there was a remainder of the Name of Pison preserved in the Easterly River called Pasitigris which is the same with Oroatis as Salmasius observes in his Exerc. Plinianae in Solin p. 701 702 And is called as Mr. Carver notes by Xenophon simply Physeus in which the Name of Phison is plainly enough retained Which continued till the time of Alexander the Great For Q. Curtius as he further notes commonly calls Tigris it self by the Name of Phasis and says it was so called by the Inhabitants thereabouts Which in all probability was at first the Name of this other River Phison but lost by the many alterations which were made for a long time in the course of it as Pliny tells us For he says the Orcheni and other neighbouring Nations made great and deep Cuts or Canals to carry the Water of Euphrates meaning this River into their Fields and so it lost its course and run through Tigris and the Marshes into the Sea Strabo saith the same that from these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls them deep Trenches which carried the Water of Euphrates into Tigris came the Name of Pasitigris that is Pison mixed with Tigris See Salmasius in the fore-named Exercitations pag. 703 where he shows this River was not perfectly restored to its Course till the times of Alexander the Great That is it which compasseth the whole Land of Havilah By finding where this Country was we certainly find the River Phison Now Moses makes mention of two Havilah's one descended from Cush Gen. X. 7. and the other from Jocktan ver 29. The latter of these cannot be here meant for his Posterity were planted Eastward but the former who were a more Western People in that part of Arabia Foelix which bordered upon this Stream For the Ishmaelites who inhabited Arabia deserta are described by Moses XXV 18. as bounded by Shur towards Egypt and by Havilah in the way to Assyria And Saul found Havilah in after-times in the very same situation 1 Sam. XV. 7. And still much later Strabo mentions the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are certainly the Posterity of Chavilah among the People of Arabia See Bochart's Phaleg L. IV. c. 11. Where there is Gold Nothing is more famous than the Gold of Arabia Where Diodorus Siculus says it is digged up in great Lumps as big as a Chesnut L. II. p. 93. Edit H. Steph. Ver. 12. And the Gold of that Land is good i. e. Is excellent For the fore-named Author says it is of such a flaming Colour that it adds much to the Lustre of precious Stones that are set in it There is Bdellium The Hebrew word being Bedolach some have thought Bdellium to come from thence which is an Aromatick Gum. Others think Bedolach to be Chrystal others Amber but Bochart rather thinks it signifies Pearl Which he proves in his Hieroizoc P. II. L. V. c. 25. from the Country it self here mentioned viz. Havilah which he looks upon as that Part of Arabia which lies upon the Persian Gulph Where at Catipha there is a great Pearl-fishing The Manna also wherewith the Israelites were fed in the Wilderness is described Numb XI 7. to be round like Coriander-Seed and of the Colour of Bedolach Now in his former Description Moses says it was white Exod. XVI 14. which agrees to Pearls as also doth roundness but not to the sweet Gum called Bdellium Of which see Salmasius in his Exerc. Plin. p. 1150. And the Onyx Stone This Country also was famous for Precious Stones as appears by the Report which Nearchus Alexander's Admiral made of the Western Coast of the Persian Gulph in Strabo L. XVI But Braunius L. II. De Vestitu Sacerd. Hebr. cap. 18. thinks Schoham should rather be translated the Sardonyx Which soever it be Arabia was famous both for the Onyx and Sardonyae as Salmasius observes out of Pliny Ib. p. 562 563. Ver. 13. The name of the second River is Gihon There is no footsteps of this Name remaining that I can find but we are directed by the Country it is said to compass to take it to be the Eastern Stream that arose from the parting of Euphrates and Tigris as Pison I said was the Western Compasseth or runneth along by the whole Land of Aethiopia Or Cush Who was seated more Eastward than his Sons Havilah Seba and the rest mentioned Gen. X. 6 7. upon the Borders of this River For when People first began to spread themselves they kept as near to great Rivers as they could for the better Communication one with another and affording mutual Succour and Assistance It is probable that he gave Name to the Country of Susiana which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is now called by the Persians Chuzestan i. e. The Province of Chus And when his Posterity multiplied they went more Westward toward the Arabian Sea From whence his Brother Mitzraim passed into Egypt Our Translators follow the LXX in rendring the Hebrew Name Cush by Aethiopia Not meaning that in Africa but this in Assa For the Ancients frequently mention a double Aethiopia as many have observed particularly Job Ludolphus who herein justifies the LXX in great part L. II. Comment in Histor Aethiop Cap. III. n. 16. Ver. 14. The name of the third is Hiddekel Which River being called by Daniel X. 4. the great river cannot be as many have fansied Nahar-malca For that was but a Cut made by Trajan to waft his Army out of Euphrates into Tigris as Ammian Marcellinus tells us and therefore Hiddekel is Tigris it self Which as Pliny says was called Diglito in those Parts where its Course was slow and where it began to be rapid it took the Name of Tigris And so the Arabians call this River Deglat and Degela from the Hebrew word Hiddekel Which Salmasius derives from Hadda or Chadda sharp pointed and Kal swift because of its very quick and hasty Motion And thence the Greeks he observes derive the Name of Tigris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exerc. in Solin p. 694. Rauwolff in his Travels P. II. c. 9. says That when he was at Caruch on the Confines of Media which was about an hundred Years ago Tigris was still called in their Language Hidekel Which goeth toward the East of Assyria If it make a great bend Northward as Pliny saith it doth about Apamia it must needs run toward the East of Assyria for some time But this is not the Course of the River and therefore the LXX translate the word Kidmath which we english toward the East simply toward And it is certain Tigris did run by Assyria for Nineveh the chief City of Assyria stood upon the East side of this River as Bochart hath demonstrated in his Phaleg L. IV. cap. 20. The fourth River is Euphrates None doubt that the River called here in the Hebrew Perath or Phrath is the same that hath been called for many Ages Euphrates The Course of which was so well known in those Days that Moses
SHECHINAH which appeared from the beginning as I have often said before the sight of which Cain never after this enjoyed but was banished from it And God withdrawing his gracious Presence from him so St. Chrysostom he was also forsaken by him and put out of his special Protection If Cain after this turned a down-right Idolater as many think it is very likely he introduced the Worship of the Sun which was the most ancient sort of Idolatry as the best resemblance he could find of the Glory of the LORD Which was wont to appear in a flaming Light And in after-times they worshipped Fire in the Eastern Countries as the best Emblem of the Sun when it was absent And dwelt in the Land of Nod. At last he setled in a Country which had the Name of Nod from his wandring up and down like a Vagabond till he fixed here Where it seems he still continued restless moving from one part of the Country to another till in conclusion he built a City for his security some think as we read in the Verse following Some translate it in the Land of Vagabonds And R. Solomon fansies the very ground shaked under him and made People run away from him saying This is the cruel Man that killed his Brother On the East of Eden He still went Eastward from that Country where Adam setled after he was thrust out of Paradise See III. 24. Which Junius thinks was in that tract of Ground where the Nomades afterwards dwelt bordering upon Susiana Which is far more probable than the Conceit of the Author of the Book Cosri Par. II. § 14. who would have Cain's going from the presence of the LORD nothing else but his Expulsion out of the Land of Canaan where Adam dwelt after he was thrust out of Paradise And consequently the Land of Nod was not far from the Land of Canaan Nothing can be more ungrounded than this which overthrows also all that Moses saith of Eden and the Garden planted there from whence Adam went out on the East-side and therefore not toward Canaan which was Westward Ver. 17. And Cain knew his Wife There hath been no mention hitherto of any Woman in the World but Eve much less of Cain's having a Wife And therefore it is uncertain whether this were a Wife he took before he killed his Brother or after It is most probable before because we may well think all the World abhorred the thoughts of Marriage with such an impious Murderer whom God also had accursed But whether it were before or after I see no reason to conclude that this Wife was his Sister There being Women enough in the World beside before this time as was said before verse 15. For even in our Country in the Age before us there sprung from two Persons Three hundred sixty seven Children within the space of eighty Years And therefore the World being now when Cain slew Abel an Hundred and twenty eight or an Hundred and thirty Years old according to Arch-Bishop Vsher and Jac. Capellus's Chronology we cannot but conceive there were a great Number of People in it descended from all those Sons and Daughters which Adam begot Chap. V. 4. We are not told how many but some of the ancient Eastern Traditions in Cedrenus say he had thirty three Sons and twenty seven Daughters It is true indeed That at the first Cain could marry none but one of his Sisters Which was then Lawful because absolutely necessary But prohibited by God when that Necessity ceased Of which the Eastern People were so sensible that they took care to have it thought that Cain and Abel did not marry those who were nearest of kin to him but those that were at some distance For their Tradition is That Eve at her two first Births brought Twins a Son and a Daughter viz. Cain with his Sister Azron and Abel with his Sister Awin as Saidus Patricides Patriarch of Alexandria reports Now such was their Caution not to match with those that were nearest in Blood but with those further off as much as was then possible Cain was not suffered to marry his Twin-Sister nor Abel his But Adam gave Awin to Cain and Azron to Abel I cannot vouch the truth of this Story Which I mention only to show That Mankind have had a Sense that all possible Care should be used to avoid Marriages with the nearest Relations For though this Story was derived perhaps from the Jews yet it was believed by other People See Mr. Selden L. V. De Jure N. G. c. 8. Whence Diodorus Siculus says Lib. I. it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common use of Mankind that Brothers and Sisters should not be joyned in Marriage And Plato L. VIII de Legib. calls such Marriages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by no means holy but hateful to God For though they were not so in the beginning of things they became so afterwards That being natural in one state of things as Grotius well observes Lib. De Jure B. P. c. 10. which is unnatural in another state And he built a City Not as soon as the came into this Country but when he had a numerous Progeny able to people it And consequently in his old Age. His end in building it some think was to cross the Curse of wandring to and fro Others to defend himself against those whom his guilty Conscience made him fear or to secure the Spoils which by force and violence as Josephus relates L. I. Antiq c. 3. he had taken from others There are those who imagine that when he attempted to build this City he often broke off the Work out of a panick fear Such an one as Romulus felt after he had killed his Brother Remus And called the Name of the City after the Name of his Son Some think he declined his own Name because he knew it to be odious every where But it is more likely it was for that reason which moved Men in after-times to do the same For it hath been a very ancient Usage for great Men to call the Cities which they built by the Name of their Sons rather than their own Out of the great Love they bare to their Children Thus Nimrod called Nineveh after the Name of his Son Ninus Which the Psalmist notes as a piece of the Vanity of Mankind to call their Lands that is the Houses where they dwelt as R. Solomon Jarchi interprets it by their own Names to be a lasting Monument of them and of their Family Enoch There were an ancient People called by Pliny Heniochi by Mela Eniochi and by Lucan Enochii Some of which lived so far Eastward that Sir W. Raleigh fansies they might be the Posterity of this Enoch Ver. 18. And unto Enoch was born Irad c. It is remarkable that though Moses gives us some Account of the Descendants of Cain yet he saith not a word of the Years that they lived and carries their Genealogy but a little way Whereas he
Iberi because they were thought to possess the utmost Ends of the Earth Westward However we may well think Tarshish to be Spain or that part of it which was most frequented by the Phoenicians viz. About Gades and Tartessus As Bochartus I think hath proved by evident Arguments fetched chiefly from what Ezekiel says of Tarsis XXVII 12. and comparing it with this Country L. III. Phaleg c. 7. Kittim The same Author hath proved by solid Arguments and by good Authority that from him came the People who inhabited Italy In which there were anciently many footsteps of this Name For there was in Latium it self a City called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Halycarnassaeus tells us Which was one of those seven great and populous Cities taken by Coriolanus as Plutarch in his Life tells us There was a River called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about Cumae mentioned by Aristotle as turning Plants into Stones And the very Name of Latines answers to Chittim For most say it comes à latendo being formed to express this ancient Scripture Name For Chetema in Arabick which is a branch of the Hebrew Tongue is to hide And Chetim is hidden and latent And so no doubt it was anciently used in Hebrew For what better sence can we make of those words of Jeremy II. 22. thy inquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is hidden or laid up with me According to an usual expression in Scripture Deut. XXXII 34. Job XXI 9. Hos XIII 12. where there are words of the like import with this That famous Man Bochart saith a great deal more to assert this L. III. c. 5. Dodanim He is called Rhodanim in 1 Chron. I. 7. By whom the Greek Interpreters understand the People of Rhodes and so do several of the Ancients but the Name of that Island is much later than Moses his time And therefore it is better to understand hereby that Country now called France Which was peopled by the Posterity of this Son of Javan Who when they came to this Coast gave Name as Bochart conjectures to the great River Rhodanus Where it is likely they first seated themselves and called the adjacent Coast Rhodanusia Which had anciently in it a City of the same Name mentioned by Stephanus and said to be seated in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in tractu Massiliensi where now stands Marseilles See Bochart L. III. c. 6. These Dodanites are never mentioned in any other places of Scripture which makes it the more difficult where to find them But this Account seems more probable than that of our learned Mede who places them in Epirus where there was a City called Dodona and part of Peloponnesus All which and several Countries thereabout seem to be comprehended under the Name of Javan Ver. 5. By these were the Isles of the Gentiles divided By the word Isles we commonly understand Countries compassed round about by the Sea But there were not such Islands enough to contain the Sons of Japhet though these were part of their Portion and therefore we must seek for another sence of this word Which the Hebrews use as Mr. Mede hath observed to signifie all those Countries divided from them by the Sea or such as they used not to go to but by Sea See Book I. Disc 47. Many places testifie this Isai XI 10 11. XL. 15. Jer. II. 10 c. Now if Moses wrote this Book in Egypt as he thinks it probable they commonly went from thence to Phrygia Cappadocia Paphlagonia by Sea as well as to Greece Italy c. To Media indeed he thinks they did not use to go by Sea and therefore makes this an Objection against Madai being the Father of the Medes For their Country cannot be called an Isle But the far greater part of the Regions peopled by the Sons of Japhet being such as he confesses the Hebrews call Isles Moses might well say the Isles of the Gentiles were parted among them though Media be comprehended which was not such an Isle But there is no need of all this if we take the word we translate Isle for a Region Country or Province And so it plainly signifies Job XXII 30. Isai XX. 6. where in the Margin we translate it Country And then the word Goim which we render Gentiles signifies a multitude of People as it doth often in Scripture Particularly Gen. XVII 4 16. And so we translate it Nations in the last word of this Verse and in the last Clause of this Chapter by these were the Goim Nations divided in the Earth Which may serve to explain this Phrase here which we may thus interpret by these or among these were divided the Regions of the People or Nations descended from Japhet in their Lands in the several Countries which they possessed Divided It appears by the following words according to his Language Family and Nation this great Division of the Earth was made orderly and not by a confused irregular Dispersion wherein every one went whither he listed and seated himself where he thought good This Mr. Mede thinks is also suggested in the very word we translate divided Which signifies not a scattered but a distinct Partition Every one after his Tongue or Language The same is said ver 20. and ver 31. of the Posterity of Cham and Shem. Which signifies they did not all speak the same Language but doth not prove that every one of the fore-mentioned People had a Language peculiar to themselves distinct from the rest and not understood by them As when Ahasuerus is said to have caused Letters to be written to an hundred twenty seven Provinces according to their Language and their Writing Esth XIII 9. it doth not prove there were so many several sorts of Writing and so many several Languages in his Empire But only that to each of them was directed a Letter in that Language which they spake After their Families in their Nations The Particle in denotes as Mr. Mede observes Families to be subordinate to Nations as parts to a whole Families are parts of a Nation and a Nation is an Off-spring containing many Families So here was a two-fold order in this Division First They were ranged according to their Nations and then every Nation was ranked by his Families So that every Nation had his Lot by himself and in every Nation the Families belonging to it had their Portion by themselves The number of Nations descended from Japhet were seven according to the number of his Sons who were all Founders of several Nations But the number of Families is not here intirely set down For Moses names only the Families of Gomer and Javan Whose Children perhaps are rather to be lookt upon as Founders of Nations and therefore mentioned by Moses when the Posterity of the rest are omitted Ver. 6. And the Sons of Ham. Having given an Account of the Sons and Grand-Sons of Japhet the eldest Son of Noah he next proceeds to the Sons of Ham the second Son of Noah which were Four
