Table of nations hypotheses

This article is a follow up to my article on the historicity of the Tower of Babel. This is to further elaborate on some of the things discussed in the other article. I will by no means try to make exact connections from Biblical patriarchs to modern nations. We all know history and that city states became kingdoms and kingdoms empires etc…. Then empires fragmented and those fragments became the next empire. The history of human genetics is complex but this article should give some foundation for a Biblically centered account of the beginning of human civilization and language. I would encourage the readers to read before or while reading this article Genesis Chapter 10 and Deuteronomy 32:8-9. As far as some translations saying Japheth was the oldest and other translations say Shem was the elder. Here is the Hebrew text on Genesis 10:21

וּלְשֵׁ֥ם יֻלַּ֖ד גַּם־ה֑וּא אֲבִי֙ כׇּל־בְּנֵי־עֵ֔בֶר אֲחִ֖י יֶ֥פֶת הַגָּדֽוֹל

To me this reads as: “To Shem was also born (children) ancestor of the children of Ever (the Hebrews) his brother Yefet/Japheth (was) the bigger (oldest)”. Biblical scholars continue to debate this.

So we will start as Genesis chapter 10 does with the eldest of sons and his descendants Yefet יֶ֔פֶת also known as Japheth which means beautiful. My hypotheses is that except for the island people who went west quickly the descendants of Yefet were the Yamnaya.

Gomer which means completion and his eldest some Ashkenaz  אַשְׁכְּנַ֥ז. There are two basic speculations on Ashkenaz. The first is from Josephus and that the descendants of Ashkenaz were the Gothic tribes Roman Germania and are Germanic and Nordic people like Germans, Dutch, English, Austrian and Scandinavians like Danes, Norwegians and Swedes . Some say that the word Scandinavia is derived from Ashkenaz itself. The second theory that Ashkenaz is related to the Ashkuzai a people that the Assyrians associated with the Scythians. This is from Wikipedia.

“Like the nomads of the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk complex, the Scythians originated, along with the Early Sakas, in Central Asia and Siberia in the steppes corresponding to either present-day eastern Kazakhstan or the Altai-Sayan region. The Scythians were already acquainted with quality goldsmithing and sophisticated bronze–casting at this time, as attested by gold pieces found in the 8th century BC Aržan-1 kurgan.”

The Scythians later came south and west to the Pontic steppe around the Black Sea. Some people think the Scythians made it as far north and Scotland and words like Scotti or Scotia are Scythians are associated with those names. This is what Bede said on the Picts (Early Scotts)

“The 8th-century monk Bede recorded a legend that the Picts arrived in northern Britain from “Scythia” (a region north of the Black Sea) by boat, passing through Ireland.”

It also often thought that Germans came from the Pontic steppe and so it is possible that both Picts and Gothic Germanic peoples. It is very possible that Ashkenaz was the patriarch of much of Europe and southern Russian and Germanic and Scandinavian people via the Scythians. Josephus however says that Magog was the father of Scythians.

Rifat רִיפַ֖ת  Riphath. Rifat is almost certainly the Celts and Gauls and may have come from the Ural mountains originally, which means he could also be the father of Finland, Estonia and Hungary and the Sami people of norther Scandinavia. So Ashkenaz and Rifat were brothers and they may have after Babel gone east to the central Asian steppe together. Then both went north in to Siberia with some of Rifat staying in the Ural mountains longer before coming into northeastern Europe and other tribes of Rifat going to western Europe to, populate Celtic nations. Then the tribes of Ashkenaz went back to the steppe to with some later populating Ukraine, Poland and Germanic nations. (see my article on The historicity of the Tower of Babel for the Rifat/Ural mountain connection.)

Togarmah תֹֽגַרְמָֽה

Togarmah was associated with an ancient Anatolian or Armenian region known in Hittite texts as Tegarama and Assyrian records as Til-garimmu. It is linked to a city near modern Gürün, Turkey, and often associated with a people known for horse trade. Togarmah is also well known to be associated with Armenia maybe other countries in the Caucasus region. They were also known as horse traders and so could have been associated with the great central Asian mounted archers.

Synopsis on Gomer is that his children went after babel northeast and Togarmah settled in eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus region. Rifat and Ashkenaz went farther north into the Ural mountains with Rifat going more directly west into Europe. Making settlements in Finland, Estonia and Hungary and farther west and making Gaulic settlements in Ukraine (Galicia) and Poland and the modern Czech Republic. Also making Gaulish settlement in France, Spain and the british Isles being the Celtic part of the Corded ware Culture. Ashklenaz then went farther north into the Ural and coming west vie Sweden and becoming Norse, Gothic and Germanic people. If any of these were the Scythians there is insufficient evidence to conclude but Rifat were the Corded ware culture in my opinion and Ashkenaz were the Norse and Germanic people. With both Rifat and Ashkenaz effecting the british Isles.

