And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
Resen is named as lying between Nineveh and Calah and is called a great city. It stands in the factual historical record of the origins and descent of the principal nations after the Flood, tracing their lines through generations, their growth in population, the founding of large cities, the confusion of languages, and the scattering of Noah's descendants throughout the earth. Resen was built by Nimrod when he went out from the land of Shinar into Assyria with Nineveh and Rehoboth and Calah, marking the reach of his rule beyond Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, while it was built by Asshur when he went out from the land of Shinar. That building established kingship over kings and empire in the world, rulership of man over man instead of subjection to God only, as the beginning of organized rebellion against God's plan that the whole earth should be peopled. By Ham, Shem, and Japheth the whole earth was overspread in obedience to the command to be fruitful and replenish the earth, that out of all the nations a holy and righteous people might be gathered to fill the world.
Setting and Trustworthiness
Resen lay between Nineveh and Calah, and is called a great city. Together with the surrounding verses it records the early founding of the Assyrian cities and introduces Assyria as a kingdom that later rivaled Babylonia. The passage traces the ancient origin of the Babylonian kingdom, which was known for many centuries as the Assyrian kingdom with Nineveh as its capital. Calah and Resen in the country of Asshur were real and well-known places of ancient times.
The verse belongs to Genesis 8 to 11, which tell of a new beginning after the Flood and Babel. It is part of historical notes outlining the origins and descent of the principal nations of the earth. It belongs to a line traced down through their generations, which necessarily involves length of time because several generations are given. It records the growth of the earth's population after the Flood, the laying of foundations for large cities, the confusion of languages, and the beginnings of distinct nations. It is part of the genealogy of the sons of Noah and shows the scattering of his descendants throughout the earth.
The chapter is a factual historical record and one of the most ancient and reliable historical documents to have come down from the past. It is the most ancient, the most precious, and the most complete document on the distribution of the ancient nations of the world, and a correct understanding of sacred chronology is essential to understanding it and throws light on it. Genesis 11 returns to trace other events from the beginning, including the confusion of tongues a little more than one hundred years after the Flood, there is no disarrangement of chronological order, and the word translated Gentiles simply means nations.
It stands as part of the true history of Genesis, not myth or late tradition. Its accuracy is supported by ancient traditions shared across many peoples and by evidence from monuments, preserving a common early heritage, while the Genesis record is the least exaggerated and closest to their original form. The statements that unto Eber were born two sons, Peleg the ancestor of the Hebrews and Joktan the ancestor of the tribes of South Arabia, are completely paralleled by the discovery that a Hebrew and South Arabian dynasty ruled in Ur of the Chaldees when Abraham was born there and that a Hebrew-speaking population lived in Babylonia at the lifetime assigned to Abraham. This complete agreement proves the account could not have been compiled in Palestine at a late date when all recollection of the facts would have passed away. Genesis 10 records the historic account of early peoples and places, and accepting evolution undermines confidence in the historical character of its first ten chapters.
The account affirms that Babel and other cities existed before Nineveh and that Assyria was colonized from Babylonia. It identifies Cush, a descendant of Ham, as founder of Babylonian civilization, and records the early cities and peoples of Babylonia and Assyria, including Babel and Nineveh. These historical claims were confirmed by archaeological monuments, inscriptions, and Assyrian monuments. The representation of Babylonia's population as descending both from Ham through Nimrod and from Shem through Asshur is explained by two races occupying the country from an early time, a Shemitic people and an older, darker non-Shemitic people identified with the sons of Ham.
The passage names Nineveh in the setting of the Assyrian empire as part of the account of Nimrod's early settlements.
Builders and Rebellion
Resen with Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah was built by Nimrod when he went out of the land of Shinar into Assyria, marking the reach of his rule beyond Shinar. He founded Nineveh by the Tigris and built other towns round about it, joining capital and suburbs into one great city like Greater London and Greater New York, already called a great city at the dawn of history. Those who held the Asshur reading teach that Asshur went out from the land of Shinar and built Nineveh and Rehoboth and Calah with Resen lying between Nineveh and Calah, showing that the building of cities did not stop with Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in Shinar but spread farther in the same spirit.
His ambition of kingly rule was not satisfied with Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh. He established not only kingship or sovereignty over a single city or territory but kingship over kings, sovereignty over separate peoples and territories, kingship expanded into empire, the beginning of kingship and empire in the world. He thus established among men human sovereignty, rulership of man over man and subjection of man to man instead of self-government and subjection of man to God only, and stands among the early imitators of imperial rulers who sought dominion over other peoples.
The passage belongs to the account of Satan setting up his form of organized government in the earth, whose avowed object was to overthrow God's plan that the whole earth should be peopled. Nimrod, a mighty hunter of men, united people under himself to build Babel and its tower as the beginner of organized rebellion against God, and God confounded their language as judgment for their defiance. Yet God overruled that effort to make it the origin of all the nations that would people the earth till the end of time. The verse is proof of continued gathering of sinful men into compact masses to gain ascendancy over others and make a name, against God's design that men should replenish the earth and till the soil, and in spite of God's warning in confounding language and scattering the builders at Babel. Nimrod stands with Cain at the beginning of war, and the bloody advance from the land of Shinar onward shows the same spirit of conquest dispossessing peoples and leaving fire, famine, pestilence, ruined homes, desolation, and death in its wake from the earliest days down to the present.
