1Adam, Seth, Enosh, 2Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, 3Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, 4Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 5The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 6The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah. 7The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 8The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 9The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, and Sabtecha. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 10Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 11Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 12Pathrusim, Casluhim from whom came the Philistines and the Caphtorim. 13Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth; 14the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite, 15the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite, 16the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. 17The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech. 18Arphaxad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber. 19To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan. 20Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 21Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 22Ebal, Abimael, Sheba, 23Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 24Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah, 25Eber, Peleg, Reu, 26Serug, Nahor, Terah, 27and Abram, who is Abraham. 28The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. 29These are their generations. The firstborn of Ishmael: Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 30Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, 31Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These, the sons of Ishmael. 32The sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: She bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan. 33The sons of Midian: Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these, the sons of Keturah. 34And Abraham begot Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel. 35The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah. 36The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zephi, Gatam, and Kenaz; and by Timna, Amalek. 37The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. 38The sons of Seir: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. 39The sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. Lotan's sister was Timna. 40The sons of Shobal: Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon: Ajah and Anah. 41The son of Anah: Dishon. The sons of Dishon: Hamran, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. 42The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Jaakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran. 43Now these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before a king reigned over the children of Israel: Bela the son of Beor; and the name of his city: Dinhabah. 44And when Bela died, Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place. 45When Jobab died, Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place. 46And when Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place. The name of his city was Avith. 47When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place. 48And when Samlah died, Shaul of Rehoboth by the River reigned in his place. 49When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place. 50And when Baal-Hanan died, Hadad reigned in his place; and the name of his city: Pai. His wife's name: Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab. 51Hadad died also. And the chiefs of Edom: Chief Timnah, Chief Aliah, Chief Jetheth, 52Chief Aholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon, 53Chief Kenaz, Chief Teman, Chief Mibzar, 54Chief Magdiel, and Chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 This paragraph has
Adam for its first word and
Abraham for its last. Between the creation of the former and the birth of the latter were 2000 years, almost the one-half of which time Adam himself lived. Adam was the common father of our flesh, Abraham the common father of the faithful. By the breach which the former made of the covenant of innocency, we were all made miserable; by the covenant of grace made with the latter, we all are, or may be, made happy. We all are, by nature, the seed of Adam, branches of that wild olive. Let us see to it that, by faith, we become the seed of Abraham (
Roma 4:11,
Roma 4:12), that we be grafted into the good olive and partake of its root and fatness.
I. The first four verses of this paragraph, and the last four, which are linked together by Shem (
1Chr 1:4,
1Chr 1:24), contain the sacred line of Christ from Adam to Abraham, and are inserted in his pedigree,
Luke 3:34-
Luke 3:38, the order ascending as here it descends. This genealogy proves the falsehood of that reproach,
As for this man, we know not whence he is. Bishop Patrick well observes here that, a genealogy being to be drawn of the families of the Jews, this appears as the peculiar glory of the Jewish nation, that they alone were able to derive their pedigree from the first man that God created, which no other nation pretended to, but abused themselves and their posterity with fabulous accounts of their originals, the Arcadians fancying that they were before the moon, the people of Thessaly that they sprang from stones, the Athenians that they grew out of the earth, much like the vain imaginations which some of the philosophers had of the origin of the universe. The account which the holy scripture gives both of the creation of the world and of the rise of nations carries with it as clear evidences of its own truth as those idle traditions do of their own vanity and falsehood.
II. All the verses between repeat the account of the replenishing of the earth by the sons of Noah after the flood. 1. The historian begins with those who were strangers to the church, the sons of Japhet, who were planted in the isles of the Gentiles, those western parts of the world, the countries of Europe. Of these he gives a short account (1Chr:1:5-7), because with these the Jews had hitherto had little or no dealings. 2. He proceeds to those who had many of them been enemies to the church, the sons of Ham, who moved southward towards Africa and those parts of Asia which lay that way. Nimrod the son of Cush began to be an oppressor, probably to the people of God in his time. But Mizraim, from whom came the Egyptians, and Canaan, from whom came the Canaanites, are both of them names of great note in the Jewish story; for with their descendants the Israel of God had severe struggles to get out of the land of Egypt and into the land of Canaan; and therefore the branches of Mizraim are particularly recorded (
1Chr 1:11,
1Chr 1:12), and of Canaan, (1Chr:1:13-16). See at what a rate God valued Israel when he gave
Egypt for their ransom (
Isa 43:3), and cast out all these nations before them,
Pss 80:8. 3. He then gives an account of those that were the ancestors and allies of the church, the posterity of Shem, (1Chr:1:17-23). These peopled Asia, and spread themselves eastward. The Assyrians, Syrians, Chaldeans, Persians, and Arabians, descended from these. At first the originals of the respective nations were known; but at this day, we have reason to think, the nations are so mingled with one another, by the enlargement of commerce and dominion, the transplanting of colonies, the carrying away of captives, and many other circumstances, that no one nation, no, nor the greatest part of any, is descended entire from any one of these fountains. Only this we are sure of, that God has
created of one blood all nations of men; they have all descended from one Adam, one Noah.
Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Mal 2:10. Our register hastens to the line of Abraham, breaking off abruptly from all the other families of the sons of Noah but that of Arphaxad, from whom Christ was to come. The great promise of the Messiah (says bishop Patrick) was translated from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Hebrew nation, who were entrusted, above all nations, with that sacred treasure, till the promise was performed and the Messiah had come, and then that nation was made
not a people. 28 All nations but the seed of Abraham are already shaken off from this genealogy: they have no part nor lot in this matter.
The Lord's portion is his people. Of them he keeps an account, knows them by name; but those who are strangers to him he beholds afar off. Not that we are to conclude that therefore no particular persons of any other nation but the seed of Abraham found favour with God. It was a truth, before Peter perceived it,
that in every nation he that feared God and wrought righteousness was accepted of him. Multitudes will be brought to heaven out of
all nations (
Revel 7:9), and we are willing to hope there were many, very many, good people in the world, that lay out of the pale of God's covenant of peculiarity with Abraham, whose names were in the book of life, though not descended from any of the following families written in this book.
The Lord knows those that are his. But Israel was a chosen nation, elect in type; and no other nation, in its national capacity, was so dignified and privileged as the Jewish nation was. That is the holy nation which is the subject of the sacred story; and therefore we are next to shake off all the seed of Abraham but the posterity of Jacob only, which were all incorporated into one nation and joined to the Lord, while the other descendants from Abraham, for aught that appears, were estranged both from God and from one another.
I. We shall have little to say of the
Ishmaelites. They were the sons of the bondwoman, that were to be cast out and not to be heirs with the child of the promise; and their case was to represent that of the unbelieving Jews, who were rejected (
Galat 4:22, etc.), and therefore there is little notice taken of that nation. Ishmael's twelve sons are just named here (1Chr:1:29-31), to show the performance of the promise God made to Abraham, in answer to his prayer for him, that, for Abraham's sake, he should become a great nation, and particularly that he should beget twelve princes,
Gen 17:20.
II. We shall have little to say of the
Midianites, who descended from Abraham's children by Keturah. They were
children of the east (probably Job was one of them), and were separated from Isaac, the heir of the promise (
Gen 25:6), and therefore they are only named here,
1Chr 1:32. The sons of Jokshan, the son of Keturah, are named also, and the sons of Midian (
1Chr 1:32,
1Chr 1:33), who became most eminent, and perhaps gave denomination to all these families, as Judah to the Jews.
III. We shall not have much to say of the
Edomites. They had an inveterate enmity to God's Israel; yet because they descended from Esau, the son of Isaac, we have here an account of their families, and the names of some of their famous men,
1Chr 1:35 to the end. Some slight differences there are between some of the names here, and as we had them in Gen. 36, whence this whole account is taken. Three of four names that were written with a
Vau there are written with a
Jod here, probably the pronunciation being altered, as is usual in other languages. we now write many words very differently from what they were written but 200 years ago. Let us take occasion, from the reading of these genealogies, to think, 1. Of the multitudes that have gone through this world, have acted their part in it, and then quitted it. Job, even in his early day, saw not only
every man drawing after him, but
innumerable before him, Job 21:33. All these, and all theirs, had their day; many of them made a mighty noise and figure in the world; but their day came to fall, and their place knew them no more. The paths of death are trodden paths, but
vestigia nulla retrorsum -
none can retrace their steps. 2. Of the providence of God, which keeps up the generations of men, and so preserves that degenerate race, though guilty and obnoxious, in being upon earth. How easily could he cut it off without either a deluge or a conflagration! Write but all the children of men childless, as some are, and in a few years the earth will be eased of the burden under which it groans; but the divine patience lets the trees that cumber the ground not only grow, but propagate. As one generation, even of sinful men, passes away, another comes (
Qoh 1:4;
Num 32:14), and will do so while the earth remains.
Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.
