The Mercurial Man

Haran had a specific son named in the Bible, called Lot. Though he was Abraham’s nephew, Lot was born only seven years after Abraham in 1970 BCE – when Haran was thirty-nine. They had a close relationship and instead of being as an uncle and nephew that they were, acted more like brothers, due to the closeness of their ages. With the premature death of Haran, Abraham was also protective of his nephew in more than one instance. The fact that Abraham did not have his own son for many years, meant Lot was logically in line to be Abraham’s heir. This is telling and may have significant bearing in how circumstances eventuated between the descendants of Lot and those from Abraham. 

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The name Lot mean[s] Covering From the verb (lut), to wrap closely, to envelop

Noun (lat) or (la’t) means secrecy. The verb (malat) means to deliver from confinement or dangerous predicament. For a meaning of the name Lot, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Covering. Jones adds Veil.’

In Genesis chapter eleven we read of Terah’s departure from Ur to Haran, with Abraham and Lot’s families in 1927 BCE. Twenty-five years later when Abraham was seventy-five, the Creator told him to leave Haran to dwell in Canaan further south.

Genesis 12:4-9

English Standard Version

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem [future location of Simeon and Levi’s revenge for their sister Dinah], to the oak of Moreh. At that timethe Canaanites [dark skinned sons of Canaan] were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Genesis 13:1-18

English Standard Version

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, andbetween your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord[Eden], like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 

Recall in Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega, the location of physical Eden was investigated. We learned that the garden area of Eden encompassed the area of southern Lebanon and the Sea of Galilee, stretching southwards to Jerusalem. We will discover soon that Zoar was situated north of the Dead or Salt Sea and so the fertile Jordan River valley was a corridor running from Galilee through the Dead Sea – which wasn’t ‘dead’ yet – and all the way south to where the river exits into the Red Sea. Lot saw that this land between Galilee and Zoar was ‘like the garden of the Lord’ or Eden and understandably chose it for his family. Thus he lived to the east of Abraham who dwelt westwards towards the Mediterranean Sea in the land of Canaan. It also explains how Lot ended up living in Sodom – where he was prominent in the City’s governance – as it was one of the five main cities with Zoar, in the plains north of the Salt Sea.

13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord [like Nimrod]. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever [for a long time]. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Lot chose the fertile lower ground, the plains in the valley bordered between the hills towards the west and the River Jordan to the east. We read a parallel account in the Book of Jasher 15:35-47:

35 And Lot the son of Haran, Abram’s brother, had a heavy stock of cattle, flocks and herds and tents, for the Lord was bountiful to them on account of Abram

36 And when Abram was dwelling in the land the herdsmen of Lot quarrelled with the herdsmen of Abram, for their property was too great for them to remain together in the land, and the land could not bear them on account of their cattle. 37 And when Abram’s herdsmen went to feed their flock they would not go into the fields of the people of the land, but the cattle of Lot’s herdsmen did otherwise, for they were suffered to feed in the fields of the people of the land. 38 And the people of the land saw this occurrence daily, and they came to Abram and quarrelled with him on account of Lot’s herdsmen39 And Abram said to Lot, What is this thou art doing to me, to make me despicable to the inhabitants of the land, that thou orderest thy herdsman to feed thy cattle in the fields of other people? Dost thou not know that I am a stranger in this land amongst the children of Canaan, andwhy wilt thou do this unto me? 40 And Abram quarrelled daily with Lot on account of this, but Lot would not listen to Abram, and he continued to do the same and the inhabitants of the land came and told Abram. 

This display of mercurial stubbornness is indicative of Lot’s descendants.

41 And Abram said unto Lot, How long wilt thou be to me for a stumbling block with the inhabitants of the land? Now I beseech thee let there be no more quarrelling between us, for we are kinsmen. 42 But I pray thee separate from me, go and choose a place where thou mayest dwell with thy cattle and all belonging to thee, but Keep thyself at a distance from me, thou and thy household. 43 And be not afraid in going from me, for if any one do an injury to thee, let me know and I will avenge thy cause from him,only remove from me. 44 And when Abram had spoken all these words to Lot, then Lot arose and lifted up his eyes toward the plain of Jordan. 45 And he saw that the whole of this place was well watered, and good for man as well as affording pasture for the cattle. 46 And Lot went from Abram to that place, and he there pitched his tent and he dwelt in Sodom, and they were separated from each other. 47 And Abram dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and he pitched his tent there, and Abram remained in that place many years.

The selfishness of Lot in using other peoples property and not caring how that made Abraham look was the beginning of a rift circa 1902 to 1900 BCE between both families, which ultimately led to mistrust, hatred and a perpetual rivalry, based on jealousy between their peoples lasting to the present day. The seeds of the fissure between them, even after Lot had been continually at Abraham’s side were undoubtedly the same that causes nearly all parting of the ways between people – the same reason Asherah left the Ancient of Day’s side – pride or envy, turning to disdain. In the section on Chedorlaomer of Elam [Chapter XIX Chedorlaomer & the war of Nine Kings], we touched on Lot being taken hostage in 1894 BCE after the Battle of the Kings at Siddim. We will return to this battle again when we study Abraham.

Genesis 14:11-16

English Standard Version

11 So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way. 13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus [capital of Gether-Aram]. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.

Jasher 16:6-8

6 And they plundered all the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, and his property, and they seized all the goods of the cities of Sodom, and they went away; and Unic, Abram’s servant, who was in the battle, saw this, and told Abram all that the kings had done to the cities of Sodom, and that Lot was taken captive by them. 7 And Abram heard this, and he rose up with about three hundred and eighteen men that were with him, and he that night pursued these kings and smote them, and they all fell before Abram and his men, and there was none remaining but the four kings who fled, and they went each his own road. 8 And Abram recovered all the property of Sodom, and he also recovered Lot and his property, his wives and little ones and all belonging to him, so that Lot lacked nothing.

Abraham risked his life to rescue Lot – who had somewhat deserved what had befallen him, after treating Abraham with disrespect – ensuring he had all his family and belongings returned to him safely. Proverbs 25:21-22 CJB: “If someone who hates you is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap fiery coals (of shame) on his head, and Adonai [the Lord] will reward you.” Abraham was offered a reward by the King of Sodom, but refused to take anything for what he had done. We next read of Lot in Genesis chapter Nineteen.

Genesis 19:1-38

English Standard Version

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’shouse and spend the night and wash* your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 

3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened* bread [March-April and the time of the Passover and Feast* of unleavened Bread], and they ate.

Hebrews 13:2

Complete Jewish Bible

… but don’t forget to be friendly to outsiders; for in so doing, some people, without knowing it, have entertained angels.

