many districts in Arabia, colonized by them, and inhabited by their descendants. And this is stated in the conclusion of the chapter: "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood." Gen. x. 32. See the explanation of this chapter, Vol. I. p. 352. ARPHAXAD. He was the eldest son of Shem, born two years after the deluge, Gen. xi. 10, though ranked the fourth among the sons of Shem, Gen. x. 22. His name signifies, "He that heals, or releases," probably in allusion to the deliverance of Noah's family from the deluge. His lot appears to have been the plain of Shinar, in the southern part of Mesopotamia, stretching westward of the river Tigris, together with the country of Eden, and the tract on the east side of the same river, called Arrapachitis, in Assyria; evidently derived from TN, Arpachshad, his name in Hebrew. And Josephus relates, that the Chaldeans, who occupied a part of the land of Shinar, were originally called Arphaxadeans, from him. He lived 438 years. With him began the second reduction of the standard of human life; the first having begun with his father, Shem, who lived 600 years; whereas Noah lived 950 years. SALAH. His name signifies "He sends," and was probably given him by Arphaxad his father, in allusion to the deluge, as in Job v. 10. "He sendeth waters upon the face of the fields." A town near Susa, called Sala or Sela, is supposed to be named from him. He lived 433 years. EBER, OR HEBER, Signifies "He that passes over." He is reckoned the father of the Hebrews, or of them who retained the pure Hebrew dialect, nearest to the primæval language, after the confusion of tongues, Gen. x. 21; Numb. xxiv. 24. Hence Abraham was called “the Hebrew,” Gen. xiv. 13. And his descendants, by way of distinction from the rest of the children of Heber, called themselves by the double title, " Hebrew of the Hebrews;" so Eusebius called Moses, "That great theologian, a Hebrew of the Hebrews ;" and St. Paul called himself " a Hebrew of the Hebrews," Phil. iii. 5. He lived 464 years. PELEG, OR PHALEG, His elder son, whose name signified division, "because that in his days the earth was divided" among the three families of the sons of Noah, by the divine decree, promulgated before by Noah. By the most probable account of Abulfaragi, the Armenian annalist, this division actually began to take place in the 140th year of Phaleg, B. C. 2614, or 541 years after the deluge, 191 years after the death of Noah, and 29 years after the death of Shem, when probably Japheth and Ham were dead also. This was a likely time for the three primitive families to begin to separate, when their original settlement became too scanty for their increased population. Abulfaragi, as living in Armenia, the immediate residence of Noah after the deluge, has, from the primitive tradition of his countrymen, preserved some valuable and authentic epochs for the adjustment of sacred chronology, in its early periods, no where else to be found. And we learn from St. Paul, that this division was not made at random, but that "GOD made of one blood (namely, Noah's,) every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having ordained the predetermined seasons and boundaries of their respective settlements," Acts xvii. 26. See the foregoing account of these settlements, Vol. I. p. 352.-Of Peleg's allotted settlement, a trace may perhaps remain in the town of Phalga, not far from the conflux of the river Chaboras with the Euphrates, where the town of Charran was seated. Bochart rather derives the name of the town from Phalga, signifying, in tha Syriac dialect, "the middle," because it was midway between the two Seleucias; the one city in Pieria, the other in Mesopotamia. Vol. I. p. 93. Peleg lived 239 years, and began the third reduction of the standard of human life. REU, OR RAGAU, His son, whose name signifies "his shepherd." From him, perhaps, was denominated "the great plain in the borders of Ragau," and "the mountains of Ragau," in Media, Judith i. 5-17. He lived 239 years. In the 70th year of Reu, (B.C. 2554,) according to Abulfaragi, p. 12, sixty years after the migration of the primitive families of Noah's sons, from their original settlement to Shinar, or Mesopotamia, they conspired to build the Tower of Babel; but their rebellious attempt was defeated by the confusion of tongues, and they were all scattered from thence upon the face of the earth. See Vol. I. p. 351. The leader in this disastrous enterprise, which instead of renown, brought shame and confusion upon the perpetrators, was NIMROD, Signifying "the Rebel," by way of bad eminence. He is generally supposed to have been the immediate son of Cush, and the youngest, or sixth, from the Scriptural phrase, “ Cush begat Nimrod," after the mention of his five sons, Gen. x. 8. But the phrase is used with considerable latitude, like father and son, in Scripture. Thus Moses warns the Israelites of their future apostacy, "When thou shalt beget children and children's children, and shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves," &c. Deut. iv. 25, where the phrase evidently extends to remote descendants. In David's pedigree, "Naashon begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz," &c. Ruth iv. 20, 21, where there is a deficiency of four generations at least after the two latter. In Nimrod's pedigree, the chasm may be