Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 1.

I have previously written about how hard it is for me to find something to write about passages which, like today’s, primarily consist of a list of genealogies.  Today is no exception.  However, I found something interesting in these genealogies.  In verse nine it says that Raamah, the grandson of Ham, great grandson of Noah, had two sons, named Sheba and Dedan.  Later, in verse thirty-two, it says that Jokshan, Abraham’s son by Keturah, had two sons, also named Sheba and Dedan.  What makes this interesting is that these genealogies were designed to tell the Israelites how the various nations were related to them.  So, what does the fact that this passage indicates that both Ham and Abraham had grandsons named Sheba and Dedan mean?  I can imagine a couple of reasons for these two listings for sons by those names.  First, both Raamah and Jokshan gave their sons those names and it is mere coincidence that those names coincide with the names of places.  Second, the descendants of Jokshan settled among the descendants of Raamah and intermarried with them.  I think this latter explanation is most likely.  What I do not know, and don’t really think important, is whether either Raamah or Jokshan (or both) actually named their sons Sheba and Dedan, or if the writer of this passage merely meant to record that the peoples of those lands were descended from Raamah and Jokshan.  Overall, we learn from this passage that the people of every nation are related to us, some more closely, others more distantly, but they are part of our family.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.