Lot had gained a position of responsibility in Sodom when he had moved to the city circa 1900 BCE. Lot was rescued by Abraham in 1894 BCE in the aftermath of the Battle of Siddim. The destruction of Sodom took place in Abraham’s 99th year, 1878 BCE. For approximately twenty years, Lot and his family had resided in Sodom. Sitting in the gate, means Lot was a member of Sodom’s ruling council and involved in the discussion and prosecution of legal matters. Lot may have been an actual Judge.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know [H3045 – yada: ‘to know a person carnally] them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. 

Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they [the angels created a blinding light] struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Judging by the name of the city of Sodom and the fact the crowd of men were wanting the two men who were angels; homo-sexuality is clearly what was intended. In a broader sense, the city was involved in adult activity with Nephilim and Eliouds, who lived there; for as stated earlier in the Book of Genesis, a second irruption of Angelic infiltration with humans had occurred. Hence the requirement for the judgement of utter destruction to be decreed. It may have involved more than sexual relations. A continuation of the ante-diluvian and post-flood Tower of Babel scientific and technological endeavour to completely tamper with mankind’s genetic code and seek profane immortality, would certainly attract punishment. For it has been reserved for the time of the end for these events to reoccur; thus requiring the Creator to re-intervene at that time. Jude connects the activities before the flood with those taking place in the five cities of the Plain. 

The Greek word heteros translated as ‘strange’ flesh, is referring to sexual congress with Nephilim or perverted sex with angels not strictly just homo-sexuality.

Jude 6-7 ESV: 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling… 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural [G2087 – heteros: another, ‘one not of the same nature, form, kind’] desire [G4561 – sarx: ‘carnal cravings that incite sin’], serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Lot offered his two youngest daughters who were around 15 to 20 years old, to the mob, rather than the angels. What the rationale behind this is conjecture. Maybe Lot was buying time, for he knew the angels could and would resolve the issue without his daughters having to go out – a bluff. Or possibly, he weighed their lives versus those of the messengers sent by the Creator and made a judgement call.

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone [friends] you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 

14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. 15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 

Verse 14 is misleading, as it appears the two younger daughters were bequeathed but not yet married. The interlinear reads: And Lot went out, spake unto his sons law, which married his daughters. From the account, we learn that Lot has at least two other daughters, aside from the two virgins already mentioned. The Book of Jasher introduces a fifth daughter.

Book of Jasher 19:11, 23-35 

And in the course of time Sarah sent Eliezer to Sodom, to see Lot and inquire after his welfare. 23 … and when it was told to Abraham he went and made war with the kings of Elam, and he recovered from their hands all the property of Lot as well as the property of Sodom. 24 At that time the wife of Lot bare hima daughter[1894 BCE],and he called her name Paltith, saying, Because God had delivered him and his whole household from the kings of Elam; and Paltith daughter of Lot grew up, and one of the men of Sodom took her for a wife [circa 1882-1879 BCE]

25 And a poor man came into the city to seek a maintenance, and he remained in the city some days, and all the people of Sodom caused a proclamation of their custom** not to give this man a morsel of bread to eat, until he dropped dead upon the earth, and they did so. 26 And Paltith the daughter of Lot saw this man lying in the streets starved with hunger, and no one would give him any thing to keep him alive, and he was just upon the point of death. 27 And her soul was filled with pity on account of the man, and she fed him secretly with bread for many days… and three men concealed themselves in a place where the poor man was stationed, to know who it was that brought him bread to eat… 32 And the three men saw what Paltith did to the poor man… 34 And they took Paltith and brought her before their judges… now therefore declare to us the punishment due to this woman for having transgressed our law. 35 And the people of Sodom and Gomorrah assembled and kindled a fire in the street of the city, and they took the woman and cast her into the fire and she was burned to ashes.

Paltith would have been about fifteen or sixteen, when she was put to death, which was not long before Sodom was destroyed. Anciently, daughters were given in marriage as soon as they were deemed women and able to serve a husband and bear his children.

16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 

Lot’s angelic visitors and protectors had already taken an aerial reconnoissance. According to the Haggadah, they were then able to fly him and his family inside their craft out of Sodom’s boundaries. It was then that they instructed Lot to flee to further safety. 

17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there – is it not a little one? – and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

Contrary Lot, might be a fitting name and at a moment when time was of the essence. We will find that his descendants are in fact a contrary and mercurial people. Granted, Lot was ninety-two years old – just ten years older than when his father, Haran died. It is ironic, for Lot did not linger in Zoar, but rather fled from Zoar and retreated to a cave. 

Lot’s entreating was in fact a far bigger favour granted by the angels than sparing his life even. When asking to be able to go to Zoar, he was actually asking for one of the five cities marked for destruction to be spared. 

The five cities in question were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zebo[im] and Bela – also known as Zoar. According to Lot, it would seem it was the smallest of the five cites on the plain. 

In contrast to what is commonly taught, the condemnation of Sodom and the other cities was not just because of sexual transgressions. Another reason is given in Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV: “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid** the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.”

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Book of Jasher 19:52-54 

And he overthrew these cities, all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground; and Ado the wife of Lot looked back to see the destruction of the cities, for her compassion was moved on account of her daughters who remained in Sodom, for they did not go with her. 53 And when she looked back she became a pillar of salt, and it is yet in that place unto this day. 54 And the oxen which stood in that place daily licked up the salt to the extremities of their feet, and in the morning it would spring forth afresh, and they again licked it up unto this day.

The Book of Jasher gives Lot’s wife’s name as Ado. Certain Rabbis refer to her as Idit. The Midrash calls her Edith, which may have derived from Idit. The Book of Jasher supports other married daughters still in Sodom, when Lot, his wife and two unmarried daughters fled for their lives. It helps to explain, why Idit disobeyed the Angel’s instruction. It may have been more than the intensity of the detonation and Idit doing more than just looking back. She must have lingered too close to the blast zone. The interlinear infers this: But his wife looked back from behind him, she became pillar salt.

Luke 17:28-32 

English Standard Version

28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot – they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all – 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward [the east] all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley,God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. 

Wisdom of Solomon 10.7 GNT: 

You can still see the evidence of their wickedness. The land there is barren and smoking. The plants bear fruit that never ripens, and a pillar of salt stands as a monument to one who did not believe.

Evidence found supporting the Biblical description of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction? Dean Smith, 2018 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘In an article published in Science News, archaeologists working at Tall el-Hammam located in Jordan… have found evidence corroborating its massive destruction recorded in the Bible that spoke of brimstone and fire falling from the sky… Archaeologists have found evidence of the area being hit with a massive explosion that turned glaze on potsherds into glass. They also found stone fragments stuck in the glaze that supports the idea that something poured down upon cities from the sky. According to lead archaeologist Philip J. Silvia, the heat was “perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun.” They also discovered that the bricks used in the buildings were totally obliterated leaving only the stone foundations.

