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SHEMITISH LANGUAGES.

mon with that language, excepting some words which have been introduced by Hamitish colonists from Phoenicia and Egypt.

It is probably more than we have any right to expect, that the various languages of Shemitish origin should ever be subjected to so elaborate an investigation, as that which the Japhthitish languages have received from the numerous eminently learned natives of many of the countries of which the latter are the vernacular dialects, who have so worthily devoted their talents to the consideration of their mother tongues, and of those of cognate origin with them; yet, since the existence of the mighty empire of the British in India, and the relations with the Further East which the European nations (our own country more especially) have of late years acquired, have rendered necessary the cultivation of the Asiatic languages; and since the philological researches of the present day are conducted upon a method so comprehensive and so philosophical, we have still good reason to hope that our acquaintance with the Shemitish languages, even if it should never arrive at a degree of intimacy equal to that which is possessed with the Indo-European, may yet, ere long, enable us to trace out that general resemblance, of structure at least, if not of form, which ought to be found to exist among the languages of all the various nations whose origin is derivable from the same parent stock, namely, the patriarch Shem.

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CHAPTER VI.

Particular history of the descendants of Shem continued.—Arphaxad, his possessions and descendants.-Land of the Casdim or Chaldees.-Ur.-Consideration of the Call of Abraham.— Joktan and his descendants :-Land of Ophir and Havilah at the head of the Persian Gulf.

The opinion advanced that the Book of Genesis was written anterior to the time of Moses ;-Grounds of this opinion :-The character of Genesis as an inspired work not affected by the conclusion :-Its consequences.

Descendants of Shem resumed.-Lud.-Aram.-Padan Aram, or Aram Naharaim, erroneously supposed to be Mesopotamia:Meaning of the expression "Naharaim":-Proofs that that country was not beyond the Euphrates:-Its general locality determined :-Eliezer of Damascus ;-Jacob's flight from Padan Aram to Gilead ;-Examination of the expression 66 a seven

days' journey";-The situation of Padan Aram probably in the neighbourhood of Damascus :-Suggestion also that El Ledja may be Padan Aram :-The country of Balaam and Chushanrishathaim.—The river crossed by Jacob not the Euphrates, but the Jordan :-This river formed of two streams, the Mandour, and the Jordan of the present day;―The Mandour probably the Jordan which was crossed by Jacob.-Possessions of the descendants of Aram.-Uz.

I NOW return from the unavoidable digression in the preceding chapter, to the consideration of the immediate descendants of Shem.

Of these, the next to Elam and Asshur, in the order of their countries, is Arphaxad, who is thus named the third, although, as we have already

106 POSSESSIONS AND DESCENDANTS OF ARPHAXAD.

seen', he was the first in the order of birth. Of his family we are told" And Arphaxad begat "Salah; and Salah begat Eber. And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; "for in his days was the earth divided; and his "brother's name was Joktan."

It has been stated that the original possessions of Arphaxad and his descendants may be considered to have been situate where his father Shem, and before him Noah also, had resided; that is, in the north-western part of Mesopotamia. From hence, as their numbers increased, they extended themselves southward and eastward, along the valley of the river Al Huali or Hermas; which, as Ham and his descendants had already monopolized the whole of the south, was the only road left open to them without at once encroaching on the territories of their neighbours. It is mentioned in Scripture that Arphaxad had other descendants, besides those whose names are recorded. In the absence, however, of further information respecting them, we must proceed in the distribution of the earth among those whose names are mentioned, in the same manner as if they alone had existed. We can at the best expect to arrive at an approximation only to the positions of the countries settled by the different descendants of Noah; and probably, therefore, we shall not be further from the truth when assigning the locations of the children of Arphaxad, 1 Page 87. • Gen. x. 24, 25.

LAND OF THE CHALDEES.

107

than in determining the allotments of the other postdiluvian progenitors of the human race whose territorial history we have to consider.

Agreeably to the principle upon which it has been assumed that Shem remained on the same spot with his father Noah, and that Arphaxad followed his example, so may we assume Salah and Eber also to have done; or, if they moved at all, their removal could only have been in a southeastward direction, and probably, in the first instance, to no great distance from their original settlement.

Of the sons of Eber,-Peleg and Joktan, the former and his descendants in the right line would in like manner have remained on, or immediately about, the spot which had been occupied by their ancestors; whilst Joktan and his sons would, as before mentioned, have followed downward the course of the river Al Huali.

The country thus peopled by the descendants of Arphaxad was in Abraham's time known by the name of the land of the Chaldees, D' (Casdim), which name (as writers have suggested,) is probably nothing more than a contraction of the patronymic D' (Arphacasdim), that is, the children or descendants of Arphaxad. In the country of the Arphaxadites or Casdim, we have, accordingly, to seek for the birthplace of Abraham, who was the lineal descendant of Peleg; and if the meaning of the Hebrew word (Ur) be the same as that of

the Arabic, the north', then may Ur Casdim, or Ur of the Chaldees, mean simply the northern portion of the possessions of the children of Arphaxad; which will precisely answer to the locality attributed by me to the original settlements of this patriarch and his descendants in the right line2.

It was from this country of the Arphaxadites, Casdim or Chaldees, that Abraham was called by the Almighty, as recorded in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Genesis. The usually received opinion with respect to the cause of Abraham's being thus commanded to leave his native place, is, that in his time his countrymen were far removed from the true faith, and that for the purpose of withdrawing him from the contamination of this idolatrous and wicked people, and of preserving in purity the worship of Jehovah (of which from the first he is supposed to have been the possessor), he, under the Divine direction, removed first to Haran, and afterwards into the land of Canaan.

1 See Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon, art. D. It may be proper to notice here, that the American edition of Gesenius, by Gibbs, as reprinted in London, 1832, in octavo, is uniformly referred to in the present Work.

2 Under this view, it may be added that an intelligible reason may be given for the particular mention made of the cities founded by Nimrod and Asshur (Gen. x. 10-12.); namely, that as they were situate in the immediate vicinity of Abraham's birthplace, they became, through him, known to his descendants; and thus the memorial of them was preserved, when most probably all actual knowledge of them had been lost.