FRONT OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABOO-SIMBEL, NUBIA AfterD Roberts, R.A. CHAPTER XXVIII. DESCENDANTS OF HAM-FIRST KINGDOMS-NIMROD - FIRST CITY AND FIRST BUILDING AFTER THE FLOOD-BABEL OR BABYLON-FIRST ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. H AM signifies black or burnt. His descendants dwelt in the tropical or hot regions of the earth. The Cushites settled in the southern regions of Asia; in time spreading over Arabia to Egypt. The land of Cush is translated in the Bible the "land of Ethiopia:" and its inhabitants "Ethiopians." We must bear in mind that generally those referred to by that name in the Bible are inhabitants of Arabia, and not of the land now known as Ethiopia, south of Egypt. The sons of Canaan settled in Palestine and Syria; and the sons of Mizraim and Phut in Egypt, and Lybia in Africa. Neither Ham nor his descendants became degraded slaves immediately. In fact his descendants for many years were more powerful than the children of the other sons of Noah, who were to inherit the blessing. Although they were to be the slaves of Shem, yet some of them, the Egyptians, held the Israelites, the best of Shem's children, in the most cruel slavery for generations. The first great conqueror spoken of was a grandson of Ham; the first cities built after the flood, the first kingdoms established, the first immense buildings erected, and the first great works, the remains of some of which are among the wonders of the world to the present day, were built by the children of Ham. Nations of giants were descended from 'Numb. xii. 1; Exod. ii. 21, etc. him races of men of immense stature and power.' Like the descendants of Cain and the "seed of the Serpent" before the flood, his descendants were for many years the mighty men of the world; while the “children of the promise" were dwelling in tents and in comparative obscurity. How they must have scoffed at the prediction of the coming judgment upon them. How natural that one of them, Goliath, "defied the armies of the living God!" How sad the fact, that "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." But God's word and His purposes are sure: though to men they may appear slow in their execution. 2 The first kingdoms after the flood being established by the descendants of Ham, made them, while conquering others, the slaves of absolute rulers. The devoted nations, which, when the cup of their iniquity was full,' God commanded the Israelites to destroy, those not destroyed being made the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, were descended from Canaan: and so were the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians afterwards subjugated and destroyed by the Greeks and Romans. The Africans, bought and sold like beasts for three thousand years to the present day, are descendants of Ham. Nimrod, the meaning of whose name is rebellion, impiety, was a son of Cush and grandson of Ham. "He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord." The Septuagint calls him the Giant Hunter. According to his name, he was doubtless a bold rebel, fearing neither God nor man; like those hunters of whom Micah speaks, when he says, "They lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother :" for Nimrod's conquest must have been over his relatives. "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in 1 Numb. xiii. 33; Deut. ii. 20; iii. 11. 2 1 Saml. xvii. 36, 45. Joshua ix. 21, 27. 6 Gen. x. 8. |