Peoples and Purpose
Genesis 10:12 stands in the genealogy of Ham's descendants, marking out the black race and the negroes as descended from Ham, who spread abroad toward the south and inhabited Africa. As Noah's offspring multiplied near where the ark rested, colonies pushed outward, with others of Ham's line pressing on into Canaan and Arabia and Egypt, and with Mizraim founding Egypt. The chapter is the account of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, by whom the whole earth was overspread and scattered abroad.
Strong intellectual men, giants, founded cities as nuclei for other companies, until cities and tribes and kingdoms and empires grew up. One company of great men went westward and southward and founded Hebron in Palestine, and seven years later a new colony passed on by Hebron and founded Zoan in Egypt, so that Hebron outdates Zoan. Egypt's lack of connection with the more eastern civilizations came because Mizraim and those with him may have been driven out by force and in enmity cast off everything of the parent civilization, reversing and perverting all, keeping nothing in common save the same unsubdued carnal human nature, for man changes his customs but not his heart.
God's curse upon Canaan was not arbitrary but the declaration of what would come upon Ham's descendants as the result of the father's weakness of character. Noah's drunkenness was accidental through ignorance, but Ham's sin revealed low character transmitted to his children, making them the weakest branch of the family. From that curse there always has been and is redemption in Christ Jesus.
Genesis 10 contains the account of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, by whom the whole earth was overspread in obedience to God's command to be fruitful and replenish the earth. God overruled even rebellious efforts to make them the origin of all the nations that would people the earth till the end of time. God's one eternal purpose in the existence of all the nations is that out of them a holy and righteous people might be gathered eventually to fill the whole world.
Mankind is divided into Hamitic, Semitic, and Japhetic peoples in the order of their world dominion. Hamitic civilization put forth a mighty endeavor to rule the world through Babylon, which for fifteen centuries or more molded the world by her religion and education and influence, bringing Hamitic and Semitic civilizations, friend and foe, conqueror and conquered, under her spell, but it failed. The children of Shem followed and were dominant for many centuries. Now rule is given to the children of Japheth in the nations of Media and Persia under Cyrus, with Darius the Mede placed on the throne, when Babylon's mighty walls, held only by weak, effeminate, luxury-loving men, could not protect her from the clearer-thinking, hardier, more frugal Medes and Persians.
Resen is named as lying between Nineveh and Calah and is called a great city. It stands in the factual historical record of the origins and descent of the principal nations after the Flood, tracing their lines through generations, their growth in population, the founding of large cities, the confusion of languages, and the scattering of Noah's descendants throughout the earth. Resen was built by Nimrod when he went out from the land of Shinar into Assyria with Nineveh and Rehoboth and Calah, marking the reach of his rule beyond Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, while it was built by Asshur when he went out from the land of Shinar. That building established kingship over kings and empire in the world, rulership of man over man instead of subjection to God only, as the beginning of organized rebellion against God's plan that the whole earth should be peopled. By Ham, Shem, and Japheth the whole earth was overspread in obedience to the command to be fruitful and replenish the earth, that out of all the nations a holy and righteous people might be gathered to fill the world.
Setting and Trustworthiness
Resen lay between Nineveh and Calah, and is called a great city. Together with the surrounding verses it records the early founding of the Assyrian cities and introduces Assyria as a kingdom that later rivaled Babylonia. The passage traces the ancient origin of the Babylonian kingdom, which was known for many centuries as the Assyrian kingdom with Nineveh as its capital. Calah and Resen in the country of Asshur were real and well-known places of ancient times.
The verse belongs to Genesis 8 to 11, which tell of a new beginning after the Flood and Babel. It is part of historical notes outlining the origins and descent of the principal nations of the earth. It belongs to a line traced down through their generations, which necessarily involves length of time because several generations are given. It records the growth of the earth's population after the Flood, the laying of foundations for large cities, the confusion of languages, and the beginnings of distinct nations. It is part of the genealogy of the sons of Noah and shows the scattering of his descendants throughout the earth.
The chapter is a factual historical record and one of the most ancient and reliable historical documents to have come down from the past. It is the most ancient, the most precious, and the most complete document on the distribution of the ancient nations of the world, and a correct understanding of sacred chronology is essential to understanding it and throws light on it. Genesis 11 returns to trace other events from the beginning, including the confusion of tongues a little more than one hundred years after the Flood, there is no disarrangement of chronological order, and the word translated Gentiles simply means nations.
It stands as part of the true history of Genesis, not myth or late tradition. Its accuracy is supported by ancient traditions shared across many peoples and by evidence from monuments, preserving a common early heritage, while the Genesis record is the least exaggerated and closest to their original form. The statements that unto Eber were born two sons, Peleg the ancestor of the Hebrews and Joktan the ancestor of the tribes of South Arabia, are completely paralleled by the discovery that a Hebrew and South Arabian dynasty ruled in Ur of the Chaldees when Abraham was born there and that a Hebrew-speaking population lived in Babylonia at the lifetime assigned to Abraham. This complete agreement proves the account could not have been compiled in Palestine at a late date when all recollection of the facts would have passed away. Genesis 10 records the historic account of early peoples and places, and accepting evolution undermines confidence in the historical character of its first ten chapters.