Ishmaelites are said to have dwelt from Havilah to Shur Gen. XXV 18. that is before Egypt è Regione Egypti over-against Egypt as Bochart translates it That is Havilah bounded them on the North-East and Shur on the South-West Which Shur was near to Egypt And so Saul is said to have smitten the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur c. 1 Sam. XV. 7. Where we translate the last words over against Egypt Sabta Or Sabtha whom the Ancients call Sabatha or Sabathes seems to have been setled in that part of Arabia Foelix called Leanitis upon the Persian Sea Where there was a City not far distant from the Sea called by Ptolomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From whence they sent Colonies over the Sea into Persia as Bochart shows by several Arguments L. IV. c. 10. For there is an Island on that Coast called Sophtha and a People called Messabatae or Massabathae upon the Confines of Media From the Chaldaean word Mesa which signifies middle and Sabatha as if one would say the Mediterranean Sabtae Raamah Or as the Ancients pronounce his Name Rhegma was situated in the same Arabia upon the Persian Sea Where there is a City mentioned by Ptolomy's Tables Rhegama in the Greek Text expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rhegma And so Stephanus mentions both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the Persian Gulph Sabtecha Or Sabtheca as some read it was the youngest Son of Cush except Nimrod who is mentioned by himself It is hard to find the place of his Habitation But the rest of the Sons of Cush being seated about the Persian Sea except Nimrod who as Moses tells us went to Babylon Bochartus thinks it reasonable to seek for him in that part of Caramania where there was a City called Samydace and a River Samydachus Which he thinks may have come from Sabetecha by the change of the Letter B into M Which was very frequent in Arabia and the neighbouring Countries For Merodach is also called Berodach in the Book of the Kings And in the Chaldee Paraphrase Basan is called Bathnan and Mathnan And Abana the famous River of Damascus is expounded Amana And Meccha and Beccha are the same City among the Arabians In like manner Sabtecha or Sabithace might be changed into Samydace Now into Caramania there was a short cut over the Streights of the Persian Gulph out of Arabia I see nothing any where more probable than this Conjecture of a very learned Man L. IV. Phaleg c. 4. And the Sons of Ramah Sheba and Dedan He gives an account of none of Cush's other Sons posterity but only of this Whose two Sons were seated near him and one another For the younger of them Dedan seems to have left his Name in a City now called Dadan hard by Rhegma upon the same Shore East-ward And from this Dadan the Country now hath its Name Of which Ezekiel speaks XXVII 15. as Bochart shews plainly L. IV. c. 6. And Sheba or as others read it Seba or Saba his elder Brother was seated in the same Country not far from Dedan where Pomponius mentions a People called Sabaei and Arrianus speaks of a great Mountain not far off called Sabo from this Saba Whose posterity easily passing over the Straits before-mentioned into Caramania might possibly give Name to a City there which Ptolomy calls Sabis And Pliny mentions a River of the same Name And Dionys Periegetes speaks of a People called Sabae Of whom the Scripture seems to speak in those places where Sheba and Seba are joined together LXXII 10. The Kings of Sheba i. e. of this Country and Seba shall offer Gifts And sometimes Sheba and Raamah for Rhegma are joined Ezek. XXVII 22. where the Prophet speaks of this Sheba the Son of Rhegma who brought those precious Commodities there mentioned out of Arabia They lying very commodiously for Traffick upon the Persian Gulph And these are the People also mentioned verse 23. of that Chapter with sundry other Nations who lived upon Tigris and Euphrates which run into the Persian Sea and therefore it is reasonable to think that Sheba's posterity lived near the same Sea Ver. 8. And Cush begat Nimrod Besides all the fore-mentioned he also begat this Son whom Moses distinguishes from the rest and mentions him alone by himself because he was the most eminent among his Brethren though born the last a mighty Commander as Moses here describes him Thus in the Title of Psal XVIII it is said David was delivered out of the hand of all his Enemies and out of the hand of Saul Who is particularly mentioned by himself because he was his Chief Enemy Sir W. Raleigh thinks he was begotten by Cush when his other Children were become Fathers and so being younger than his Grandsons he is named after an account is given of every one of them Nimrod The Author of the Chronicon Alexandr thinks he was the same with Ninus But Vossius rather takes him for him whom the Greek Writers call Belus that is Lord And that Ninus was his Son so called from the very thing it self Nin in Hebrew signifying a Son L. I. de Idolol cap. 24. The same Chronicon saith that Nimrod taught the Assyrians to worship the Fire And both Elmacinus and Patricides affirm the same See Hotting Smegma Orient L. I. c. 8. p. 272. Which if it be true I doubt not was as an Emblem of the Divine Majesty which used to appear in a glorious Flame Vr a City of Chaldaea seems to have had its name from the Fire which was there worshipped And that Vr also from whence Abraham came the Hebrews fansie had the same original for their Fable is That Abraham was thrown into the Fire because he would not Worship it and by the power of God delivered as St. Hierom tells us in his Questions upon Genesis He began to be a mighty one in the Earth He was the first great Warrior and Conqueror so Gibbor is to be understood not for a Giant or Man of great Stature but for a potent Person And as some will have it a more severe Governour than they had been who only exercised Paternal Authority For he was the first that put down the Government of Eldership or Paternity as Sir W. Raleigh speaks and laid the Foundation of Soveraign Rule Ver. 9. He was a mighty Hunter Or rather mighty in Hunting For the Word tzid doth not signify a Hunter but Hunting Which shows by what means he came to be so great a Monarch He hardned himself to Labour by this Exercise which was very toilsom and drew together a great Company of robust Young Men to attend him in this sport Who were hereby also fitted to pursue Men as they had done wild Beasts For this was lookt upon in all ages as the rudiment of Warfare as Bochart shews out of a great many Authors L. IV. cap. 12. All the Heroes of old such as Nestor Theseus Castor Pollux Vlysses Diomedes Achilles Aeneas
c. being all bred up to hunting as Xenophon informs us And it was not without some such reason that noble Families carry in their Coats of Arms as Ensigns of their valorous Atchievements Lyons Bears Tygers c. from their killing such like fierce Creatures For it must be farther noted that in this Age of Nimrod the Exercise of Hunting might well be the more highly esteemed and win him the Hearts of Mankind because he delivered them by this means from those wild Beasts whereby they were much infested and very dangerously exposed while they were but few and lived scattered up and down in the open Air or in Tents but weakly defended The destroying of wild Beasts and perhaps of Thieves whom he hunted also was a great service in those times and made many join with him in greater designs which he had at last to subdue Men and make himself Master of the People who were his Neighbours in Babylon Susiana and Assyria The memory of this hunting of his was preserved by the Assyrians who made Nimrod the same with Orion who joined the Dog and the Hare the first Creature perhaps that was hunted with his Constellation This Mr. Selden observes in his Titles of Honour Part. I. cap. I. where he farther notes that he is to this day called by the Arabians Algebar the mighty Man or the Giant From the Hebrew Gibbor here in the text Before the Lord. i. e. To the highest degree For so a great City to God is a very great City Jonah III. 3. and a Child very beautiful is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fair to or before God Acts VII 20. Or the meaning may be he was truly so not only in common opinion For that is said to be before God which really is Because God cannot be deceived with false appearances Wherefore it is said even as Nimrod the mighty c. i. e. Thence came the common Proverb Which Moses alledges as a proof of the Truth of what he delivered Nothing being more usual in his days than for Men to say when they would express how exceeding great any Man was He is like Nimrod the mighty Hunter before the LORD Thus common Sayings are quoted in other places nothing being more notorious than such Proverbial Speeches Numb XXI 27. 1 Sam. X. 12. It is not improbable that Nimrod is the same with him whom the Greeks call Bacchus whose Conquests in the East as far as India are nothing else but the Expeditions of Nimrod and his Successors The very Name of Bacchus imports this which was made out of Bar-Chus the Son of Cush as Dammasek i. e. Damascus was out of Darmasek Many other Arguments for this are collected by Bochartus L. I. Phaleg cap. 2. Ver. 10. The beginning of his Kingdom was Babel See XI 5 8. Which according to the Gentile Writers was built by Belus the same with Nimrod who was called Belus as I noted before from Baal because of his Dominion and large Empire over which he was an absolute Lord. They that say his Son Ninus or as Philo-Byblius his Son Babylon was the Builder may be thus reconciled with the fore-mention'd Opinion That Belus began it and his Son much augmented it See Voss L. I. De Idol c. 24. L. VII c 9. There are those that say it was built by Semiramis but as they have it only from Ctesias who is not to be relied on against Berosus and Abydenus who wrote the History of that Country out of the ancient Records and say Belus built it so if it be true we must understand it of her rebuilding it after it was decayed or adding greater Splendor to it And this also must be understood not of the Wife of Ninus for it is a question whether he had any Wife of that Name Or if he had she was different from her whom the Greeks so much magnifie who lived almost two thousand Years after the Son of Belus as Salmasius observes Exercit. in Solin p. 1228. out of Philo-Byblius And Erec c. Having built Babel which he made the chief City of his Kingdom he proceeded to build three Cities more in the same Country Which they that think he won by Conquest imagine also that he made Babel the Head City because he won it first and then the other And all this say some before the dispersion we read of in the next Chapter Which others think hapned after the dispersion Erec seems to have been the City which Ptolomy calls Arecca and Ammianus Arecha Which lay in the Country of Susiana upon the River Tigris Whence the Areccaei Campi in Tibullus as Salmasius observes in his Exercit. in Solinum p. 1194. From whence Huetius thinks the Country below it was called Iraque mentioned by Alferganus and other Arabian Writers Acchad It is an hard matter to give any account of this City but the LXX calling it Archad from the Chaldee Idiom which is wont to change the Daghes which doubles a Letter into R as Darmasek for Dammasek i. e. Damascus and by the same reason Archad for Acchad the footsteps of this Name may be thought to remain in Argad a River of Sittacene in Persia For nothing is more common than to change ch into g. Chalne It is sometimes called Chalno Isai X. 9. and Channe Ezek. XXVII 23. From whence the Country called Chalonitis mentioned by Pliny and Strabo Polybius and Dionys Periegetes may well be thought to have taken its Name Whose chief City was called Chalne or Chalone which is the same and afterwards changed by Pacorus King of Persia into Ctesiphon Ver. 11. Out of that Land went forth Ashur This Translation is not so likely as that in the Margin He went out into Assyria For Moses is speaking of what Nimrod the Son of Cush did and not of the Sons of Shem among whom Ashur was one Nor is it agreeable to the order of History to tell us here what Ashur did before there be any mention of his Birth which follows verse 22. Besides it was not peculiar to Ashur the Son of Shem that he went out of the Land of Shinar For so did almost all Men who were dispersed from thence Add to this that Assyria is called the Land of Nimrod by Micah V. 6. They shall waste the Land of Assyria with the Sword and the Land of Nimrod with their Lances or in the entrance thereof as we translate it Therefore it is very reasonable to take Ashur here not for the Name of a Man but of a Place as it is frequently And expound the word Ashur as if it were Leashur into Ashur as beth in 2 Sam. VI. 10. is put for lebeth other Examples there are of this 2 Sam. X. 2. 1 Chron. XIX 2. By going forth into Ashur Bochart thinks is meant Nimrod's making War there For so the Hebrew Phrase go forth imports in 2 Sam. XI 1. Psalm LX. 12. Isai XLII Zac. XIV 3. So Nimrod went forth into Assyria which belong'd to the Children
of Shem But was usurped he thinks by this Son of Cush who had no right to it but what he got by his Sword If this be true Mr. Mede's Observation which I mentioned upon verse 27. of the foregoing Chapter That the Posterity of Cham never subdued either those of Japhet or Shem must be understood of such large Conquests as they two made over one another and over him And builded Niniveh Which Nimrod so called from his Son Ninus The very word Niniveh being as much as Ninus his habitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus Cain built a City and called it not by his own but his Son's Name IV. 17. This was the chief City of Assyria and flourished in great Glory till it was utterly razed by the Medes and never again re-built It stood on the West-side of Tigris Rehoboth There was a City of this Name upon Euphrates which was famous for the Birth of Saul one of the Kings of Edom Gen. XXXVI 37. which the Arabians call Rahabath-Melic i. e. Rahabath of the Kings a little below Cercusium at the Mouth of the River Chaboras But this being two far distant from Niniveh to which this and the two following Cities were Neighbours Bochart's Conjecture is not unreasonable That this is the City which Ptolomy calls Birtha on the West of Tigris at the Mouth of the River Lycus For in the Chaldee Tongue Streets are called Birtha and that is the signification of Rehoboth as the Margin of our Bible will inform the Reader Calah or Calach Seems to have been the chief City of the Country called Calachene about the Fountain of the River Lycus Which Strabo often mentions Ver. 12. And Resen c. The fore-named great Man conjectures this to have been the City which Xenophon calls Larissa situate upon the Tigris Which Moses might well call a great City For so Xenophon says it was and describes the heighth of the Walls to have been an hundred Foot the breadth five and twenty and the compass of it eight Miles about The Greeks found it in Ruines and uninhabited when they came into those parts being destroyed by the Persians when they spoiled the Medes of their Empire And it is possible as Bochart goes on the Greeks asking whose City that was and the Assyrians answering Leresen i. e. Resen's adding as is usual le the Note of the Genitive Case they might thence call it Larissa Such a mistake he shows there is in the Vulgar Translation of the Bible which takes this Particle le for part of the Name For in 1 Chron. V. 26. where it is said the King of Assyria carried the Israelites to Halah the Vulgar says unto Lahelah Whereas it is certain from 2 Kings XVII 6. that it should be unto Halah or Helah However it is reasonable to think that these words this is a great City belongs to Resen not to Niniveh Whose greatness as well as Babylon's was very well known and therefore these words seem to be added to denote Resen to be a great deal bigger than the two before-named Rehoboth and Calah See Bochart L. IV. c. 23. They that think Nimrod setled his Kingdom in Babel before the Dispersion by confusion of their Languages imagine that he made this Expedition into Assyria where he built Niniveh and the rest of the Cities here mentioned after they were forced to leave off their vain-glorious building at Babel and to disperse themselves into other Countries Ver. 13. And Mizraim the second Son of Cham begat Ludim By whom we are to understand the Aethiopians as Bochart hath proved by many Arguments which I shall not mention and therefore understands by these words that the Aethiopians were a Colony of the Egyptians L. IV. Phaleg c. 26. For it appears by Diodorus that they were near of kin having many things common to both Nations which he reckons up and are sufficient to persuade those who consider them that they had the same Original The only difference among them being this which of them was of greatest Antiquity The Egyptians fansied they were the first of all Men and the Aethiopians pretended that they living more Southerly had a stronger Sun which contributed more efficaciously to natural Generation And that Egypt was a Country thrown up by the Mudd which Nilus left and so got out of the Sea But Moses hath determined this Controversie in these words and by the rest of his History Which shows that the first Men after the Flood came from the Mountains of Armenia which is in the North and consequently they went to the Southerly Countries by degrees through Assyria Babylon Syria and Egypt into Aethiopia And their discourse is ridiculous about the Original of Egypt unto which we see nothing added by the Nile in many Ages Anamim Our Broughton takes these to be the Numidians among whom he finds Anubis Others take them for the Anaitae in Aethiopia But these Anamims being derived from Mizraim we are rather to seek them about Egypt And the Opinion of Bochartus is probable that they are the Nomades who lived about Ammon and Nasamonitis and called Anamii from Anam which signifies a Sheep among the ancient Egyptians as it doth among the Arabians For the Nomades fed Sheep as Herodotus tells us and lived upon them whereas they abstained from eating Cows or Swine and their Garments also as he tells us were of Sheep-Skins Lehabim These are thought to be the Lybians but that being a Name which belongs to the greatest part of Africa it cannot be well thought that so great a Portion fell to this Son of Mizraim or that so many People were descended from him Therefore Bochart with great reason thinks the Lehabaei were not all the Lybians but those whom Ptolomy Pliny and others call Lybiaegyptii Because they lived next to Egypt on the West of Thebais in a sandy adust Soil burnt by excessive heat from whence he thinks they had the Name of Lehabim For Lehaba signifies both a Flame and Heat As in Joel I. 19. The flame lehaba in the Hebrew or scorching heat hath burnt all the trees of the field Naphtuhim These seem to be the People of Nephthuah and what that is we may learn from Plutarch Who in his Book De Iside Osiride says the Egyptians call the Country and the Mountains that lie upon the Sea Nephthun which may incline us to think that the Naphtuhim were those People that lived upon the shoar of the Mediterranean in Marmarica For the People upon the Red-Sea belonged to Arabia not to Egypt It is not improbable that from hence came the Name of Neptune who originally was a Lybian God and known to none but that People There was a City called Nepata by Pliny which Grotius thinks may explain this Name But it was in Aethiopia and Moses is speaking of the Sons of Mizraim Ver. 14. And Pathrusim Who were the Inhabitants it is likely of Patros Which was a part of Egypt though represented sometime in Scripture
