And Joktan begot Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,
26. Hazarmaveth ] This name is very probably reproduced in the district of S. E. Arabia called the adramaut.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 26. – 30. Joktan] He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media.
In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned,
1. The numbering by tens.
2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days.
3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes.
4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical.
5. The consecration of temples and altars.
6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges.
7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, c., for the use of the altar.
8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed.
9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice.
10. The order of priesthood and its support.
11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, &c.
12. The universal tradition of a general deluge.
13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, &c., &c.
See Dodd.
The wisdom and goodness of God are particularly manifested in repeopling the earth by means of three persons, all of the same family, and who had witnessed that awful display of Divine justice in the destruction of the world by the flood, while themselves were preserved in the ark. By this very means the true religion was propagated over the earth for the sons of Noah would certainly teach their children, not only the precepts delivered to their father by God himself, but also how in his justice he had brought the flood on the world of the ungodly, and by his merciful providence preserved them from the general ruin. It is on this ground alone that we can account for the uniformity and universality of the above traditions, and for the grand outlines of religious truth which are found in every quarter of the world. God has so done his marvellous works that they may be had in everlasting remembrance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From
Almodad and the rest of Joktans sons here mentioned, come either,
1. The various nations of India, as most think; or rather,
2. The several people that live in the innermost parts of Arabia, who profess themselves the posterity of Joktan, and have a city near Mecca called Jectan. And the Homerites, one sort of them, are deduced from him by divers writers.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Joktan begat Almodad,…. And twelve more mentioned later: the Arabic writers o say be had thirty one sons by one woman, but all, excepting two, left Arabia, and settled in India; the Targum of Jonathan adds,
“who measured the earth with ropes,”
as if he was the first inventor and practiser of geometry: from him are thought to spring the Allumaeotae, a people whom Ptolemy p places in Arabia Felix, called so by the Greeks, instead of Almodaei: Mr. Broughton q sets Eldimaei over against this man’s name, as if they were a people that sprung from him; whereas this word is wrongly put in Ptolemy r for Elymaeans, as it is in the Greek text, a people joining to the Persians:
[and] Sheleph and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah: to the first of these, Sheleph, the Targum of Jonathan adds,
“who drew out the water of the rivers;”
his people are supposed by Bochart s, to be the Alapeni of Ptolemy t, which should be read Salapeni, who were, he says, more remote from the rest, almost as far as the neck of Arabia, and not far from the spring of the river Betius. The next son, Hazarmaveth, or Hasermoth, as in the Vulgate Latin, is thought to give name to a people in Arabia, called by Pliny u Chatramotitae, and by Ptolemy Cathramonitae, whose country, Strabo says w, produces myrrh; according to Ptolemy x they reached from the mountain Climax to the Sabaeans, among whom were a people, called, by Pliny y, Atramitae, who inhabited a place of the same name, and which Theophrastus calls Adramyta, which comes nearer the name of this man, and signifies the court or country of death: and in those parts might be places so called, partly from the unwholesomeness of the air, being thick and foggy, and partly from the frankincense which grew there, which was fatal to those that gathered it, and therefore only the king’s slaves, and such as were condemned to die, were employed in it, as Bochart z has observed from Arrianus; as also because of the multitude of serpents, with which those odoriferous countries abounded, as the same writer relates from Agatharcides and Pliny. The next son of Joktan is Jerah, which signifies the moon, as Hilal does in Arabic; and Alilat with the Arabians, according to Herodotus a, is “Urania”, or the moon; hence Bochart b thinks, that the Jeracheans, the posterity of Jerah, are the Alilaeans of Diodorus Siculus c, and others, a people of the Arabs; and the Arabic geographer, as he observes, makes mention of a people near Mecca called Bene Hilal, or the children of Jerah; and he is of opinion that the island Hieracon, which the Greeks call the island of the Hawks placed by Ptolemy d, in Arabia Felix, adjoining to the country which lies upon the Arabian Gulf, is no other than the island of the Jeracheans, the posterity of this man: the Arabs e speak of a son of Joktan or Cahtan, they call Jareb, who succeeded his father, which perhaps may be a corruption of Jerah; and another, called by them Jorham.