Magog מָג֔וֹג and he has no sons listed in the Torah and is also a Scythian associated people. They are also associated with Russia and Slavs and northeastern people. The Book of Yechekeil or Ezekiel calls them the people of the north. They are a big player in end times prophecy it is hard to nail them down to one people. I suspect they modern Balto-Slavic states like Belarus, Lithuania, and latvia, the north Slavs.

Madai מָדַ֖י

They are central and eastern Iranians, Aryans, they were the Medes of old and likely populated Afghanistan, Pakistan , Punjab, Kashmir and Indus valley and Sandskrit speaking people. Who the Book of Esther calls the Hodu.

Tubal תֻבָ֑ל

They Are associated with the Caucasion Iberians which includes parts of Georgia and the Caucus region.

Meshekh מֶ֖שֶׁךְ

They are northwestern Russia and associated with the Mushky likely settled modern Moscow. Their descendants maybe anywhere in Russia.

Before we move on to Greece and the Balkans we need to deal with the Turks and Mongols. We do not know the precise identity but one of the sons of Gomer went into the Altai mountains and western China and populated northeast Asia like Siberia, Japan and Korea (maybe northern China) and crossed the land bridge to be the Native American and South American.

Tiras תִירָֽס

They are likely Thrace and the modern Balkans (south Slavs) Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia etc…

Yavan יָוָ֣ן (I know Yavan is out of order but he had many children so I did him last)

The Obvious, Yavan is Greece .

Elishah: Aeolian Greeks or the Peloponnesus region. 

Tarshish: Spain and Portugal

Kittim: Mediterranean islands like Cyprus or Malta maybe. Numbers 24:24 says that ships of Kittim will defeat Assyria and the Jews. There is historical truth to that. Greece was the European power who historically ended centuries of middle east empirial dominance.

Dodanim a Aegean Island people, Patmos, where John wrote Revelation is in the Aegean sea.

Cham/Ham חָ֑ם the youngest meaning warm or hot.

Kush כּ֥וּשׁ, the meaning of Kush in Biblical Hebrew is unknown but is likely tied to the Sumerian Royal dynasty Kish meaning total or universal.

Kush and his sons settled the Horn of Africa and went west to the Rift Valley and then south to settle the rest of southern Africa. Kush’s grandson Sheva or Sheba may have been the father of parts of Ethiopia and Yemen where the Queen of Sheba/Shva was from.

Mitzrayim מִצְרַ֖יִם is the father of ancient Nubia or that is Egypt and Sudan. It also says that from the children of Mitzrayim came the Philistines or that is the modern Palestinians, it does say the exact lineage just of the the sons of Mitzrayim.

Fut פ֥וּט is the father of the Berber people who settled Libya and Saharan nations where Berbers lived before the Islamic conquests. They also settled Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Camaroon and likely much of tribal west Africa.

K’naan/Canaan/Kenaghan כְנָֽעַן

K’naan first son was Zidon צִידֹ֥ן, this is the city of Tyre in Phoenicia or modern Lebanon. He also had Cheit חֵֽת who were the Biblical Hittites but this does not refer to the Anatolian Hittite Empire but a ancient Canaanite people that are lost in modern Gaza and lebanon today. The Hatti or the ancient Hittite Empire may have been associated with a son of Togarmah (from a non Biblical source) named Hayk or other people say they were of the Kittim a Greek people.

Also from K’naan or Canaan or K’naghan as they might have called themselves came the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Girgashites and the Hivvites and the Arkites and the Sinites. No one really knows where these tribes ended up over history but a important point on the Sinites.

This is from my previous article on the Tower of Babel

“As far as is known Chinese and other southern Asians came from Syn mentioned in Isaiah 49:12 and there is no indication which ancestry Syn or the Sin’im were from originally. We must accept that people intermingle and that human genealogy will never be easy or pure because the world has intermixed so much. The DNA in southern India is different than in the north and with the factor of continental drift and the fact that just after the flood all the continent were one.”

Via a land bridge that existed from Africa to India the Synim or the Sinites may have crossed and populated China, southeast Asia and Australia and New Guinea and other parts of the Pacific. There is no other known Biblical theory to south Asia and China.

Shem שֵׁ֥ם, Shem means name literally but really means “reputable one” because in Hebrew name is associated with reputation, like the 18th century Polish Rabbi Baal Shem Tov for example.

Eilam עֵילָ֣ם or Elam is the eastern part of Iran.

אַשּׁ֑וּר Ashur is the Assyrian Empire and modern northern Iraq.

