Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.
Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber. "Father" must be taken here in a general sense for "ancestor;" and "all the children of Eber," viewed literally, would include the descendants of Joktan as well as of Peleg; nay, all the posterity of Peleg, also Ishmael and Esau, as well as the Arabs and Edomites; Jacob and the Israelites. It is better not to consider Eber here as a patronymic, but a preposition, 'beyond,' on 'the other side' - i:e., of the Euphrates. His descendants pushed their wanderings to the banks of the Euphrates, but no further. Shem was the father of all these who were established on the other side of the river. This view sustains the ethnological character of this chart. At the same time it must be admitted that the general opinion has long been to consider that it was the purpose of the sacred historian to indicate a connection between Shem, the common ancestor, and a particular tribe of his descendants through Eber, he being selected for notice as the last of the patriarchs previous to the separation of mankind into nationalities, and one branch of his descendants being of special interest.
The brother of Japheth the elder. The true rendering is, 'the oldest brother of Japheth' (cf. Judges 1:13; Judges 9:5). Von Bohlen (in his 'Illustrations of Genesis,' the English edition, vol. 2:, pp. 245-6), renders the verse thus: 'But sons were also born unto Shem, the elder brother of Japheth, who is the father of all the sons of Eber.' This is a total misrepresentation of the meaning of the passage х 'ªchiy (H251) Yepet (H3315) hagaadowl (H1419)] from the conclusion of the sentence in the Hebrew text; and yet upon this translation Bunsen, with perverted ingenuity, has founded his favourite theory: 'The historical meaning of Kham (Ham) is Egyptian. Khametic is the first indistinct stage of Asiatic Semitism. This fact is symbolically represented by Kham, as Shem's elder brother, Japheth being the youngest of the three. Scripture calls Shem the elder brother of Japheth, but not of Kham' ('Philosophy of Universal History applied to Language and Religion'). The names which follow were originally the names of individuals, but transferred to the tribes or countries of which they became founders.