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).

1258. That 'from these the nations on the earth were spread abroad' means that in these all the forms of that Church's worship took rise, all forms that entailed goods and those that entailed evils, and that these goods or evils are meant by 'the nations', is clear from the meaning of 'nations'. As stated already, nation is used to mean a number of families grouped together, for a number of families that recognized the same father made up one nation in the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches. But with regard to 'nations' in the internal sense meaning forms of the Church's worship, and in particular as to the goods or the evils entering into that worship, the situation is that when angels contemplate families and nations they never envisage a nation, but only the worship existing with it. For they contemplate all from the point of view of essential character, that is, what kind of people they are. The essential character or quality of a person from which heaven contemplates him is charity and faith. This any person may easily grasp if he considers that when he contemplates any individual, or any family, or any nation, he is thinking mainly of their character, each person doing so from that which rules in him at the time. A mental image of their character instantly comes to mind, and it is from this image that he considers them. This applies even more to the Lord, and from Him to the angels, who are incapable of contemplating a person, family, or nation except from the point of view of their character as regards charity and faith. This is why in the internal sense 'nations' means nothing other than the Church's worship, and indeed as regards the essential character of that worship, which is good stemming from charity and the truth of faith from this. When the expression 'nations' occurs in the Word, angels never dwell on the idea of a nation in accordance with the historical sense of the letter, but on the idea of the good and truth present with the nation that is mentioned.