The Bible records that not only were the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [destroyed] but much of the valley as well and Silva confirmed this adding they found evidence the blast covered an area of 15.5 miles and killing upwards of 65,000 people. The site on the north end of the Dead Sea was so devastated that it took 600 years for the soil to recover sufficiently to allow crops… 

Writing on behalf of the Tall el-Hamman Excavation Project, co-director Dr. Steven Collins said: “The violent conflagration that ended occupation at Tall el-Hammam produced melted potters, scorched foundation stones and several feet of ash and destruction debris churned into a dark gray matrix ‘as if in a Cuisinart’” [food processor].’

Archaeological evidence confirms that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by intense fire, Dean Smith, 2020- emphasis & bold mine:

‘According to archaeologists working on the site believed to include the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, they found evidence confirming the Biblical record that the two cities were destroyed by sulphur and fire… The archaeologists, who have been working on the site for 13 years, reported discovering evidence of intense heat. This included clay and rock that had been turned into glass. 

This would require a brief burst of heat of between 8,000 to 12,000 degree Celsius. The archaeologists also noted that the destruction took place “in an instant,” and resulted in the stripping of the topsoil. The archaeologists added that “a super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts pushed over the landscaped by the Event’s frontal shock wave.”

It is interesting that even the Biblical account noted the appearance of salt as it described Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt and as well, noted the destruction of vegetation. They wrote, “the physical evidence from Tall el-Hamman and neighboring sites exhibit signs of a highly destructive concussive and thermal event that one might expect from what is described in Genesis 19.”’

Secular history is silent concerning Lot, ‘save for the fact that the Dead Sea has always been called by the Arabs, the Sea of Lot.’ The Battle of Siddim, including the Plain with the five cities – four of them destroyed – is located in the area of the Dead Sea or Sea of Death. The Dead Sea and its composition is an anomaly that can be explained only by the Biblical destruction of the region as recorded in Genesis chapter nineteen. Archaeological digs have confirmed the northern end – southeast of Jericho – of the Dead Sea rather than the traditional southern end, as the original site of the Valley of Siddim. 

Flying Serpents and Dragons, R A Boulay, 1990, Pages 195, 197-198, 206-207 – emphasis & bold mine:

There is no scriptural or other evidence to support… Sodom and Gormorrah [being]… located… in the shallow or southern part of the Dead Sea, the body of water the Jews call… the Salt Sea…To the contrary, all indications are that the [five] cities were located in the northern part of the Dead Sea… [nor] the age of the Dead Sea [being] hundreds of thousands of years old… this sea dates… [according to Velikovsky to] less than 5000 years [ago]… [or] no further back than the days of Abraham [1878 BCE]. In the Biblical story… it specifically states that the area now occupied by the Dead Sea used to be called the Valley or vale of Siddim [Genesis 14:3]… 

Some catastrophic event must have caused the [rupture of the] geological fault (which runs through and underlies the area) to displace, the ground sinking in the process, and forming a seal to allow the accumulation of water [creating a large inland sea] from the inflow of the Jordan River. Josephus adds… that the Lord “cast a thunderbolt upon the city and set it on fire with its inhabitants.” In the Haggadah, this thunderbolt comes from the Shekinah, the aerial chariot of the Lord: “When the angels had brought forth Lot and his family and set them outside the city, he bade them run for their lives, and not look behind, lest they behold the Shekinah, which had descended to work the destruction of the cities…”’

The Dead Sea contains twenty-one minerals including Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Bromine, Bitumen and Potassium. Twelve of these are found in no other sea or ocean. The Dead Sea contains ten times more salts and minerals than the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea has a 33% concentration of salt compared to only 3% in the world’s oceans. There are other bodies of water in the world with similar salt content ratios – one wonders if they are victims of a similar fate as the Dead Sea?

30Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring [seed] from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did [not?] know when she lay down or when she arose.

The incident with an intoxicated Noah and his grandson Canaan did not end well [Chapter XI Ham Aequator]. This is another situation of being taken advantage of while inebriated, perhaps. The cave location was very remote and the eldest daughter – the only sister recorded speaking – was concerned that their father Lot is old and may die and that any chance of a man visiting wasn’t presenting itself anytime soon. Their sisters and brothers-in-law in Sodom were dead and would not be leaving children. This is more likely, than thinking the world had ended and there were no men left to continue humankind. The three of them had left Zoar and knew there were other survivors. Either way, the daughters do not take their father into their confidence. 

The Biblical account presents the daughters as the ‘initiators and perpetrators of the incestuous rape’ of Lot over two nights, according to Esther Fuchs. The verb used by the older daughter about eighteen to twenty years old for giving Lot wine also means to irrigate the ground. Thus, the daughters intentions are not to just give their father a glass or two, but to fully saturate him and get Lot very drunk; before having sexual intercourse with him. The next night, the younger sister about fifteen to seventeen years old, repeats the course of action. The fact that the sisters get their father very drunk, may mean their actions were more altruistic than driven by desire.

The word used for offspring is zera, meaning seed or offspring in a general sense,  rather than for a specific ‘son.’ The intent is ultimately related to the eventual Messiah and fulfilment of Genesis 3:15. From a historical perspective, these acts were essential for the future birth of the Son of Man. The Creator would judge the daughters by their thoughts and not necessarily their deeds; as this is a recurrent theme in the Bible for those the Creator is working with. The daughters true intent was not to lay with their father for sexual gratification, but rather to ensure their family line continued. 

Support that Lot’s daughters were vindicated rather than Lot himself is the fact that the prohibition in Deuteronomy 23:2-4, 6 ESV, applies to males not females: “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. 

Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you – the sons of Jacob – with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.”

The angels who rescued Lot would have been cognisant of the fact that Ruth the Moabite would trace her lineage to the eldest sister, and her marriage to Boaz from  the tribe of Judah would result in descendants, including King David and the Messianic Saviour. They would also have known that Naamah the Ammonite, would trace her lineage to the youngest sister and her marriage to King Solomon – the only wife of Solomon stated by name in the Bible – would result in the birth of Rehoboam, King of Judah after Solomon. 

The goodness of Lot’s daughters intentions displayed, in that they lay with their father only once and like Ruth – acted for an ideal – when she lay at the foot of Boaz’s bed in the threshing floor. 

34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did [not?] know when she lay down or when she arose. 

Scholars, such as Robert Alter have said that Lot’s daughters in sleeping with their father “suggests measure-for-measure justice meted out for his rash offer” to the mob outside their home. ‘Rabbis have observed that a man usually allows himself to be killed in order to save his wife and children… Lot was willing to allow the townspeople to abuse his daughters.’ In Sodom, Lot was ready to offer his daughters – possibly against their will – to engage in sexual relations with the people outside. Later, Lot’s daughters have relations with their unwitting father. These acts of incest are Lot’s punishment for his indecorous behaviour, according to some scholars. 

There are two Rabbinic views issued against the patriarch Lot. Firstly, that Lot ‘from the outset, decided to dwell in Sodom because he wanted to engage in the licentious [behaviour] of its inhabitants.’ Lot thought he could engage secretly in depravity. He is then later, humiliated through his daughters seducing him. R Nahman bar Hanan said to the effect: “Whoever is driven by his lust for fornication, will eventually be fed from his own flesh.” Lot was so eager to engage in promiscuity, that in the end, his daughters played the harlot with him.