Sin which is of the very same signification with Pelusium Ver. 18. And the Arvadite These People are the same with the Aradii who possessed the Island called Aradus upon the Coast of Phoenicia and part of the neighbouring Continent Where a place called Antaradus opposite to the Island was seated Strabo and others speak of this Island and mention another of the same Name in the Persian Gulph as Salmasius observes upon Solinus p. 1023. whose Inhabitants said they were a Colony from this Island I now speak of and had the same Religious Rites with these Aradians Who were very skilful in Navigation and therefore joyned by Ezekiel with Zidon XXVII 8. where he makes them also a Warlike People verse 11. Zemarite They who make these the same with the Samaritans do not observe that these Names are written quite differently in the Hebrew And that the Samaritans so much spoken of in Scripture had their Name from Somron And therefore Bochart thinks these are the Samarites mentioned by St. Hierom who says they inhabited the Noble City of Edessa in Coelosyria it should be the City of Emesa or Emisa which was in that Country but Edessa in Mesopotamia beyond Euphrates and so both the Chaldee Paraphrases have here for Zemarite Emisaei But I do not see why we should not rather think this Son of Canaan Zemarus from whom the Zemarites came was the Founder of the City of Zemaraim Josh XVIII 22. which fell to the Lot of the Tribe of Benjamin Hamathite These were the posterity of the last Son of Canaan From whom the City and Country of Hamath took its Name Of which Name there were Two one called by the Greeks Antiochia the other Epiphania The former called the Great Amos VI. 2. to distinguish it from this which St. Hierom says in his time was called Epiphania and by the Arabians in the Nubian Geographer Hama This is the City which is meant when we so often read that the bounds of Judaea were to the Entrance of Hamath Northward Numb XIII 21. XXXIV 8. and other places For it is certain they did not reach to Antiochia but came near to Epiphania Afterwards were the Families of the Canaanites spread abroad In process of time they enlarged their bounds For they possessed all the Country which lies from Idumaea and Palestine to the mouth of Orontes Which they held for Seven hundred Years or thereabout Moses indeed confines the Land of Canaan in narrower bounds toward the North as hath been said but we must consider that he describes only that part of Canaan which God gave to the Israelites for their Portion Now there being Eleven Nations who had their Original as appears from this and the foregoing Verses from so many Sons of Canaan we do not find that the First and the Five last were devoted by God to destruction as the rest were For we read nothing of the Zidonians Arkites Sinites Aradites Zemarites and Hamathites among those Nations upon whom the Sentence of Excision was pronounced by God and their Country bestowed upon the Israelites But read of Two others not here mentioned who made up the Seven Nations whom God ordered to be cut off viz. the Perizzites and those who were peculiarly called Canaanites who sprang from some of the fore-named XI Families but we do not know from which We shall meet with it in the XV. Chapter of this Book Ver. 19. And the border of the Canaanites c. Here Moses describes the Bounds of that Country which was given by God to the Jews From Sidon i. e. The Country of Sidon which extended it self from the City so called towards the East as far as Jordan or near it This therefore may be lookt upon as the Northern bounds of the promised Land As thou comest to Gerar unto Gaza c. These and all the rest belong to the Southern bounds For these two were Cities near to the Philistims We often read of Gaza and Gerar was famous for Abraham's and Isaac's sojourning there Gen. XX. 1. XXVI 1. and for the overthrow of the Cushites 2 Chron. XIV 13. Sodom and Gomorrha c. These Four Cities are famous for their destruction by Fire and Brimstone from Heaven Even unto Lashah Or Lasa which St. Hierom takes for Callirrhoe as doth Jonathan also A place famous for hot Waters which run into the dead Sea But Bochartus L. IV. Phaleg c. 37. doubts of this because Callirrhoe was not in the Southern part of Judaea as Lashah was He propounds it therefore to consideration whether it may not be a City of the Arabs called Lusa Which Ptolomy places in the middle way between the Dead Sea and the Red. Ver. 20. These are the Sons of Ham after their Families c. This is sufficiently explained by what was said upon verse 5. where Moses concludes his account of the Sons of Japhet Only it may be observed in general that these Four Sons of Ham and their Children had all Africa for their Portion Mizraim having Egypt and Phut the rest and no small part of Asia which fell to the share of Cush and Canaan Ver. 21. Vnto Shem also the Father of all the Children of Eber. That is of the Hebrew Nation whom Moses would have to know from what an illustrious Original they sprung and therefore breaks off the Thread of his Genealogy to give a short touch of it I can give no reason so likely as this why he calls Shem the Father of Eber's Children rather than of any other descended from him He having told them before that Ham was the Father of Canaan IX 22. whom God Cursed and at the same time Blessed Shem He now tells them that this blessed Man was the Father from whom their Nation was descended that they might comfort themselves in their noble Stock and believe Canaan should be subdued by them The Brother of Japhet the Elder Scaliger translates these Words Sem the Elder Brother of Japhet But the he which is prefixt to Gadol i. e. Greater plainly directs us to referr the Word Greater or Elder to him who was last spoken of viz. Japhet Who may be plainly proved to have been the Eldest Son of Noah from this observation That Noah was Five hundred years old before any of his Three Sons Sem Ham and Japhet were born V. 32. When he was Six hundred Years old he entred into the Ark with them VII 11. And when he came out two Years after the Flood Shem begat Arphaxad being then an Hundred Years old XI 10. and consequently Noah was Six hundred and two From whence it follows that Shem was born when Noah was Five hundred and two Years old And therefore Japhet must be two Years older than he for Noah began to have Children when he was Five hundred But God preferred Shem before him giving hereby an early demonstration of which there were many instances afterward that he would not be confined to the order of Nature in the disposal
than Shem's being first named among Noah's three Sons proves him to have been the first-born IX 18. For there are good Reasons to prove that Abraham was born sixty Years after Haran who was the eldest Son having two Daughters married to his two Brothers Nahor and Abraham Who seems to be the youngest though named first both here and in the next Verse because of his preheminence See Verse 32. Ver. 28. Haran died before his Father c. In his own Country as it here follows out of which he did not go as the rest of this Family did In Vr of the Chaldees That part of Mesopotamia which was next to Assyria is called the Land of the Chaldees For Vr as Abarbinel observes was in Mesopotamia Lying in the way from Tigris to Nisibis And therefore St. Stephen makes Mesopotamia and the Land of the Chaldees the very same Act. VII 2 4. Eupolemus indeed as Bochart notes places this Vr from whence Abraham came Verse 31. in Babylon But Ammianus speaks of an Vr in Mesopotamia situated as before-mentioned which we have reason to think was the place from whence Abraham came because from thence to Canaan the way lay straight through Charran or Haran but it did not do so if he came from Babylon And no good account can be given why he should go about through Mesopotamia and Charran when there was a shorter way through Arabia if he came from Babylon Ver. 29. The Father of Iscah i. e. Of Sarai whom Abraham married she being his eldest Brother's Daughter Sister to Lot For Haran had three Children Lot verse 27 and Milchah whom Nahor married and Sarah whom Abraham married That is Haran dying the two remaining Brethren married his two Daughters For if we should understand any Body else by Iscah but Sarah there is no account whence she descended Which Moses sure would not have omitted because it very much concerned his Nation to know from whom they came both by the Father's and the Mother's side It is no wonder she should have two Names one perhaps before they came out of Chaldaea and another after Ver. 31. Went forth from Vr of the Chaldees See what was said Verse 26. unto which I have nothing to add but this That this Country was so famous for Superstition that the Chaldaeans in Daniel's time were reckoned as a distinct sort of Diviners from Magicians Astrologers and South-sayers or Sorcerers Dan. II. 2 10. IV. 7. V. 11. And it 's likely from some such sort of Men Terah and his Family learnt the worship of Idols Josh XXIV 2. But though he had been an Idolater yet it may be probably concluded from his leaving Vr of the Chaldees with an intention to go to Canaan as it is here said that now he was become a worshipper of the True God For what should move him to it but Obedience to the Divine Direction which Abraham received as we read in the next Chapter to which he would not have agreed if he had not believed in God As Lot it 's plain did whom he took along with him That word is much to be remarked which makes him the principal Agent in their removal Abraham himself being governed by his Motion For Moses says He took Abraham and Lot the Son of Haran c. And though Nahor did not now go along with his Father to Haran being left behind perhaps to look after some concerns yet afterwards he followed him with all his Family As appears from Chapter XXVII 43. and the following Chapter And he also forsook Idolatry for Rebekkah his Grand-Child was married to Isaac and his great Grand-Children Rachel and Leah nay their Father Laban seem to have been worshippers of the True God though with a mixture of some Superstition for he makes mention of Jehovah upon several occasions Gen. XXIV 31 50 51. And they came unto Haran It is possible that Terah going from Vr to Canaan and staying in this place called the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charrae after the Name of his Son Haran or Charan who died a little before verse 28. For both the Greek and Roman Writers call a City famous for the death of Crassus by the Name of Charrae Situate on a River of the same Name It 's likely from Abraham's Brother were derived both the Name of the River and of the City which the Arabians to this day call Charan or Charran And dwelt there It 's plain he intended to go to Canaan and not to settle here But being arrested with the Sickness of which he died could go no further Ver. 32. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five Years Moses doth not summ up the Years of any Man's Life mentioned in this Chapter as he doth in Chapter V. but only of Terah's Which he doth on purpose that we may know when this new Period of time began of Abraham's leaving his own Country and thereby becoming the Father of the Faithful which we are not to count from the time when Terah began to have Children Ver. 26. but from the time of his Death immediately after which Abraham went on towards Canaan See Vsser Chronol C. III. and C. VII From this also we learn when Abraham was born For if seventy five Years which was Abraham's Age when his Father died and he went from Haran XII 4. be subducted from two hundred and five it is manifest that he was born when his Father was an hundred and thirty Years old That is threescore Years after his Brother Haran as I said on Verse 26. CHAP. XII MAny ancient Authors speak of Abraham as Josephus observes and out of him Eusebius Who names others also L. IX Praepar Evang. c. 16 17 c. All that I shall note is That one great Design of Moses being to lead the Jews to understand the Genealogy of this noble Ancestor of theirs he hastens to it Relating other Matters briefly but spending many Pages about him For he comprises for instance the History of the World from the Creation to the Flood containing One thousand six hundred fifty six Years in the compass of six Chapters But bestows on the History of Abraham nineteen Chapters though it contain no longer space of time than an Hundred and seventy five Years Ver. 1. Now the LORD had said unto Abram While he lived in Vr of the Chaldees from whence it is certain he called him while his Father was alive XI 31. We are not told how he spake to him for here is no mention as Maimonides observes P. II. c. 41. of his speaking in a Dream or a Vision or by the Hand of an Angel But only simply and absolutely that the LORD said to him By a Voice when he was awake I suppose from the Schechinah or Divine Glory For St. Stephen saith expresly the God of Glory appeared to him before he dwelt in Charran Acts VII 2. Get thee out of thy own Country c. Which began a good while ago to be
dwell in the Tents of Shem. i. e. His Territories shall be so dilated that in future times he shall possess some of his Brother's Countries Which is also prophesied of Numb XXIV 24. where it is said they of Cittim shall afflict the Children of Assur and Eber i. e. Afflict the Assyrians and the Hebrews who were of the Posterity of Shem. And so both the Greeks and the Romans did who invaded and conquered that part of Asia which belonged to Shem. The Chaldee Paraphrast gives a Spiritual Interpretation of this Passage which is very apt That the Gentiles should come into the Church which was in the Family of Shem. And it is very remarkable which is observed by our Mr. Mede B. I. Disc 48. That all the Offspring of Japhet are at this day Christians Magog only excepted i. e. the Turks whom God seems to have reserved as he did some of the Canaanites in the Land of Israel to prove and punish us withall Our learned N. Fuller gives a quite different Interpretation from all these making God the Subject of this Speech not Japhet and thus translates it God shall dwell in the Tents of Shem among them shall be the Schechinah or the Divine Majesty But this doth not agree with what follows And Canaan shall be his servant The Greeks and Romans descended from Japhet conquered Canaan And whatsoever Relicks there were of them any where for instance at Tyre built by the Sidonians at Thebes by Cadmus at Carthage by Dido they were all cut off by the Greeks or Romans It is observed by Campanella That None are descended from Cham but Slaves and Tyrants who are indeed Slaves Cap. IV. De Mon. Hispan But Mr. Mede's Observation is more pertinent in the fore-named Discourse p. 358. There hath never yet been a Son of Cham that hath shaken a Scepter over the Head of Japhet Sem hath subdued Japhet and Japhet subdued Sem But Cham never subdued either Which made Hannibal a Child of Canaan cry out with amazement of Soul Agnosco fatum Carthaginis I acknowledge the Fate of Carthage Livy L. XXVII in fine Ver. 28. And Noah lived after the Flood three hundred and fifty Years Which was of great Advantage for the certain Propagation of the Knowledge of those things before related and of those that follow in the next Chapter For he died not above two and thirty Years before Abraham was born CHAP. X. Ver. 1. NOW these are the Generations of the Sons of Noah c. As he had often before mentioned the three Sons of Noah so now he mentions them again being to give an Account of their Children by whom the Earth was peopled after the Flood And he reckons them in the same order he had always done VI. 10. VII 13. IX 18. first Shem then Ham and last of all Japhet But it is observable that in the next Verse he gives an Account first of the Sons of Japhet Who was indeed the eldest There is great use of this Genealogy as Maimonides shows Par. III. More Nev. c. 50. because the Doctrine of the Creation of the World which is the Foundation of the Law i. e. of Religion would not have been so easily believed if Moses had not given an Account of the Succession of Mankind from the first Man to the Flood and from the Flood to his own time Showing from whom all Nations were derived and how they came to be dispersed Shem is named first of Noah's Sons because the blessed Seed was to spring out of his Family In which the true Religion was preserved Which was soon lost in the Posterity of the other two among whom their Names remained in great Honour For Ham was the Heathen Jupiter who was called Hammon in Egypt which it will appear was part of Ham's Portion and is called the Land of Ham as every one knows in many places of the Psalms And accordingly the same Country is called by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Japhet also seems to have been the same with Japetus whom the Greeks own to have been their Father Nor do they know any Name of greater Antiquity which made them give it to decrepit Persons as many particularly Bochart have observed and it became a Proverb in that Country Older than Japetus Whom their Poets feign to have attempted War against Jupiter because of the Dissentions which the unlikeness of their Manners begat between them Which seems to be nothing but the Story in Chapter IX of this Book verse 22. For Ham as I said is the Heathen Jupiter Ver. 2. The Sons of Japhet Were seven the eldest of which Gomer had three Sons and the fourth Javan had four Whose Names we have in the following Verses Gomer It 's hard at this distance to find what Country was peopled by his Posterity but Bochartus in his Phaleg hath made such probable Conjectures about this and all that follow from other Scriptures and from neighbouring Places and the Relicks of their Names in ancient Geographers and such-like things that they carry a great appearance of Truth in them Our famous Cambden in his Account of the first Inhabitants of Britain thinks that the Cimbri and Cimmerii descended from this Gomer who gave them their Name and that the old Britains came from him because they call themselves Kumero Cymro and Kumeri which seems to denote them the Posterity of Gomer But this as also the Notion of Ludov. Capellus in his Chron. Sacra p. 104. who if this of Mr. Camben be not accepted propounds another of the Comari and Chomari a People in Scythia mentioned by Ptolomy within the Mountain Imaus near Bactriana is confuted by what we read in Ezekiel who makes Gomer to have been a Neighbour of Torgamah Ezek. XXXVIII 6. And Torgamah was a Nation that usually went to the Marts of Tyre XXVII 14. and consequently were not seated in the furthermost part of the North but as will appear afterward not very far from Tyre And in some Country thereabouts we must seek for Gomer Who it 's likely gave Phrygia its Denomination For a part of it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Diodorus and Hesychius because it look'd as if it were burnt Such was all the Country about Cayster Maeander and the City Philadelphia Now this is the very signification of Gomer For in the Hebrew Gamar is to consume and so the Chaldee and Syriac frequently use it Whence Gumra or Gumro is a Coal And Phrygia is of the same signification for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek is to torrifie which being the Name of part of the Country in time became the Name of the whole Magog The second Son of Japhet was in all likelihood the Father of the Scythians which is the Opinion of Josephus Theodoret St. Hierom and others For all that is said in Scripture about Magog exactly agrees to them as Bochartus hath shown at large out of Ezekiel L. III. Phaleg c. 13. Madai From him the Country of Media
