Genesis 10:25
Read Genesis 10:25 Using Other Translations
What does Genesis 10:25 mean?
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one
was
Peleg
Bochart F11 thinks, that either Peleg, or one
of his posterity, in memory of him, gave the name of Phalga to a
town situated on the Euphrates; though the reason of the name, as
given by Arrianus, as he himself observes, was because it divided
between the two Seleucias, as the reason of Peleg's name was;
for in his days was the earth divided;
among the three sons of Noah, and their respective posterities;
their language was divided, and that obliged them to divide and
separate in bodies which understood one another; hence that age,
in which was this event, was usually called by the Jews the age
of division; whether this was done about the time of his birth,
and so this name was given him to perpetuate the memory of it, or
in some after part of his life, and so was given by a spirit of
prophecy, is a question: Josephus, Jarchi, and the Jewish
writers, generally go the latter way; if it was at the time of
his birth, which is the sense of many, then this affair happened
in the one hundred and first year after the flood, for in that
year Peleg was born, as appears from ( Genesis
11:11-16 )
and his brother's name was Joktan,
whom the Arabs call Cahtan, and claim him as their parent, at
least, of their principal tribes; and say he was the first that
reigned in Yaman, and put a diadem on his head {l}; and there is
a city in the territory of Mecca, about seven furlongs or a mile
to the south of it, and one station from the Red sea, called
Baisath Jektan, the seat of Jektan F13, which manifestly
retains his name; and there are a people called Catanitae, placed
by Ptolemy F14 in Arabia Felix.
F11 Phaleg. l. 2. c. 14. col. 93.
F12 Vid. Pocock. Specimen. Arab. Hist. p. 39. 55.
F13 Arab. Geograph. apud Bochart. Phaleg: l. 2. c. 15. col. 98.
F14 Geograph, l. 6. c. 7.
