Genesis 10:23

Descendants of Aram. Uz: a name which occurs among the Nahorides (Gen 22:21) and Horites (Gen 36:28), and which is associated with the Αἰσῖται of Ptolemy, in Arabia deserta towards Babylon; this is favoured by the fact that Uz, the country of Job, is called by the lxx χώρα Αὐσῖτις, although the notion that these Aesites were an Aramaean tribe, afterwards mixed up with Nahorides and Horites, is mere conjecture. Hul: Delitzsch associates this with Cheli (Cheri), the old Egyptian name for the Syrians, and the Hylatae who dwelt near the Emesenes (Plin. 5, 19). Gether he connects with the name give in the Arabian legends to the ancestor of the tribes Themd and Ghadis. Mash: for which we find Meshech in Ch1 1:17, a tribe mentioned in Psa 120:5 along with Kedar, and since the time of Bochart generally associated with the πορος Μάσιον above Nisibis.

This chapter shows more particularly what was said in general (Gen 9:19), concerning the three sons of Noah, that "of them was the whole earth overspread;" and the fruit of that blessing (Gen 9:1, Gen 9:7), "replenish the earth." Is is the only certain account extant of the origin of nations; and yet perhaps there is no nation but that of the Jews that can be confident from which of these seventy fountains (for so many there are here) it derives its streams. Through the want of early records, the mixtures of people, the revolutions of nations, and distance of time, the knowledge of the lineal descent of the present inhabitants of the earth is lost; nor were any genealogies preserved but those of the Jews, for the sake of the Messiah, only in this chapter we have a brief account, I. Of the posterity of Japheth (Gen 10:2-5). II. The posterity of Ham (Gen 10:6-20), and in this particular notice is taken of Nimrod (Gen 10:8-10). III. The posterity of Shem (Gen 10:21, etc.).

10:23 The patriarchs later interacted with the descendants of Aram (see 25:20; 31:20; Deut 26:5). • Uz was the chief Aramean tribe, possibly located northeast of the Jordan; it was Job’s home (see Job 1:1; see also Lam 4:21). • Hul is unknown. He possibly founded Armenia. • Gether is unknown; he was possibly the founder of the Syrians. • Mash might be associated with Mount Masus in northern Mesopotamia or with a part of the Lebanon Mountains.