syria (Damascus) had besieged Samaria and had reduced it to the most abject straits,
| “the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.” |
2 Kings 7: 6, 7
22. Jebusites
Jebus was the third son of Canaan. From him came the Jebusites. Jebus built Jerusalem, and the Jebusites were the inhabitants of that noted city. Judges 19:10 says of a traveler, that he |
“came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem.”|
Joshua 15:63 says,
| “As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.” |
It was only in the citadel, however, that they dwelt, for soon after entering the land, the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it. Judges 1: 8.
But when David had reigned six months in Hebron,
| “David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shall not come hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David. And David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief. And David dwelt in the castle; therefore they called it the city of David.” |
1 Chronicles. 11: 4-7; 2 Samuel 5: 4-9.
The temple of God that stood on Mount Moriah was built on the place of the threshing-floor that David bought from Ornan the Jebusite. 2 Chronicles. 3:1; 1 Chronicles 21: 14-30; 22: 1, 2.
23. Amorites
The Amorites dwelt in Hazezon-tamar, (Engedi), on the west of the Dead Sea, when Chedorlaomer invaded Palestine, for there he found them and smote them. Genesis 14: 7.
Some of them were confederate with Abraham. They seem to have been foremost among the people of Canaan, in numbers, and certainly in iniquity; because when the Lord showed Abram the course of his posterity through the Egyptian bondage, he said,
| “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” |
Genesis 15: 16.
Jacob, when he came to die, took from the Amorite a portion which he gave to Joseph. Genesis 48: 22.
24. Girgashites
The Girgashites dwelt in the country that lay west of the Lake Gennesereth. Map opp. p. 111.
25. Hivites
The Hivites dwelt about Salim, in the time of Jacob. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, was a prince of the country, and wanted Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, for his wife. Genesis 34. Jacob bought a field of the sons of Hamor for one hundred pieces of money.
| “And he erected there an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.” |
When the children of Israel came from Egypt to Canaan, the Hivites dwelt in Gibeon. These played that trick on Joshua with the old moldy bread, and old sacks, and old wine bottles torn and bound up, representing that they had come as ambassadors from a far country to make a league with Israel. Joshua 9: 3-27. There were some yet remaining in the time of Solomon, upon whom he relaid the tribute and bondservice. The Nethinim of the temple service were also of this people. 1 Kings 9: 20, 21.
26. The Arkites dwelt on the Phenician coast at the western base of Mount Lebanon. Arka, or Arce, was their chief town.
27. Sinites
The Sinite dwelt in north Lebanon.
28. Arvadites
The Arvadite inhabited a small island and a city called Arvad, on the coast of Syria, opposite the mouth of the Eleutherus; also a portion of the mainland opposite. Tarsus was settled by a colony of them. From the Arvadites were “the men of Arvad” who were both sailors and soldiers for Tyre in her glory.
29. Zemarites
The Zemarite was located between the Jordan and Bethel.
30. Hamathites - Hamath
The Hamathites formed a small kingdom in Syria on the Orontes where they founded the large and important city of Hamath, which still stands one of the oldest cities in the world. It is now under Turkish rule.
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