SECT. IV.

Casluhim, are elsewhere denoted by the name of CHAP. III. Caphtorim, as Deut. ii. 23. Jer. xlvii. 4. and Amos ix. 7. Which perhaps cannot be better accounted for, than by supposing the Casluhim and Caphtorim to be neighbours, and so in time to have been mutually intermixed, as to be looked upon as one and the same people.

25.

whence so

named.

Now the name of Caphtor seems to be preserved in an old city of Egypt, called Coptus; from which Egypt, as the name of Cophtes is still given to the Christians of Egypt, (whence the translation of the Bible used by them is called also the Coptic translation,) so it is not unlikely that the common name of Egypt was derived from it; it being called Egyptus for Egophtus, as if one would say in Greek Ala Kóre, the land of Coptus. And it is a good remark of the learned Mede, that the Greek Ala, Aia, or Ea, is likely derived from the Hebrew

, Ai or Ei: to which may be very pertinently subjoined this remark; that in the fore-cited Jer. xlvii. 4. what we render the country of Caphtor, is in the Hebrew text termed ' Ai Cuptor; · which are the very two words, from which we suppose the Greeks to have moulded the name Aïyvrlos, Egyptus. And this is taken notice of by our Translators, who in the margin of our Bible observe, that the Hebrew word translated the country in the text, denotes also an isle. And it is further observable, that this name is very properly given to the city Coptus, forasmuch as it stood in a small island. So that, upon the whole, we need not doubt thereabout to fix the first settlement of the Caphtorim.

26.

where

seated.

Of the four original nations descended from Ham, there remains now only that of Phut to be The nation of Phut, spoken of. And the first settlement of this is with good reason supposed to be in the parts of the Libyan or African continent, which join on next to those possessed by the descendants of the Mizraim; that is, in the parts adjoining westward to Cyrenaica, and so to have spread more westward into Mauritania. For in Africa properly so called,

PART 1. below Adrumetum was a city, named Putea, men-

tioned by Pliny; and in Mauritania there is a river mentioned by Ptolemy, called Phut. St. Jerom is very full to the point, telling us, that there is a river in Mauritania, which was till his own time called Phut, and from which the adjacent country was called Regio Phytensis, the country of Phut.

And thus we have at length shewed the reader the several places where the more immediate descendants of Noah are either certainly known, or else probably thought to have at first seated themselves. I may end this Chapter much after the same manner as Moses does the tenth chapter of Genesis: These are the plantations of the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and after this manner by these were the nations divided in the earth after the Flood.

1.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Land of Shinar, and the City and Tower of
Babel.

MOSES having informed us, that the first plantaLanguages, tions after the Flood were made, not confusedly or why multi- by chance, but regularly and orderly, namely, after plied, and their families, after their tongues, &c. he then proBabel why so named. ceeds to inform us, (Gen. xi. 1-9.) upon what occasion divine Providence multiplied the languages of mankind, whereas afore the whole earth was of one language. And this was, as the sacred historian tells us, to make those, that had undertaken to build a city and tower, whose top might reach unto heaven, to desist from that enterprize :in order whereunto God confounded their language, that they might not understand one another's speech.

Hereupon they left off to build the city; and there- CHAP. IV. fore the name of it was called Babel, (which word in the Hebrew language denotes confusion,) because the Lord did there confound the language of all the then inhabitants of the earth. We are then to shew, what tract is denoted by the land of Shinar, wherein Moses tells us mankind dwelt, when they undertook the building of Babel; and in what part of the said tract this city and tower was begun.

what.

2.

And as to the land of Shinar, it is not to be doubted, but thereby is meant the valley, along The land of which runs the river Tigris, and that, probably, Shinar, till it falls into the sea. In the northern part of this valley, that is, in the parts of Mesopotamia lying next to the Tigris, we find in old writers, both a city called Singara, and also a mountain called Singaras; from which it is most highly probable, that the adjoining valley took the name of the land of Shinar, or, as it may be otherwise spelled agreeably to the Hebrew word, Singar. It is plain from Scripture, that Babel was the same with the city Babylon; and it is not to be doubted, but that Erech was the same with the city Aracca, mentioned by Ptolemy and other ancient writers. Now Moses expressly says, that Babel and Erech lay in the land of Shinar, Gen. x. 10. It may therefore be very probably inferred, that by the land of Shinar was denoted all the valley, along which the river Tigris runs, from the mountains of Armenia northwards, to the Persian gulf, or at least to the southern division of the common channel of the Tigris and Euphrates. For the city Singara is placed, by the ancients, not far from the mountains of Armenia; and the city Aracca is placed not far from the said division of the common channel of the two rivers afore-mentioned. Hence it evidently follows, that the country of Eden was a part of the land of Shinar; and as the country of Eden was probably situated on each side the afore-mentioned common channel; so it is not unlikely, that the valley of Shinar did extend itself all along on both sides the river Tigris; how