Arpakhshad אַרְפַּכְשַׁ֖ד

He is the father of the Chaldeans which what his name means. In the Bible the Chaldeans were called the Kasdim, you can see the kashad at the end of the name Arpakhshad. These were the ancestors of the southern Iraqi’s, Akkadians and Babylonians who were the Chaldeans. Arpakhshad is also the grandfather of Eber/Eiver עֵֽבֶר who is the father of all Israelites, Jews and Arabic peoples. Also from the line of Eber came another Sheba who is another candidate for the father of the nation of the Queen of Sheba (Yemen and Ethiopia).

Lot a cousin of Abraham created modern Jordan with his sons Moav/Moab and Ammi. To this day Jordan’s capital ia Amman. The Nabateans and Edomites also Abrahamic people had settlements in Jordan.

Lud ל֥וּד

Lud may likely be the Lydians of Anatolia according to Josephus

Aram אֲרָֽם, Aram may have meant highlands is the father of the Arameans or the Syrians and many of the modern Lebonese.

It is really hard to articulate all the Semitic nations from the table of nations because the Islamic conquests put so much of Mesopotamia, Arabia and north Africa under one Religion, language and with some variance culture.

The Book of Jubilees which is not part of Tanakh, the Hebrew bible except for the  Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. There is no known original Hebrew copy of Jubilees but the known original in in Ge’ez an Ethiopian liturgical Semitic language. Small fragments of the Book of Jubilees were found in the Dead Sea scrolls but not enough for a complete Hebrew version but what was found does validate the known Ge’ez text.

In Chapter 8:1-3 it says this about Arpakhshad.

וביובל התשעה ועשרים בשבוע הראשון בשנה הראשונה לקח לו ארפכשד אשה ושמה רצויה בת שושנה בת עילם לו לאשה:

In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, in the beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Râsû’ĕjâ, [the daughter of Shoshanah,] the daughter of Elam,

ותלד לו בן בשנה השלישית לשבוע הזה ויקרא את שמו קינם:

and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, and he called his name Kâinâm.

ויגדל בנו וילמדהו אביו ספר, וילך לבקש לו מקום לבנות לו שם עיר מושב:

And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city

Here in Chapter 8:7 it talks of the son of Arpakhshad intermarrying with a a son of Yafet.

וביובל השלושים בשבוע השני בשנה הראשונה בו לקח לו אשה ושמה מֶלכה בת עבדי בן יפת:

And in the thirtieth jubilee, in the second week, in the first year thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was Mêlkâ, the daughter of Madai, the son of Japheth,

This above sort of talks of the birth of Iran maybe with the eastern Iranian Elamite marrying the Indo-European Madai’ite.

The rest of Jubilees on the generations of Noah are synoptic of the Torah and Genesis. Shem got the middle, Yefet the north and Cham the south. It also states that the son of Arpakhshad invented writing but never specifies any known language.

Here is some information of the children of Yishmael or Ishmael the older brother of Yitzchak/Isaac.

Sarai the wife of Avram was unable to bear children, so here in Gen 16:3-15 (Tree of Life)

“ ³ So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her slave-girl Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan—and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. ⁴ Then he went to Hagar and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, in her eyes her mistress was belittled.

⁵ So Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done to me is because of you! I myself placed my slave-girl in your embrace. Now that she saw that she became pregnant, so in her eyes I am belittled. May Adonai judge between you and me!”

⁶ Abram said to Sarai, “Look! Your slave-girl is in your hand. Do to her what is good in your eyes.”

So Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her presence. ⁷ Then the angel of Adonai^[a] found her by the spring of water in the wilderness, next to the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave-girl, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of Adonai said, “Return to your mistress and humble yourself under her hand.” ¹⁰ Then the angel of Adonai said to her, “I will bountifully multiply your seed, and they will be too many to count.” ¹¹ Then the angel of Adonai said to her,

Behold, you are pregnant
    and about to bear a son,
        and you shall name him Ishmael—
    for Adonai has heard your affliction.
¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man.
His hand will be against everyone,
    and everyone’s hand against him,
        and away from all his brothers will he dwell.

¹³ So she called Adonai who was speaking to her, “You are the God who sees me.” For she said, “Would I have gone here indeed looking for Him who looks after me?” ¹⁴ That is why the well is named, the Well of the Living One Who Sees Me. (Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.)

¹⁵ Then Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for Abram”

Gen 17:20

” ²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you. See, I have blessed him and I will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him very very much. He will father twelve princes and I will make him a great nation.”

Gen 21:12-13

” ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Do not be displeased about the boy and your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For through Isaac shall your seed be called. ¹³ Yet I will also make the son of the slave woman into a nation, because he is your seed.”

