And Mizraim begat Ludim
Mizraim was the second son of Ham, of whom (See Gill on Genesis 10:6). Ludim he is said to beget, the word being plural, is not the name of a man, but of his posterity; and the sense is, that Mizraim begat the father of the Ludim, whose name very probably was Lud, which name is preserved in ( Isaiah 66:19 ) . These Ludim are the same with the Lydians, ( Jeremiah 46:9 ) and whose country is called Lydia, ( Ezekiel 30:5 ) but to be distinguished from Lydia in Asia Minor, and the Lydians there who sprung from Lud, a son of Shem, ( Genesis 10:22 ) for, as these sprung from Mizraim, the founder of Egypt, they must be somewhere thereabout; and Bochart F6 has proved, by various arguments, that they are the Ethiopians in Africa, now called Abyssines, whose country lies to the south of Egypt, a people formerly famous for archery, as Lud and the Lydians are said to be, ( Isaiah 66:19 ) ( Jeremiah 46:9 ) and whoever reads the accounts Diodorus Siculus F7 gives of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, will easily discern a likeness between them, and that the one sprung from the other; both deifying their kings; showing a like carefulness about their funerals; both using hieroglyphics; having the like order of priests, who used shaving; and circumcision was common to them both, as Herodotus observes F8:
and Ananzim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim:
the name of the father of the Anamim very probably was Anam, though we have no account of him elsewhere: according to Hillerus F9, the Anamim were called so from the pastoral life they led; and, by a transposition of letters, were the same with the Maeonians, who inhabited that tract of land in Asia which was washed by the river Maeonia, or Maeander, and bordered on Lydia; but, as these were the descendants of Mizraim, they must be sought for somewhere about Egypt: much better therefore does Mr. Broughton F11 take them to be the Nubians and Numidians, which were near both Egypt and Ethiopia; though Bochart F12 seems to be most correct, in making them to be the Ammonians, who, Herodotus says, were a colony of the Egyptians and Ethiopians; these lived about Ammon and Nasamonitis, and in that part of Lybia in which the temple of Jupiter Ammon stood, and are the Nomades, that lived a pastoral life; and Bochart F13 thinks they are called Anamim, from Anam, which, in the Arabic language, signifies a "sheep", because they fed sheep, and lived upon them, and clothed themselves with their skins. The word Lehabim, the name of another people from Mizraim, signifies "flames"; and were so called, as Jarchi observes, because their faces were like flames, see ( Isaiah 13:8 ) burnt with the heat of the sun, living near the torrid zone; and therefore could not be the Lycians, as Hillerus F14 thinks, the inhabitants of a country in Asia, between Caria and Pamphylia, formerly called Lycia, now Aidimelli, which he observes abounds with places that have their names from fire and flames, as Mount Chimaera, the cities Hephaestium, Myra, Lemyra, Habessus, Telmessus, Balbura, and Sirbis; but these were too far from Egypt, near which it is more probable the Lehabim were, and seem to be the same with the Lubim, which came with Shishak out of Egypt to invade Judea, ( 2 Chronicles 12:3 ) and who were called Lybians, ( Jeremiah 46:9 ) and their country Lybia, ( Ezekiel 30:5 ) of which Leo Africanus F1 says, that it is a desert, dry and sandy, having neither fountains nor springs; which was near Egypt as well as Ethiopia, with which it is joined in the above place, see ( Acts 2:10 ) . The word Naphtuhim, the name of another people that sprung from Mizraim, according to Hillerus F15, signifies "open"; and he thinks they are the Pamphylians, who used to admit promiscuously all into their ports and towns, which were open to all strangers, and even robbers, for the sake of commerce; but, as these were a people in lesser Asia, they cannot be the people here meant. Bochart F16 observes, from Plutarch, that the Egyptians used to call the extreme parts of a country, and abrupt places and mountains adjoining to the sea, Nepthys, the same with Nephthuah; and therefore he is of opinion, that these Naphtuhim dwelt on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, near Egypt, in Marmorica; not far from whence was the temple of Aptuchus, mentioned by Ptolemy F17, and placed by him in Cyrene, which carries in it some trace of the name of Naphtuhim; and he suspects that Neptune had his name from hence; he being a Lybian god, as Herodotus F18 says; for none ever used his name before the Lybians, who always honoured him as a god: and it may be observed, from Strabo {s}, that many of the temples of Neptune were on the sea shore. Some place these people about Memphis, the name of which was Noph, ( Isaiah 19:13 ) but perhaps it may be much better to place them in the country of Nepate, between Syene and Meroc, where Candace, queen of Ethiopia, had her royal palace in the times of Strabo F20.