as a Country distinct from it Just as Thebais is in some Authors said to be whereas it was the upper Egypt Bochart hath brought a great many Arguments to prove this Particularly from Ezekiel XXIX 14. which shows clearly that Pathros belongs to Egypt For the Prophet foretelling that God would bring again the Captivity of Egypt he saith he would cause them to return into the Land of Pathros into the Land of their Habitation or Nativity That is into Thebais which Nebuchadnezzar had principally afflicted carrying most of the Inhabitants of Thebes into Captivity This seems a more probable Account of the Pathrusim than theirs who take them to be the Pharusi as Grotius doth or Phautusii who were a People of Aethiopia Casluhim or Casluchim These were the Colchi who though they lived far from Egypt from whence they are said here to descend yet there are a great many Arguments that they had their Original from that Country For several ancient Authors say so as Herodotus Diodorus Strabo and Ammianus All of great Credit And there are many Reasons whereby Herodotus proves it as Bochart shows in his admirable Work often mentioned L. IV. Phaleg c. 31. they agreeing in so many things especially in their Manners and Language that one can scarce have any doubt of it These People were seated at the East-end of the Euxine Sea Out of whom came Philistim They were the off-spring of the People of Colchis as will appear in what follows And Caphtorim These were a People near to Colchis as appears from hence that the Philistim who are said here to come from Casluchim in other places are said to have come from Caphtor Jer. XLVII 4. Amos IX 7. And Moses himself relates how the Avims nigh to Gaza a famous City of the Philistim were driven out by the Caphtorim Deut. II. 23. All the Ancients therefore are in the right who take the Caphtorim for the Cappadocians Yet not all the Inhabitants of that Country part of which was possessed by other People as was said before but that part of Cappadocia which was next to Colchis viz. About Trapezund where Colchis ended For there we find the City called Side and the Country Sidene mentioned by Strabo Now Side in Greek as Bochart ingeniously observes signifies the same with Caphtor in Hebrew viz. Malum punicum And therefore in all likelihood the same Country was called by the Hebrews Caphtor and by the Greeks Sidene What invited the Caphtorim out of Egypt into this Country is hard to tell at this distance of time But Strabo thinks it was the Fame of the Gold wherewith this Country abounded And as this drew them thither so perhaps the coldness of the Country very much different from that wherein they were born or else their Neighbours the Scythians and Mesech and Tubal viz. the Moschi and Tibareni who dwelt near them and might be troublesome to them made them think of returning back again And in their way through Palestine they fell upon the Avim whom they dispossessed of their Country and setled there Deut. II. 23. by the Name of Philistim Ver. 15. And Canaan Now follows an Account of the Posterity of Ham's youngest Son Sidon Was his first-born Who was the Founder of the famous City called by his Name Sidon Which Trogus saith was so called from plenty of Fish on that Coast And so the present Name of it Said signifies Fishing or Fishery As the Town in Galilee called Bethsaida is as much as the place of Fishing For that Sea upon which it lies the Hebrews say abounded with Fish However the Sidonians came from this Son of Canaan and some of them if he did not found it himself called the City by this Name in memory of him It was far more ancient and famous than Tyre For we read of it in the Books of Moses and Joshua and the Judges But nothing of Tyre till the Days of David Nor doth Homer mention Tyre though he speaks of Sidon and the Sidonians in many places Heth. His second Son was the Father of the Hittites or the Children of Heth often mentioned in Scripture Who dwelt about Hebron and Beersheba in the South of the Land of Canaan They were a very Warlike People and struck a Terror into their Neighbours From whence the word Hittha seems to be derived which signifies fright and sudden Consternation such as came upon the Syrians when they thought the Kings of the Hittites were coming against them 2 Kings VII 6. This was the Country of the Anakims For from Arba who was an Hittite descended Anak and from him those three Giants Ahiman Sheshai and Talmai and the rest of the Anakims Numb XIII 22 33. Josh XV. 13 14. Ver. 16. The Jebusite This People who were situated near to the former descended from Jebus the third Son of Canaan And were a very Warlike People also for they kept Jerusalem and the Fortress of Zion to the times of David notwithstanding all the Power of the Benjamites And when David besieged it they mock'd at his Attempt 2 Sam V. 8. And the Emorite They came from Emor the fourth Son of Canaan and are commonly called Amorites Who possessed the Mountainous parts of Judaea and many of them passed over Jordan and making War upon the Moabites and Ammonites seized upon Bashan and Heshbon and all the Country between the Rivers of Jabbok and Arnon Numb XIII 29. Josh V. 1. In memory of which Victory some Canaanite Poet made a Triumphing Song which Moses hath recorded Numb XXI 27. What a mighty People these were we learn from Amos II. 9. Gergasite There was a Remnant of this People about Gerasa or Gadara beyond Jordan in our Saviour's time Matth. VIII 28. Mark V. 1. Luke VIII 26. And they were called perhaps by this Name from the fat clayie Soil of the Country where they lived for garges in Hebrew is white Clay Ver. 17. And the Hivite or Hevite They lived in and about Mount Hermon as we read Josh XI 3. which being toward the East of the Land of Canaan they are call'd Radmonites i. e. Orientals or Easterlings Gen. XV. 19. The Gibeonites and Sichemites were Colonies from them Josh XI 19. Gen. XXXIV 2. who dwelt more Westward The former of them Neighbours to Jerusalem and the latter to Samaria Arkite This People Bochart thinks inhabited Mount Libanus where Ptolomy and Josephus mention a City called Arca or Arce In which he thinks was the Temple Veneris Architidis worshipped by the Phoenicians as Macrobius tells us L. I. Saturn c. 27. Pliny also Mentions Arca among the Cities of the Decapolitan Syria and saith it was one of those which had a Royal Jurisdiction under the Name of a Tetrarchy as Salmasius observes in his Exerc. in Solin p. 576. Sinite St. Hierom saith that not far from Arca there was a City called Sin where we may suppose these People to have dwelt But Bochart rather by the Sinites understands the Peleusiots whose City was called
of his Favours which he frequently bestowed upon the Younger Children As he did upon Jacob and in after-times upon David who was the youngest and meanest of all his Father's Children Even unto him were Children born Perhaps he was the last of his Brethren that married and then Moses shews in the following Verses had Five Sons the Progeny of two of which are mentioned but the rest passed over in silence Ver. 22. Elam Was his First-born from whom came the Elamites mentioned Acts II. 9. Whose Metropolis was the famous City of Elymais They lay between the Medes and Mesopotamians as Bochartus shows L. II. Phaleg c. 2. and were a very Warlike and Fierce People as Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel testifie The Susians were a neighbouring People but different from them And therefore when Daniel says Sushan was in the Province of Elam he takes Elam in a large sence as Pliny and Ptolomy also do who mention Elamites at the mouth of the River Eulaeus Vlai in Daniel which was below Susiana See Salmasius Exerc. in Solin p. 1193 1194. And thus Josephus may be allowed to say the Elamites were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Founders of the Persians who were a distinct People from them Though often comprehended under this Name of Elam Ashur From whom came the People called at first Assyres and afterward Assyrians Which was a Name as large as their Empire comprehending even Syria it self which in several Authors is the same with Assyria But in proper speaking it was only that Country whose head was Niniveh called sometimes Adiabene and Aturia or Assyria Arphaxad Many following Josephus make him the Father of the Chaldees But I find no good reason for it and it seems more probable that the Chaldees in Hebrew Chasdim came from Chesed one of Abraham's Brother's Sons Gen. XXII 22. which St. Hierom positively affirms Therefore it is more reasonable to think Arphaxad gave Name to that Country which Ptolomy calls Arraphachitis Which was a part of Assyria Lud. Seems to have given Name to the Country of Lydia which lay about Maeander and included in it Mysia and Caria which lay on the South side of that River Which having the most Windings and Turnings in it of any River in the World for it returns sometimes towards its Fountain the Phoenicians call this Country and another viz. Aethiopia that lay upon the Nile which next to Maeander is the most crooked of all Rivers by the Name of Lud Which in their Language signified bending or crooked See Bochart L. II. Phaleg c. 12. Aram. From whom sprung the Syrians whose Name anciently was Aramai the Children of Aram. A Name not unknown to the ancient Graecians for Homer mentions the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his second Book of Iliads and so doth Hesiod and Strabo also saith that many understood by the Arimi the Syrians And the Syrians at this day call themselves Aramaeans But Syria being so large a Name that Ancient Authors extend it to all those Countries that lay between Tyre and Babylon we must not take all the People of them to have been the posterity of Aram. For it is evident some of them descended from Canaan others from Ashur others from Arphaxad Therefore those are to be thought to have come from him to whom the Name of Aram is praefixt or subjoined as Aram-Naharajim and Padan-Aram i. e. the Mesopotamians Aram-Soba the People of Palmyra and the Neighbouring Cities Aram-Damasek situated between Libanus and Anti-Libanus whose chief City was Damascus and perhaps Aram-Maacha and Aram-Bethrehob which were places beyond Jordan one of which fell to the share of Manasseh the other of Asser Ver. 23. And the Children of Aram c. The Four Persons that follow in this Verse are called the Sons of Shem 1 Chron. I. 17. Nothing being more ordinary in scripture than to call those the Sons of any Person who were his Grandsons XXIX 5 c. Vz Or Vtz the First-born of Aram is generally said to have been the builder of Damascus The Valley belonging to which is by the Arabians at this day called Gaut and Gauta which differs from Vtz in the Letters but not in the Pronunciation it being common to pronounce the Letter Ajin by our G. as in the Words Gaza and Gomorrha Accordingly the Arabick Paraphrast for Vtz hath here Algauta There were two other Vz's besides this one the Son of Nahor Abraham's Brother Gen. XXII 21. whose Country was Ausitis in Arabia Deserta The other was of the posterity of Edom Gen. XXXVI 28. Hull Or Chul Grotius observes out of Ptolomy that there was a City in Syria called Chollae which he thinks might be founded by this second Son of Aram. But Bochart more probably conjectures that his posterity possessed the Country called Cholobetene which was a part of Armenia For the Armenians and Arabians and Syrians were much alike as Strabo saith in their Shape of Body Speech and manner of Life And there are divers Cities which Ptolomy places in this Country that begin with Hol or Chol as Cholus Choluata Cholana And Cholobetene the Name of the Country which in their Language is Gholbeth signifies as much as the House or Seat of Chol. Gether It is hard to give any account of the Country where his posterity-setled unless they gave the River Getri its Name which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which runs between the Carduchi and the Armenians as Xenophon tells us This is Bochart's Conjecture which is a little nearer than that of Grotius Annot. in L. I. de V. R. C. who explains this by the City Gindarus in Ptolomy and the People called by Pliny Gindareni in Coelo-Syria But after all it may seem as probable that Gadara the chief City of Peraea which Ptolomy places in the Decapolis of Coelo-Syria had its Name and Original from this Gether Mash Who is called Mesech in 1 Chron. I. 17. seated himself as Bochart thinks in Mesopotamia about the Mountain Masius which is Grotius's conjecture also from whence there flowed a River which Xenophon calls Masca The Inhabitants of which Mountain Stephanus calls Masiaeni and perhaps the Moscheni whom Pliny speaks of between Adiabene and Armenia the greater were descended from this Mash or Mesech Ver. 24. And Arphaxad begat Salah Having given an account of the posterity of Shem's youngest Son he now tells us what People descended from his third Son Salah In Hebrew Shelah His Father being born but two Years after the Flood XI 10. seems to have given this Name to his Son to preserve the Memory of that dreadful Punishment That his Posterity might not incur the like by their Sins For Sela signifies the letting forth of Waters Job V. 10. He is thought to have been the Father of the Susiani The chief City of their Country next to Susa being called Sela as we find in Ammian Marcellinus Either because he was the Founder of it or in Memory of him And Salah begat Eber. The Father of those
from whom came the Hebrew Nation as was said before Verse 21. Abraham being descended from him in the Sixth Generation All other derivations of the Name of Hebrew have great Objections lie against them but this hath none that I can see and is most agreeable to the Grammar of that Language in which all such Names ending in Jod as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth are noted to come either from a Place or Country or People or Author Therefore since there is no Country or Place from which the Name of Hebrew can be derived it is most reasonable to deduce it from the Author of this People Heber And it is authorized by that Speech of Balaam Numb XXIV 24. Where as by Ashur is meant the Assyrians so by Heber in all reason we are to understand the Hebrews Ver. 25. Peleg Either he or some of his Posterity in memory of him it is not unlikely gave Name to a Town upon Euphrates called Phalga not far from the place where the River Chaboras runs into it Upon which Charrah stood built by Charan the Brother of Abraham For in his Days was the Earth divided The great Dispersion which we read of in the following Chapter fell out just when he was born which made his Father call him by this Name signifying Division and Separation Which it appears by the Account given of his Ancestors XI from verse 10 to 16. hapned in the Hundred and first Year after the Flood In that Year the Tower of Babel and their Language were confounded upon which necessarily followed the Separation here mentioned The Age that preceeded from the Deluge to this Division is called by the ancient Poets the Golden Age as Bochart observes L. I. Phaleg c. 9. because the Earth not being divided they enjoyed all things in common And Noah whom they called Saturn governing them not as Kings do their Subjects but as Parents their Children not so much with Fear and Dread as with Love and Reverence to his fatherly Authority it made the World so happy as it hath not been since Joktan or Jektan The Brother of Peleg had a numerous Offspring of thirteen Sons all seated in the inmost parts of Arabia Foelix So the Arabians it is certain derive their own Original Who in this may as well be credited as the Europaeans who derive themselves from Japetus or Japhet and the Africans from Cham or Hammon They call him Cahtan as our Mr. Pocock as well as others observes by which Name the Arabick Paraphrast upon this place explains that of Jektan And this Cahtan they say expresly was the Son of Eber the Son of Salah c. From whence the Name of Catanitae a People in Arabia Foelix mention'd by Ptolomy and a City in the Territory of Mecha still retains the very Name of Jektan being called Baisath-Jektan i. e. the Seat or Habitation of Jektan in the Arabian Geographer See Mr. Pocock's Notes upon Abul-Farajus concerning the Original of the Arabians p. 38 39. Ver. 26. Almodad The eldest Son of Joktan seems to have given Name to the People whom Ptolomy calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle of Arabia Foelix near the Original of the River Lar which runs into the Persian Gulph The Greeks who knew little of this People who lived a great way from the Sea might easily mispronounce their Name calling them Allumaeotae instead of Almodaei Sheleph or Saleph Was it is likely the Father of the Salapeni For such a People there were mentioned by Ptolomy who calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who were remote from the rest about the Neck of Arabia not far from the Spring of the River Betius Hatzermaveth Though the Arabians write this Name with the very same Letters yet it sounds among them thus Hadramuth or Chadramuth Which the Greeks pronounce divers ways because of the ambiguous sound of the two Letters Tzadi and Cheth For sometimes he is called Asarmoth sometimes without an A. Sarmoth and Armoth and Atermoth as Bochartus hath observed Who thinks the Country called Chatramitis or Atramitis Chatramotis or Atramotis to have been peopled by the Children of this Hadramuth as the Arabians pronounce this Name Hatazmaveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salmasius shows is the Name of a City or Place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a People or Nation Exercit. in Solin p. 489. And the same People he observes p. 490. are called by Artemidorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Country was that part of Arabia which abounded with Frankincense Myrrh Cassia and Cinnamon as Theophrastus tells us And Strabo calls them as he there notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Vranius in Stephanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So differently was this hard Word pronounced Who were so famous that Eustathius Antioch Eusebius and others make this Hatzermaveth the Father of the Arabians and Epiphanius derives their Language from him which they as was said before derive from Jektan himself looking upon the Dialect of Chadramitis as barbarous See Bochartus L. II. Phaleg c. 16. where he observes that Hatzermaveth in Hebrew signifies the Entrance of Death and Hadhramauth in Arabick the Region of Death Because the Air of that Country was very thick and foggy and consequently unwholsom as Arrianus relates who saith that the Frankincense and Myrrh were therefore gathered only by the King's Slaves and by condemned Persons Jerah or Jerach From whom came the People called Jerachaei who lived near the Red-Sea called by Agatharcides and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alilaei Which is the very same in Arabick with the other in Hebrew For Hilal is the Moon in that Language as Jerach is in Hebrew And the Nubiensian Geographer mentions a People about Mecha who at this day are called Bene-hilal the Children of Jerach as the Hebrews would have expressed it It seems they are come more towards the East when anciently they dwelt in the South Ptolomy mentions also an Island upon the Coast of the Alilaei which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it doth not signifie the Isle of Hawks as the Greeks fansied who imagined all these old words to come from their Tongue but of the Jerachaei Ver. 27. Hadoram He seems to have fixed his Seat in the utmost Corner of Arabia towards the East where there was a People whom Pliny calls Drimati A Name easily made from Hadoramus And the extream Promontory of that Country is called by the Greeks Corodamon by transposing the Letters D and R from Hadoramus I can find nothing more likely than this Conjecture of that great Man Bochartus who hath out-done all that went before him in this Argument L. II. Phaleg c. 20. Vzal Abraham Zachut as he also observes says the Jews who in his time dwelt there called the chief City of Aljeman by the Name of Vzal Now the Kingdom of Aljeman or Jeman is the South-part of Arabia Foelix As the very Name of Jeman imports which signifies both the Right-hand and the South Diklah Both in the Chaldee and
