Shem (n?) signifies name, good name, fame ;' Ham (:11:1), 'hot, warm ;' Japheth spread,' from MB. The names are probably prophetical of the future renown of the Shemites, of the hot land of the Hamites, and the great spread of the Japhethites. The prophecy of Noah (Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27) indicates the appropriateness of Japheth's name to his future ; and a prophetical sense of the names of his brethren may therefore be conjeetured. But there is no distinct allusion to any such sense in their cases. It might be thought that the propriateness of Shem's name as illustrious, could be traced in the prediction that his should be the believing stock, but there is no indication whatever of any moral significance in the name of Ham. We can now examine the names individually.
I. Shem.—There is no trace of any single nation or country named after Shem, probably because the Shemites, by an instinct afterwards remarkable in their descendants, early separated into distinct tribes, though not migrating very far. This was the case with the Israelites ; and with the Arabs the same process is still in constant operation.
2. Ham.—The name of Ham has been con nected with an appellation of Egypt in Hebrew, only occurring in three passages in the poetical books—' the land of Ham' (Ps. lxxviii. 51 ; cv. 23 ; cvi. 22), and with the most usual ancient Egyptian name of the country, KEM, the black (land).' The former term we cannot doubt to contain the patriarch's name. Is the latter iden tical with it ? The significations of Ham and KEPI are sufficiently near. Ham may be reasonably derived from iznm, 'he or it was warm,' and com pared with ]nil, he or it was black,' and the Arabic of the same signification as the last, and black fetid mud' (Kdmoos), or black mud' (Si/id/1) MS.) KEM cannot be taken for an Egyptian transcription of Ham, but it could be a word of cognate origin (cf. KAR, 'a circle,' he or it turned, turned round ;' KARR, a fur nace,' inn, it burned ;' KNA, to bend,' ma, 'he or it bowed down, inclined'). There can therefore be no reasonable doubt that the Egyptian name of the country is identical with the Hebrew name of the patriarch. Are they of separate origin ? We must either suppose this, or that the land of Ham' became changed to Ham-land,' or black land.' The genius of the Egyptian language would account for such a change, which seems not impro bable. That Ham should have given his name to a country might be accounted for by the supposi tion that, except the Canaanites, the Hamites penetrated into Africa, and at first established themselves in Egypt.
3. Abketh.—It• is impossible not to see the name of Japheth in the Greek Japetus the Titan, son of Uranus and Ge, and the supposed ancestor of the human race ; for, as we shall see, the Greeks, or at least those of the Hellenic stock, are classed among the Japhethites in the list of Genesis. We can now examine the names of the descendants of Noah's sons.
1. Gomer.—This name occurs in but one later place in connection with geography, as that of a nation or tribe allied with Magog, and is there mentioned immediately before Togarmah, distin guished as northern (Ezek. xxxviii. 6). It has been therefore supposed to point to a remote north ern nation, Scythic, or perhaps European. Two great Gentile names have been compared, the Cim merians of the Tauric Chersonese, who invaded the west of Asia Minor early in the 7th century B.C., and the Cimbri and Cymry, whose ethnic and nominal identity cannot be doubted. Considering the migratory character of the Cimmerians and Cimbri, it is reasonable to suppose that they had the same origin. In the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius Hystaspis, Girniri occurs as the Semitic equivalent of the Arian name Saka (letriat). (Sir H. Rawlinson in Rawlinson's Hdt., vol. iii. p. 183, note r.) a. Ashkenaz.—In a single later mention Ash kenaz occurs, in a confederacy against Babylon, with Ararat, Minn:, and Madai (ter. li. 27, 28). It was therefore a nation in the direction of Armenia.
b. Riphath, written in 1 Chron. i. 6, Diphath, does not occur elsewhere in Scripture. It has been compared with the Rhipwan Mountains of Greek geography ; but the statement of Josephus, com menting on this list, that the Paphlagonians were anciently called Rhiphathxans, is more worthy of notice (Antiq. i. 6. 1).
c. Togarmah is mentioned in Ezekiel among the traders with Tyre, after Tarshish, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, all Japhethites, and before Dedan, here probably the country of which the inhabitants, called Dodanim, are classed among the sons of the Japhethite Javan (Ezek. xxvii. 12-15) ; and, in a later place, the house of Togarmah, of the north quarters,' follows Gomer in the list of the army of Gog, prince of Magog (xxxviii. 6). These parti culars point to a northern people not remote from Greece. Togarmah traded with Tyre with horses and horsemen, and mules' (xxvii. 14), whence we may suppose these traffickers came by land. All the indications agree very well with the opinion that Togarmah may be connected with the Ar menians.