The thirteen tribes of the Joctanites or primitive Arabs are enumerated here in Genesis 10:26-29.

(58) Almodad is usually referred to Yemen. The first syllable may be the Arabic article. Mudad is the name of one celebrated in Arab story as the stepfather of Ishmael and chief of the Jurhum tribe of Joctanites. The Ἀλλουμαιῶται Alloumaiōtai of Ptolemy belonged to the interior of Arabia Felix.

(59) Sheleph is traced in the Σαλαπηνοὶ Salapeenoi of Ptolemy (vi. 7), belonging to the interior.

(60) Hazarmaveth gives name to a district on the Indian Ocean, abounding in spices, now called Hadramaut. This tribe is the Chatramitae of Greek writers.

(61) Jerah occupied a district where are the coast and mountain of the moon, near Hadramaut.

(62) Hadoram is preserved in the tribe called Ἀδραμῖται Adamitai Atramitae, placed by Pliny (vi. 28) between the Homerites and the Sachalites on the south coast of Arabia.

(63) Uzal perhaps gave the ancient name of Azal to Sana, the capital of Yemen, a place still celebrated for the manufacture of beautiful stuffs.

(64) Diclah settled possibly in the palm-bearing region of the Minaei in Hejaz.

(65) Obal is otherwise unknown.

(66) Abimael is equally obscure. Bochart supposes there is a trace of the name in Μάλι Mali, a place in Arabia Aromatifera.

(67) Sheba is the progenitor of the Sabaei in Arabia Felix, celebrated for spices, gold, and precious stones, and noted for the prosperity arising from traffic in these commodities. A queen of Sheba visited Solomon. The dominant family among the Sabaeans was that of Himjar, from whom the Himjarites (Homeritae) of a later period descended.

(68) Ophir gave name to a country celebrated for gold, precious stones, and almug wood, which seems to have lain on the south side of Arabia, where these products may be found. What kind of tree the almug is has not been clearly ascertained. Some suppose it to be the sandal wood which grows in Persia and India; others, a species of pine. If this wood was not native, it may have been imported from more distant countries to Ophir, which was evidently a great emporium. Others, however, have supposed Ophir to be in India, or Eastern Africa. The chief argument for a more distant locality arises from the supposed three years' voyage to it from Ezion-geber, and the products obtained in the country so reached. But the three years' voyage 1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21 seems to be in reality to Tarshish, a very different region.

(69) Havilah here is the founder of a Joctanite tribe of Arabs, and therefore his territory must be sought somewhere in the extensive country which was occupied by these wandering tribes. A trace of the name is probably preserved in Khawlan, a district lying in the northwest of Yemen, between Sana and Mecca, though the tribe may have originally settled or extended further north.

(70) Jobab has been compared with the Ἰωβαρῖται Iōbaritai of Ptolemy (vi. 7). Bochart finds the name in the Arabic: yobab, a desert.

Joktan - He had thirteen sons who had their dwelling from Mesha unto Sephar, a mount of the east, which places Calmet supposes to be mount Masius, on the west in Mesopotamia, and the mountains of the Saphirs on the east in Armenia, or of the Tapyrs farther on in Media. In confirmation that all men have been derived from one family, let it be observed that there are many customs and usages, both sacred and civil, which have prevailed in all parts of the world; and that these could owe their origin to nothing but a general institution, which could never have existed, had not mankind been originally of the same blood, and instructed in the same common notions before they were dispersed. Among these usages may be reckoned,

1. The numbering by tens.

2. Their computing time by a cycle of seven days.

3. Their setting apart the seventh day for religious purposes.

4. Their use of sacrifices, propitiatory and eucharistical.

5. The consecration of temples and altars.

6. The institution of sanctuaries or places of refuge, and their privileges.

7. Their giving a tenth part of the produce of their fields, etc., for the use of the altar.

8. The custom of worshipping the Deity bare-footed.

9. Abstinence of the men from all sensual gratifications previously to their offering sacrifice.

10. The order of priesthood and its support.

11. The notion of legal pollutions, defilements, etc.

12. The universal tradition of a general deluge.

13. The universal opinion that the rainbow was a Divine sign, or portent, etc., etc.

continued...