Secondly, Lot insidiously desired his daughters; for he was inebriated when the elder sister lay with him, though he was sober enough to know when she rose. 

This is indicated in the Old Testament ‘by the supralinear dot over the word u-ve-komah (“when she rose”).’ Though Lot was not aware of what was going to happen when he drunk the wine, he was aware of having sex with his eldest daughter by the time she left his bed. Therefore, his willingness to drink wine the next night – means to some – that he was complicit in repeating incest with his younger daughter. On the basis of what is said in Proverbs 18:1 CJB: “He who separates himself indulges his desires and shows contempt for sound advice of any kind”, some Rabbis conclude that Lot did lust after his daughters. Particularly, as Lot sought out a remote cave which allowed the facilitation of the incestuous events to occur. 

Even so, other Rabbis have reinterpreted the incest accounts of Lot and his daughters in the Bible in a more positive light due to the royal and messianic lineages it produced. Ironically, the other half of David’s lineage is similarly problematic for the Rabbis; as Tamar secures a son, by surreptitiously seducing her father-in-law Judah. The son Perez, in turn becomes an ancestor to Boaz and thus also, to King David.

36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38The younger also bore a son and called his nameBen-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Book of Jasher 19:55-60 

And Lot and two of his daughters that remained with him fled andescaped to the cave of Adullam, and they remained there for some time… 58 And they both lay with their father, and they conceived and bare sons… 60 And after this Lot and his two daughters went away from there, and he dwelt on the other side of the Jordan with his two daughters and their sons, and the sons of Lot grew up, and they went and took themselves wives from the land of Canaan, and they begat children and they were fruitful and multiplied.

The eldest daughter names her son Moab, which means ‘from my father.’ She has been  rather brazen and immodest in openly naming her son being born of her father. This leaves no doubt as to the union having been an incestuous one. The younger daughter names her son Ben-Ammi, which means ‘son of my clan,’ a more veiled euphemistic reference to her son’s origin. While the names of the sons are descriptive of their conception, they serve a negative etiological function for Israel’s neighbours – and frequent enemies – as the Moabites and the Ammonites. The definitions, puzzlingly humiliate Lot – as if revengeful retribution was a motive – while at the same time demeaning also his daughters who named the babies.

Chapter XI, The Moabites and the Ammonites, Emanuel Swedenborg – emphasis & bold mine:

‘It is a remarkable fact that the children of Lot should have commemorated their infamous origin in their very names. Moab means literally “water of a father,”while Ammon or Ben-ammi means”son of my mother.” These names, so horribly suggestive, were proudly retained by two whole nations throughout their history. The Old Testament is silent as to the personal story of the two sons of Lot, but they evidently repeated the story of the founders of the other Hebrew nations, becoming chieftains… and founding royal dynasties.… The descendants of Moab within a few generations took possession of the country formerly inhabited by the Emim, (“terrible ones”), a branch of the aboriginal Nephilim, even as their cousins, the descendants of Ammon, took possession of the country formerly occupied by the Zuzim and ZamzummimThe [partial] slaughter of these ancient giant races by Chedorlaomer and his allies no doubt cleared the way for the children of Lot. The Moabites found homes in the rich and well protected plateau to the east of the Dead Sea, extending from the land of Edom in the south to the land of Gilead in the north, while the Ammonites established themselves in the land of Gilead… and they dwelt here until they were driven into the eastern desert by the tribes of Gad and Reuben… their descendants recovered the land of Gilead after the Assyrians had carried away the tribe of Gad.’

2 Peter 2:6-8 ESV: … if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)

Lot is not included in Hebrews chapter eleven as one of the faithful, with Abraham and Sarah. He is called a righteous soul in the Greek Interlinear. By extension, he is included with righteous Noah, Daniel and Job mentioned in Ezekiel 14:14. Lot also has in common with Job the dramatic and sudden loss of family. Lot lost his wife, and at least two daughters and two sons-in-law. Job 1:1-2, 18-19 ESV: ‘There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters… “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you [refer Chapter XXIX Esau: The Thirteenth Tribe].”’ 

Except from Chapter XXVI The French & Swiss: Moab, Ammon & Haran

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The French & Swiss: Moab, Ammon & Haran

Chapter XXVI

The elder brother of Nahor is Haran. Haran died prematurely at eighty-two years of age either at the hands of his younger brother Abraham in an accident or highly unlikely, murdered by Nimrod, though more probably at the hand of King Shulgi of Ur [refer Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans]. His father Terah, with Lot and Abraham’s families then moved in 1917 BCE, northwest six hundred miles and settled in Haran, a city-region associated with Nahor’s family in Padan-Aram. We will learn that Haran had other children apart from those named in the scriptures: Lot, Milcah and Sarah. We do not know the name of Haran’s wife, though it is likely that Haran married a descendent of Arphaxad through Peleg’s line. It is not clear if descendants of Haran already lived in Haran; or if they arrived later after Abraham. The term Haran for the region, may have been added to the biblical account retrospectively, if they followed.  

The geographic relationship of Haran adjacent to Padan-Aram – with Aram-Nahor – which in turn was next to Aram is significant as this alignment is replicated today [refer Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil and Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans]. Today, Aram includes Spain and Portugal and Padan-Aram signifies Italy. Regarding identities in the Bible; if there is more than one verse – even if it is only two – it is specifying a distinct people. Haran had a son called Lot and he in turn had two sons, Moab and Ammon. Aside from these peoples, we read about a people described as Haran twice in the Bible. We are therefore seeking a people not only related to Nahor  and Haran, but also dwelling next to Nahor, Moab and Ammon in Western Europe.

2 Kings 19:12

English Standard Version

Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden…

Ezekiel 27:21-24

English Standard Version

21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar [Ishmael] were your favored dealers in lambs, rams, and goats; in these they did business with you… 23Haran, Canneh, Eden, traders of Sheba, Asshur [Russia], and Chilmad traded with you. 24 In your market these traded with you [Tyre] in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of colored material, bound with cords and made secure.

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘There are two completely different Hebrew names that have ended up as the similar name Haran in English. We’ll call them Haran I and Haran II, and note that both versions occur in Genesis 11:31: The name Haran I: Summary meaning Mountainous, Mountaineer From the noun (har), hill or mountain. The name Haran I is assigned two times in the Bible: A son of Terah and brother of Abraham… This Haran is the father of Lot. [The other] a Levite of the family of Gershon (1 Chronicles 23:9).

The noun (har) is the Bible’s common word for mountain or hill. The obviously related verb (hera) means to be or become pregnant. An association with the previous noun is obvious, although not because the stomach of a pregnant woman resembles a mountain. The Bible depicts nations as individual women even more than as mountains; the words, (‘umma) meaning people and (’em), meaning mother are closely related. A pregnant woman is to her husband what a conceiving nation is to its deity.

