SECT. XV. Of the issue of Sem. §. I. Of Elam, Assur, Arphaxad, and Lud. IT remaineth lastly to speak of the sons of Sem, who were these: 1. Alam, or Elam. 2. Ashur. 3. Arphaxad. 4. Lud, and 5. Aram. The posterity of Sem, Moses recounteth after the rest; because from them he proceedeth in order with the genealogy and story of the Hebrews. For of Sem was Abraham descended. Of these five sons the scriptures remember the length of the life of Arphaxad only, and only the children of him and Aram; the rest are barely spoken of by rehearsal of their names, saving that it may be gathered, that Assur (who was supposed to found Nineveh) was also said to be the father of the Assyrians, whose issues, and the issues of Cham, instantly contended for the empire of the east; which sometimes the Assyrians, sometimes the Babylonians obtained, according to the virtue of their princes. This is the common opinion, which also teacheth us, that all the east parts of the world were peopled by Assur, Elam, and Lud, (saving India,) which I believe Noah himself first inhabited; and to whom Ophir and Havilah, the sons of Joctan, afterwards repaired: Hi filii Sem ab Euphrate fluvio partem Asic usque ad oceanum Indicum tenuerunt; "These sons of Sem," saith St. Jerome," held all those regions from Euphrates to the In"dian ocean." Of Elam came the Elamites, remembered Acts ii. 9. and the princes of Persia; which name then began to be out of use and lost, when the Persians became masters of Babylonia; the east monarchy being established in them. t Joseph. Ant. 1. 1. c. 7. Some profane writers distinguish Elam from Persia, and make the Elamites a people apart. But Susa (which the scriptures call Susan) in Elam was the king's seat of Persia, witness Daniel viii. 2. And I saw, saith he, in a vision, and when I saw it, I was in the palace of Susan, which is in the province of Elam. This city is embraced by the river Eulæus, according to "Ptolemy, in Daniel, Ulai; and seated in the border of Susiana. Ashur, (as most historians believe,) the second son of Sem, was father of the Assyrians, who, disdaining the pride of Nimrod, parted from Babel, and built Nineveh, of equal beauty and magnitude with Babylon, or exceeding it. But we shall in due place disprove that opinion. Every man's hand hath been in this story, and therefore I shall not need herein to speak much; for the Assyrians so often invaded and spoiled the Israelites, destroyed their cities, and led them captives, as both in divine and human letters there is large and often mention of this nation. But howsoever Herodotus and D. Siculus extend this empire, and honour this nation with ample dominion, yet was not the state of the Assyrians of any such power, after such time as Sardanapalus lost the empire. For Sennacherib, who was one of the powerfullest princes among them, had yet the mountain Taurus for the utmost of his dominion towards the north-east, and Syria bounded him towards the west, notwithstanding those vaunts of Sennacherib in Isaiah xxxvii. 12, 13. Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Reseph, and the children of Eden which were at Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? All these indeed were but petty kings of cities, and small countries, as Haran, in Mesopotamia; Reseph, in Palmyrena; Hamath, or Emath, in Iturea, under Libanus; the isle of Eden; Sepher, and others of this sort. Yea Nabuchodonosor, who was most powerful, before the conquest of Egypt had but Chaldea, Mesopotamia, and " Ptol. Asiæ Tab. 5. Syria, with Palestina and Phoenicia, parts thereof. But in this question of Assur, I will speak my opinion freely when I come to Nimrod, whose plantation I have omitted among the rest of the Chusites, because he established the first empire, from whom the most memorable story of the world taketh beginning. Of Arphaxad came the Chaldeans, saith St. Jerome and Josephus, but it must be those Chaldeans about Ur; for the sons of Cham possessed the rest. It is true that he was the father of the Hebrews; for Arphaxad begat Shela, and Shela Heber, of whom hereafter. And that Lud, the fourth son of Shem, gave name to the Lydians in Asia the Less, is the common opinion, taken from Josephus and St. Jerome; but I see not by what reason he was moved to straggle thither from his friends. §. 