And Joktan begat Almodad,.... And twelve more mentioned later: the Arabic writers (o) say be had thirty one sons by one woman, but all, excepting two, left Arabia, and settled in India; the Targum of Jonathan adds,"who measured the earth with ropes,''as if he was the first inventor and practiser of geometry: from him are thought to spring the Allumaeotae, a people whom Ptolemy (p) places in Arabia Felix, called so by the Greeks, instead of Almodaei: Mr. Broughton (q) sets Eldimaei over against this man's name, as if they were a people that sprung from him; whereas this word is wrongly put in Ptolemy (r) for Elymaeans, as it is in the Greek text, a people joining to the Persians:

and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah: to the first of these, Sheleph, the Targum of Jonathan adds,"who drew out the water of the rivers;''his people are supposed by Bochart (s), to be the Alapeni of Ptolemy (t), which should be read Salapeni, who were, he says, more remote from the rest, almost as far as the neck of Arabia, and not far from the spring of the river Betius. The next son, Hazarmaveth, or Hasermoth, as in the Vulgate Latin, is thought to give name to a people in Arabia, called by Pliny (u) Chatramotitae, and by Ptolemy Cathramonitae, whose country, Strabo says (w), produces myrrh; according to Ptolemy (x) they reached from the mountain Climax to the Sabaeans, among whom were a people, called, by Pliny (y), Atramitae, who inhabited a place of the same name, and which Theophrastus calls Adramyta, which comes nearer the name of this man, and signifies the court or country of death: and in those parts might be places so called, partly from the unwholesomeness of the air, being thick and foggy, and partly from the frankincense which grew there, which was fatal to those that gathered it, and therefore only the king's slaves, and such as were condemned to die, were employed in it, as Bochart (z) has observed from Arrianus; as also because of the multitude of serpents, with which those odoriferous countries abounded, as the same writer relates from Agatharcides and Pliny. The next son of Joktan is Jerah, which signifies the moon, as Hilal does in Arabic; and Alilat with the Arabians, according to Herodotus (a), is "Urania", or the moon; hence Bochart (b) thinks, that the Jeracheans, the posterity of Jerah, are the Alilaeans of Diodorus Siculus (c), and others, a people of the Arabs; and the Arabic geographer, as he observes, makes mention of a people near Mecca called Bene Hilal, or the children of Jerah; and he is of opinion that the island Hieracon, which the Greeks call the island of the Hawks placed by Ptolemy (d), in Arabia Felix, adjoining to the country which lies upon the Arabian Gulf, is no other than the island of the Jeracheans, the posterity of this man: the Arabs (e) speak of a son of Joktan or Cahtan, they call Jareb, who succeeded his father, which perhaps may be a corruption of Jerah; and another, called by them Jorham.

(o) Apud Pocock. Specimen. Arab. Hist., p. 40. (p) Geograph. l. 6. c. 7. (q) See his Works, p. 3. 59. (r) Ut supra, (Geograph. l. 6.) c. 5. (s) Phaleg. l. 2. c. 16. Colossians 99. (t) Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 5.) (u) Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. (w) Geograph. l. 16. p. 528. (x) Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 5.) (y) Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 14. (z) Phaleg. l. 2. c. 17. Colossians 102. (a) Thalia sive, l. 3. c. 8. (b) Ut supra, (Phaleg. l. 2.) c. 19. (c) Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 179. (d) Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 6. c. 5.) (e) Apud Pocock. Specimem. Arab. Hist. p. 40.

And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

10:15-32 The posterity of Canaan were numerous, rich, and pleasantly seated; yet Canaan was under a Divine curse, and not a curse causeless. Those that are under the curse of God, may, perhaps, thrive and prosper in this world; for we cannot know love or hatred, the blessing or the curse, by what is before us, but by what is within us. The curse of God always works really, and always terribly. Perhaps it is a secret curse, a curse to the soul, and does not work so that others can see it; or a slow curse, and does not work soon; but sinners are reserved by it for a day of wrath Canaan here has a better land than either Shem or Japheth, and yet they have a better lot, for they inherit the blessing. Abram and his seed, God's covenant people, descended from Eber, and from him were called Hebrews. How much better it is to be like Eber, the father of a family of saints and honest men, than the father of a family of hunters after power, worldly wealth, or vanities. Goodness is true greatness.