This chapter contains, the only certain account extant of the original of nations; and yet, perhaps, there is no nation, but that of the Jews, that can be confident from which of these seventy fountains (for many there are here) it derived its streams. Through the want of early records, the mixtures of people, the revolutions of nations, and distance of time, the knowledge of the lineal descent of the present inhabitants of the earth is lost: nor were any genealogies preserved but those of the Jews, for the sake of the Messiah. Only, in this chapter, we have a brief account,

I. Of the posterity of Japheth, ver. 2-5.

II. The posterity of Ham, ver. 6-20. and, in that particular notice taken of Nimrod, ver. 8-9.

III. The posterity of Shem, ver. 23-31.