Syriack Language Dicla signifies a Palm or a Grove of Palms Which led Bochartus to conclude that the Minaei a People of Arabia Foelix whose Country abounds with such Trees were the Posterity of this Diklah Both Pliny and Strabo mention them And this is far more probable than the Conjecture of Ludovicus Capellus That the Country of Dangala in Aethiopia near Egypt might have its Name from this Man For that is too remote from the rest of this Man's Posterity And so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned as he observes by Herodotus Chronolog Sacra p. 108. Ver. 28. And Obal Which in the Arabick pronunciation is Aubal as Cocab a Star in Hebrew is in Arabick Caucab c. The Posterity of this Aubal or Obal Bochart thinks passed over the Streights of the Sinus Arabicus out of Arabia Foelix into Arabia Troglodytica where we meet with this Name in the Sinus Abalites which others call Analites and in a great trading Town called by Arrianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in a People who lived in that Sinus called by Ptolomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from this Obal Abimael Which the Arabians pronounce Abimâl i. e. the Father of Mali or the Malitae a People in Arabia next to the Minaei before-mentioned Theophrastus saith Mali is the Metropolis of a Country in Arabia the Spicy From whence the People called Malitae whom Ptolomy calls Manitae by an usual change of the Letter L into N as Nabonidus is the same with Labonidus c. And it is probable that Mali is the contraction of Abimali Nothing being more common than in compound Names to omit the first part As Sittim Numb XXV 1. for Abel-Sittim XXX 49. Hermon very often for Baal-Hermon Judg. III. 3. Nimrim for Beth-Nimrim and Salem for Jerusalem Sheba From whom came the Sabaeans who sometimes comprehend a great many People but here are to be taken strictly for those upon the Red-Sea between the Minaei and the Catabanes Whose Metropolis which stood upon an high Mountain full of Trees is called by ancient Authors Saba and Sabai Sabo and Sabas as Salmasius shows out of Stephanus Agatharcides and others who say that this City was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much the fairest of all in Arabia Excerc in Solin p. 491 492 c. In latter times this Name was changed into Mariaba the ancient Name being lost as the same Salmasius there observes p. 497 1118. Which Pliny saith signifies as much as Dominos omnium the Lords of all For from Rabba to rule comes Marab which signifies in their Language as Bochart observes the Seat of those that Rule That is the Royal City where their Kings lived The Nubiensian Geographer saith the Queen of Sheba came from hence to hear the Wisdom of Solomon Ver. 29. And Ophir Which the Arabians pronounce Auphir signifying abundance Gold being found there in such plenty that they exchanged it for Brass and Iron giving a double or triple proportion of Gold for them Bochart thinks he gave the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to an Island in the Red-Sea mentioned by Eupolemus in Eusebius And observes that there were two Ophirs one belonging to India whither Solomon's Ships went once in three Years which he takes for Taprobana now Zeilan and the other belonging to Arabia where the Posterity of this Ophir here mentioned setled Whose Country he takes to have been near to the Sabaeans their Brethren which Stephanus and Ptolomy call Cassanitis The same in sence with Ophir for Chosan is a Treasure which the Arabians write Chazan from which comes the word Gaza for abundance of Riches Havilah or Chavilah See Verse 7. where we had this Name before among the Sons of Cush from whom the Havilah here spoken of is very different Giving Name it is probable to the Country which the Nubiensian Geographer calls Chaulan And says it was a part of Arabia Foelix nigh also to the Sabaeans which he accurately describes See Phaleg L. II. cap. 28. Jobab The Father of the Jobabites near to the Sachalites as Ptolomy expresly says if instead of Jobaritae in him we read Jobabitae as Bochartus corrects the Passage with great Reason And thinks also the Reason of this Name to be plain For Jebab in Arabick signifies a Desart And there are many such in the Country of the Jobabites above the Sinus of Sachalites Ver. 30. And their dwelling was from Mesha c. This Conclusion confirms what hath been said that all the thirteen Sons of Joktan were seated in Arabia Foelix except Obal who went it's likely after Moses's time over into Abalites the Passage being short cross that streight before-mentioned Verse 28. which was not above four or five Miles broad For Arabia Foelix lies between the Red-Sea and the Persian Gulph Now Mesa or Musa or Muza was a famous Port-Town in the Red-Sea which the Egyptians and Aethiopians frequented in their way to the Country of the Sapharites in the East from whom they brought Myrrh Frankincense and such like things Ptolomy's Tables plainly snow this That from Musa the Sapharitae lay directly Eastward and Saphar was the Metropolis of the Country at the foot of the Mountain Climax Which anciently it 's likely was called Saphar from the City at the bottom of it And thus we are to understand Moses when he says here that Sepher was a Mountain of the East not Eastward from Judaea but from Mesha which was in the West See Bochart L. II. Phaleg c. 30. where he observes that the Arabick Paraphrast of the Paris Edition takes Mesha to be Meccha and instead of from Mesha to Sephar saith from Meccha to Medina Which is nearer Truth than their Opinion who place the Children of Joktan about Cophetes upon the Coast of India But he shows that some of the Children of Cush setled between Meccha and Medina And it sufficiently appears that Joktan's Children dwelt in the inmost part of Arabia Foelix and are the Genuine Arabians Ver. 31. This is explained Verse 5. Ver. 32. By these were the Nations divided after the Flood They and their Descendants shared the whole Earth among them as it is said expresly IX 18. Of them was the whole Earth overspread But according to the foregoing Account we find only three parts of the Earth Europe Asia and Africa possessed by the three Sons of Noah and their Children Which hath made some so bold as to say there were other People in America who were not drown'd by the Flood And one of their Reasons why it was not peopled from any of the other three parts of the Earth is that we can give no Account how Lions Bears Wolves Foxes and such-like Creatures should get thither For none sure would carry them by Shipping though Men themselves might by that means pass over into those Regions But this difficulty is not so great as they make it For it is manifest That though the
before Greece or Italy or any other Western People grew into the fashion of a Kingdom shows that the Eastern People were the Heirs of the World and other Nations but as Colonies from them Ver. 3. They said one to another i. e. Consulted together Go to And stirred up one another to lay all their Hands to this Work Let us make Brick In that low and fat Soil there was no Stone as is intimated in the next Words and they had Brick for Stone No Body doubts but this is a true Translation of the Hebrew word Labenah For Herodotus and Justin and many others describe the Walls of Babylon as made of such Materials What Chemar is which was the Cement to joyn the Bricks together doth not so plainly appear We translate it Slime following herein a great many of the Hebrews Particularly Kimchi who says it is Mortar made of Sand and Lime But there is much reason to think it was that which the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Pitch as Kimchi himself acknowledges some understand it which is described by Authors as a very glewy thing and therefore used by Noah by God's Direction about the Ark. There was great plenty of it in Assyria as Theodoret here observes from some Fountains which vomited it up with the Water And so Strabo and Dion affirm that it was very fit for this purpose and Herodotus says expresly that the Walls of Babylon were cemented with it and so do many others both Greek and Roman Authors mentioned by Bochartus L. I. Phaleg c. 13. And it is very observable that Arrianus saith L. VII The Temple of Belus in the midst of the City of Babylon of a vast bigness was made of Brick cemented with Asphaltus Ver. 4. And they said Go to now At the first perhaps they spake only of building themselves Houses but now they laid their Heads together and consulted to make a huge Monument of their Greatness A City and a Tower Some fansie one thing to be expressed in two words A City and a Tower being a City with Turrets But both this Verse and the next express them so severally that we ought to think them to have been distinct Yet that the Tower was part of the City is plain by verse 8. where it is said they left off to build the City making no mention of the Tower Which was contained in the City as a part of it and may well be thought to have been the Acropolis as the Greeks speak a strong Place in the highest part of the City such as we call a Cittadel For the Scripture by a Tower means some Fortress to keep out an Enemy which was wont to be built in the midst of the City that it might command every part of it Some fansie the Temple of Belus before-mentioned was afterward built where this Tower stood and was nothing else but the Tower perfected for another use Or rather a Temple was built round about the Tower which stood in the midst of it as Herodotus describes it L. I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in the midst of the Temple was a strong Tower c. Whose top may reach up unto Heaven i. e. To the Clouds As much as to say an exceeding high Tower For the same is said of the Walls of the Cities of Canaan Deut. I 28. IX 1. and therefore can mean no more here And is an usual Phrase in Scripture as when the Psalmist says They that sail upon the Sea are sometime lifted up to Heaven CVII 25. which is a Language that other Authors speak for Homer mentions a Firr-tree which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extended to Heaven i. e. very tall Which I note to show the sensless Spite of Julian the Apostate who endeavoured to discredit this Sacred Story by the Poetical Fiction of the Giants warring with Heaven As if there were no more Truth in the one than in the other But St. Cyril in his Fourth Book against him truly observes That in Scripture this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Heaven is put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that which is highly elevated as this Tower was Which being half a quarter of a Mile in breadth and length had another Tower stood upon it and a third upon that and so on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Herodotus speaks till there were eight Towers in all Which made it of a vast heighth Let us make us a Name c. Here he plainly acquaints us with their Intention in building this City and Tower Which was to be a perpetual Monument of their Fame To spread it far and wide while they were alive and that their Names might live in this Monument when they were dead All Posterity saying such and such Persons were the Founders of the First and Mother City of the World So David is said to have got himself a Name 2 Sam. VIII 13. i. e. extended his Fame by his great Atchievements And God is said to do the same Isai LXIII 12 14. Therefore there was no occasion for assigning other Reasons for the building of this Tower when Moses gives one so clearly That which hath been commonly fansied is That they might secure themselves against another Inundation From which they were secured by the Divine Promise if they would believe it together with the addition of a Sign to it IX 12. And if they did not believe it why did they come down from the Mountains into the plain Country to build this Tower which might more rationally have been erected upon the top of the highest Mountains if their meaning had been by this means to preserve themselves from future Floods If there were any other meaning besides that mentioned by Moses I should think that most probable which I find in Dr. Jackson Book I. on the Creed c. 16. That it might be a Refuge whereunto they might resort and continue their Combination Something of which seems to be intimated in the next words There is a Conjecture also made by a most worthy Friend of mine a good while ago Dr. Tenison now Bishop of Lincoln in his Book of Idolatry which is not inconsistent with these That this Tower was consecrated by the Builders of it to the Sun as the cause of drying up the Waters of the Deluge or rather as the most illustrious and nearest resemblance of the Schechinah as I noted on Chap. IV. and that it was intended as an Altar whereon to Sacrifice to it But it is propounded only as a Conjecture Which those Jews seem also to have had in their Minds who by the Word Shem Name understand God As if their meaning were Let us make us a God and raise him a Temple And perhaps future times did convert it to that use Least we be scattered abroad upon the Face of the whole Earth Here they speak as if they feared a dispersion but it 's hard to tell from what cause unless it were this That Noah having projected
just at his Birth Which St. Austin takes to have been the reason why his Father called him Peleg quia tunc ei natus est quando per linguas terra divisa est because he was then born to him when the Earth was divided by their Languages But the Text doth not make this out for it only says in his Days the Earth was divided And the Thirteen Sons of Joktan Peleg's Brother who had their share in this division being not then born we must conclude that if this division began at Peleg's birth it was not finished 'till some Years after Elmacinus says in the Fortieth Year of Peleg's Age the Hebrews generally say at his Death See Hottinger's Smegma Orient p. 62. and 166. And they left off to build the Tower I see no reason to believe that God overturn'd it by a terrible Tempest as Epiphanius expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is the Opinion of Josephus L. I. c. 5. Antiq. and Abydenus mention'd by Eusebius L. IX c. 4. Praepar Evang. and divers others of the Ancients Nor is there any ground for what others say particularly Benjamin Tudel in his Itinerary p. 77. that it was burnt by Fire from Heaven For Moses doth not intimate that it was either burnt or over-turned But only that they desisted from their Enterprize Which naturally ceased when they could no longer joyn to carry on the Building Which may rather lead us to think that the City and Tower stood long after this And that Bochart's Conjecture is not unreasonable That it was the very Tower which was afterward consecrated to Belus described by Herodotus L. I. For it is evident that though this City and Country lay waste for some time Men being frighted by the confusion of their Languages from living there yet Nimrod a bold Man came and made this the Seat of his Empire And it 's very probable carried on that Work which was broke off by the Dispersion For it is not said Gen. X. 10. that he built Babel as he did Niniveh and other Cities verse 11. but only that it was the beginning of his Kingdom the head City where he made his residence Ver. 9. Therefore is the Name of it called Babel Which signifies in Hebrew Confusion So frivolous is their Conceit who make it to have been called by this Name from Babylon the Son of Belus All the difficulty is to know who called it by this Name Some think the Children of Heber in whose Family the original Language continued But it may be as rationally conceived that in the confusion of Languages all retained some of the ancient words and particularly this By which they all commonly called this Place Confound the Language of all the Earth That is the Language of all those People who were in this Western Colony not the Language of Noah and his Plantation more Easterly who kept as I said the Primitive Language Scatter them abroad upon the face c. This Dispersion was so ordered that each Family and each Nation dwelt by it self Which could not well be done as Mr. Mede observes but by directing an orderly Division Either by casting of Lots or chusing according to their Birth-right after Portions of the Earth were set out according to the Number of their Nations and Families For otherwise some would not have been content to go so far North as Magog did and others suffered to enjoy more pleasant Countries Ver. 10. These are the Generations of Shem. It appears from the foregoing Chapter that these here mentioned were not all the Persons who descended from him But these were the Ancestors of Abraham whom Moses derives by these from Shem. Ver. 11. Lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred Years So that as he had seen Methuselah and Lamech before the Flood he might also see not only Abraham but his Son Isaac who by this Account was one and twenty Years old when Shem died Ver. 14. Begat Eber. Who was the Father of those from whom came the Hebrew Nation Abraham being descended from him in the sixth Generation And that Nation being called Eber Numb XXIV 24. and the Children of Eber Gen. X. 21. It is not reasonable as I observed before to seek for any other derivation of the Name of Hebrews Ver. 16. Peleg or Phaleg It is not unlikely that either he or some of his Posterity in memory of him gave Name to a Town upon Euphrates called Phalga Not far from the place where Chaborus runs into it upon which Harah or Charrah stood built by Haran Abraham's Brother Ver. 18. Reu or Ragau. As some pronounce the Hebrew word gave Name to a Field near Assyria Judith I. 5. or as Tobit saith in Media Where Strabo mentions a City called Raga and so doth Stephanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the hundred and thirtieth Year of his life if we may believe Elmacinus p. 29. Nimrod began to Reign in Babylon And in his days also he says the Egyptian Kingdom began Which need not seem strange though scarce two hundred Years were passed since the Flood when we consider the vast increase of People in these Ages from a few Planters within such a compass of time And likewise the extraordinary fruitfulness which God after the Flood bestowed upon them for the Peopling of the Earth For he says twice to Noah and his Sons immediately after they came out of the Ark increase and multiply IX 1 7. and replenish the Earth From this Antiquity of the Egyptian Kingdom it is that the later Pharaohs called themselves the Sons of ancient Kings Isai XIX 11. In Reu's time also both the Egyptians and Babylonians now began to make Images and worship them if Patricides may be credited See Hotting Smegma Orient cap. 8. n. 16. Ver. 20. Begat Serug From whom Bochartus thinks some of his Descendants might call the City Sarug Which the Arabian Geographer says was near to Charrae or Haran He first began to celebrate every Year the Memory of famous Men after they were dead and commanded them to be honoured as Benefactors if we may believe Suidas in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Damascen and a long Roll of other Authors mentioned by Jacobus Geusius Par. I. c. 2. De Victimis Humanis Ver. 22. Begat Nahor The same Writers say That Idolatry increasing much in his days there was a great Earthquake the first that had been observed which overturned their Temples and broke their Images in Arabia Ver. 24. Terah Whom they make to have been an Idolatrous Priest but to have repented and been converted to the worship of the True God See Verse 31. Ver. 26. And Terah lived seventy Years and begat Abraham Nahor and Haran i. e. He was seventy Years old before he had any Children and then had three Sons one after another Who are not set down in the order wherein they were born For Abraham's being first named doth not prove him to have been the eldest Son of Terah no more
the Mountain which was on the East of Bethel where he pitched his Tent before he went into Egypt XII 8. and returned to it when he came from thence Verse 3 4. of this Chapter which gave him the advantage of a fair and long prospect of the Country every way Ver. 15. For all the Land thou seest c. That whole Country some Parts of which he saw a great way in every Quarter of it and all the rest contiguous to them were hereby assured to him For ever It doth not signifie strictly Time without end But a very long Period The Jews indeed say that this word Olam when it is written full as they speak that is with Vau denotes Eternity though without Vau they confess it signifies only a long time But this small Observation is quite overthrown by many Examples to the contrary For Exod. XV. 18. where the Lord is said to reign for ever this word Olam is without a Vau and yet denotes Eternity And Deut. XV. 17. where it is said he shall be thy Servant for ever it is written with a Vau and yet denotes only a term of fifty Years at the most Ver. 16. I will make thy Seed as the Dust of the Earth c. More than could be contained in that Land Ver. 17. Arise walk through the Land c. He would have him for his satisfaction go and view it all more nearly in every part of it Or he gives him leave if he desired to understand more fully both the Quality and Quantity of the Inheritance he bestowed on him to go and survey it Promising he would protect and preserve him in his perambulation Nay some look upon this as giving him a Warrant to take possession of the Country though he should not yet enjoy it Ver. 18. Then Abram removed his Tent. To a place about twenty four Miles from Bethel where he was before And dwelt in the Plain Here the word we had before XII 6 is in the Plural Number and is taken by many for Oaks i. e. for an Oaken Grove So the Arabick Interpreter The LXX translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Oak in the Singular Number for there seems to have been one Oak more eminent than the rest Under which Abram pitched his Tent and built an Altar unto the LORD This is confirmed by XVIII 1. compared with Verse 8. And indeed the Ancients very much reverenced an Oak and therefore planted this Tree very frequently Jacob buried the Idolatrous Trumpery of his Family under an Oak XXXV 4. which was by Schechem where the place of Publick Worship seems to have been fix'd in Joshua's time Josh XXIV 1 26. The Angel of the LORD also appeared to Gideon under an Oak Judg. VI. 11 19 25. IX 6. And of all other Trees an Oak was held most Sacred by the Heathen particularly by the Druids See Pliny L. XVI c. 44. Max. Tyrius Dissert 34. And Pausanias in his Account of Arcadia says the Ancients made the Images of their Gods of Oak being the most durable Wood. This Oak some fansie was in being in the time of Constantine and there was great resort to it See Sozomen L. II. cap. 4. Here Abram dwelt a long time and many great things passed here before he removed to any other place Mamre Was the Name of a Man among the Amorites as appears from the next Chapter verse 13. Which is in Hebron Or rather by or near Hebron for so the Particle Beth is often used which was a very ancient City built seven Years before Zoar i. e. the famous City of Tanis in Egypt Numb XIII 22. It was called Arba or Kirjath-Arba at the first XXIII 2. but in Moses his time Hebron There are those indeed who say it was not called Hebron till the time of Joshua who gave it to Caleb for his Portion Josh XV. 13 15. And thence conclude this Passage was not wrote by Moses but put in by some other Hand after his time But I see not the least proof of this Assertion that Caleb was the first who gave it this Name His Grand-Son mentioned 1 Chron. II. 42 43. may rather be thought to have taken his Name from this Place than to have given a Name to it Besides there have been two Occasions of giving one and the same Name as appears by what is said of Beersheba XXI 31. XXVI 33. And therefore this City might have the Name of Hebron in Moses his time and it might be confirmed in Joshua's CHAP. XIV Ver. 1. AND it came to pass c. It is very easie to give an Account of this War which the Kings of the East made upon the King of Sodom and Gomorrha c. if what was said before XII 6. be admitted that the Canaanites had invaded the Rights of the Children of Shem and gotten Possession of a Country belonging to them which they now endeavoured to recover as they had attempted before verse 4. For Elam of which Chedorlaomer was King descended from Shem Gen. X. 22. Amraphel king of Shinar i. e. King of Babylon as it is commonly understood But it cannot well be thought that so Potent a King as he is supposed to have been in those days should need any Associates in a War against such petty Princes as those mentioned verse 2. Or that the King of Elam whose Quarrel this was as appears from verse 4. should not be able of himself to grapple with them Or that the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrha c. durst have adventured with a handful of People in comparison to rebel against him after he had brought them under his subjection Therefore we must either take Amraphel to have been some small Prince in the Country of Shinar i. e. Assyria Or if he were King of Babylon that Monarchy was not very great in the days of Abram And we must also look upon the rest as Names of some particular Places like Sodom and Gomorrha over which Arioch and Chedorlaomer reigned Who were such Kings as those in Canaan when Joshua conquered it Or else Commanders of Colonies which they had led out of Assyria and Persia and setling thereabouts endeavoured to inlarge their Plantations As the manner was in those and in succeeding Times when the Captains of a Troop and Leaders of a small Body of Men were called Princes or Kings Arioch king of Ellasar There was a City mentioned by Stephanus De urbibus called Ellas in Coelo-Syria on the Borders of Arabia where Arioch perhaps commanded Chedorlaomer king of Elam Concerning this Country see X. 22. where Chedorlaomer was either Governor of some little Province or City or a Commander of some Troop of that Nation Tidal king of Nations Some take Gojim in this place which we translate Nations for a Country or City But it is more agreeable to the common use of the word in Scripture to take it to signifie a People Who either wanted a fixed Habitation or were gathered out of sundry Regions