The name Haran II: Summary Meaning Freedom, Central Fire From the root (harar), to be a central hub of heat. The name Haran II is assigned two times in the Bible: The city where Abram’s family settled (Genesis 11:31)… A son of Caleb and Epaha (1 Chronicles 2:46). The name Haran II probably comes from the verb (hara), to burn, or (harar), to be hot or even to be free: The root (harar) describes a society’s central and enclosed source of heat. It thus may express a geographical depression, but more so a being hot and ultimately a being a ruler (whether by might, political clout or wisdom). The unused verb (harar II) means to be free in cognate languages, which is the opposite of being a slave. Noun hor) means noble or nobleman. 

The nouns (hor) mean hole or cavern, but obviously relate to the previous word in that freemen surround themselves with walls and armies. Verb (hawar) means to be or grow white (like ash or baked bricks). Nouns (hur) and (huray) refer to any white stuff, including garments and linen, and noun (hori) describes white bread or cake. For a meaning of the name Haran II… BDB Theological Dictionary sees a connection with an Assyrian word that means Road or Path, and suggests the name stems from Haran’s location on a trade route.’

Canneh means favoured and Eden means pleasure, delight, finery, Luxury and Paradise. The descendants of Haran dwell in the nation of Switzerland. The verse in Ezekiel Twenty-seven is revealing Haran’s economic strength as well as its ethnic split as evidenced by its principle languages of German, French, and Italian – plus Romany. The Swiss themselves – regardless of language divide – are homogenous, as their Haplogroups reveal. Whereas an Austrian majority of sixty percent perceive themselves as German, the Swiss when asked the same question, resoundingly answered No. The definition meanings of Haran are remarkably specific about the Swiss. 

Switzerland is mountainous, free, protected with a wall of strong military tradition, is white with snow and known for its bread, cake, pastry and deserts, including chocolate. It is favoured in wealth and scenery; a veritable paradise of luxury.

The ancient Hurrians and Mitanni were separate yet synonymous, also known as Hanigalbat, with the Hurrians having a lesser role due to a smaller population, with the height of their kingdom longevity shorter – circa 905 to 886 BCE – compared to the Mitanni; but as the warrior nobility within the Kingdom of Mitanni their impact was greater and longer. 

Recall we mentioned the Mitanni in Chapters XXIII and XXV. The Aramaic Mitanni may have merged with the dispossessed Hatti by this time, as they were migrating towards Babylon due to the Hittite expansion and their encroachment into their former lands. The apogee of the Mitanni kingdom era circa 1150 to 900 BCE may be the connecting link between the peak of the Hatti empire during 1900 to 1500 BCE and the later Chaldean rule of Babylon from 626 to 539 BCE.

The Hurrian army was built around an elite chariot corps, like an honour guard, commanded by the king. The relationship between the Hurrians and Mitanni is replicated between Switzerland and Italy in the form of the Papal or Pontifical Swiss Guard. It is a combined armed forces and honour guard maintained by the Holy See. It protects the Pope and the Apostolic Palace, serving as the military of the Vatican City. 

Established in 1506 by Pope Julius II, it is one of the oldest military units used in ‘continuous operation.’ The dress uniform is blue, red, orange and yellow. 

The Swiss Guard are equipped with traditional weapons, like the halberd, as well as with modern firearms. ‘Recruits to the guards must be unmarried Swiss Catholic males between 19 and 30 years of age who have completed basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces.’ The corp also receive enhanced training, in unarmed combat and small arms.

Burgundy is a region in France, made famous by its red wine. It is a little smaller than Switzerland and lies to the west, with only one hundred miles separating them. Though the name lives on in France, the original Burgundians are the ancestors of the Swiss. The Burgundians are considered a Scandinavian people whose original homeland lay on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea; where the island of Bornholm – Burgundarholm in the Middle Ages – still bears their name. In the first century CE they migrated into the lower valley of the Vistula River, but, unable to defend themselves against the Gepidae, they traveled westward. Serving as foederati – meaning auxiliaries – in the Roman army, they formed a powerful kingdom, around Sapaudia – modern day Savoy – near Lake Geneva, from 450 CE.

Christian king Gundobad ruling from 474 to 516 CE, allowed Burgundy to remain independent. Though in 534 the Franks occupied the kingdom, extinguishing the royal dynasty. The area was controlled initially by Neustrian Franks, then Middle Franks and finally German Franks until the year 888. It was then under Frankish Burgundian control until 1032. It was in 888 that Rudolf I – who died in 912 – of the German Welf family was recognised as king of Jurane, Burgundy, including much of what is now Switzerland. His son and successor Rudolf II, was able to conclude a treaty circa 931 with Hugh of Provence, extending ‘his rule over the entire regnum Burgundiae.’ 

The union of Upper and Lower Burgundy was bequeathed in 1032 – lasting until 1648 – to the German king and Holy Roman emperor Conrad II, which became known from the thirteenth century as the Kingdom of Arles. The name Burgundy was being increasingly applied to the county of Burgundy, as well as for the Duchy of Burgundy – both located in modern France. There were four Burgundies in total: the duchy, the county, and the kingdoms of Upper Burgundy and Lower Burgundy. Upper Burgundy larger than lower Burgundy was located in present day western Italy. Lower Burgundy was located in current French speaking western Switzerland.

The Historicity of the Bible, Iurii Mosenkis – emphasis & bold mine:

‘German Nibelungen, Old Norse Niflungar denote the Burgundian royal family which take its name from the people which initially owned the gold hoard. Siegfried slew Nibelung and twelve giants before he took the hoard. In the Norse mythology, Niflheimr (‘mist home’) is the world of frost. The similar world is Niflhel, the lowest level of Norse underworld Hel. The Indo-European root ne-bh means ‘not light (sky)’ (ne – ‘not’ and bh – ‘light’ like in Greek phos) initially and gave several related meanings: ‘sky’ (Russian nebo), ‘cloud, mist’ (Latin nebula), ‘dark’ (Anglo-Saxon nifol) etc.’    

Britannica – emphasis & bold mine:

‘In 1291, when Rudolf I of Habsburg died, the elites of the Waldstatte (“forest cantons”) Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden renewed an older treaty confirming that they would maintain public peace and efficient jurisdiction without interference from outside [namely the Austrian Hapsburgs], thus securing their privileged position [Confoederatio Helvetica]. Such pacts were common at that time, but this one was to be considered much later as the foundation of the Swiss Confederation (only since 1891 has August 1, 1291, been celebrated as the birth of the nation).’

The prime Swiss communities of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, mirror Haran, Canneh and Eden in the Bible. The word Schwyz is where the name Switzerland has derived. The Swiss are famously known for their neutrality from 1815 following the Napoleonic wars against France. The Congress of Vienna guaranteed the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland. The present nation of Switzerland was formed in 1848 with the adoption of a new constitution, as there had been internal conflict prior to this date.

