Page 9 Bible Empires:Sons of Shem
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4. THE SONS OF SHEM
THE country immediately peopled by Shem and his sons lay between that of Ham and Japheth, and stretched from the western extremity of Asia Minor and the mountains of Armenia, over all the valley drained by the Tigris and the Euphrates, and down both sides of the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. The first named of the sons of Shem is -
ELAM -
4. Assyrians
Asshur was the father of the great Assyrian nation and kingdom, whose kings are so often mentioned in the Bible, and with which we shall have much to do in the following pages of this history.
ARPHAXAD
5. Chaldeans
The country inhabited by Arphaxad was north of Assyria toward Armenia and the Caspian Sea. Arphaxad was the father of the Chaldeans, who before the days of Abraham migrated in such numbers to the countrys about Babel, that the land of Shinar became equally the land of the Chaldees, or Chaldeans; for the Bible says that Haran died
| “in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees,” |
Genesis 14: 1-4.
and that Terah took Abram and Sarai and Lot, and
| “went forth with them out of Ur of the Chaldees.” |
Ezra 4: 2, 9, 10.
While as late as the time of Zechariah it is also called “the land of Shinar.” Zechariah 5: 11. Under Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldeans rose to power and dominion; and under Nebuchadnezzar himself they spread their empire over all nations, as the Assyrians had done before them.
6. Arabia
| “And Arphaxad begat Salah, and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan, who, in Arabic is called Kahtan, the great progenitor of all the purest tribes of Central and Southern Arabia.” |
Rawlinson. “Origin of Nations.”
7.
Joktan had thirteen sons: Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. “All these were the sons of Joktan.” The dwelling-place is given us by the Scripture itself,
| “And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.” |
Genesis 10: 30.
The region here defined includes all of southwestern Arabia below the twentieth parallel. It is mostly comprised in the provinces of Hadramaut and Yemen, and is a part of Arabia Felix, that is, Arabia the Happy. As the region they inhabited is thus plainly pointed out, it will not be necessary to mention the sons of Joktan in detail. We shall only locate the most important ones.
8. Hazarmaveth
Hazarmaveth is the one from whom comes the name Hadramaut that now defines the central part of the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.
9. Ophir
Ophir. The place where Ophir dwelt is proverbial in the Scriptures for the fineness and preciousness of its gold. Of Arabia the Happy, it is said,
| “The soil was impregnated with gold and gems, and both the land and sea were taught to exhale the odors of aromatic sweets. Agatharcides affirms that lumps of pure gold were found from the size of an olive to that of a nut; that iron was twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold. These real or imaginary treasures are vanished; and no gold mines are at present known in Arabia.” |
Gibbon. “Decline and Fall,” chap. 1, par. 2, and note.
10. Sheba
Sheba was a place whence came incense. Says the Lord by Jeremiah,
| “To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?” |
Jeremiah. 6: 20.
| “The aromatics, especially, the thus, or frankincense, of Arabia, occupy the twelfth book of Pliny. Our great poet in ‘Paradise Lost,’ book iv, introduces, in a simile, the spicy odors that are blown by the northeast wind from the Sabean coast: - |
| “‘. . . Many a league, Pleased with the grateful scent old Ocean smiles.’“ - |
Gibbon. “Decline and Fall,” Id.
Sheba was the most notable of the sons of Joktan, and this name was for a time equivalent to the whole district peopled by the Joktanidae. From this Sheba came the queen who made the memorable visit to Solomon.
11.
Nor has Joktan been behind any of the other sons of Shem in the matter of empire. In AD. 622 there arose one of the sons of Joktan (Mahomet) and started a course of conquest that never halted nor suffered a check until, through his successors,
| “their empire comprised the whole basin of the Mediterranean, with the exception of its northern side; in Africa its only limits were the great central desert; in Asia the plateau of Kobi and the Indus; and throughout almost all these regions the Arab element either remained absolutely predominant down to our own time, or has at least left distinct traces of its existence.” |
Encyclopedia Britannica, art. Arabia - History - “Extent of the Arab Empire.”
He also established a religion that today is held by about one seventh of the inhabitants of the world.