Thus part of Galilee being inhabited by a mixed People of divers Countries was thence called Galilee of the Nations or Gentiles Matth. IV. 15. There were also as Sir W. Raleigh observes several petty Countries which adjoyned to Phoenicia viz. Palmyrena Batanea Apamena Laodicene c. which lay towards Mesopotamia on the North and Arabia on the East over which we may suppose Tidal reigned Eupolemus an ancient Greek Writer relating this Story calls them Armenians who made this inrode upon the Phoenicians as Eusebius tells us out of Alexander Polyhistor L. IX Praepar Evang. c. 17. Ver. 2. These made war with Bera king of Sodom c. They were Lords of the Country called Pentapolis or five Cities Which were so small that there was no need to bring a great King from beyond Tigris with such a mighty Monarch as he of Babylon is thought now to have been and several other Nations between these Kings and Euphrates to subdue their petty Province It had been madness also for these Kings to resist such powerful Armies as the Eastern Kings are commonly supposed to have brought against them And therefore I think it reasonable by the Kings in the first Verse to understand some such petty Princes as these mentioned in the second Ver. 3. Valley of Siddim The five Cities stood in this goodly Valley which now is the Salt-Sea or Lake Since the overthrow of these Cities by Fire and Brimstone from Heaven Some will not have Siddim a proper Name but translate it ploughed Lands in which this Valley was very rich Ver. 4 Twelve Years they served Chedorlaomer c. This shows he was the Principal in this War And if he had been King of all that Country called Elam we cannot think he would have passed through so great a part of the World as Assyria Mesopotamia and part of Arabia to conquer five Towns All whose Riches could not countervail the Charge though he had sent only one of his Lieutenants with a small Force to bring them under Ver. 5. Smote the Rephaims In their way to Sodom they subdued these Warlike People who it is likely opposed their Passage into Pentapolis And these Rephaims it appears by XV. 20. were a part of Canaan's Posterity situate as one may gather from Josh XII 4. XIII 12. on the other side Jordan in Bashan or Batanea They were of a Giant-like Stature And therefore the LXX here and in other places instead of Rephaim have Giants Ashtaroth-Karnaim It is plain from the fore-named place and from Deut. I. 4. that Ashtaroth was a place in Bashan Whether so called because the Goddess Astarte i. e. Diana or Juno was here worshipped no Body can resolve They that are of this Opinion fansie that Karnaim which in Hebrew signifies two horned denotes the New Moon But this word may as well note that Ashtaroth was a City in the form of a half Moon And the Zuzims Another Warlike People thereabouts Who some think are the same with the Zamzummims Deut. II. 10. The Emims It appears from Deut. II. 9 10 c. that these were also a Gigantick People and near Neighbours to the Horites mentioned in the next Verse For the Emims possessed Ar and the Field of Kirjath-Jearim and the Horites possessed Mount Seir till the former were driven out by the Moabites and the latter by the Children of Esau And then the Country of the Emims was called Moab and the Country of the Horites was called Edom. Ver. 7. And they returned From the Conquest of the fore-named People And came to En-mishpat Fell upon this Country which was called afterward by this Name because God here judged the Israelites for their Murmurings and Contention with Moses From whence also it was called Kadesh because here the Lord was sanctified among them Numb XX. 13. All the Country of the Amalekites The Country which was afterwards possessed by the Amalekites who were not yet in being For they were the Descendants of Esau as Moses shows Gen. XXXVI 16. And also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazezon-Tamar Which is the same with En-Gaddi near the dead Sea 2 Chron. XX. 2. Ver. 10. Full of Slime-pits Into which they hoped their Enemies might fall and so be broken Which made them draw up their Army and wait for them in this place And the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrha fled Were routed as we now speak Of the word Slime see XI 3. And fell there i. e. A great slaughter was made of their Armies For they themselves escaped it appears by the following part of the Story Some will have it that many of them fell into those Slime-pits in which they hoped to have seen their Enemies plunged But the simplest Sence is many of them were slain and the rest as it follows escaped to the Mountain But made such ill use of their Preservation from being killed with their Fellows that they only lived to suffer a greater Vengeance Ver. 11. And they took all the Goods c. This is a further proof that Chedorlaomer and the rest of his Confederates in this War were but petty Princes like the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrha c. for having broken the Army of the Five Kings they rested contented and march'd away with the Prisoners and Booty but took not one of their Cities Which if they had been such great Kings as is imagined they would have certainly sack'd and perhaps burnt if they had not thought fit to keep them But we read Verse 17. the King of Sodom still reigned after this Victory and went out of his City to meet Abram Ver. 12. And they took Lot c. Who is here called his Brother's Son and Verse 14 and 16. Abram's Brother This was the Foundation of Abram's Quarrel with the Four Kings whose War was just against the King of Sodom and his Confederates But they unjustly seized upon Lot and his Goods who was but a Sojourner in that Country and had no hand in their Revolt Who dwelt in Sodom In the Country of Sodom where he hired some Ground for his Cattle but it is not likely he yet dwelt in the City for then he had not been taken Captive but afterwards for more security betook himself thither Ver. 13. Told Abram the Hebrew So called from his Ancestor Heber as was before observed To which may be added That if he had been called by this Name as many think only from his passing over Euphrates which the LXX took to be the reason when they translated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it would not have descended to all his Posterity who did not come from beyond the River So little a thing as that would not have given a Name to a whole and eminent Nation who are usually denominated from some eminent Progenitor And these were confederate with Abram The three forenamed Families were near Neighbours to Abram who it is likely farmed as we now speak some Ground of them And so entred into a League of Mutual Defence having the
import it to draw nigh to God in the Holy Language signifying no more but to worship him Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked As much as to say I know thou wilt not For such Questions strongly deny as in verse 17. Ver. 24. Fifty righteous within the City Of Sodom which was the Chief and comprehended the rest of the Country of Pentapolis Which one would guess by Gen. XIV 17. depended upon Sodom as the Metropolis So what is said here of it I take to referr to the whole Region Wilt thou not spare the place for the fifty c. He desires two things of God First That he would not destroy the Righteous with the Wicked Secondly That he would spare the Wicked for the sake of the Righteous if any considerable Number of them were found among the Wicked Ver. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right This referrs as we translate it only to the first part of his Request not to destroy the Righteous with the Wicked Which was contrary to common Justice much more to that exact Justice which is administred by the Supreme Lord of the World From whom there lies no Appeal But according to the Vulgar Translation which is this Thou who judgest all the Earth wilt by no means execute this Judgment it referrs to the other part also That God would not be so severe as to destroy a whole Country whilst there were many good Men still remaining in it And so the word Right includes in it Clemency And indeed this Passage seems to relate to both parts of his Request And is to be interpreted thus Shall not the Supreme Judge show Mercy as well as do Justice Ver. 26. And the LORD said If I find fifty c. then will I spare c. This shows the foregoing Interpretation to be right God promising most graciously to be merciful to all for the sake of a few in comparison with the Multitude of Offenders Ver. 27. Who am but Dust and Ashes Very mean and vile Ver. 28. Lack five of the fifty righteous A great Argument of Abraham's Modesty who durst not presume to ask too much at once but by degrees proceeds in the following Verses to petition for greater abatements And that with fear and trembling lest the LORD should be angry with his importunity Ver. 32. I will not destroy it for tens sake A wonderful representation of the tender Mercy of the most High who condescended so low as to grant a Reprieve to the whole Country for the sake of so small a Number if they could have been found in it And his Mercy was still greater even beyond Abraham's desire for he spared one of the five Cities For the sake of three or four Persons as we read XIX 20 21. We do not find that Abraham makes express mention of Lot in any of the foregoing Petitions But it is plain from XIX 29. that he was in his Thoughts which God knew and he is comprehended in those words Verse 23. of this Chapter Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked Ver. 33. And the LORD went his way The Divine Majesty or the Glory of the Lord disappeared and ascended perhaps towards Heaven after this Communication with Abraham was finished And Abraham returned to his place In the Plain of Mamre verse 1. CHAP. XIX Ver. 1. AND there came two Angels There were three at the first XVIII 2. but the Chief of them was gone having dispatch'd his Message to Abraham unto whom he was peculiarly sent See XVIII 2. At even They had been with Abraham in the heat of the Day And were now come to the Gates of Sodom Lot sat in the gate of Sodom The Hebrew Doctors will have it that he was made a Judge in this City and the prime Judge of all For they adventure to Name five in Bereschith Rabba and say Lot was the President of the Court which sat in the Gate of the City But this is only a fansie of theirs He rather sat in the Gate of this City as Abraham did at his Tent door to invite Strangers to his House according to the Hospitality of those days which was the greater Charity because he knew the City to be so wicked that if we may believe the Hebrew Doctors they not only denied them all assistance but abused them and were cruel to them see Gemara Sanhedrim C. XI Pirke Elieser cap. 25. for which last they quote those words of Ezekiel XXII 29. they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully Which are spoken of Israel whom XVI 49. he had compared with Sodom One of whose Sins he says was want of Compassion to the poor and needy Rose up to meet them c. Just as Abraham did whose Civility he imitates as well as his Charity For the bowing himself so lowly was a Token of the great Honour he paid them Who had the appearance of great and noble Persons And therefore he calls them Lords in the next Verse Ver. 2. Turn in I pray you and tarry all night c. It is late and the Night draws on take up your Lodging with me and refresh your selves and go away as early as you please And they said Nay c. It was as great a Civility in strangers not to be forward to accept as it was in him to invite And therefore they refuse him at first to try his Kindness But intending no doubt to embrace his offer if he pressed them further So the following words are to be understood We will abide in the street all night Unless you persist in your Invitation In those hot Countries it was not unusual to lie in the open Air especially in Summer And in a City they were safe from being infested by wild Beasts or Robbers Concerning washing the feet see XVIII 4. Ver. 3. He pressed upon them greatly Would not be denied but was so earnest that they yielded It is the same word with that verse 9. Bake unleavened Bread which would be soonest ready that so they might in good time repose themselves Ver. 4. And before they lay down To take their rest Both old and young A manifest Token of an universal Depravation of Manners and Dissolution of Government From every quarter Or as some understand it from the most extream parts of the City As in Psalm XIX 4. One it seems told another what goodly Persons were come to their City And all ran to the House where they heard they were with the same wicked Inclinations This is a proof there were not ten righteous Persons in Sodom Ver. 5. That we may know them A modest word for a lewd Fact Some indeed will have it understood simply of their examining what they were whence they came and what their business was Which might perhaps be their pretence but Lot's answer to them verse 7 8. interprets their meaning to be filthy Ver. 6. Went out at the door To try if he could persuade them to depart From whence
yet he saw them degenerating apace into all manner of Wickedness especially into Idolatry Which would bring them he knew to utter Desolation when they had filled up the measure of their Iniquity XV. 16. Ver. 4. But go into my Country i. e. Into Mesopotamia where he lived for some time in Haran after he came from Vr Which was also in that Country as I observed upon XI 31. It seems also his Brother had removed hither Following his Father Terah's and Abraham's Example See XI 31. And my kindred The Family of his Brother Nahor which he heard lately was increased XXII 20. who though they had some Superstition among them retained the worship of the True God as appears from this very Chapter verse 31 50. And take a Wife unto my Son Isaac Which no doubt was by Isaac's Consent as well as his Father's Command Ver. 5. Must I needs bring thy Son again into the Land from whence thou camest He desires like a conscientious Man to understand the full Obligation of his Oath before he took it And his doubt was whether if a Woman would not come with him into Canaan he should be bound to go again a second time and carry Isaac to her Ver. 6. Beware that thou bring not my Son thither again He would by no means his Son should go to that Country which God commanded him to forsake That Command obliging not only himself but his Posterity See Verse 8. Ver. 7. The LORD God of Heaven c. He who Rules all things above as well as below who brought me from my own into this Country and hath promised and confirmed that Promise with an Oath that my Posterity shall inherit it will prosper thy Journey and dispose some of my Kindred to come hither and be married to my Son Send his Angel before thee Good Men were ever very sensible of God's Providence governing all things and prospering their proceedings by the Ministry of Angels Which Abraham's Servant takes particular notice of verse 40. Ver. 8. And if the Woman will not be willing to follow thee c. If it fall out otherways than I hope thou hast done thy Duty If thou bring not my Son into that Country again He speaks both here and verse 6. as if Isaac had once been there Because Abraham himself came from thence and this Servant also and a great many of his Family XII 5. who if Isaac went to settle there must have gone with him as part of his Substance Ver. 10. And the Servant took ten Camels c. Camels were of great use in those Countries as they are at this day Some of them being made for carriage of Burdens and others for swift travelling which latter sort were called by a peculiar Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dromedaries as Salmasius observes in his Plinian Exercit p. 987. These perhaps were of that kind for the greater expedition Like those we read of 1 Sam. XXX 17. For all the Goods of his Master were in his Hands He might chuse what Accommodations he pleased for his Journey having every thing belonging to his Master at his command Who being a great Person it was fit his principal Servant should be well attended as it appears he was verse 32. especially when he went upon such an â—…rand as to court a Wife for his Master's Son Most referr this to the Presents he carried along with him And R. Solomon will have it that he carried a Writing with him under his Master's Hand an Inventory we call it specifying all his Goods and Riches that they might know what a great Match his Son was City of Nahor Which was Haran from whence Abraham came XI 31. and to which Jacob went to find his Kindred XXVIII 10. How far it was thither we are not told nor how long they were going to it And Moses omits also whatsoever passed in the way as not pertinent to his Story Ver. 11. Camels kneel down The Posture wherein they rest themselves Ver. 12. O LORD God of my Master Abraham c. He had observed the Kindness of God to have been so great to Abraham and Abraham to have such a peculiar Interest in his Favour that in confidence he would make good Abraham's words verse 7. 40. he not only begs he might have good success in his Journey but desires a sign of it to confirm his Faith and such a sign as was most apposite to denote the Person that would make a good Wife by her Courtesie Humility Condescention Hospitality prompt and laborious Charity All which are included in what he desires and she did Ver. 14. Thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness to my Master He had no Confidence that God would do any thing for his own sake but for his Master 's whom God had most wonderfully blessed Ver. 15. And it came to pass before he had done speaking c. This shows it was by a Divine Suggestion that he made this Prayer which was answered immediately Such is the Divine Goodness or rather to use the words of Sam. Bochartus upon occasion of many such Instances Sic enim parata obvia esse solent Dei beneficia ita ut preces nostras non tam sequantur quam occupent alque antecedant P. I. Hierozoic L. 2. cap. 49. So forward is God to bestow his Benefits upon us that they do not so much follow our Prayers as prevent and go before them See Verse 45. With her Pitcher upon her Shoulder Behold the Simplicity Frugality and Industry of that Age. Ver. 20. Drew for all his Camels There were ten of them verse 10. and they are a very thirsty sort of Creatures And therefore she took a great deal of Pains to serve him who was but a stranger in this manner Which showed extraordinary Goodness and a most obliging Disposition at which he might well be amazed as it follows in the next Verse Ver. 21. Wondring at her held his peace c. He was so astonish'd at her Kindness readiness to do Good and laborious Diligence c. and also at the Providence of God in making things fall out so pat to his Desires that for the present he could not speak Having his Mind imploy'd in marking and observing every Passage whereby he might judge how to conclude whether this was the Woman or no whom God designed for his Master's Son Ver. 22. The Man took Gave her as the Phrase is often used But he first asked her whose Daughter she was as appears from verse 47. A golden Ear-ring Or rather as the Margin hath it a Jewel for the Forehead And so we translate the Hebrew word Ezek. XVI 12. and this Person himself expounds it verse 47. I put the Ear-ring or Jewel upon her Face i. e. her Forehead For such Ornaments were used in those Times and Countries hanging down between the Eye-brows over the Nose Two Bracelets for her Hands i. e. Wrests Ver. 26. Bowed his Head and worshipped the LORD