Switzerland is a federated country of 26 Cantons and its administrative capital is Bern; with Lausanne serving as its judicial centre. Switzerland’s small size, its total area is about half that of Scotland and its population of 8,816,359 people, the 20th largest in Europe, gives little indication of its international significance and economic clout. Geneva is home to numerous international organisations and the Swiss economy is the 20th largest in the world – just behind Saudi Arabia [18], Turkey [19] and ahead of Poland [21], Thailand [22] and Nigeria [25].

The Heraldry for the three original Cantons – the Key similar to the Vatican keys and the Bull, 

stemming from veneration lasting millennia’s.

Apart from the capital Bern, Zurich is the country’s largest and most cosmopolitan city; its famed Bahnhofstrasse rivalling shopping districts found in other leading cities in the world. Basel and Lucerne are major German speaking cities, with Geneva and Lausanne the centres of the country’s French speaking cantons. In 1992 Swiss voters narrowly turned down membership in a European Economic Area comprising the EU and EFTA. Switzerland is politically isolated within Europe, though maintains strong economic ties with the EU – its largest trading partner. In the 1990s there were growing doubts about Switzerland’s past. ‘Many Swiss questioned the country’s traditional “bunker mentality” in Europe at peace and with open borders.’ 

Troubling for Switzerland was an international debate concerning dormant accounts of assets left by Jews in Swiss banks during the Nazi era, but never returned. ‘A controversy that challenged Switzerland’s image of itself and resulted in a settlement between two large commercial banks and Jewish plaintiffs in which the banks agreed to pay international Jewish organizations two billion Swiss francs (about $1.25 billion). Financial officials estimated that hundreds of millions of dollars in dormant assets remained unclaimed in Swiss banks in the early 21st century.’

‘The following export product groups categorize the highest dollar value in Swiss global shipments during 2021.

  1. Gems, precious metals: US$106.3 billion 
  2. Pharmaceuticals: $101.5 billion
  3. Organic chemicals: $29.7 billion
  4. Clocks, watches including parts: $24.4 billion
  5. Machinery including computers: $24 billion
  6. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $19.1 billion
  7. Electrical machinery, equipment: $13.8 billion
  8. Plastics, plastic articles: $6.2 billion
  9. Mineral fuels including oil: $4.03 billion
  10. Perfumes, cosmetics: $3.98 billion


Mineral fuels including oil was the fastest-growing among the top 10 export categories, up by 107.2% from 2020 to 2021. In second place for improving export sales was… clocks and watches including parts category which rose 34.7%. Switzerland’s shipments of gems and precious metals posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 23.3% year over year, propelled by higher international sales of gold and silver.’

The Alpine nation of Switzerland had a GDP of $703.08 billion in 2019. Switzerland possesses a large service sector, including financial services and a high-tech manufacturing sector served by a highly skilled labor force. Excellent quality legal, political and economic institutions with a solid physical infrastructure have set the stage for a productive economy with one of the highest per capita GDPs in the world.

Switzerland is in the top ten countries with the largest gold reserves at number seven, ahead of Japan and India and one place behind China. Its total tonnage of gold is 1,040.0 tonnes and represents 5.4 % of its foreign reserves. Switzerland maintains the world’s largest reserves of gold per capita. ‘During World War II, the neutral country became the center of the gold trade in Europe, making transactions with both the Allies and Axis powers. Today, much of its gold trading is done with Hong Kong and China.’

Haran had a specific son named in the Bible, called Lot. Though he was Abraham’s nephew, Lot was born only seven years after Abraham in 1970 BCE – when Haran was thirty-nine. They had a close relationship and instead of being as an uncle and nephew that they were, acted more like brothers, due to the closeness of their ages. With the premature death of Haran, Abraham was also protective of his nephew in more than one instance. The fact that Abraham did not have his own son for many years, meant Lot was logically in line to be Abraham’s heir. This is telling and may have significant bearing in how circumstances eventuated between the descendants of Lot and those from Abraham. 

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The name Lot mean[s] Covering From the verb (lut), to wrap closely, to envelop

Noun (lat) or (la’t) means secrecy. The verb (malat) means to deliver from confinement or dangerous predicament. For a meaning of the name Lot, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Covering. Jones adds Veil.’

In Genesis chapter eleven we read of Terah’s departure from Ur to Haran, with Abraham and Lot’s families in 1927 BCE. Twenty-five years later when Abraham was seventy-five, the Creator told him to leave Haran to dwell in Canaan further south.

Genesis 12:4-9

English Standard Version

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem [future location of Simeon and Levi’s revenge for their sister Dinah], to the oak of Moreh. At that timethe Canaanites [dark skinned sons of Canaan] were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Genesis 13:1-18

English Standard Version

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord[Eden], like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 

Recall in Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega, the location of physical Eden was investigated. We learned that the garden area of Eden encompassed the area of southern Lebanon and the Sea of Galilee, stretching southwards to Jerusalem. We will discover soon that Zoar was situated north of the Dead or Salt Sea and so the fertile Jordan River valley was a corridor running from Galilee through the Dead Sea – which wasn’t ‘dead’ yet – and all the way south to where the river exits into the Red Sea. Lot saw that this land between Galilee and Zoar was ‘like the garden of the Lord’ or Eden and understandably chose it for his family. Thus he lived to the east of Abraham who dwelt westwards towards the Mediterranean Sea in the land of Canaan. It also explains how Lot ended up living in Sodom – where he was prominent in the City’s governance – as it was one of the five main cities with Zoar, in the plains north of the Salt Sea.

13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord [like Nimrod]. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever [for a long time]. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Lot chose the fertile lower ground, the plains in the valley bordered between the hills towards the west and the River Jordan to the east. We read a parallel account in the Book of Jasher 15:35-47:

35 And Lot the son of Haran, Abram’s brother, had a heavy stock of cattle, flocks and herds and tents, for the Lord was bountiful to them on account of Abram

36 And when Abram was dwelling in the land the herdsmen of Lot quarrelled with the herdsmen of Abram, for their property was too great for them to remain together in the land, and the land could not bear them on account of their cattle. 37 And when Abram’s herdsmen went to feed their flock they would not go into the fields of the people of the land, but the cattle of Lot’s herdsmen did otherwise, for they were suffered to feed in the fields of the people of the land. 38 And the people of the land saw this occurrence daily, and they came to Abram and quarrelled with him on account of Lot’s herdsmen. 39 And Abram said to Lot, What is this thou art doing to me, to make me despicable to the inhabitants of the land, that thou orderest thy herdsman to feed thy cattle in the fields of other people? Dost thou not know that I am a stranger in this land amongst the children of Canaan, and why wilt thou do this unto me? 40 And Abram quarrelled daily with Lot on account of this, but Lot would not listen to Abram, and he continued to do the same and the inhabitants of the land came and told Abram. 