So the name Ishmael/Yishmael means “God will hear” most likely because God heard Sarai’s (later Sarah) pleas for a child.So now turn your Bibles to Gen 25:12

1.Nabaioth (Nabit in Arabic), the meaning is unclear, it could mean to look or regard or in Arabic “distinguished man” could mean prophet from the Hebrew navi ,in Hebrew it’s Navayot. His descendent’s are generally believed to be Nabataeans or Nabatu in Arabic and were associated with sheep herding. There is also evidence they in early times comingled with Esav and are now mixed in with Edomites. The Nabatu or Nabataeans are mentioned frequently in Aramaic and Assyrian records and seem to have lived primarily in Jordan but have trade routes throughout Arabia and the Horn of Africa.

“Three hundred years later the Zenon papyri from 259 BC mention that the Nabatu were trading Gerrhean and Minaean frankincense, transporting it to Gaza and Syria. They transported their goods through the Kedarite centers of Northern Arabia, Jauf, and Tayma. Early Nabataean pottery has also been found in locations on the Persian Gulf, along the coasts of Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain: Tuwayr, Zubayda, Thaj, and Ayn Jawan.”

So where is the nation of Nabatu today? Although it has been said some lived on the Red Sea on the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula most evidence points to their ancestors being in Jordan or parts of Syria near Jordan.

2.Keder (Qaydar in Arabic) Keder meant dark or also gloomy or sad in Hebrew ,dark may have been a reference to the color of their tents.So far no Arabic etymology is available on Qaydar.The Qaydarites or Kederites or were mainly nomadic and centered in the Wadi Sirhan in the Syrian desert in it’s eastern part in the Jauf depression.

“

Kedar

As we have already mentioned, the sons of Kedar became known as the Kedarites. The Kedarites were the main military power of the sons of Ishmael. Isaiah speaks of Kedar’s “glory and her gifted archers” (Isaiah 21:16-17). Ezekiel 27:21 associates Arabia with all of the princes of Kedar, suggesting a confederation under their leadership.

The Kedarites were in constant conflict with the Assyrians. The Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Persians, and even the Romans realized the importance of taking control of the commercial routes in northern Arabia that were under the dominion of the Kedarites (and later the Nabataeans).

Nehemiah’s opponent, ‘Geshem the Arab,’ has been identified as one of the kings of Kedar from the mid fifth century BC, based on a number of North Arabian inscriptions.

Regarding their religion, Assyrian inscriptions tell us that Sennacherib captured several Arabian deities in the Kedarite city of Dumah. The chief deity was Atarsamain, or the morning star of heaven–the counterpart of Mesopotamian Ishtar. The tribal league led by the Kedarites was known as “the confederation of Atarsamain,” and their cult was led by a series of queen-priestesses in Dumah. The rest of their pantheon of gods consisted of Dai, Nuhai (Nuhay), Ruldai (Ruda), Abirillu, and Atarquruma. Rock graffiti in the Thamudic language reveals that Ruda was known as the evening star, and Nuhay was the sun-god, and they were worshiped in addition to Atarsamain ‘the morning star.’ Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, identified two deities worshiped among the Arabs: a fertility god called Orotalt (perhaps Ruda, as identified by Macdonald in North Arabia in the First Millennium BC, 1360), and a sky goddess know as Allat (Herodotus III, 3). Later, Allat would be referred to in the masculine form as Allah.

So if the tribe of Qaydar first used the term Allah then could then have Muhammad of Mecca of Quran fame have been a Qederite?

There is talk in the Bible of the Qederites being associated with Meshekh, which were a central Asian people of Yefetic or Japhetic descendant but no known reason why the two would be associated unless some of Qaydar went east and comingled with Russians or Armenians or maybe even Turkic tribes, it was said the Qederites were good archers.

3.Adbe’el or Idiba’ilu in Arabic ,meaning “grieved by God’ in Hebrew ,Arabic meaning unknown.Associated with northwest Arabia

“

Adbe’el/Idiba’ilu

The tribe of Adbeel is often identified with the people in the land of Arubu who became subjects to Tiglath Pileser II (744-727 BC). Their chieftain was called Idibi’ilu and he operated as the Assyrian king’s agent on the boarders of Egypt. His tribe was said to have dwelt far away, towards the west. From this reference, some historians have thought that the tribe of Adbeel lived in the Sinai”

4.Mivsam, meaning sweat smelling.

Not much is known other than it’s possible affiliation with Mishma another Ishmaelite tribe, Mishma meaning “hearing or obeying”.

Mibsam & Mishma

“Some historians have wondered if the descendants of Mishma founded the villages around Jebel Misma. It is thought that these two tribes may have intermarried with the Simeonites and disappeared from history as a separate entity (I Chronicles 4:24-27).”

5.Mishma (covered)

6.Dumah, meaning silence or quiet in Hebrew, Adummatu in Assyrian imperial Aramaic.

Dumah

Dumah is mentioned in the Biblical records as a city in Canaan (Joshua 15:52). It is also associated with Edom and Seir in Isaiah 21:11.

