The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10

The one possible exception is Ezekiel 27, which gives details of countries with which the Phoenician city of Tyre traded and what they traded. Some of the place names mentioned there overlap with those found in Genesis 10. The genealogy in 1 Chronicles 1:5–23 merely repeats some of the names found in Genesis 10. Editor’s note: On genealogies as a biblical literary genre, see Aaron Demsky, “Reading Biblical Genealogies,” TheTorah (2016).

For a thorough discussion of the Nimrod passage, see my article “In Search of Nimrod,” in Day, From Creation to Abraham, 188–206. I conclude that the name derives from Ninurta, the Babylonian hunter god, who is here transformed into a primeval Mesopotamian king and hunter. The reference to Nimrod as גִבֹּר צַיִד לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה, “a mighty hunter before YHWH,” seems to be intended as a positive reference, contrary to the later rabbinic understanding of him as “a mighty hunter against YHWH.” The fact that in verse 12 Calah (Nimrud) is described as הָעִיר הַגְּדֹלָה, “the great city,” supports a date for the passage between ca. 880 and 706 B.C.E., when Calah was the capital of Assyria. If the passage was later, as many suppose, we should rather expect Nineveh to be “the great city” (as in Jon 1:2; 3:2; 4:11). Verses 8–12 on Nimrod are an addition to the J (Yahwistic) source: amongst other stylistic features distinctive of J, the divine name used is YHWH. Editor’s note: For an alternate theory about the identity of Nimrod, see Yigal Levin, “Nimrod, Mighty Hunter and King – Who Was He?,” TheTorah (2020). See Carol Bakhos, “Nimrod: The Making of a Nemesis,” TheTorah (2021), for a discussion of Nimrod in Jewish and Christian traditions.

This refers to the time of the descent of the tribes into Egypt. However, the Septuagint reads 75 in both verses as does the Qumran text 4QExod^b in the latter.

We learn this from the Ugaritic text KTU³ 1.4.VI.46, where the sons of El’s wife Athirat (Asherah) are stated to be 70 in number. Editor’s note: For more on the significance of 70, see Noga Ayali-Darshan, “Sukkot’s Seventy Bulls,” TheTorah (2016).

It is easy to understand how uneasiness at the possible polytheistic implications of the term “sons of God” arose, but it is less easy to comprehend why anyone would wish to alter “sons of Israel” if it were original.

See, e.g., E. A. Speiser, Genesis, AB 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1962), 64; and Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: JPS, 1989), 72.

From the Middle Ages onwards Ashkenazim became a name for central and eastern European Jews, probably because the Babylonian Talmud, b.Yoma 10a, rendered the name Gomer (father of Ashkenaz) as Germanya (Germany).

Various ancient Near Eastern texts reference a country called Alashiya, which is now certainly identified as Cyprus. See Y. Goren, S. Buminovitz, I. Finkelstein, and N. Na’aman, “The Location of Alashiya: New Evidence from Petrographic Investigation of Alashiyan Tablets from El-Amarna and Ugarit,” American Journal of Archaeology 107 (1993): 233–255. A mention of Apollo Alasiotas in a 4^th century B.C.E. Cypriot inscription from Tamassos offers evidence of the ongoing use of this name.

In recent years a few scholars have equated Tarshish with Tarsus in Anatolia. See A. van der Kooij, The Oracle of Tyre: The Septuagint of Isaiah XXIII as Version and Vision, VTSup 71 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 40–47; A. Lemaire, “Tarshish-Tarsisi: problème de topographie historique biblique et assyrienne,” in Studies in Historical Geography and Biblical Historiography Presented to Zecharia Kallai, ed. G. Galil and M. Weinfeld, VTSup 81 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 44–62. Tarsus, however, is simply not far enough away from Israel to fit the biblical data concerning Tarshish. Moreover, in Akkadian Tarsus is called Tarzi, whereas Tartessos is called Tarsisi. An inscription of the 7^th century B.C.E. Assyrian king Esarhaddon clearly implies that Tarsisi (Tarshish) was further away from Assyria than Cyprus and Ionia, which again does not fit Tarsus: “All the kings from amidst the sea—from Cyprus, Ionia, as far as Tarsisi—bowed to my feet and I received heavy tribute from them.” Cf. R. Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, Königs von Assyrien, AfO 9 (Graz: Im Selbstverlage des Herausgabers, 1956), 86. Editor’s note: On the potential locations of Tarshish and its metals, see Tzilla Eshel, “Tarshish: The Origins of Solomon’s Silver,” TheTorah (2022).