Sabaei in the furthermost parts of Arabia near the Persian and the Red-Sea there were also a People of that Name descended it is very probable from this Son of Jokshan in the very Entrance of Arabia Foelix as Strabo tells us Who says that they and the Nabataei were the very next People to Syria And were wont to make Excursions upon their Neighbours By which we may understand which otherwise could not be made out how the Sabaeans broke into Job's Country and carried away his Cattle For it is not credible they could come so far as from the Persian or Arabian Sea But from this Country there was an easie Passage through the Desarts of Arabia into the Land of Vz or Ausitis which lay upon the Borders of Euphrates See Bochart in his Phaleg L. IV. cap. 9. And Dedan There was one of this Name as I said before the Son of Rhegma Gen. X. 7. who gave Name to a City upon the Persian Sea now called Dadan But besides that there was an Inland City called Dedan in the Country of Idumaea mentioned by Jeremiah XXV 23. XLIX 8. whose Inhabitants are called Dedanim Isai XXI 13. And this Dedan here mentioned may well be thought to be the Founder of it as the same Bochart observes L. IV. cap. 6. And the Sons of Dedan were Ashurim and Letushim and Leummim If these were Heads of Nations or Families the memory of them is lost For it is a mistake of Cleodemus who mentions the first of these in Euseb Praepar Evang. L. IX c. 20. to derive the Assyrians from this Ashurim They having their Original from Ashur one of the Sons of Shem X. 22. Ver. 4. And the Sons of Midian Ephah The Name of Ephah the eldest Son of Midian continued a long time for these two are mentioned by Isaiah as near Neighbours LX. 6. And not only Josephus Eusebius and St. Hierom but the Nubiensian Geographer also tells us of a City called Madian in the Shoar of the Red-Sea Near to which was Ephah in the Province of Madian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epha or Hipha is the same with that Place the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Ptolomy mentions both a Mountain and a Village of this Name on the same Shoar a little below Madiane which is the Madian here mentioned as Bochart observes in his Hierozoic P. I. L. 2. cap. 3. And Epher I can find no remainders of his Family unless it be among the Homeritae before-mentioned whose Metropolis was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Theophilus sent by Constantius to convert that Country built a Church as Philostorgius relates L. III. Hist Eccles § 4. Which City is mentioned by many other Authors as Jacobus Gotofredus observes in his Dissertations upon Philostorgius Particularly by Arrianus in his Periplus of the Red-Sea where he calls the Metropolis of the Homeritae expresly by the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which one cannot well doubt came from this Epher And Hanoch In that part of Arabia Foelix where the Adranitae were seated there was a great trading Town called Cane as Ptolomy tells us and shows its distance from Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. VIII Pliny also mentions a Country in Arabia which he calls Regio Canauna which may be thought to have taken its Name from this Person and his Posterity And Abidah The Relicks of this Name remain if the two last Syllables as is usual be inverted in the People called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who lived in an Island called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which lay between Arabia and India and is by Authors said to belong sometimes to the one and sometimes to the other Philostorgius saith only they bear the Name of Indians in the place before-named where he saith Theophilus who was sent to convert the Homerites was born here But Pliny reckoning up the Tracts of Arabia places the Isle called Devadae which I take to be this over against the fore-named Region called Canauna L. VI. cap. 28. And Strabo as Gothofred observes Agatharcides and others call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Eldaah I know not where to find any Remains of this Name unless it be in the City Elana which might easily be formed from Eldaah by leaving out the Daleth and turning the Ain into Nun than which nothing more common which was seated in the Sinus Arabicus toward the East called by others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelana from whence the Sinus it self was called Elanites and the People that lived in it Elanitae as Salmasius shows out of many Authors Exercit. in Solinum p. 482. Ver. 5. Gave all he had to Isaac As he designed long before XXIV 36. Ver. 6. Sons of his Concubines Which were Hagar and Keturah Who were Wives but of an inferior sort according to the manner of those Times and Countries Keturah is expresly called his Concubine 1 Chron. I. 32. as she is above verse 1. of this Chapter called his Wife Which R. Bechai in Mr. Selden cap. 3 de Successionibus thus explains She was his Concubine because of a servile Condition but his Wife because married with Covenants to provide for her and her Children though they were not to heir his Estate The Talmudists indeed do not perfectly agree in this matter For though they all agree and prove it evidently that they were real Wives yet some say they were made so only by Solemn Espousals without any Marriage Settlement in Writing as the principal Wives had Others think they had a Writing also but not with such Conditions as the principal Wives enjoyed Abarbinel hath an accurate Discourse about this which Buxtorf hath translated into his Book de Sponsalibus n. 17. And see also Mr. Selden L. V. de Jure N. G. cap. 7. p. 570 c. and G. Sckickard de Jure Regio cap. 3. p. 70. Gave gifts Some Portion of his Money or moveable Goods Or perhaps of both Which in all probability he gave to Ishmael as well as to these Sons though it be not mentioned Gen. XXI 14. because Moses here saith he gave Gifts to the Sons of his Concubines of which Hagar was one Into the East Country Into Arabia and the adjacent Countries as was said before For the Midianites are called the Children of the East in Judg. VI. 3 33. VII 12. VIII 10. Ver. 7. These are the Days of the Years of Abraham c. This is spoken by anticipation to finish the Story of Abraham for Esau and Jacob were born before he died And were now fifteen Years old For Isaac was but sixty Years old when they were born verse 26. and seventy five when Abraham died Who was an hundred Years old at Isaac's birth and lived to the Age of one hundred seventy and five Ver. 8. Abraham gave up the ghost Died of no Disease but old Age. In a good old Age. Without Pain or Sickness Full of Years The Hebrew hath only the word full We add
Head but all over his Body Like an hairy Garment As rough as Hair-Cloth Just as the Poets describe Satyrs He was hirsutus not only hairy all over but those Hairs as stiff as Bristles arguing great strength of Body And a rough fierce Temper They called his Name Esau Which signifying made in Hebrew this is commonly taken for the reason of his Name that he was as full of Hairs when he was born as others are at Man's estate But I think it may as well denote his active Genius which they thought this presaged Ver. 26. Jacob. He certainly had his Name from his taking his Brother by the Heel at his birth As if he would supplant him as he afterwards did Was threescore Years old God exercised Isaac's Faith and Patience just as he had done Abraham's for the space of twenty Years before he gave him a Child For he was forty Years old when he married verse 20. and now sixty Ver. 27. A cunning Hunter Had great skill in Hunting in which his active genius delighted A Man of the Field That took pleasure to be abroad pursuing wild Beasts in Woods and Mountains Where afterwards he had his habitation A plain Man dwelling in Tents He loved not violent Exercise but kept at home or lookt after the Flocks of Sheep and the breed of Cattle Ver. 28. And Isaac loved Esau c. Not only because he was his First-born and because his love of Hunting argued him to be a Man of great Activity and Valour who was likely to prove a great Person But because he also took care frequently to entertain his Father with Venison which was of divers sorts and afforded him such variety at his Table as gave his Father frequent occasion to commend him But Rebekah loved Jacob. Being a Man of a more meek and quiet Temper suitable to her own Disposition and more at home also with her than Esau was and designed by God to inherit the Promise verse 23. It is likely Esau made great court as we speak to his Father and Jacob to his Mother Whereby they won their Affection Ver. 29. He was faint With too violent and long pursuit of his Sports Ver. 30 Feed me I pray thee with that same red c. It was made of Lentiles as we learn from the last Verse of this Chapter And St. Austin upon Psalm XLVI saith they were Egyptian Lentiles which were in great esteem and much commended by Athenaeus and A. Gellius And gave the Pottage it is probable a red tincture Some think Esau did not know what it was and therefore calls it only by its colour asking for that red that same red as it is in the Hebrew Therefore was his Name called Edom. This repeated eager desire of he knew not what for which he sold his Birth-right gave him the Name of Edom Which signifies red Whence the City which he built and the whole Country his Posterity inhabited was called by the same Name and by the Greeks Idumaea bordering toward the South upon Judaea Arabia and Egypt Ver. 31. Sell me this day thy Birth-right The eldest Son had several Privileges belonging to him above the rest The chief of which was to have a double Portion of his Father's Estate As for the right of Priesthood there are many reasons to prove it did not belong thereunto But whatsoever they were Jacob cunningly made an Advantage of Esau's Necessity to purchase them all for a small matter In which some think he did not amiss About which I shall not dispute Ver. 32. What profit shall this Birth-right do to me He speaks very slightly if not contemptuously of it Preferring the present satisfaction of his Appetite before his future Dignity and Greatness For some are of Opinion he pretended to be fainter than really he was out of a vehement longing for the Pottage which perhaps was a rarety Ver. 33. Swear to me this day That I shall peaceably enjoy the Prerogative of the Birth-right Esau seems to have been very violent in all things and to have pursued this as eagerly as he did his Sports Jacob on the contrary very sedate and crafty to make the best use of the Opportunities he met with to promote his Ends. Ver. 34. Rose up and went his way Well satisfied and without any trouble for what he had done Which the Apostle censures as a piece of Prophaneness Parents being wont to give a special Blessing to their First-born Despised his Birth-right He thought perhaps he could recover that by Force which he had lost by his Brother's Craft CHAP. XXVI Ver. 1. AND there was a famine in the Land c. Such a scarcity of Provisions as were in Abraham's days XII 10. when he was newly come into Canaan hapned again in the days of Isaac And Isaac went It is not said from whence he went But it is probable after the death of Abraham he went and dwelt where his Father had often done at Mamre near Hebron For he was not now at Beersheba or the Well Lahai-roi which was the last place of his habitation that we read of XXV 11. for that was in this very Country of Gerar to which he now went Vnto Abimelech The Son it is most likely of him to whom Abraham went For he is not to be thought the same it being an hundred Years since that time And all the Kings of that Country were for many Ages called by the Name of Abimelech as appears from the Story of David Who fled to one of that Name called Achish in 1 Sam. XXI 10. but Abimelech in the Title of the XXXIV Psalm See Gen. XX. 2. Ver. 2. And or for the LORD appeared to him He intended to have gone into Egypt as Abraham his Father had done in the like Case XII 10. But God forbad him appearing to him either in a Vision or a Dream or as the Glory of the LORD appeared afterward to Moses and the Congregation of Israel upon several occasions and directed him to stay in this Country which was in the way to Egypt Where he promises to provide for him Though Egypt was a most plentiful Country yet the King of it at this time was not so good a Man perhaps as him that reigned in the Days of Abraham Ver. 3. Sojourn in this Land c. He not only promises to take care of him at present during the Famine But renews the Promises made to Abraham his Father at sundry times and in divers places XII 3. XV. 5. XVII 2 8. and at last confirmed by an Oath XXII 16 17. I will be with thee and bless thee These and such like words Maimonides shows express a special Providence over those to whom they are spoken and over all belonging to them More Nevoch Par. III. cap. 18. Vnto thy Seed will I give all these Countries Which he repeats again in the next Verse having mentioned the vast multiplication of his Seed Ver. 4. In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be
whence he thinks came the name of PECVNIA for Money and PECVLIVM for Riches à pecoribus from Cattle because the Ancients had no other Possessions Et adhuc apud quasdam gentes unum hoc reperitur divitiarum genus And to this Day saith he there is no other Riches to be found among some Nations Which is still true of the Abyssines especially of the Beklenses as Ludolphus assures us L. I. Hist Aethiop cap 10. § 8. and Comment in Histor L. IV. cap. 4. n. 13. Ver. 4. To sojourn in the Land are we come We do not desire to settle but only to sojourn here during the Famine For the Famine is sore in the Land of Canaan It was an high Country in comparison with Egypt and the Grass sooner burnt up there than in Goshen Which being a very low Country they found some Pasture in it for their Flocks and therefore beseech him to suffer them to dwell there For as St. Austin observes from those that knew the Country there was more Grass in the Marishes and Fenny parts of Egypt when the Nile did not overflow enough to make plenty of Corn. Quest CLX in Gen. Ver. 6. The Land of Egypt is before thee It is all in thy Power dispose of them as thou pleasest Any Man of activity Vigorous and industrious and that understands his business Make them Rulers over my Cattle Such as Doeg was to Saul 1 Sam. XXI 7. And those great Officers mentioned 1 Chron. XXVII 29 30 31. were to King David For the Eastern Kings raised part of their Revenue from Cattle and so did the Egyptian it appears by this place who had some prime Officers to oversee the lower sort of Shepherds This shows that all Shepherds were not an abomination to the Egyptians but only those of other neighbouring Nations the Arabians Phoenicians and Aethiopians who were either an ill sort of People or forbidden by the Laws of Egypt which abounded with Cattle to Traffick with them there Ver. 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh Gave him Thanks for his Favour and prayed for his Health and Safety For that 's the Blessing of an Inferior to a Superior Thus Naaman prays Elisha Take a Blessing of thy Servant i. e. an acknowledgment of my Obligations to thee Ver. 9. Pilgrimage So good Men are wont to call their Life though they never stir from their native Soil Looking upon it as a Passage not a Settlement But Jacob had reason to call his Life so more literally Having been tossed from place to place ever since he went from his Father's House into Mesopotamia and returned from thence into Canaan Where he dwelt a while at Succoth and then at Shechem and after that removed to Bethel and so to Hebron unto his Father Isaac from whence he was now come into Egypt Few and evil have been the Days c. They had been few in comparison with his Fore-fathers and evil because full of Labour and Care Grief and Sorrow upon many occasions Ver. 10. Jacob blessed Pharaoh At meeting and at parting such Salutations were usual See Verse 7. Ver. 11. In the Land of Rameses In that part of Goshen which in the days of Moses was called Rameses from the Name of the City which the Hebrews built there for Pharaoh Unless perhaps the City was called so from the Country of Rameses wherein it stood Ver. 12. And Joseph nourished his Father c. Though there was some Pasture in this Country for their Cattle yet not Food enough for themselves which Joseph therefore took care to supply them withal According to their Families According as their Children were more or fewer so he proportioned their allowance Ver. 13. There was no Bread in all the Land This was the third Year of the Famine XLV 6. in which all the Corn which Men had stored up in their several Families was wholly spent Ver. 14. And Joseph gathered up all the Money c. As long as the Egyptians had any Money left they bought Corn of Joseph Which supported them all the third and it is probable the fourth and fifth Year of the Famine And Joseph brought the Money into Pharaoh's House Into the Treasury which he filled and not his own Coffers as Philo observes Ver. 15. And when Money failed This we may probably conceive was in the sixth Year of the Famine When they were forced to sell their Cattle for Food Ver. 18. They came the second Year i. e. The next Year after the sale of their Cattle which was the last of the Famine as appears from the next Verse Ver. 19. Wherefore should we die we and our Land The Land is said to die as Bochart observes in the beginning of his Hierozoicon cùm inculta jacet desolata when it lies untill'd and desolate As he shows by examples out of some Poets We and our Land will be Servants unto Pharaoh We that were Free will become the King's Bond-men And our Land which was our own we will hold of him And give us Seed c. This shows it was now the last Year of the Famine They desiring Corn not merely for Food but also to Sow in hopes to have a Crop the next Year For Joseph had told them there should be but seven Years of Famine And it is likely Nilus had now begun to overflow the Country as formerly which confirmed his word Ver. 20. And Joseph bought all the Land of Egypt for Pharaoh So the whole Country became the King 's Demesne in which no Man had any Propriety but himself Ver. 21. As for the People he removed them to Cities Remote from those wherein they had formerly dwelt Under the word Cities is comprehended all the Villages about them From one end of the borders of Egypt c. Transplanted them into far distant Parts of the Country from whence he brought others in like manner into their places That they might in time forget the Dominion they formerly had in the Lands they had sold and that there might be no Combination afterward to regain them The old Owners being separated far one from another Ver. 22. Only the Land of the Priests bought he not This is commonly noted as a great piece of Religion in Joseph that he took not away the Land of those who were God's Ministers Though engaged it 's thought in Superstitious if not Idolatrous Services for that the word Cohanim here signifies Priests not Princes as sometimes it doth the ancient Versions generally agree But it is plain they were in no necessity to sell their Lands having their Diet continually from the King Which is given as the reason in the following part of this Verse why he did not buy them This therefore is rather to be observed that the Priests had anciently some Publick Lands allotted to them for the support of their Dignity For both Herodotus and Diodorus tell us they had a Publick Maintenance as Vossius observes Lib. I. de Idolol cap. 29. The Priesthood being confined to certain
