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The Children of Noah enter their Districts Canaan seizes Palestine wrongfully; Madai receives Media (x. 28-36)

28. And Ham and his sons went into the land which he was to occupy, which he acquired as his portion in the land of the south. 1 29. And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea, 2 and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea. 3 30. And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim, his brothers, said unto him: "Thou hast settled in a land which. is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. 31. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. 32. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse 4 by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, 5 and in the presence of Noah our father." 33. But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath 6 to the entering of Egypt, 7 he and his sons until this day. 34. And for this reason that land is named Canaan. 35. And Japheth and his sons went towards the sea and dwelt in the land of their portion, and Madai saw the land of the sea and it did not please him, and he begged a (portion) from Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad,

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his wife's brother, and he dwelt in the land of Media, near to his wife's brother until this day. 36. And he called his dwelling-place, and the dwelling-place of his sons, Media, after the name of their father Madai.

Footnotes

83:1 "South" should be "north" here: N. Africa is meant.

83:2 i. e. N.-W. Africa (his true inheritance).

83:3 Canaan wrongfully seized Palestine, which belonged by right to Arpachshad.

83:4 Cf. ix, 14, 15.

83:5 i. e. the angel who was present at the lot (viii. 10).

83:6 Hamath marked the northern boundary of Israel.

83:7 The extreme south.