ואלה תולדת בני נח, who were Shem, Cham, and Yaphet. The ones named after this were their offspring, תולדותם.

ויולדו להם, we have already seen when these sons of Noach had entered the ark that they had not yet had any children. Why then was it necessary to write the line “children were born to them?” The only reason the Torah wrote this line is to tell us that neither of Noach’s sons engaged in marital intercourse while in the ark so that no children were born in the ark. Even though we have already commented on this in connection with the report of Noach and his family leaving the ark, (8,19) and the manner in which their leaving the ark had been worded, one could err and conclude that the offspring mentioned here under the heading of ויולדו could apply to Noach’s own children, the Torah explains in greater detail that only Shem, Cham, and Yaphet are the sons of Noach, and only they and their wives entered the ark together with him and his wife; (7,13) and by writing that children were born to them after the deluge this makes this crystal clear.

בני יפת גמר, according to Rabbeinu Saadyah gaon, he was the founder of the nation known as Altrach.

משך, on the other hand, according to Josephus he was the founder of the nation known as Tushchana, a people professing the Christian faith nowadays, and leaders of that faith. Rome itself is within the boundaries of that nation.

ותירס, according to our sages (Yuma 10) this is Persia.

ובני גמר אשכנז, people say that this refers to the people living in Germany.

וריפה according to Rabbeinu Saadyah gaon these are the Gauls living in France; in Chronicles I 1,6 they are called דיפת.

ובני יון, the Torah mentioned only a few of the families descended from the sons of Yaphet; we do not know why not all of them have been listed.

ודדנים, spelled with a double letter ד, whereas the same people are spelled as רודנים in Chronicles I 1,7. Seeing that the letters ד and ר look so similar to one another, it is quite possible that both spellings are used interchangeably. Someone may have mistaken the letter ד for the letter ר so that this error has been perpetuated. There can be no question that in a situation such as this, the spelling in the Torah must be considered authoritative, as Moses wrote at the dictation of G’d and with a high degree of prophetic insight. According to Josephus, the people concerned lived (in his time) along the river “Rodeno.”

מאלו נפרדו, after the debacle with the Tower, the descendants of Yaphet chose for themselves the various islands in the Aegean as their habitat, resulting in each tribe being separated from the other.

איש ללשונו, the people on each of those islands developed a different language or dialect. The word הגויים implies that although all these tribes were offspring of Yaphet, they were in fact as if separate nations. Seeing that the descendants of Noach listed comprise a total of 70, the concept of mankind comprising “seventy nations” not including the Jewish people, was born. [If, nowadays, in the United Nations, for instance, we have far more than 70 nations represented, this in no way contradicts the sages’ reference to “the 70 nations of the world.” Ed.]

ובני חם, Cham is mentioned after Yaphet; if Yaphet was the junior of the three sons, he was mentioned ahead of Cham because of his superior character qualities. If he was older than Cham, he would qualify for earlier mention on that account alone. The Torah left the list of the descendants of Shem last, in order to preserve the continuity of the report which continues with the lives of the patriarchs who are all descendants of Shem.

ובני...ודדן, Rav Saadyah gaon has supplied us with a commentary on all these.

וכוש ילד את נמרד, he was accorded prominence, i.e. separate mention, seeing that Nimrod developed into such a historic personality. הוא החל להיות גבור בארץ, this does not mean that there had not been warriors, brave heroes, before his time. Clearly, amongst the antediluvian giants, נפילים, there had been such men. Besides, the expression החל is never used to describe that some phenomenon occurred for the fist time. The word החל describes an act that was performed for the first time, not the existence of something or someone for the first time. Nimrod displayed his power and bravery either vis a vis one nation, or even vis a vis numerous nations by conquering them and being appointed or appointing himself as their ruler, their king. Until the time of Nimrod no one had possessed the effrontery to lord it wholesale over his fellow man. Nimrod invented the concept of “dictator.” These developments were a by-product of mankind having dispersed over different areas of the globe after the collapse of their attempt to “conquer” heaven.