‏^{דברי הימים א א:ז} וּבְנֵי יָוָן אֱלִישָׁה וְתַרְשִׁישָׁה כִּתִּים וְרוֹדָנִים.

^{1 Chr 1:7} The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.

See the brief discussion in Sarna, Genesis. Preferring Dodanim, see Paul-Richard Berger, “Ellasar, Tarschisch und Jawan, Gn 14 und 10,” Die Welt des Orients 13 (1982): 50–78 [at 60–61].

See David M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 144–49, who concludes that the name Ham is not, for example, related to the Hebrew root חום, “black, dark,” or the Egyptian name for Egypt, Kmt, which some have suggested.

However, it would seem that there were also Sabean colonies in northern Arabia. The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III speaks of his conquering the Sabeans in a context where all the other places mentioned are in northern Arabia. See H. Tadmor, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III King of Assyria (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994), 142–143, Summary inscription 4, line 27. Moreover, since Job lived in Edom (the land of Uz), it is natural to suppose that the Sabeans who attacked Job’s animals and servants in Job 1:15 came from north rather than distant south Arabia.

D. B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 45.

Editor’s note: For an alternate explanation of Canaan’s position on the list, see David Ben-Gad HaCohen, “Decoding the Table of Nations: Reading It as a Map,” TheTorah (2015).

For detailed information on the origins of the term “Semitic,” see M. F. J. Baasten, “A Note on the History of ‘Semitic’,” in Hamlet on a Hill: Semitic and Greek Studies Presented to Professor T. Muraoka on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. F. J. Baasten and W. T. van Peursen (Leuven: Peeters and Leuven Oriental Department, 2003), 57–72.

See, e.g., Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1:6.4 §144

The name may have been distorted because of the hatred with which Chaldea was regarded at the time of the Priestly writer, who wrote this verse (more on this later), just as Abed-Nego in Daniel 3 is a deliberate distortion of Abed-Nebo by the change of one letter (Nebo being a hated Chaldean god). I owe this suggestion to G. Hölscher, Drei Erdkarten (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1949), 47. One should also bear in mind the name distortions in the so-called atbash spelling of Chaldea as Leb qamay in Jeremiah 51:1 and Babylon as Sheshak in Jeremiah 23:26 and 51:4, both dating from a time when Chaldea was the dominant hated world power.

There is probably no connection between Hebrews and the Ḫapiru, a term attested in ancient Near Eastern texts of certain Semites of a low social class or outlaws, as in the Amarna letters, since this term appears to have a p, not b (so not Ḫabiru; cf. Egyptian ʿApiru, Ugaritic ʿprm) and the vocalization of the name is also quite different from ʿibri, “Hebrew.” Editor’s note: For alternative assessments of the Ḫapiru, see Albert D. Friedberg, “Who Were the Hebrews?,” TheTorah (2017); and Yitzhaq Feder, “Don’t Call Me Hebrew! The Mysterious Origins of the First Anti-Semitic Slur,” TheTorah (2015).

B. Maisler (Mazar), “Two Hebrew Ostraca from Tell Qasile,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 10 (1951): 265–267.

The Septuagint version notes at the end of Job 42 that Job lived “in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia” (v. 17b).

The 70 nations in Genesis 10 are made up as follows: (1) Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras, Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah, Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Rodanim (the 14 descendants of Japheth); (2) Kush, Egypt, Put, Canaan, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca, Sheba, Dedan, Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, Caphtorim, Philistines, Sidon, Heth, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites (the 30 descendants of Ham); (3) Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, Mash, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Joktan, Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaweth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, Jobab (the 26 descendants of Shem).

We may distinguish the sources in the list as follows: from P, verses 1–7, 20, 22–23, 31–32; from J, verses 8–19, 21, 25–30; and from the Redactor (R) verse 24. I am grateful to Prof. Ronald Hendel’s forthcoming Anchor Yale Bible Commentary on Genesis 1–11 for the insight that verse 24 is redactional.

Assyria (Asshur) also appears twice, in both verses 11 and 22, but verse 11 is part of the Nimrod addition already alluded to above.

This itself goes back to God’s command in Genesis 1:28.

A much fuller consideration of Genesis 10 appears in my article, “The Table of the Nations in Genesis 10,” in John Day, From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1–11 (London: T&T Clark, 2022), 163–187.