The account affirms that Babel and other cities existed before Nineveh and that Assyria was colonized from Babylonia. It identifies Cush, a descendant of Ham, as founder of Babylonian civilization, and records the early cities and peoples of Babylonia and Assyria, including Babel and Nineveh. These historical claims were confirmed by archaeological monuments, inscriptions, and Assyrian monuments. The representation of Babylonia's population as descending both from Ham through Nimrod and from Shem through Asshur is explained by two races occupying the country from an early time, a Shemitic people and an older, darker non-Shemitic people identified with the sons of Ham.
The passage names Nineveh in the setting of the Assyrian empire as part of the account of Nimrod's early settlements.
Builders and Rebellion
Resen with Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah was built by Nimrod when he went out of the land of Shinar into Assyria, marking the reach of his rule beyond Shinar. He founded Nineveh by the Tigris and built other towns round about it, joining capital and suburbs into one great city like Greater London and Greater New York, already called a great city at the dawn of history. Those who held the Asshur reading teach that Asshur went out from the land of Shinar and built Nineveh and Rehoboth and Calah with Resen lying between Nineveh and Calah, showing that the building of cities did not stop with Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in Shinar but spread farther in the same spirit.
His ambition of kingly rule was not satisfied with Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh. He established not only kingship or sovereignty over a single city or territory but kingship over kings, sovereignty over separate peoples and territories, kingship expanded into empire, the beginning of kingship and empire in the world. He thus established among men human sovereignty, rulership of man over man and subjection of man to man instead of self-government and subjection of man to God only, and stands among the early imitators of imperial rulers who sought dominion over other peoples.
The passage belongs to the account of Satan setting up his form of organized government in the earth, whose avowed object was to overthrow God's plan that the whole earth should be peopled. Nimrod, a mighty hunter of men, united people under himself to build Babel and its tower as the beginner of organized rebellion against God, and God confounded their language as judgment for their defiance. Yet God overruled that effort to make it the origin of all the nations that would people the earth till the end of time. The verse is proof of continued gathering of sinful men into compact masses to gain ascendancy over others and make a name, against God's design that men should replenish the earth and till the soil, and in spite of God's warning in confounding language and scattering the builders at Babel. Nimrod stands with Cain at the beginning of war, and the bloody advance from the land of Shinar onward shows the same spirit of conquest dispossessing peoples and leaving fire, famine, pestilence, ruined homes, desolation, and death in its wake from the earliest days down to the present.
Peoples and Purpose
Genesis 10:12 stands in the genealogy of Ham's descendants, marking out the black race and the negroes as descended from Ham, who spread abroad toward the south and inhabited Africa. As Noah's offspring multiplied near where the ark rested, colonies pushed outward, with others of Ham's line pressing on into Canaan and Arabia and Egypt, and with Mizraim founding Egypt. The chapter is the account of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, by whom the whole earth was overspread and scattered abroad.
Strong intellectual men, giants, founded cities as nuclei for other companies, until cities and tribes and kingdoms and empires grew up. One company of great men went westward and southward and founded Hebron in Palestine, and seven years later a new colony passed on by Hebron and founded Zoan in Egypt, so that Hebron outdates Zoan. Egypt's lack of connection with the more eastern civilizations came because Mizraim and those with him may have been driven out by force and in enmity cast off everything of the parent civilization, reversing and perverting all, keeping nothing in common save the same unsubdued carnal human nature, for man changes his customs but not his heart.
God's curse upon Canaan was not arbitrary but the declaration of what would come upon Ham's descendants as the result of the father's weakness of character. Noah's drunkenness was accidental through ignorance, but Ham's sin revealed low character transmitted to his children, making them the weakest branch of the family. From that curse there always has been and is redemption in Christ Jesus.
Genesis 10 contains the account of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, by whom the whole earth was overspread in obedience to God's command to be fruitful and replenish the earth. God overruled even rebellious efforts to make them the origin of all the nations that would people the earth till the end of time. God's one eternal purpose in the existence of all the nations is that out of them a holy and righteous people might be gathered eventually to fill the whole world.
Mankind is divided into Hamitic, Semitic, and Japhetic peoples in the order of their world dominion. Hamitic civilization put forth a mighty endeavor to rule the world through Babylon, which for fifteen centuries or more molded the world by her religion and education and influence, bringing Hamitic and Semitic civilizations, friend and foe, conqueror and conquered, under her spell, but it failed. The children of Shem followed and were dominant for many centuries. Now rule is given to the children of Japheth in the nations of Media and Persia under Cyrus, with Darius the Mede placed on the throne, when Babylon's mighty walls, held only by weak, effeminate, luxury-loving men, could not protect her from the clearer-thinking, hardier, more frugal Medes and Persians.