“Dumah is generally identified by historians with the Addyrian Adummatu people. Esarhaddon’s records relate how his father Sennacherib stuck against Adummatu in an attempt to subdue the Arabs. Sennacherib captured their king, Haza’il, who is called “King of the Arabs.” Kaza’il is also referred to in one inscription of Ashurbanipal, as “King of the Kedarites.”

From a geographical standpoint, Adummatu is often associated with the medieval Arabic Dumat el-Jandal, which was in ancient times a very important and strategic junction on the major trade route between Syria, Babylon, Najd, and the Hijaz area. Dumat el-Jandal is at the southeastern end of Al Jawf which is a desert basin and often denotes the whole lower region of Wadi as Sirhan, the famous depression situated halfway between Syria and Mesopotamia. This area has water and was a stopping place for caravans coming from Tayma before proceeding on to Syria or Babylonia.

This strategic location effectively made the Dumah the gatekeepers to north Arabia. The oasis in this territory was the centre of rule for many north Arabian kings and queens, as related to us in Assyrian records.”

7.Mas’a ,in Hebrew meaning tribute or burden, this Arabian tribe living in the northern Arabian desert towards Babylonia.

Mas’a

The records of Tiglath Pileser III mention the inhabitants of Mas’a and Tema, who paid him tribute. On the summit of Jebal Ghunaym, located about 14 kilometers south of Tayma, archeologists Winnett and Reed discovered some graffiti script which mentions the tribe Massa in connection with Dedan and Nebayot. This script refers to a war against Dedan, a war against Nabayat, and the war against Massaa. Therefore, these tribes appear to have been close to each other at the time. The tribe of Massa is possibly connected to the Masanoi of North Arabia as mentioned by Ptolemy, (Geography v18, 2).

Those holding to the theory that the Children of Israel crossed the Red Sea into Arabia identify El Maser as the place where the Israelites murmured (Exodus 17:7, Deut. 6:16, 9:22, 33:8).

8.Chadad or Hadad ,this meaning in Hebrew and Arabic most likely a blacksmith.And could also relate to Haddu ,a Sumerian rain and storm god.

Hadad

“Some historians speculate that this tribe may have become known as the Harar or the Hararina people who lived near the mountains northwest of Palmyra. It is also interesting to notice that there is a Hadad tribe in Arabia. Most of the Hadads are now Christians and are located throughout the Levant (for example: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine). The modern day Hadadine tribe is also related.”

Could it relate to modern Saudi Arabian city Hafar ,maybe but just speculation.

9.Teima ,meaning south country in Hebrew and Arabic and is likely modern Saudi city Tayma.

“Tayma /ˈtaɪmə/ (Taymanitic: 𐪉𐪃𐪒, vocalized as: Taymāʾ;^[1] Arabic: تيماء, romanized: Taymāʾ) or Tema (Hebrew: תֵּימָן Tēmān (Habakkuk 3:3) is a large oasis with a long history of settlement, located in northwestern Saudi Arabia at the point where the trade route between Medina and Dumah (al-Jawf) begins to cross the Nafud desert. Tayma is located 264 km (164 mi) southeast of the city of Tabuk, and about 400 km (250 mi) north of Medina.^[2][3] It is located in the western part of al-Nafud.”

Tema

Teyma is usually associated with the ancient oasis of Tayma, located northeast of the Hijaz district, on the trade route between Tathrib (Medina) and Dumah. Between Tayma and Dumah is the famous Nafud desert. It is thought that the present city of Tayma at the southwestern end of the great Nafud desert is built on the remains of the ancient oasis by the same name.

Tiglath Pileser III received tributes from Tayma, as well as from other Arabian oases. The Assyrians recorded how a coalition headed by Samsi, queen of the Arabs, was defeated. The coalition was made up of Massaa, the city of Tayma, the tribes of Saba, Hajappa, Badana, Hatti, and Idiba’il, which lay far to the west. Once defeated, these tribes had to send tribute of gold, silver, camels, and spices of all kinds.

The Assyrian king Sennacherib named one of his gates in the great city of Nineveh as the Desert Gate, and records that “the gifts of the Sumu’anite and the Teymeite enter through it.” From this we can recognize Teyma was regarded as an important place.

Around 552 BC Nabonidus (555-539 BC) king of Babylon and father of biblical Belshazzar (Daniel 7:1) made the city of Tayma his residence and spent ten of the sixteen years of his reign there.

During the Achaemenid period, Tayma probably became a seat of one of the Persian emperors. However, by the first century BC, the Nabataeans began to dominate Tayma, and it slowly became a part of their trading empire.

