These chapters - with all the "begats" - don't seem to add a lot to the Bible reading experience. But... guess what! They're actually kind of interesting on the inside. This chapter actually describes the spread, and then the spiritual decline, of the Ancient Church.

In his exegesis, or explanation, of the kinds of religious thinking that the various people represent, Swedenborg provides some insight into human history, and into patterns of thought in our own lives, too.

Here are some excerpts from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia":

AC 1130. The subject treated of throughout this whole chapter is the Ancient Church, and its propagation (verse 1).

AC 1131. They who had external worship corresponding to internal are the "sons of Japheth" (verse 2). They who had worship more remote from internal are the "sons of Gomer and Javan" (verses 3, 4). And they who had worship still more remote are the "isles of the nations" (verse 5).

AC 1132. They who cultivated knowledges, memory-knowledges, and rituals, and separated them from things internal, are the "sons of Ham" (verse 6). They who cultivated the knowledges of spiritual things are the "sons of Cush;" and they who cultivated the knowledges of celestial things are the "sons of Raamah" (verse 7).

AC 1133. Those treated of who have external worship in which are interior evils and falsities, "Nimrod" being such worship (verses 8, 9). The evils in such worship (verse 10). The falsities in such worship (verses 11, 12).

AC 1134. Concerning those who form for themselves new kinds of worship out of memory-knowledges by means of reasonings (verses 13, 14); and concerning those who make mere memory-knowledge of the knowledges of faith (verse 14).

AC 1135. Concerning external worship without internal, which is "Canaan," and the derivations of this worship (verses 15 to 18); and its extension (verses 19, 20).

AC 1136. Concerning internal worship, which is "Shem," and its extension even to the second Ancient Church (verse 21). Concerning internal worship and its derivations, which being from charity, are derivations of wisdom, of intelligence, of memory-knowledge, and of knowledges, which are signified by the "nations" (verses 22 to 24).

AC 1137. Concerning a certain church which arose in Syria, instituted by Eber, which is to be called the second Ancient Church, the internal worship of which is "Peleg," the external "Joktan" (verse 25). Its rituals are the nations named in verses 26 to 29. The extension of this church (verse 30).

AC 1138. That there were different kinds of worship in the Ancient Church, in accordance with the genius of each nation (verses 31, 32).

1130. Genesis 10

1. And these are the generations of the sons of Noah - Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the Flood.

2. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.

3. And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.

4. And the sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.

5. From these the islands of the nations in their lands were spread abroad, every one according to his tongue, according to their families, as to their nations.

6. And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan.

7. And the sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabteka. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

8. And Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be a mighty man in the land.

9. He was mighty in hunting before Jehovah; therefore it used to be said, Like Nimrod, mighty in hunting before Jehovah.

10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11. Out of that land went Asshur, and built Nineveh, and Rehoboth city, and Calah,

12. And Resen between Nineveh and Calah; this is that great city.

13. And Mizraim begot Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

14. And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, from whom Pelishtim came forth, and Caphtorim.

15. And Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth.

16. And the Jebusites, and the Amorites, and the Girgashites.

17. And the Hivites, and the Arkites, and the Sinites.

18. And the Arvadites, and the Zemarites, and the Hamathites; and afterwards the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad.

19. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you come towards Gerar, as far as Gaza, as you come towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

20. These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their tongues, in their lands, in their nations.

21. And to Shem also sons were born. ¹ He was the father of all the sons of Eber; he was Japheth's elder brother.

22. The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram.

23. And the sons of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.

24. And Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber.

25. And to Eber were born two sons, the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

26. And Joktan begot Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

27. And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,

28. And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,

29. And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All of these are the sons of Joktan.

30. And their dwelling was from Mesha, as you come towards Sephar, the mountain of the east.

31. These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their tongues, in their lands, according to their nations.

32. These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations in their nations. And from these the nations on the earth after the Flood were spread abroad.

CONTENTS

The subject in the whole of this chapter is the Ancient Church and the expansion of it, verse 1.

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