This display of mercurial stubbornness is indicative of Lot’s descendants.

41 And Abram said unto Lot, How long wilt thou be to me for a stumbling block with the inhabitants of the land? Now I beseech thee let there be no more quarrelling between us, for we are kinsmen. 42 But I pray thee separate from me, go and choose a place where thou mayest dwell with thy cattle and all belonging to thee, but Keep thyself at a distance from me, thou and thy household. 43 And be not afraid in going from me, for if any one do an injury to thee, let me know and I will avenge thy cause from him, only remove from me. 44 And when Abram had spoken all these words to Lot, then Lot arose and lifted up his eyes toward the plain of Jordan. 45 And he saw that the whole of this place was well watered, and good for man as well as affording pasture for the cattle. 46 And Lot went from Abram to that place, and he there pitched his tent and he dwelt in Sodom, and they were separated from each other. 47 And Abram dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and he pitched his tent there, and Abram remained in that place many years.

The selfishness of Lot in using other peoples property and not caring how that made Abraham look was the beginning of a rift circa 1902 to 1900 BCE between both families, which ultimately led to mistrust, hatred and a perpetual rivalry, based on jealousy between their peoples lasting to the present day. The seeds of the fissure between them, even after Lot had been continually at Abraham’s side were undoubtedly the same that causes nearly all parting of the ways between people – the same reason Asherah left the Ancient of Day’s side – pride or envy, turning to disdain. In the section on Chedorlaomer of Elam [Chapter XIX Chedorlaomer & the war of Nine Kings], we touched on Lot being taken hostage in 1894 BCE after the Battle of the Kings at Siddim. We will return to this battle again when we study Abraham.

Genesis 14:11-16

English Standard Version

11 So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way. 13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus [capital of Gether-Aram]. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.

Jasher 16:6-8

6 And they plundered all the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, and his property, and they seized all the goods of the cities of Sodom, and they went away; and Unic, Abram’s servant, who was in the battle, saw this, and told Abram all that the kings had done to the cities of Sodom, and that Lot was taken captive by them. 7 And Abram heard this, and he rose up with about three hundred and eighteen men that were with him, and he that night pursued these kings and smote them, and they all fell before Abram and his men, and there was none remaining but the four kings who fled, and they went each his own road. 8 And Abram recovered all the property of Sodom, and he also recovered Lot and his property, his wives and little ones and all belonging to him, so that Lot lacked nothing.

Abraham risked his life to rescue Lot – who had somewhat deserved what had befallen him, after treating Abraham with disrespect – ensuring he had all his family and belongings returned to him safely. Proverbs 25:21-22 CJB: “If someone who hates you is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap fiery coals (of shame) on his head, and Adonai [the Lord] will reward you.” Abraham was offered a reward by the King of Sodom, but refused to take anything for what he had done. We next read of Lot in Genesis chapter Nineteen.

Genesis 19:1-38

English Standard Version

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash* your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 

3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened* bread [March-April and the time of the Passover and Feast* of unleavened Bread], and they ate.

Hebrews 13:2

Complete Jewish Bible

but don’t forget to be friendly to outsiders; for in so doing, some people, without knowing it, have entertained angels.

Lot had gained a position of responsibility in Sodom when he had moved to the city circa 1900 BCE. Lot was rescued by Abraham in 1894 BCE in the aftermath of the Battle of Siddim. The destruction of Sodom took place in Abraham’s 99th year, 1878 BCE. For approximately twenty years, Lot and his family had resided in Sodom. Sitting in the gate, means Lot was a member of Sodom’s ruling council and involved in the discussion and prosecution of legal matters. Lot may have been an actual Judge.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know [H3045 – yada: ‘to know a person carnally] them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. 

Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they [the angels created a blinding light] struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Judging by the name of the city of Sodom and the fact the crowd of men were wanting the two men who were angels; homo-sexuality is clearly what was intended. In a broader sense, the city was involved in adult activity with Nephilim and Eliouds, who lived there; for as stated earlier in the Book of Genesis, a second irruption of Angelic infiltration with humans had occurred. Hence the requirement for the judgement of utter destruction to be decreed. It may have involved more than sexual relations. A continuation of the ante-diluvian and post-flood Tower of Babel scientific and technological endeavour to completely tamper with mankind’s genetic code and seek profane immortality, would certainly attract punishment. For it has been reserved for the time of the end for these events to reoccur; thus requiring the Creator to re-intervene at that time. Jude connects the activities before the flood with those taking place in the five cities of the Plain. 

The Greek word heteros translated as ‘strange’ flesh, is referring to sexual congress with Nephilim or perverted sex with angels not strictly just homo-sexuality.

Jude 6-7 ESV: 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling… 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural [G2087 – heteros: another, ‘one not of the same nature, form, kind’] desire [G4561 – sarx: ‘carnal cravings that incite sin’], serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Lot offered his two youngest daughters who were around 15 to 20 years old, to the mob, rather than the angels. What the rationale behind this is conjecture. Maybe Lot was buying time, for he knew the angels could and would resolve the issue without his daughters having to go out – a bluff. Or possibly, he weighed their lives versus those of the messengers sent by the Creator and made a judgement call.

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone [friends] you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 

14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. 15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 

Verse 14 is misleading, as it appears the two younger daughters were bequeathed but not yet married. The interlinear reads: And Lot went out, spake unto his sons law, which married his daughters. From the account, we learn that Lot has at least two other daughters, aside from the two virgins already mentioned. The Book of Jasher introduces a fifth daughter.

Book of Jasher 19:11, 23-35 

And in the course of time Sarah sent Eliezer to Sodom, to see Lot and inquire after his welfare. 23 … and when it was told to Abraham he went and made war with the kings of Elam, and he recovered from their hands all the property of Lot as well as the property of Sodom. 24 At that time the wife of Lot bare hima daughter[1894 BCE],and he called her name Paltith, saying, Because God had delivered him and his whole household from the kings of Elam; and Paltith daughter of Lot grew up, and one of the men of Sodom took her for a wife [circa 1882-1879 BCE]

25 And a poor man came into the city to seek a maintenance, and he remained in the city some days, and all the people of Sodom caused a proclamation of their custom** not to give this man a morsel of bread to eat, until he dropped dead upon the earth, and they did so. 26 And Paltith the daughter of Lot saw this man lying in the streets starved with hunger, and no one would give him any thing to keep him alive, and he was just upon the point of death. 27 And her soul was filled with pity on account of the man, and she fed him secretly with bread for many days… and three men concealed themselves in a place where the poor man was stationed, to know who it was that brought him bread to eat… 32 And the three men saw what Paltith did to the poor man… 34 And they took Paltith and brought her before their judges… now therefore declare to us the punishment due to this woman for having transgressed our law. 35 And the people of Sodom and Gomorrah assembled and kindled a fire in the street of the city, and they took the woman and cast her into the fire and she was burned to ashes.