supplied by the insertion of the intermediate generations of Raamah and Sheba, thus: Hence it appears that Nimrod was contemporary with Peleg, according to Abulfaragi, confirmed by the whole tenor of sacred and profane history. He is introduced incidentally by Moses, as the most famous of the sons or descendants of Cush. "For he began to be a mighty one in the earth: he was a mighty hunter before the Lord; even [proverbially,] as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord." 66 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar: out of that land he went forth [to invade] Assyria; and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city," Gen. x. 8-12. Though the main body of the Cushites was miraculously dispersed, and sent by Providence to their original destinations along the sea-coasts of Asia and Africa, yet Nimrod remained behind, and like "the giants and mighty men, men of renown, of the old world, who founded an empire in Babylonia,” according to Berosus; Nimrod did the same, by usurping the property of the Arphaxadites in the land of Shinar; where “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel," or Babylon *, and other towns: and not satisfied with this, he next invaded Assur, or Assyria, east of the Tigris; where he built Nineveh, and several other towns. The marginal reading of our English Bible, "He went out into Assyria," or to invade Assyria, is here adopted in preference to that in the text; "And out of that land went forth Ashur, and builded Nineveh," &c. for the reasons assigned, Vol. I. p. 451. The meaning of the word Nineveh may lead us to his original name, Nin, signifying "a son," the most celebrated of the sons of Cush. That of Nimrod, or "Rebel," was probably a parody, or nickname, given him by the oppressed Shemites; of which we have several instances in Scripture. Thus Nahash, the brazen serpent" in the wilderness, was called by Hezekiah, in contempt, Nehushtan, "a piece of brass," when he broke it in pieces, because it was perverted into an object of idolatrous worship by the Jews, 2 Kings xviii. 4. Nimrod, that arch-rebel, who first subverted the patriarchal government, introduced also the Zabian idolatry, or worship of This also is confirmed by Heathen testimony. 1. Dorothæus, an old Phoenician poet, cited by Julius Firmicus, called "ancient Babylon, the city of the Tyrian (or Assyrian) Belus." Αρχαιη Βαβυλων Τυρίου Βηλοιο πόλισμα. 2. Eustathius, in his Commentary on the Periegesis of Dionysius, verse 1006, states, that "Babylon was built 1800 years before Queen Semiramis, who surrounded it entirely with a strong wall." But according to Herodotus, Semiramis lived five generations, or about 166 years before Nitocris, the last queen, who embellished it. She was probably the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, who flourished about B. C. 581, which would bring the time of Semiramis, to about B. C. 747: and the building of Babylon to B. C. 2547, or the seventh year of Nimrod's reign: which therefore seems to be rightly assigned in the preceding rectification; and furnishes a valuable coincidence of sacred and profane chronology, at so early a period, drawn from different and independent sources. the heavenly host; and after his death, was deified by his subjects, and supposed to be translated into the constellation of Orion, attended by his hounds, Sirius and Canicula, and still pursuing his favourite game, the Great Bear; supposed also to be translated into Ursa Major, near the north pole; as admirably described by Homer, Iliad. xviii. 485. Αρκτον θ', ἣν και αμαξαν επικλησιν καλεουσιν, "And the Bear, surnamed also the Wain, [by the Egyptians,] who is turning herself about there, and watching Orion." Homer also introduces the shade of Orion, as hunting in the Elysian fields, Odyss. xi. 571. Τον δε μετ' Ωριωνα πελώριον εισενόησα, Θηρας ὁμου ειλευντα κατ' ασφοδέλον λειμώνα, "Next, I observed the mighty Orion, Chasing wild-beasts through an Asphodel mead, Holding in his hands, a solid brazen mace, ever unbroken." The Grecian name of this "mighty hunter," may furnish a satisfactory clue to the name given him by the impious adulation of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Opwwv, nearly resembles Ovpiar, the oblique case of Oupias, which is the Septuagint rendering of Uriah, a proper name in Scripture; as in 2 Sam. xi. 6-21. But Uriah, signifying "the light of the Lord," was an appropriate appellation of that most brilliant constellation. He was also called Baal, Beel, Bel, or Belus, signifying Lord," or "Master," by the Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Greeks, and Bala Rama, by the Hindus; or Bala, the son of Rama, who was evidently the Raamah of Scripture; confirming the foregoing rectification of his genealogy. At a village, called Bala deva, or Baldeo, in the vulgar dialect, 13 miles east by south from Muttra, in Hindustan, there is "a very ancient statue of Bala Rama, in which he is represented with a ploughshare in his left hand, and a thick cudgel in his right, and his shoulders covered with the skin of a tiger." Asiat. Research. Vol. V. p. 294. Captain Wilford supposes, that "the plough • Homer thus poetically expresses the diurnal rotation of this constellation around the north pole. It is remarkable, that both Homer and Job, represent the Bear as feminine. VOL. II. E |