'הוא היה גבור ציד לפני ה, the word ציד tells us that Nimrod was also a mighty hunter, i.e. that the beasts were in awe of him, too. He both shot and trapped them. People wondered how he managed this. His fame became proverbial. When one encountered an exceptionally powerful individual either then or in the future, one would compare him to Nimrod, saying that he was as great a hero as Nimrod. The meaning of the words לפני ה', is a figure of speech, i.e. if one uses this simile one pays the subject described as such a supreme compliment. Expressions such as עיר גדולה לאלוקים, (Jonah 3,3) or הררי א-ל (Psalms 36,7) and numerous other examples, all use the name of G’d to describe something as outstanding in its category, i.e. as almost divine in nature. Some scholars understand the words לפני ה'' as meaning that Nimrod offered some of the animals he had hunted to G’d as a sacrifice, acknowledging His help. Onkelos is closer to our interpretation when he writes גבר תקיף, an aggressive and powerful man.

ותהי ראשית, first he conquered Babylon, and established himself as king there. Subsequently, he conquered ארך, אכד, and כלנה, all of which are part of the land known as the land of Shinor. After that he went on to conquer many more and more distant lands.

מן הארץ, from the land of Ashur he went forth in the direction of Assyria. The Torah fails to tell us if Ashur belonged to the descendants of Cham or of Shem. In verse 22 we are told that Eylam and Ashur were sons of Shem, so that it is unlikely that here we speak of a descendant of Shem, the subject matter being the descendants of Cham, i.e. Kush. However, seeing the Torah did not mention another Ashur, it is most probable that he was a descendant of Shem. Perhaps he had made his home for a while in the land of Shinor, i.e. regions populated by the descendants of Cham, so that the words מן הארץ ההיא יצא אשור gain added significance, seeing that this was the first example of someone migrating from one region to another. Perhaps Ashur had even overcome Nimrod or his successor in the land of Shinor and founded a rival kingdom in Nineveh. His kingdom, as distinct from its capital, may have been named after its founder, Ashur. We definitely have evidence that the King of Ashur ruled over Babylon and its surrounding region. The various descendants of Cham were expelled from that entire region, being supplanted by the Chaldeans, כשדים, in the time of Avraham. These people were descended from Shem, [else how could Avraham have been at home there? Ed.] This whole story is only meant to remind us that the entire universe belongs to G’d, no matter how great the conquerors on earth, (Psalms 24,1 and Samuel I 2,9) and if He decides to take away a country from its ruler and to substitute new inhabitants and rulers, He will do so at will. This is what the prophet Jeremiah 27,5 spoke about when he said ונתתיה לאשר ישר בעיני “I will give it (the land) to whoever is right in My eyes.” Ownership of a part of the earth is totally dependent on the deeds or misdeeds of the people living on that land. (Deuteronomy, 32,4). We are not sure if the word Ashur refers only to a city or to an entire kingdom. The verses (25,18 in Genesis, or Kings II 15,19), speaking of מלך אשור, or Kings II 19,11, speaking of מלכי אשור, do not give clear guidance on that point. According to Yuma 10, in the name of Rabbi Yossi, Ashur is equivalent to סלוק, (Silikia? in Iraq, on the banks of the Tigris)

ויבן את נינוה היא העיר הגדולה, most commentators believe that the words העיר הגדולה refer to the city Nineveh, seeing that this city has been described in similar terms in Jonah 3,3. I believe that actually, these words refer to רסן, seeing that our verse speaks about this city in the first place. The entire story, as we mentioned previously, has as its objective to demonstrate how ownership of even a sizable land or city is subject to rapid change. Even though Ashur established a great empire, this empire was crushed by the Babylonians who replaced them, and who, in turn were replaced in short order by the Persians and the Medes.

ומצרים, we do not know why Cham called the name of his son מצרים with the letter י, and the letter ם at the end. We do not find a parallel to this except amongst the sons of יון in verse 4, who was a descendant of Yaphet, where we encounter כתים and דודנים. (plural mode) Perhaps, the spelling of the name מצרים is related to something that happened at the time he was born. Most names in those days were related to some incident of which the father had foreknowledge and wanted to be remembered. According to Bereshit Rabbah 37 all the offspring of מצרים listed are spelled with the ending ים. This ending, which also means yam, sea, is an allusion to the Egyptians being drowned in the sea.

ואת...אשר יצאו משם פלשתים, it is not clear if the Philistines are the offspring of only the Kassluchim or from both the Patrussim and the Kassluchim who had intermarried among themselves so that the Philistines had genetic input from both these families. It is interesting that the expression שם or משם, i.e. expressions used to describe physical locations, origins, are also used elsewhere in a genetic sense such as in Genesis 49,24 משם רועה אבן ישראל, “from there he became the shepherd of Israel.”

