Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/322

 nations and not with individual genealogies (note also instead of ).

25. The two sons of Eber represent the Northern and Southern Semites respectively, corresponding roughly to Aramæans and Arabs: we may compare with Jast. (DB, v. 82 a) the customary division of Arabia into Šām (Syria) and Yemen. The older branch, to which the Israelites belonged, is not traced in detail: we may assume that a Yahwistic genealogy ( to 11$16ff.$ [P]) existed, showing the descent of Abraham from Peleg; and from scattered notices (19$30ff.$ 22$20ff.$ 25$1ff.$ etc.) we can form an idea of the way in which the northern and central districts were peopled by that family of 'Hebrews.'—On, see below.—For in his days the earth was divided ] a popular etymology naturally suggested by the root, which in Heb. (as in Aram. Arab. etc.) expresses the idea of 'division' (cf. the vb. in Ps. 55$10$, Jb. 38$25$). There is no very strong reason to suppose that the dispersion (, T$J$ etc.) of the Tower of Babel is referred to; it is possible that some other tradition regarding the distribution of nations is followed (e.g. Jub. viii. 8 ff.), or that the allusion is merely to the separation of the Yoḳṭanites from their northern kinsmen.

] as a common noun means 'watercourse' or artificial canal (Ass. palgu): Is. 30$25$, Ps. 1$3$ 65$10$, Jb. 29$6$ etc. Hence it has been thought that the name originally denoted some region intersected by irrigating channels or canals, such as Babylonia itself. Of geographical identifications there are several which are sufficiently plausible: Phalga in Mesopotamia, at the junction of the Chaboras and the Euphrates (Knob.); 'el-Falǧ, a district in NE Arabia near the head of the Persian Gulf (Lag. Or. ii. 50); 'el-Aflāǧ of Ǧebel Tuwaiḳ in central Arabia (Homm. AA, 222$2$).

] otherwise unknown, is derived by Fleischer (Goldz. Mythos, p. 67) from [root] ḳaṭana = 'be settled.' The Arab genealogists identified him with Ḳaḥtān, the legendary ancestor of a real tribe, who was (or came to be) regarded as the founder of the Yemenite Arabs (Margoliouth, DB, ii. 743). On the modern stock of 'el-Ḳaḥṭan, and its sinister reputation in the more northerly parts of the Peninsula, see Doughty, ''Arab. Des.'' i. 129, 229, 282, 343, 389, 418, ii. 39 ff., 437.

26-30. The sons of Yoḳṭan number 13, but in G (see on

25. ] [E]G ; but is possibly acc. after pass, as 4$18$ etc. (G-K. § 121 a, b)——] similarly 22$21$ (J).—26. Some MSS have, as if = 'court of death.'