Isaiah 21:13-14 invites the people of Tayma to provide water and food for their fugitive countrymen, in an apparent allusion to Tiglath Pileser’s invasion of North Arabia in 738 BC. Jeremiah 25:23 is a prophecy against the oasis city. In Job 6:19-20, Job laments his fall from wealth, and comments that the troops of Tema and the armies of Sheba (Yemen) had hoped for plunder, but now Job had nothing.

10.Jetur

“je’-tur (yeTur, meaning uncertain): a “son” of Ishmael (Ge 25:15 parallel 1Ch 1:31); against this clan the two and a half tribes warred (1Ch 5:18 f); they are the Itureans of New Testament times.”

Could this be modern day Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Maybe ,but doubtful, you never know. Other than some sources say Jetur is east of Jordan not much else is known.

11.Nafish

Naphish (once Nephish in the King James Version) is one of the sons of Ishmael. After him an Ishmaelite tribe is named.^[25] The name נפיש in Hebrew means “refreshed”.^[26] His tribe is listed with Jetur, and is assumed to have resided nearby and lived a nomadic, animal-herding lifestyle in sparsely populated land east of the Israelites.^[27] Psalm 83,^[28][29] however lists these as Hagarites separately from the other ten tribes which lived more southernly.

12.Kedmah meaning eastward ,no other information available.

We are now done with the Princes of Yishmael,Probably everyone knows that the children of Lot (Avraham’s cousin) through incestuous relationship with his daughters.Fathered Moab and Ben Ami who are the Princes of Moab and Ammon and are the tribes of modern day Jordan ,Amman is Jordan’s modern capital.

Who were the Hagarite’s ,the theoretical children that Hagar the maid and wife of Abraham who gave birth to Yishmael but may have had other children after leaving Abraham.

An Arab tribe, or confederation of tribes (1 Chronicles 5:10,19,20 the King James Version “Hagarites”; 1 Chronicles 27:31 the King James Version “Hagerite”; Psalms 83:6 “Hagarenes”), against which the Reubenites fought in the days of Saul. In Genesis 25:12-18 are recorded the descendants, “generations,” of Ishmael, “whom Hagar the Egyptian Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham.” Two, and possibly three, of these tribes, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah (25:15), appear to be identical with the 3 tribes whom the Reubenites and the other Israelite tribes East of the Jordan conquered and dispossessed (1 Chronicles 5). The correspondence of names in Ge and 1Ch leaves little doubt that “Hagrite” is a generic term roughly synonymous with “Ishmaelite,” designating the irregular and shifting line of desert tribes stretching along the East and South of Palestine. Those “East of Gilead,” “Jetur, Naphish and Nodah,” were overcome by Reuben: “The Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them. …. And they took away their cattle …. they dwelt in their stead until the captivity” (1 Chronicles 5:20-22).

These along with other Arab tribes are mentioned in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC). Jetur gave his name to the Itureans of Roman times, who were famed soldiers dwelling in Anti-Libanus. Compare Curtis, Commentary on Chronicles; Skinner, “Gen,” ICC, in the place cited.

Edward Mack

The Hagrites (also spelled Hagarite or Hagerite, and called Hagarenes, Agarenes, and sons of Agar) were associated with the Ishmaelites mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the inhabitants of the regions of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab lying east of Gilead.^[1] Their name is understood to be related to that of the biblical Hagar. They lived a nomadic, animal-herding lifestyle in sparsely populated land east of the Israelites.^[2]

According to First Chronicles 5:18-22, the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh in Gilead brought 44,760 to battle with the Hagrites and defeated them. Through the battle, the Reubenites captured the Hagrite land as well as 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys. Finally, the Reubenites captured 100,000 Hagrites, men, women and children and held them as captives. According to Theodor Nöldeke, these numbers are “enormously exaggerated”.^[2]

King David of Israel made Jazziz the Hagrite steward of his flocks, but the Hagrites are not mentioned in the historical books as a distinct people after the reign of King David.

In Psalms 83:6, the Hagrites are included in a list of ten peoples that form a coalition to attack Israel for the purpose of wiping it off the map. Because the war described in Psalm 83 has not yet occurred historically, it is often designated a prophetic psalm describing future events.

So lets talk about principalities and powers because this is also part of the post Babel world (also read Psalm 82).

Here is Deuteronomy 32:8-9

בְּהַנְחֵ֤ל עֶלְיוֹן֙ גּוֹיִ֔ם בְּהַפְרִיד֖וֹ בְּנֵ֣י אָדָ֑ם יַצֵּב֙ גְּבֻלֹ֣ת עַמִּ֔ים לְמִסְפַּ֖ר בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל:

In the endowment to the nations the Most High (God), when he separated hunmankind, set stationed borders between peoples according the number of the children of Israel.

The Dead Sea scrolls say “according to the bnei Elohim” which means sons of God and can mean angels or other divine beings (like demons). Here is the English Standard Version (ESV) of this scripture which uses the Dead Sea scroll version. (the one above is my own interpretation)

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of God.

