Genesis 10:21-32--The Sons of Shem

Genesis 10:21-32
World English Bible
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21 Children were also born to Shem (the elder brother of Japheth), the father of all the children of Eber. 22 The sons of Shem were: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram were: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 24 Arpachshad became the father of Shelah. Shelah became the father of Eber. 25 To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother’s name was Joktan. 26 Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 30 Their dwelling extended from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. 31 These are the sons of Shem, by their families, according to their languages, lands, and nations.

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their generations, according to their nations. The nations divided from these in the earth after the flood.

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Shem is listed last in the Table of Nations, even though he is not the youngest of the three brothers because this is where the LORD wants us to put our attention next.  Shem's descendants include many of the Near Eastern and Middle Eastern peoples.  The map below shows the distribution pretty well.  Shem's descendants are intermixed with the descendants of Ham, and trying to live among them and "coexist" with them is going to be a problem for them.  Japheth had the right idea to get as far away from Ham's descendants as they could.  Ham went mostly to the south and Japheth went mostly to the north.  That left Shem mostly sandwiched in the middle of the two of them, with Ham trying to circle Shem in on all sides as much as possible (the map does not show how large the plains of Shinar are, but Assyria and Babylon will be huge kingdoms).

It would appear that Shem has the least amount of access to natural resources, they have little opportunity to expand (Japheth can grow to the north, west, and east) and Ham can grow to the south and west.  If anyone were placing bets on this, it would seem like the descendants of Shem would be the ones to die off.  They are living in mountainous and desert regions and the Hamites control access to most of the major rivers in the area as they set up major cites along the Tigris and Euphrates.  Yet, these are the people God is going to choose to use to accomplish His plan--He loves choosing the ones that we would never think had a shot because it is clear He did all the work and should get all the glory.  We'll pick up the story in chapter 11 with the story of the Tower of Babel and how it came about that the nations and peoples became so divided (and it will also explain a bit why there are descendants of Ham in Shinar).  Then, we'll get a proper genealogy from Shem to Abram.  This will be our signal that one part of the story is coming to a close and another is opening.