כפתרים, according to Rav Saadyah gaon, a tribe that used to live in the neighbourhood of Port Said in Eastern Egypt. The reason they are mentioned here separately is that although the Philistines, basically, are descended from the offspring of מצרים, the land of Egypt did not belong to them, so that the Israelites were entitled to take over the parts of the land of Canaan then inhabited by the Philistines.

וכנען ילד, I have found one commentator who writes that Canaan had 11 sons so that his nation, including the founding father Canaan, comprised 12 tribes This is supposedly what is meant in Deuteronomy 32,8 יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל, “He sets the borders of the people in a manner corresponding to the number (of tribes) of the Children of Israel.” וכנען, Put’s offspring is not mentioned as there is no need to report on this.

את צדון בכורו, I have not been able to find a good reason for the Torah describing צדון as a firstborn, seeing that no other firstborn son of these people is described as such. Normally, the first named son is presumed to be the firstborn, so that there is no need for adding that attribute, unless we are to assume that the Torah, in naming someone as the first in a list of sons, does so because he possessed superior qualities to those of his brothers. One such example would be the mention of Shem ahead of his brothers, although he was not the oldest (5,32), according to those commentators who believe that Yaphet was Noach’s oldest son. It is possible that Tzidon did possess superior qualities when compared to his brothers, so that by describing him as the firstborn the Torah wanted to draw attention to both of these distinctions. We find something parallel in Genesis 25,13 where Nevayot is described as the firstborn son of Ishmael. We have reason to believe that he possessed outstanding qualities because his sister Machalat is not described only as the daughter of her father Ishmael, and her grandfather Avraham, but also as the sister of Nevayot, her brother. (Genesis 28,9)

ואת היבוסי, all of these [after Tzidon and Chet, Ed.] have the letter י at the end, signifying who they belong to. The families emanating from them carried the name of their respective forbear. This is also why they have the letter ה at the beginning of their names, signifying that they were a known entity. i.e. the letter ה as definitive article. The הפריזי is not mentioned here seeing that the definitive article is not applied to an individual person. Perhaps he was one of the sons of Canaan about whom G’d had not spoken to Avraham, seeing He spoke to him only about ten of these sons (Genesis 15,19-21) Tzidon may be excluded here as not being included in the list of Canaanite tribes even though the territory of Tzidon was adjacent to the other Canaanite territories, just north of them. We have this on the authority of Yaakov who said (Genesis 49,13) that the territory of Zevulun would border on Tzidon. We also have the borders of the Canaanite tribes described as extending southwards from Tzidon in verse 19 of our chapter. The fact is that G’d gave to Avraham, i.e. his descendants, the land of the Canaanites i.e. all their territory, everything within its original borders. [Tzidon never became part of the land of Israel.] On different occasions in the Torah when the subject came up, only some of the names of the tribes are listed, sometimes 7, sometimes 6, and in chapter 15 ten such names are mentioned. It is possible that one or another of these sons of Canaan was known by more than one name. Still, they all had the family name “Canaanite” in common tracing themselves to their ancestor by that name.

ואחר נפוצו, after the languages were confused.

משפחות הכנעני, the ones who had been mentioned previously, i.e. the Canaanites, were scattered to a different region, to the land called afterwards ”the land of Canaan.”

ויהי, now the Torah mentions the territorial boundaries extending from Tzidon to Sodom, but fails to list all the boundaries, seeing that these will be mentioned independently on future occasions. The story here has as its function to inform us that it had been G’d’s will that the Canaanites settle permanently in one region until the time came for their destruction in the days of Moses and Joshua, seeing that G’d had chosen the Israelites to dwell in that land. In fact, settlement of the Canaanite tribes in the land later to become the land of Israel was for the sake of the Israelites. When the Israelites would take over that country which had been developed agriculturally, and in which their remained most of the infra structure of a wealthy nation, it saved them the trouble of developing virgin land, [as did the Europeans who settled in America. Ed.] The Torah points that out specifically in Deuteronomy 6,11 writing that G’d is bringing the Jewish people to a land with beautiful cities which they did not have to build, houses full of every good thing that the Jews did not have to accumulate, water cisterns full with supplies of drinking water, etc. It is clear from the verse in Deut. 32,8 to which we referred already, that the sections of territory occupied by the Canaanites had been designed from the outset as the territory that would, when the time was ripe, be allocated to the 12 tribes of the Jewish people. The Canaanites preceded the Israelites, seeing that they had been cursed to be slaves to the descendants of Shem, i.e. Israel. A slave prepares things so that his master can subsequently enjoy them.