כִּ֛י חֵ֥לֶק יְהֹוָ֖ה עַמּ֑וֹ יַֽעֲקֹ֖ב חֶ֥בֶל נַֽחֲלָתֽוֹ

For the portion of the Lord is his people Yaakov/Jacob (the Jews), the place of his inheritance.

Here is Ephesians 6:12

¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

It is clear that God put either angelic or demonic babysitter over the nations and people God disinherited after Babel, and only the Jews or Hebrews were not disinherited after Babel. This is what Deuteronomy 32:8-9 makes clear. So lets talk fake gods, demons and idols, who were those Principalities of Ephesians 6?

Lets say that the Ubaid culture of ancient kengir (Sumer) was the pre-Babel world culture in a post flood world. I would have two questions? First were the Anunnaki the Bnei Elohim who became mans babysitters after Babel or were they just the Prinipality of Kengir/Sumer.

Deities Involved: Major Mesopotamian gods often identified as Anunnaki include An (the Father of them all) Enlil (air/chief god), Enki (Ea; water/knowledge), Ninhursag (mother goddess), Inanna (Ishtar; goddess of love/war), and Utu (Shamash; sun god).

So these Anunnaki do seem to set a theme for other gods. Although in the Greek pantheon the goddess of of agriculture and fertility is not associated with war.

In the pantheon of the Chaldeans or Kasda’in כַּשְׂדָּאִין in Imperial Aramaic also known as the Babylonians. Marduk is the sky god who equates with the Sumerian Enlil, Iranian Dzeush-Patter, Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter and also the Assyrian Ashur or Assur. So this pattern of gods seems to hold consistent with the descendants of Shem and Yefet because when we look at Ham, the chief god of Egypt was Ra the sun god seems to correlate more to the Sumerian Uta or Akkadian Shamash.

It looks like as people left the center of the Babel catastrophe they went away from the Kengir or Sumerian hierarchy.

Anu or An- This was the creator of all gods according to the Anunnaki and this is likely how the pre-Babel Ubaid world knew god and I suspect An or Anu is the Prince of Demons (Satan, Beelzebub, Baalzuvuv, Asmodeus, you get the idea). So from An/Satan came the Chief Principality.

Sumer/Kengir- Enlil

Kasdai’in/Chaldea and Akkadians- Marduk

Assyria- Ashur/Assur

Proto-Iranian- Dzeush-Patter

Greece- Zeus

Rome-Jupiter

So in and around the Middle East, southern and Central Asia the pantheon is still consistent with a ruler storm/sky god with other gods as subordinates.

The Hittites accepted the Anunnaki but their chief deity was the Sun goddess of Arinna. The Egyptians also made Ra, also a sun god their chief deity as well. Tapati the goddess of heat was also their chief deity.

In Norse mythology the sky was combined into the gods of Odin and Thor who together embodied the qualities of Marduk or Zeus. The very interesting factor of the three Valkyrie witches who judge the dead, which is as far as I know unique in mythology.

According to excerpts from this article from Brewminate.com the Scythians practiced Shamanism, proving the Scythian-Siberian to Native America connection.

“Scythian religion appears to be an amalgam of belief in a pantheon of gods grafted to more ancient animal reverence and shamanistic practice. According to their burial finds, the Scythians appear to have had a deep affinity with the animals with which they were familiar. Perhaps residual of the primal mother-earth concept, the overwhelming number of god-images found are of a goddess.”

“Moreover, the blessings the goddess of fertility bestowed would be essential to all cultures. While little is known about her, it is believed the Scythian equivalent to Aphrodite was Argimpasa, cognate of Arti, the Iranian goddess of material abundance. Regarding the images of a deity in the Scythian kurgans being a goddess, whether she was Api as mother earth or Argimpasa as Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility, her connection to fertility is apparent. Since it is the earth and women that give life, the mother earth concept was of primary importance to the ancients. Thus, for the same reason, a residual goddess of fertility would have a similar place of importance for the Scythians. Finally, concerning an essential element of Scythian warfare, the horse, Herodotus mentions Thagimasadas as his equivalent to Poseidon, but not as a god of the sea but as a patron of the horse.”

It seems likely that the Scythians were the first to abandon the typical pantheon in favor of nature based witchcraft and magick. This also brings credence to a Scythian-Celtic connection also. I would speculate that as people left the place where the Babel calamity happened that people left the worship of “sky gods” for the more tangible earth and nature based type magick. If we say lack of proximity in northern and western Europe, Siberia and the Americas pushed the people away from the sky gods to the earth based magick, What about eastern religion and reincarnation?

India: Hinduism and Buddhism with a lot of spreading to other points east.