o Apud Pocock. Specimen. Arab. Hist., p. 40. p Geograph. l. 6. c. 7. q See his Works, p. 3. 59. r Ut supra, (Geograph. l. 6.) c. 5. s Phaleg. l. 2. c. 16. col. 99. t Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 5.) u Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. w Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. x Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 5.) y Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 14. z Phaleg. l. 2. c. 17. col. 102. a Thalia sive, l. 3. c. 8. b Ut supra, (Phaleg. l. 2.) c. 19. c Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 179. d Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 5.) e Apud Pocock. Specimem. Arab. Hist. p. 40.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(26-31) Joktan.The little one, as being a younger son. Of the thirteen divisions of his family, few are of any importance, though several of the names are curious from their connection with the Arabic language. The Joktanite country was Arabia Felix, or Yemen, and as the people led a pastoral life without founding cities, the traces of their tribal names are insignificant. Those worth noting are Almodad, because it has the full form of the article, retained as Al in Arabic, but shortened in Hebrew into Ha. Hazarmaveth, the court of death, so called because of the unhealthiness of its climate, is now Hadramaut. Abimael means the father of Mael. While in Hebrew and Syriac men took the name of their father, in Arabic they often take the name of a son, with Abu or Abi (father of) prefixed. Sheba, the region afterwards famous for its commerce and its wealth of spices and precious stones. A Sheba also occurs among the race of Ham (see Gen. 10:7). Opbir: the name, probably, at first of a district of Oman in Arabia, but afterwards given to some port in India or Ceylon, from some fancied similarity. Havilah: some commentators consider that this is the same district as that previously occupied by the Cushites (Gen. 10:7); others argue that the two Havilahs are distinct, and that this is the region called Chawln, in Northern Yemen. It is, however, certain that the Hamites possessed this country prior to its being occupied by the Joktanites.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. Almodad This name seems to be preserved in the Arabic El-Mudad, or Al-Modhadh, a famous Arab prince. The name was borne by several Arab chiefs in a tribe that lived first in Yemen, (South-west Arabia,) and then in Hedjaz, (along the upper Red Sea.)
Sheleph Probably Salif, or Sulaf, the Salapani of Ptolemy, an Arab people of Yemen.
Hazarmaveth Court of death. The modern Hadhramant, or Hadramant, east of Yemen, in south Arabia, on the Indian Ocean; so named for its unhealthy climate. The modern name has the same meaning. This identification is undisputed.
Jerah The moon. Michaelis and Gesenius understand this to designate what are now called the Moon Coast and the Moon Mountain, near Hadhramant.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Joktan begat Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah and Obal and Abimael and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.’
Hazarmaveth probably connects with the kingdom of Hadramaut in southern Arabia. Jerah means ‘the moon’ in Hebrew and occurs in southern Arabian inscriptions with this meaning. However no city or people of that name are yet known. Uzal perhaps connects with ‘Azal given by Arab historians as the ancient name for San‘a in Yemen.
Ophir is a tribe known from pre-islamic inscriptions lying between Saba and Havilah. This may or may not be the Ophir mentioned later as a source of gold (1Ch 29:4 etc) but Havilah is connected with gold in Gen 2:11. Havilah means ‘circle’ or ‘district’ (see also Gen 10:7) – the site is unknown but is probably somewhere in Arabia, compare the Havilah mentioned in Gen 25:18 in north west Arabia. This Havilah may be a different Havilah from the one in Gen 10:7 but alternatively there may have been an absorption of one tribe by another with a consequent mixing of races. It is apparent from all this that at least some of Joktan’s descendants have affinities with Arabia
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 10:26. And Joktan The other son of Eber, was the father of many sons, who were the heads of so many tribes in Arabia; inhabiting that tract of it, Gen 10:30 which lies between Mesha, i.e.. Muza, a celebrated empire of Arabia to the Idumaean sea, and the mountains of the Sephorites, situated to the east of Muza.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 10:26 And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,
Ver. 26. Joktan begat Almodad, &c. ] This man with his sons may seem to have seated in the East Indies; but, fallen from Heber’s faith to heathenism, they are written in the dust: there is little mention of them in the Scriptures. They have lost their genealogy, as those degenerate priests, who in the time of the captivity took scorn to be in the register, and were therefore worthily afterwards rejected by the Tirshatha. Ezr 2:62-63
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Ch 1:20-28