The nations (Genesis 10)

Chapter 10 is a new family story. We heard the tô·lē·ḏôṯ of Noah (6:9). Now it’s the tôlēḏôṯ of Noah’s sons (10:1, 32).

It’s about the nations descended from Noah’s sons. The nations go their own way, so God will call Abraham to establish a nation — a nation to restore the blessing that the nations are missing (Genesis 12:1-3).

Naturally, the list of nations only covers the nations Israel knew. There’s nothing about the cultures of ancient China or south America, nothing on the first nations of Australia. But don’t let that dimmish your appreciation for what Israel was doing by recognizing the other nations:

The Table of Nations is a serious attempt, unprecedented in the Ancient Near East to sketch a panorama of all known human cultures — from Greece and Crete in the west through Asia Minor and Iran down through Mesopotamia and the Arabian peninsula to northwestern Africa.
— Robert Alter, Genesis: Translation and Commentary (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997), 42.

Seventy nations are recognized, arranged by ancestry. In summary:

Genesis 10 (NIV)
¹ This is the account [tôlēḏôṯ] of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.
² The sons of Japheth: … ⁵ by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.
⁶ The sons of Ham: … ²⁰ These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
²¹ Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth … ³¹ These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
³² These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent [tôlēḏôṯ)], within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

Our interest is in Abraham, Shem’s descendant (11:20-26). But Genesis 1–11 presents the Lord God as sovereign over all the peoples of the earth. If the nations were doing right, they would recognize the Lord as their ruler and live under his authority in line with the covenant God made with all Noah’s descendants, all the peoples of the world (9:8-17). Instead, Noah’s descendants divide into nations with rulers of their own. That’s unsurprising, since even Noah himself twisted the additional power God gave them after the flood (9:5-6), introducing slavery (9:24-27).

So, watch carefully where Noah’s sons established their nations:

• Japheth’s family went northwest, forming nations in Europe. (verses 2-5)
• Ham’s family went south, forming nations in Africa. (verses 6-19).
• Shem’s family remained in the Middle East (10:21-31).

Who is the focus of this story? Not Japheth the eldest who gets only four verses. Not Shem who is Abraham’s ancestor. The bulk of this chapter is Ham’s story. What are they up to?

Ham’s descendants aren’t just building nations. They’re building kingdoms (verse 10). And they’re not just doing that in their territory (Africa). They’re building kingdoms by taking territory that belongs to the others. They’re warriors — building kingdoms through war:

Genesis 10:6-12 (NIV)
⁶ The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan. …
⁸ Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”
¹⁰ The first centres of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah ¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.

Ham’s grandson is a warrior. It’s the word (gib·bôr) that was used for the heroes of old (6:4) at the time people corrupted God’s world with violence. After the flood, God was so concerned with violence that he authorized the community to take a killer’s life (9:5-6). Nimrod realizes he can use that power, the power of death, to build kingdoms.

He’s a hunter, but he’s not hunting animals. Nimrod hunts down people to build kingdoms. That’s how kingdoms are formed: from Nimrod to Alexander the Great, from Hitler to today’s superpowers.

The nations versus the kingdom of God

Verses 10 and 11 introduce us to the kingdoms that destroyed Israel:

• In 722 BC, Assyria captured Israel, the northern kingdom (2 Kings 17);
• In 586 BC, Babylon captured what was left, the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 25).

The nations starting fighting Israel in Exodus. Wars and raiding nations are the main issues in Joshua and Judges, the reason Israel asked for a king.

Most of David’s prayers in Psalms address his struggle with enemies, nations warring with Israel. The kingdoms took over (Psalms 80, 89), but the Psalms kept asserting that the Lord reigns over all the earth (e.g. Psalm 98:2; 99:1; 102:15; 113:4). The prophets promised a son of David would bring God’s reign back to earth and subdue the nations (e.g. Isaiah 11:10; 19:23-25; 60:3; Micah 4:2; Zechariah 8:22).

Then good news broke out that God’s Anointed had come, that the kingdom of God had come near (Mark 1:1, 15). But again, the King of the Jews was put to death by the kingdom that claimed to run the world (Mark 15:2, 9, 12, 18, 26).

That’s when God dealt with the Nimrods of this world. God overturned the warriors by raising his Anointed to life, giving him the kingdom — all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). The good news is God calling all nations back under his kingship (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8). Heaven’s gospel proclamation is this: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15).

Saul of Tarsus became God’s emissary to the nations (Romans 11:13; Galatians 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:7). King Jesus called him to “proclaim my name to the nations and their kings and to the people of Israel” (Acts 9:16).

Paul’s gospel reverses Genesis 10. To the nations that went their own way and the kingdoms that assert their power through war, the gospel proclaims that God’s Anointed is Lord of all. The Messiah restores peace to the earth, overturning national divisions, making peace by creating one new humanity in his leadership, reconciling humanity to God and to each other (Ephesians 2:14-16).

The gospel unites humanity in the kingdom of God restored in Christ, undoing the division of humanity into nations that goes all the way back to Genesis 10.

Map from: “Table of Nations” in Zondervan Atlas of the Bible edited by Carl G. Rasmussen (Zondervan, 2010), 83.

Related posts

• Why war? (Gen 10)
• David’s final Psalm: restored world (145:9–16)
• How Jesus fulfils the prophets (Zech 8)
• Israel’s king as cosmic king? (Mt 15:21-39)
• Good news of peace (Eph 2:11-22)