China: Traditional ancestor worship

Japan: Shinto, a nature based spirituality giving more basis as a link to Siberian Shamanism and Magick.

Korea: Musok a Korean form of Shananism.

I know religion today in modern east Asia is very diverse but I’m not concerned with a study of religion but how did ancient people worship after Babel.

As far as Islam, the answer is quite simple. By the year 500 ce Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity was winning over the pagan Arab populations in high numbers. Armenia, Ethiopia and Yemen were the worlds first nations be embrace Chistianity well before Rome. Satan and his angels countered with a fake montheistic-Abrahamic religion that would curb the spread of Christianity. Sadly many “quote Christians” are not real believers and can be decieved quite easily, as they say the wheat is separated from the chaff.

What about ancient African religion?

I know that Africa is a huge place with a wide diversity of spirituality but again it is the Principalities I am concerned with not religion.

Tribal traditional African religion like Eurasian Shamanism and witchcraft is a magick based thing for the most. As people went farther from Babel they discarded the Sky god for nature based worship.

I know this from Wikipedia is a vast simplification.

“Highly complex animistic beliefs build the core concept of traditional African religions. This includes the worship of tutelary deities, nature worship, ancestor worship and the belief in an afterlife, comparable to other traditional religions around the world. While some religions have a pantheistic worldview with a supreme creator god next to other gods and spirits, others follow a purely polytheistic system with various gods, spirits and other supernatural beings. Traditional African religions also have elements of totemism, shamanism and veneration of relics.”

This is just my thought on the matter but African magick seems more spirit oriented then the more carnal and natural Eurasian Shananism. I claim not to be any expert on world religion but here we do find worship patterns that make sense.

So what is the overall synopsis?

So we will call An or Anu Satan for practical purposes.

1. Sky god worship (Marduk or Zeus etc….)

The Middle East, central Asia, Iran, southern Europe and the Norse (Odin/Thor) some of which was later on absorbed into Islam.

2. Shananism and earth based magick of varying types.

Celts and Gauls, pre Christian Russians and Uralics, Siberian, ancient Turks and Scythians and Native North and South Americans plus very ancient pre Buddhist Japan and Korea.

3. Dharmic religion like Hinduism or Buddhism and few others.

India and pre-Islamic Pakistan, Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal but later spread to much of Asia.

4.Ancestral worship.

China mainly, although worship of ancestors in not uncommon in other worship styles and religions like African religions and Druidism in the Celtic lands.

5. Spirit based animistic magick based religion.

Africa, the Caribbean and parts of the America’s and with the ancient land bridge most likely Australian Aboriginal and other Pacific Islands like New Guinea. Especially in New Guinea the ancestral worship is important. Like the Middle east much was absorbed into Islam and the case of Africa Christianity as well.

6. Abrahamic imitation.

Isalm, Occult Jewish mystical practices, Zoro-Astrianism, Sikhism, Druze Alawite religion. Heritical types of Christianity.

7. The Lords portion Jacob as scripture states and true Christianity. Worship of the true God and his true Messiah and savior Jesus/Yeshua of Nazereth. I am not saying that becoming Christian makes you Jewish but you are adopted into the family of Abraham. I do not advocate replacement theology.

There are seven major divisions we can articulate after Babel. If these are multiplied by 10 you get 70 , the division of nations after Babel. To many ancient pagan cults and faith died out a long time ago to articulate the 70 from the seven identified here but without question they did exist. World religion is not something I am an expert in but that is not what this article is about, but to show the truth behind the table of nations. The table of nations are now more abstract but God did divide humanity in seventy parts. There are today 195 sovereign nations that are not disputed and have full recognition. If one were smart enough to find the abstractions among peoples you would find 70 types of nations and peoples that spawned the 195 plus disputed territories that exist as sovereign today. I identified 7 common themes in world religion and I believe with confidence that divine beings control those types of worship. As new nations formed as people left Mesopotamia after Babel other divine beings created new ways of worship that became modern religion today that also have 70 total abstractions.

Who were the Bnei Elohim בני אלהים or the “Sons of God” . Some people believe that after Babel that God put angels in charge of the 70 nations. Other say they were Rebellious angels or demons (more or less what I proposed). There are also that said that in the world divine beings that there are grey areas and some angels did well and others abused their power (read psalm 82). My opinion is that any angels who abused power is obviously a demon and that the Bnei Elohim of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 are demonic. It is hard to say exactly how the six major principalities I identified then added up to 69 total spiritual principalities with the 70th as the Lord himself with Jesus Christ as savior and King and Son of God. In other words the 70th nation is the true bride of Christ with the Old Testament era saints and all saved people in the lambs Book of Life. We would have to know more about religion in pre history. It takes all my time to study Christianity and the Biblical world view, I could not possibly know every world religion on that complex a level. This is my case for the account of the “Table of Nations”.