Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/73

2 and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech. And Arpachshad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the

O.T., were mainly, if not entirely Semitic: a martial and ruthless people whose conquests in the 14th—7th cents. have made them world-famous.

Arpachshad] a somewhat obscure name. In the last part (chshad) the same consonants occur as in the name "Chasdim," the "Chaldees" of the O.T. Possibly two names have been run together, the second being that of the Chaldees or Chaldeans, a Semitic race who from c. 900 dominated Babylonia, assimilating with the earlier Semitic inhabitants. This conjecture has some support in the surprising fact that the Chaldeans are not otherwise mentioned in the table; it is opposed by the fact that Arpachshad occurs elsewhere, ver. 24; Gen. x. 24, xi. 10 ff.

Lud] the name suggests the Lydians, but how this non-Semitic people situated on the W. coast of Asia Minor comes to be included with Asshur and Aram as a son of Shem is a mystery. Possibly therefore a Semitic region, called Lubdu, between Tigris and Euphrates is meant.

Aram] the "Syrians" of the A.V.; better called Arameans. They were widely settled in the lands to the N. and N.E. of Palestine, with important centres in Damascus (Syria proper) and the north of the Euphrates valley (the Aram-Naharaim of the O.T.). So great and lasting was their influence on Israel that the Aramean dialect eventually superseded Hebrew and was the ordinary language of Palestine in the time of Christ.

Uz] From Gen. x. 23 it appears that in Chron. the words "And the children of Aram " have dropped out, so that "Uz" etc. appear as the immediate descendants of Shem.

Neither Uz nor the three following names have been satisfactorily identified. For "Meshech" Gen. x. 23 (Heb. but not LXX.) reads "Mash."

18—23 (= Gen. x. 24—29).

18. Eber] The Heb. word usually means "the land beyond" and may have originated as a personification of the population beyond the Euphrates. It is further possible that Eber is an eponym, not merely of the Hebrews, but of the Habiri, a much wider stock of Semitic nomads, of whom the Hebrews formed an element, and who overran and harassed the settled peoples of Palestine in the fifteenth cent.

19. two sons] one (Peleg) representing, roughly speaking, the northern or Mesopotamian Semites; the other (Joktan), the south Arabian tribes.