was deprived of his Government and banished to Vienne in France And then Judaea was reduced into the Form of a Province and ruled by Roman Governors After which there was no King nor Ethnarch of Judaea So that after this time we may safely conclude the Jews lost even their Mechokkim or Governors as they had long ago lost the Scepter And had no Power remaining among them of administring the Affairs of their Commonwealth Now at this time our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the true Shiloh came Who was the Founder of a new and heavenly Kingdom And nothing more was left to be done for the fulfilling of this Prophecy but after his Crucifying to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and therewith the whole Form of their Government both Civil and Sacred Then all Power was intirely taken from Judah when Christ had erected his Throne in the Heavens and brought many People in several Parts of the Earth unto his Obedience and made them Members of his Celestial Kingdom Till which time this Prophecy was not compleatly fulfilled Which may be the reason possibly that it is not alledged by Christ and his Apostles because the Jews might have said We have still a Government among us Which could not be pretended after the destruction by Titus Which is now above Sixteen hundred Years ago And there is not the least sign of their restitution Which so perplexed R. Samuel Maroccanus that it made him write thus to a Friend of his above Six hundred Years since I would fain learn from thee out of the Testimonies of the Law and the Prophets and other Scriptures why the Jews are thus smitten in this Captivity wherein we are Which may be properly called the PERPETVAL ANGER OF GOD because it hath no end For it is now above a Thousand Years since we were carried captive by TITUS and yet our Fathers who worshipped Idols kill'd the Prophets and cast the Law behind their Back were only punished with a Seventy Years Captivity and then brought home again But now there is no end of our Calamities nor do the Prophets promise any If this Argument was hard to be answered then in his Days it is much harder now in ours Who still see them pursued by God's Vengeance which can be for nothing else but rejecting and crucifying the Messiah the Saviour of the World Ver. 11. Binding his Foal unto the Vine c. This Verse sets forth the great Fertility of Judah's Country abounding with Vineyards and Pastures by two Hyperbolical Expressions First That Vines should be as common there as Thorn-Hedges in other places so that they might tie Asses with their Colts to them Or as some will have it lade an Ass with the Fruit of one Vine Secondly That Wine should be as common as Water so that they should have enough not only to drink but to wash their Clothes in it Which doth not imply that they made it serve for that use but only denotes its plenty Which was so very great that in treading the Grapes and pressing out the Juice their Garments were all sprinkled with Wine which one might wring out of them Choice Vine The Vine of Sorek which we here translate choice and in Jerem. II. 21. noble Vine was the most excellent in all that Country For Sorek was a place not above half a Mile from the Valley of Eschol from whence the Spies brought the large Bunches as a Sample of the Fruitfulness of the Country See Bochart P. I. Hierozoic Lib. III. cap. 13. Ver. 12. His Eyes shall be red with Wine c. This Verse sets forth the Healthfulness and Vigour of the Inhabitants of that fertile Country But Dr. Castell thinks this not to be a good Translation because it can be said of none but a Drunkard that his Eyes are red with Wine And therefore it ought to be translated his Eyes or his Countenance for so Eyes sometimes signifies shall be brighter and more shining than Wine So the word we render red signifies in the Arabick Tongue as he shows in his Oratio in Schol. Theolog. p. 31. and in his Lexicon Yet the same word in the Proverbs XXIII 29. cannot have any other signification than red and the red Colour of the Eyes answers well here to the whiteness of the Teeth which follows and there is no more reason to think he means they should make their Eyes red with drinking Wine than that they should wash their Clothes in it But it may only express the great abundance of Wine to serve not only their necessity but excess And his Teeth white with Milk Milk doth not make the Teeth white but gives such an excellent Nourishment that they who live upon it are healthy and strong And their Teeth not so apt to rot as theirs who feed upon greater Dainties So the meaning is the rich Pastures in that Country should feed great Flocks and consequently they should have abundance of Milk so good and nourishing that the Teeth of the Country-men who lived upon it should be as white as the Milk they drank Or if the foregoing words be translated His Eyes shall be brighter than Wine these are to be translated His Teeth whiter than Milk Out of these three Verses foregoing Bochartus thinks the whole Story of Silenus was forged by the Poets See his Canaan Lib. I. cap. 18. p. 482. Ver. 13. Zebulon shall dwell at the Haven of the Sea Near the Lake of Tiberias called in Scripture the Sea of Gallilee He shall be an Haven for Ships The Lot that fell to him extended from thence to the Mediterranean Where there were Ports for Ships His Border shall be unto Zidon He doth not mean the City of Zidon for the Tribe of Zebulon did not extend themselves beyond Mount Carmel which is forty Miles at least from thence But the Country of Zidon i. e. Phoenicia as Bochart observes in his Phaleg L. IV. cap. 34. which the Zebulonites touched For as the Phoenicians were called Syrians from Sur i. e. Tyre so they were called Sidonians from Sidon as Hesychius tells us Who interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence the LXX have Phoenicians for Sidonians Deut. III. 9. and Phoenice for Sidon Isai XXIII 2. It is very much to be admired That Jacob should foretell so many Years before-hand the Situation of his Posterity in the Land of Canaan when their several Portions fell to them by Lot and not by their own choice Josh XIX 10 11. This could not have been but by the Spirit of Prophecy And it is remarkable also that he mentions Zebulon before Issachar who was his elder Brother XXX 11. for no other reason that I can discern but because Zebulon's Lot was to come up before Issachar's in the Division of the Land His being the third and Issachar's the fourth Josh XIX 10 17. By this they were taught that their Habitation in the Land of Canaan was the Gift of God and did not come
to have been the most eminent among Jacob's Children when Joseph was gone as was noted before XLIV 14. To direct his way c. To give Joseph notice of his coming and to receive Directions from him in what part of Goshen he should expect him And they came into the Land of Goshen Into that part of it which Joseph had appointed Ver. 29. Presented himself to him With such Reverence as a Son owes to his Father Who embraced him most tenderly For some referr the next words to Jacob he fell on his Neck c. Which expresses the highest Affection And wept on his Neck a good while We read before how Joseph fell upon Benjamin's Neck and wept which was answered by the like endearments on Benjamin's part XLV 14. But the Affection wherewith Jacob embraced Joseph as Maimonides understands it or as R. Solomon Jarchi Joseph embraced his Father far surpassed that For they continued longer infolded in one another's Arms where Tears of Joy flowed so fast that for a good while they could not speak Ver. 30. And Israel said unto Joseph Some make this an Argument that it was Joseph who lighting out of his Chariot threw himself into his Father's Arms and wept c. Which made Moses now more distinctly mention who said the following words Now let me die c. These words signifie that he now enjoyed the utmost Happiness he could desire on Earth which therefore he was willing to leave because nothing could be added to it These were the first Thoughts which his Passion suggested to him though to live with Joseph and to enjoy his Conversation was far more than barely to see his face Ver. 32. The Men are Shepherds c. He seems to have been afraid lest Pharaoh should have preferred his Brethren and made them Courtiers or Commanders in the Army c. which might have procured them the Envy of the Egyptians And besides have separated them one from another Whereas by professing themselves Shepherds and Traders in Cattle they kept all together in a Body separate from the Egyptians Which two Reasons are suggested by Josephus Ver. 33. What is your Occupation Your way of living For Men did not live idly in those Days Ver. 34. Ye shall say Thy Servants Trade hath been c. He directs them to Justifie what he told them he would inform Pharaoh That ye may dwell in the Land of Goshen A rich Country abounding with Pasturage and also next adjoyning to Canaan as was noted before XLV 10. unto which when the time came they might the more easily return For every Shepherd Not universally without limitation but every Foreign Shepherd For a considerable part of the Egyptian People were Shepherds as Diodorus Siculus tells us L. I. § 2. p. 47. Edit Steph. where he saith the Country being divided into three Parts the Priests had one their King a second and the Soldiers a third And there were three other Ranks of Men under these viz. Shepherds Husbandmen and Artificers The Husbandmen he saith served their King and Priests and Military Men in tilling their Ground for small Wages and spent all their time in it And the like account he saith is given of their Shepherds who from their Fore-fathers followed that way of living Which makes it plain they could not abominate those who were so serviceable to them though they might contemn them as mean People who never rose to any higher Employment But we need not go to him for the proof of this It being apparent from this very Book that the Egyptians had Sheep and Oxen as well as Horses and Asses which they sold to Joseph for Corn in the time of Famine XLVII 17. and that Pharaoh spake to Joseph to make such of his Brethren as were Men of Skill Rulers over his Flocks XLVII 6. which is a demonstration they bred Cattle as well as other Nations And therefore if we will understand this to be true of all Shepherds without exception then by Egyptians to whom Shepherds are said to be an abomination we must not understand all the People of the Country of Egypt Shepherds being a part of them but only the Courtiers and great Men as in XLV 2. the Egyptians are said to hear Joseph weep i. e. those that belong'd to the Court Who it is likely despised Shepherds as Rupertus Tuitiensis long ago expounded this Passage but that is far short of abominating them which the Hebrew word imports But after all this I do not see how they could be contemptible if it be true which the same Diodorus saith p. 58. That when they buried a Corps and made the Funeral Encomium they never mentioned the Parentage of the deceased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making account that all the People of Egypt were alike well-born We must confine therefore this Assertion to Foreign Shepherds and it is not easie to give the reason why they were an abomination to the Egyptians who were Shepherds themselves Onkelos and Jonathan with a great many others think that they would not converse for that is meant by abomination with the Hebrew Shepherds because they had no greater regard to those Creatures which the Egyptians worshipped than to breed them up to be eaten But there is no good proof that they worshipped Sheep or Oxen in those Days and on the contrary it appears both out of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus that they sacrificed such Creatures in their Days and also eat of the Sacrifices when they had done See Herodot in Euterpe Cap. 40 41. And therefore the reason given by others for this Abhorrence is not solid that the Egyptians did eat no Flesh and upon that score could not endure those that did This is the Account which Aben Ezra gives of this Matter who fansies they were like the Indians in his time who abominated Shepherds because they drunk Milk contrary to their Manners who tasted nothing that came from any living Creature But as it cannot be proved that this Superstition was so old as Jacob's time so the contrary is evident from this very Book XLIII 16. where Joseph bids his Steward go home and slay and make ready a Dinner for his Brethren Whom he did not intend to entertain after the Hebrew but after the Egyptian Fashion that he might not be known by them And so Herodotus informs us that in his days though they abstained from some Animals yet they eat of others Both Fish and Birds Euterpe cap. 78. And Diodorus giving an account after what manner their Kings lived saith they used a simple Diet eating Veal and Geese c. L. I. § 2. p. 45. Edit Steph. Jos Scaliger therefore thinks this sort of Men were abominable because they had often raised Rebellion in Egypt and made a King of their own who erected that which is called the Pastoral Kingdom This is embraced by many great Men who have only the Authority of Manetho for it who says these were Phoenician Shepherds as Josephus tells us Lib. I.
contra Appion who reigned in Egypt and burnt their Cities threw down their Temples in short omitted no sort of Cruelties Upon this account the famous Bochartus Lib. IV. Canaan cap. 4. thinks it possible the Egyptians hated Shepherds who had done so much Mischief And I may add the Hebrew Shepherds Joseph might think would be more abominated because they came out of that very Country from whence those Phoenician Rovers made their Invasion But as it doth not appear that they who did the fore-named Mischief were all Foreigners So the time which is assigned for this Pastoral Kingdom doth not agree with the Scripture-Story For it is said to have been in the One thousand one hundred and twelfth Year before the Israelites going out of Egypt in the XVth Dynasty as they call it That is about Two and forty Years after the Flood when Mizraim the Father of the Egyptians was scarce born or was very young Our great Primate Vsser endeavours to avoid this absurdity by placing this Invasion which he thinks was out of Arabia three hundred Years after the Flood When they took Memphis over-run all the lower Egypt and their first King there reigned nineteen Years But I have this to except that Abraham coming a good while after this into Egypt was well entertained there though he was as much a Shepherd as his Grand-Child Jacob. See Gen. XII From whence I conclude That if this Story of Manetho be true it hapned after the time of Abraham and so was fresh in their memory Such a third Rebellion of the Shepherds the same Manetho mentions within less than two hundred Years before the Children of Israel's departure out of Egypt But this seems to be a Story framed from that departure of the Israelites themselves who were Shepherds out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses And so Josephus and several of the ancient Christians Tatianus Justin Martyr and Clem. Alexand understood it See Vsser ad An. M. 2179. All this considered Gaulmin in his Notes upon the Book called the Life of Moses p. 267 c. hath more probably conjectured That this aversation to Shepherds arose from their being generally addicted in those Parts to Robbery Which way of life made them abominable This he justifies out of Heliodorus L. I. and Achilles Tatius L. III. who describe the seat of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom the Egyptians called Hysch and the manner of their Life To which Opinion I find Bochartus himself inclined before he died and confirms it in his Hierozoic L. II. c. 44. P. I. by many Proofs that Shepherds anciently were furax hominum genus a thievish sort of People which made them odious Against which I see no exception but this that Aulus Gellius tells us Lib. XI cap. 18. out of an ancient Lawyer That the old Egyptians held all manner of Thefts to be lawful and did not punish them And Diodorus Siculus mentions this Law among them That they who would live by Robbery were to enter their Names and bring what they stole immediately to the Priest Who mulct the Man that was robbed a fourth part and gave it to the Thief By which means all Thefts were discovered and Men were made more careful to look well after their Goods But one cannot believe this Law was of such Antiquity as the Times of Joseph Or if it was those Out-Laws as I may call them who robb'd upon the Borders were not concerned in it Nor had their Neighbours who were no less addicted to Theft the benefit of it Particularly those in Palestine from whence Jacob came one would guess by what we read 1 Chron. VII 21 22. were then much addicted to Robbery For before this Generation ended we are told there the Men of Gath slew several of the Sons of Ephraim who himself was then alive for they came down to take their Cattle saith that Holy Writer that is to get what Plunder they could in Goshen Where the Ephraimites defending their Cattle were some of them killed by the Philistines to the great grief of their Father The Ethiopians also are noted by Strabo Lib. XVII p. 787. to live for the most part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after a very poor sharking roving manner by feeding Cattle where they could find Food for them And immediately adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all things were quite contrary among the Egyptians who were a more civilized People inhabiting certain and known Places c. Which shows that their Manners were very different which easily bred hatred Which appears by what Plutarch saith in his Book de Isid Osir that the Egyptians avoided the Conversation of black People Which was the Complexion of the Ethiopians And for some such reason he saith in the same Book they avoided all Mariners of other Nations that is as here Moses says they did Shepherds upon some or other of the accounts before-mentioned It looks like a piece of great Generosity in Joseph not to conceal from Pharaoh the Quality of his Family Though such kind of Men were under a very ill Character He hoped they would distinguish themselves from such vile Shepherds as had made the Name odious And if they did not gain the Love of the Egyptians they would be the more secured in the Love of God by not learning their evil Manners and Superstitions from which they would be preserved by having no Conversation with them CHAP. XLVII Ver. 1. JOseph came and told Pharaoh c. He had his Warrant some time ago to send for his Father and his Family XLV 17 c. But it was good Manners to acquaint him they were come and to know his Pleasure how he should dispose of them Behold they are in the Land of Goshen They stop there which was the entrance of Egypt till they know thy Pleasure Ver. 2. And he took some of his Brethren c. The Hebrew word Miktse which we translate some signifies in common Language de extremitate from the fagg-end as we speak of his Brethren Which hath made some imagine he presented the meanest of his Brethren to Pharaoh that he might neither be afraid of them nor think of advancing them to Employments in the Court or Camp But this is a mere Fancy the word here denoting only that he took from among all his Brethren five of them As Bochart observes who translates it ex omnibus fratribus suis taking it to be like that Phrase XIX 4. where we translate it from all Quarters P. I. Hierozoic Lib. II. cap. 34. Ver. 3. Both we and our Fathers It is not an Employment we have lately taken up but were bred to it by our Ancestors Who followed the same Profession For this was the most ancient way of living as Columella observes in his Preface In rusticatione antiquissima est ratio pascendi eademque quaestuosissima In Country business the most ancient as well as most gainful is the way of feeding Cattle From