אלה, this has been explained already on 10,1.

ולשם, the reason that the descendants of Shem are listed last in this chapter is that the story will continue with the lives of the patriarchs, all of whom are descended from Shem. The Torah is trying to preserve continuity. As to the unusual phrase

גם הוא, the Torah adds these words as if to say that we should not think that seeing that up to now we heard about Shem always first, that the fact that we had not heard about him in this chapter means that he had not been blessed with offspring. Not only did he have sons, but he became the founding father of all the tribes descended from עבר, who in turn became the ancestor of the patriarchs. In fact, his descendants were even more important than those of his older brother Yaphet, described as הגדול, the great one. The attribute הגדול, when used in conjunction with Yaphet may be understood as Shem sharing his brother Yaphet’s distinction of doing good deeds. The Torah invites you to note that Shem has not been compared to Cham, neither in seniority nor in quality of lifestyle. The word הגדול may equally well be understood as “the great one,” i.e. in deeds.

יולד, a somewhat strange word when we would have expected יולדו in the plural mode, seeing that a number of sons were born to him. The singular is used to cover the subject of progeny being born. It has been use in a similar manner in verse 25, when speaking of Ever’s progeny.

ובני ארם, the detailed list begins with Aram, the youngest of Shem’s sons, seeing that the previous verse had concluded with the mention of Aram. Perhaps Terach had married one of the daughters or granddaughters of Aram. This may have been the reason why Nachor called his own firstborn Utz, as well as his grandson Aram, to perpetuate the names of his ancestry.

ולעבר יולד שני בנים, here too the Torah wrote the singular mode yulad, was born, instead of “were born,” as it referred to the general subject of providing progeny, just as in verse 21. We find a parallel construction with Joseph, in Genesis 41,50 וליוסף יולד שני בנים. This does not mean that the people mentioned did not have more than the two sons mentioned, seeing that the Torah specifically mentions (11,15) ויולד בנים ובנות, “he fathered sons and daughters.” The names of the two sons whose births were mentioned here must be understood as being linked to some important experience in the life of their father, who commemorated the event by the way he named these sons.

שם האחד פלג, the Torah immediately supplies the reason for this strange-sounding name, i.e. hardly a good omen, by writing that the split in the unity of mankind when the languages were confused occurred during his lifetime.

ושם אחיו יקטן. In this instance the Torah does not reveal the reason why Ever called his second son Yokton. Our sages surmise that the reason may have been that starting with Yokton, the average lifespan of people became drastically reduced. (Torah Shleymah 59 on our verse) Whereas Ever himself still lived for 464 years, his son Peleg died at 239 years. Not only did he live only a little more than half the number of years his father had enjoyed on earth, but he died while his father was still alive. The names of Ever’s sons are reminders therefore of both the splitting up of a unified mankind into different languages, followed by differing cultures, and into the shorter lifespan which became the order of the day. Apparently, Ever had been aware of this already at the time his sons were born. Clearly, Yokton, even as a baby had been so much smaller than babies had been before his time, that his father had had a premonition that he would not be able to live that long. We had mentioned earlier that the generations that had lived such long lives had also been blessed with much bigger bodies than was the case during subsequent generations. (compare 5,4 and 6,4) According to the view expressed in Seder Olam, and quoted by Rashi, Ever had been a great prophet, equipped with holy spirit, so that he must have predicted all this long before Yokton had been born, seeing that according to the sequence in which matters are reported in our chapter the Tower was built several generations after Yokton had been born already.

חצרמות, this is one word though it may sound as if it should be two words.

ויהי מושבם ממשא, after the dispersal of mankind, these sons of Yokton chose for themselves the land extending eastward from the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris. Rav Saadyah gaon understands the meaning of the word Mesha as what is known nowadays as Mecca, the city to which the Muslims make their pilgrimage.

אלה..אחר המבול, what does the deluge have to do with this, seeing the people were not dispersed until after they built the Tower [approximately 300 years later. Ed.]? The meaning of this verse is that all these families of Noach’s children were born after the deluge, only to be scattered all over the globe, something which occurred after the building of the Tower.