And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan. Peleg, [Septuagint, phaleg] - division.
For in his days the earth was divided. The natural view of these words implies a reference to a formal division of the earth, which, as has been thought, from several passages of Scripture (Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:24-26), as well as from the probability of the thing itself, was made by Noah, acting under divine impulse, into three partitions, one of which was appropriated to each of his three sons. According to the Hebrew chronology, this authoritative distribution took place about a century after the deluge, most probably at the birth of Peleg, and his name was a memorial of that event. Other interpretations have been given of this passage. Some, rendering the words, 'the earth was cut into canals' х palgeey (H6388)] (Psalms 1:3; Psalms 23:2; Proverbs 5:16; Proverbs 21:1), consider that the introduction of canals, by which that part of the world was afterward so much intersected, then first took place.
'The Hebrew verb to cleave, to divide water-courses' (Job 38:25), says Cyril Graham, 'refers rather to a mechanical division of land, such as plowing or cutting, than to a political division. We have no doubt that this notice, short as it is, is a record of the first cutting of some of those canals which are found in such numbers between the Tigris and the Euphrates; and the elder son of Eber, who was probably a man of great consequence in the country, and had large possessions, devised that mode of improving the land, whence he was surnamed a divider, or, strictly, in the modern English term, 'navvie.' We do not know whether this has ever been pointed out before; but we believe that what we are stating is philologically correct' ('Cambridge Essays,' 1858).
Others are of opinion that extensive landslips occurred-the sea bursting through many parts of the solid land and forming straits and gulfs, or separating continents, and that it was to such breaches 'the dividing of the earth' refers.
A third class suppose that the allusion is not to the general dispersion of Noah's descendants, but to a division in Eber's family-the Joktanidoe, leaving the paternal settlement in Mesopotamia, to which the elder branch adhered, migrated into Southern Arabia (old Arabia Felix; the Yemen). This view would necessitate the bestowment of the name Peleg at an advanced period of his life. The common interpretation of the passage is preferable to any of these. The posterity of Peleg are neither forgotten nor overlooked, but reserved to the next chapter.
Joktan, [Septuagint, Iektan] - called by the Arabs Yuktan, or Kahtan, not, as is commonly supposed, by a corruption of the original name, but on account of his sufferings from drought (Poole). He was the father of all the primitive tribes of Arabia.