2. Of Aram and his sons. ARAM, the fifth and last son of Shem, was the parent of the Syrians, of which Damascus was head. Their name was changed from Aram, or Aramites, by Syrus, saith y Eusebius out of Josephus, which Syrus lived before Moses was born; the same which others call the son of Apollo. Mesopotamia also being but a province of Syria, had the name of Aram Naharaiim, which is as much to say, as Syria duorum fluviorum, "Syria compassed with two rivers," to wit, Tigris and Euphrates. The scriptures call it Mesopotamia, Syria, and Padan Aram, and the Greeks Mesopotamia simply. z Arise, and get thee to Padan Aram, saith Isaac to Jacob, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and thence take thee a wife. Strabo also remembereth it by the ancient name of Aram, or Aramea, as these his own words converted witness: Quos nos Syros vocamus, ipsi Syri Armenios et Arameos vocant; "Those which we call Sy * Isa. vii. 8. y Euseb. 10. 6. 7 Gen. xxviii. 2. See Gen. xxv. 20. also Deut. xxiii. 4. Judg. iii. Paral. 1. 19. Psalm lix. a Strabo, 1. 1. "rians," saith he, "themselves call Aramenians and Ara"means." Against this opinion, that Aram the son of Sem was the father and denominator of the Syrians in general, (and not only of those in Syria Inter-amnis, which is Mesopotamia,) some read Gen. xxii. 21. Kemuel, the father of the Syrians; where others, out of the original, read, Kemuel, the son of Aram. Neither is it any inconvenience for us to understand the word Aram here, not for the nation, but for the name of some one of note; the rather, because in the history of Abraham and Isaac, (which was in time long before Kemuel's posterity could be famous,) we find Mesopotamia called Aram, and that with an addition; sometimes with Naharaiim, and sometimes of Padan, to distinguish it from another Aram, which, as it seems, then also was called Aram. For whereas Junius thinks in his note upon Gen. xxv. 20. that Padan Aram ought to be restrained to some part of Mesopotamia, to wit, to that part which Ptolemy calls Ancobaritis, (so called from the river Chaboras, which dividing it, runneth into Euphrates,) the promiscuous use of Padan Aram, and Aram Naharaiim, (which latter appellation questionless comprehends the whole Mesopotamia,) may seem to refute this opinion; especially seeing the signification of this appellation agreeth with the whole region. For it signifieth as much as the yoke of Syria, which name agrees with this region, because the two rivers, as it were, yoked together, go along it. The relics of the name Padan appear in the name of two cities in Ptolemy, called Aphadana, as Junius hath well noted, the one upon Chaborus, the other upon Euphrates. The sons of Aram were Uz, or Hus, inhabited Uz or Hus, Hul, Mesch or Mes. about Damascus, and built that city, say Josephus and St. Jerome. But Tostatus, mis b Hieron. in Trad. Hebraic. с taking this opinion, both in them and in Lyra, who also followeth Josephus, affirmeth, that Abraham's steward Eliezer was the founder thereof; though it were likely that Hus, the eldest son of Aram, dwelt near unto his father, who inhabited the body of Syria. For Hus was a region of the same, adjoining to Arabia the Desert, and to Batanea, or Trachonitis, whereof the prophet Jeremy; Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Hus. Hus therefore is seated beyond Jordan, in the east region of Trachonitis, adjoining to Basan, having Batanea Gaulonitis and the mountain Seir to the east, Edrai to the south, Damascus north, and Jordan west; having in it many cities and people, as may also be gathered out of Jeremy; And all sorts of people, and all the kings of the land of Hus. In this region dwelt Job, descended of Hus, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, saith St. Jerome, and married Dinah the daughter of Jacob, saith Philo. Hul, the second son of Aram, St. Jerome makes the father of the Armenians; and Gether, the third son, parent to the Arcananians, or Carians; which opinion (because I find not where to set him) I do not disprove, though I see no reason why Gether should leave the fellowship of his own brethren, and dwell among strangers in Asia the Less. Junius gives Hul (whom he writes Chul) the desert of Palmyrena, as far as Euphrates, where Ptolemy setteth the city of Cholle. Gether, saith Josephus, founded the Bactrians; but Josephus gave all Noah's children feathers, to carry them far away in all haste. For mine own opinion, I always keep the rule of neighbourhood, and think with Junius, to wit, that Gether seated himself near his brothers, in the body of Syria, and in the province of Cassiotis, and Seleucis, where Ptolemy placeth Gindarus, and the nation by Pliny called Gindareni. Junius also giveth to Mes, or Mesch, the north part of Syria, between Cilicia and Mesopotamia, near the mountain Masius. The certainty of those plantations can no other |