1 Chronicles 4:40
And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for they of Ham had dwelt there of old. And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for they of Ham had dwelt there of old.
The verse belongs to the genealogies that open Chronicles and to its long opening lists. After the exile those genealogies served as strict legal proof of hereditary descent. That proof governed assigning the land to its hereditary owners and restoring the temple service to those whose hereditary duty it was. The opening lists also preserve information about the origin and distribution of peoples. Such information can interest students of ethnology.