LUD - Lydia
12.
Lud settled on the borders of Mesopotamia, north of Syria, whence his descendants spread into Asia Minor, took possession of the country, and founded the kingdom of Lydia, which, 606 BC., was one of the four great powers of the world - Lydia, Egypt, Media, and Babylon. It became a part of the empire of Babylonia under Nebuchadnezzar, but after his death it regained its independence. Its kings ruled over all Asia Minor from the Hellespont to the River Halys, and in the war with Cyrus, King Croesus was able to take into the field 420,000 foot and 60,000 horse. He was defeated, however, and was followed by Cyrus to his capital, Sardis, which was taken, and with it the king. Lydia was then made a province of the Medo-Persian Empire, and never recovered its independence. This King Croesus, of Lydia, was the richest monarch in the world in his day, and “as rich as Croesus” is yet the synonym of untold wealth. Sardis, Thyatira, and Philadelphia, whose churches are named in the New Testament, were cities of Lydia.
| “The Lydians . . . have a twofold interest in the dawn of Hellenic history. First, they represent the earliest kingdom of Asia Minor of which anything is certainly known. Secondly, they are on land what the Phoenicians are on sea, - carriers or mediators between the Greeks and the East.” |
Id., art. Greece, Prehistoric Period.
ARAM - Syria
13.
The country of Aram was Aramaea, or Syria, and northern Mesopotamia, that is, the country north of Palestine and Phenicia, and the north country between the Euphrates and the Tigris below Armenia. In Numbers 23:7 the Hebrew word Aram is rendered Aram, while in Judges 3:10 the same word is translated Mesopotamia, and in Judges 10:6 it is translated Syria. Where David conquered and put garrisons in “Syria of Damascus,” it is in Hebrew, Aram-Dammesek. Wherever the Hebrew word Aram is used with reference to the people of Aram, King James’s Version always translates it Syrians. Damascus was the capital of Syria (Aramaea), and Isaiah 7:8 says, “The head of Syria is Damascus.”
14. Damascus
Damascus is one of the very oldest cities in the world. It was “unto Hobah which is on the left hand of Damascus” that Abraham pursued “Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him” after he had defeated them at Daniel. Eliezer of Damascus was the steward of Abram’s house. There were many wars between Syria and Israel. Naaman the Syrian was healed of his leprosy by the direction of Elisha the prophet; yet he at first disdained to wash in Jordan because
| “Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus were better than all the waters of Israel.” |
2 Kings 5: 12.
15.
Damascus was for a time the capital of the Mohometan Empire, and in the palmy days of Saracen rule was one of the greatest manufacturing cities in the world.
16.
Aram had four sons, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
17. Uz
Uz gave his name to a portion of country known as “the land of Uz,” of which Job was an inhabitant. It lay a little southeast of Palestine, above the thirtieth parallel, and toward the border of Chaldea, in what is known as Arabia Deserta.
18. Hul
Hul dwelt in, and gave name to, a district at the foot of the mountains of Lebanon, north of Lake Merom, through which the Jordan flows. The Arabic name of the lake is yet Bahr-el-Huleh.
19.
Gether is not now known.
| “No satisfactory trace of the people sprung from this stock has been found.” |
Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
20.
Mash inhabited the country of the mountains of Masius (Mons Masius) which form the northern boundary of Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
21.
| “These 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.” |
22.
Noah said, “God shall enlarge Japheth.” We see this word fulfilled, even to the width of the world. For, speaking without definite lines, Ham peopled Africa, Palestine, and Phenicia; Shem peopled Asia Minor, the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and Arabia; and Japheth peopled all the rest of the world.
THE DESCENDANTS OF PELEG
23.
Peleg begat Reu, and Reu begat Serug, and Serug begat Nahor, and Nahor begat Terah, and Terah begat Abram.
And to Abram God said,
| “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” |
Genesis 12: 1-3.
Then the Lord changed his name from Abram to Abraham, saying:
| “As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.” |
Genesis 17: 4-6.
And Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, whom God called Israel, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs, whose descendants
| “are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” |
Romans 9: 4, 5.
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