Paltith would have been about fifteen or sixteen, when she was put to death, which was not long before Sodom was destroyed. Anciently, daughters were given in marriage as soon as they were deemed women and able to serve a husband and bear his children.

16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 

Lot’s angelic visitors and protectors had already taken an aerial reconnoissance. According to the Haggadah, they were then able to fly him and his family inside their craft out of Sodom’s boundaries. It was then that they instructed Lot to flee to further safety. 

17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there – is it not a little one? – and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

Contrary Lot, might be a fitting name and at a moment when time was of the essence. We will find that his descendants are in fact a contrary and mercurial people. Granted, Lot was ninety-two years old – just ten years older than when his father, Haran died. It is ironic, for Lot did not linger in Zoar, but rather fled from Zoar and retreated to a cave. 

Lot’s entreating was in fact a far bigger favour granted by the angels than sparing his life even. When asking to be able to go to Zoar, he was actually asking for one of the five cities marked for destruction to be spared. 

The five cities in question were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zebo[im] and Bela – also known as Zoar. According to Lot, it would seem it was the smallest of the five cites on the plain. 

In contrast to what is commonly taught, the condemnation of Sodom and the other cities was not just because of sexual transgressions. Another reason is given in Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV: “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid** the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.”

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Book of Jasher 19:52-54 

And he overthrew these cities, all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground; and Ado the wife of Lot looked back to see the destruction of the cities, for her compassion was moved on account of her daughters who remained in Sodom, for they did not go with her. 53 And when she looked back she became a pillar of salt, and it is yet in that place unto this day. 54 And the oxen which stood in that place daily licked up the salt to the extremities of their feet, and in the morning it would spring forth afresh, and they again licked it up unto this day.

The Book of Jasher gives Lot’s wife’s name as Ado. Certain Rabbis refer to her as Idit. The Midrash calls her Edith, which may have derived from Idit. The Book of Jasher supports other married daughters still in Sodom, when Lot, his wife and two unmarried daughters fled for their lives. It helps to explain, why Idit disobeyed the Angel’s instruction. It may have been more than the intensity of the detonation and Idit doing more than just looking back. She must have lingered too close to the blast zone. The interlinear infers this: But his wife looked back from behind him, she became pillar salt.

Luke 17:28-32 

English Standard Version

28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot – they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all – 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward [the east] all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley,God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. 

Wisdom of Solomon 10.7 GNT: 

You can still see the evidence of their wickedness. The land there is barren and smoking. The plants bear fruit that never ripens, and a pillar of salt stands as a monument to one who did not believe.

Evidence found supporting the Biblical description of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction? Dean Smith, 2018 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘In an article published in Science News, archaeologists working at Tall el-Hammam located in Jordan… have found evidence corroborating its massive destruction recorded in the Bible that spoke of brimstone and fire falling from the sky… Archaeologists have found evidence of the area being hit with a massive explosion that turned glaze on potsherds into glass. They also found stone fragments stuck in the glaze that supports the idea that something poured down upon cities from the sky. According to lead archaeologist Philip J. Silvia, the heat was “perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun.” They also discovered that the bricks used in the buildings were totally obliterated leaving only the stone foundations.

The Bible records that not only were the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [destroyed] but much of the valley as well and Silva confirmed this adding they found evidence the blast covered an area of 15.5 miles and killing upwards of 65,000 people. The site on the north end of the Dead Sea was so devastated that it took 600 years for the soil to recover sufficiently to allow crops… 

Writing on behalf of the Tall el-Hamman Excavation Project, co-director Dr. Steven Collins said: “The violent conflagration that ended occupation at Tall el-Hammam produced melted potters, scorched foundation stones and several feet of ash and destruction debris churned into a dark gray matrix ‘as if in a Cuisinart’” [food processor].’

Archaeological evidence confirms that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by intense fire, Dean Smith, 2020- emphasis & bold mine:

‘According to archaeologists working on the site believed to include the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, they found evidence confirming the Biblical record that the two cities were destroyed by sulphur and fire… The archaeologists, who have been working on the site for 13 years, reported discovering evidence of intense heat. This included clay and rock that had been turned into glass. 

This would require a brief burst of heat of between 8,000 to 12,000 degree Celsius. The archaeologists also noted that the destruction took place “in an instant,” and resulted in the stripping of the topsoil. The archaeologists added that “a super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts pushed over the landscaped by the Event’s frontal shock wave.”

It is interesting that even the Biblical account noted the appearance of salt as it described Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt and as well, noted the destruction of vegetation. They wrote, “the physical evidence from Tall el-Hamman and neighboring sites exhibit signs of a highly destructive concussive and thermal event that one might expect from what is described in Genesis 19.”’

Secular history is silent concerning Lot, ‘save for the fact that the Dead Sea has always been called by the Arabs, the Sea of Lot.’ The Battle of Siddim, including the Plain with the five cities – four of them destroyed – is located in the area of the Dead Sea or Sea of Death. The Dead Sea and its composition is an anomaly that can be explained only by the Biblical destruction of the region as recorded in Genesis chapter nineteen. Archaeological digs have confirmed the northern end – southeast of Jericho – of the Dead Sea rather than the traditional southern end, as the original site of the Valley of Siddim. 

Flying Serpents and Dragons, R A Boulay, 1990, Pages 195, 197-198, 206-207 – emphasis & bold mine:

There is no scriptural or other evidence to support… Sodom and Gormorrah [being]… located… in the shallow or southern part of the Dead Sea, the body of water the Jews call… the Salt Sea…To the contrary, all indications are that the [five] cities were located in the northern part of the Dead Sea… [nor] the age of the Dead Sea [being] hundreds of thousands of years old… this sea dates… [according to Velikovsky to] less than 5000 years [ago]… [or] no further back than the days of Abraham [1878 BCE]. In the Biblical story… it specifically states that the area now occupied by the Dead Sea used to be called the Valley or vale of Siddim [Genesis 14:3]… 

Some catastrophic event must have caused the [rupture of the] geological fault (which runs through and underlies the area) to displace, the ground sinking in the process, and forming a seal to allow the accumulation of water [creating a large inland sea] from the inflow of the Jordan River. Josephus adds… that the Lord “cast a thunderbolt upon the city and set it on fire with its inhabitants.” In the Haggadah, this thunderbolt comes from the Shekinah, the aerial chariot of the Lord: “When the angels had brought forth Lot and his family and set them outside the city, he bade them run for their lives, and not look behind, lest they behold the Shekinah, which had descended to work the destruction of the cities…”’

The Dead Sea contains twenty-one minerals including Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Bromine, Bitumen and Potassium. Twelve of these are found in no other sea or ocean. The Dead Sea contains ten times more salts and minerals than the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea has a 33% concentration of salt compared to only 3% in the world’s oceans. There are other bodies of water in the world with similar salt content ratios – one wonders if they are victims of a similar fate as the Dead Sea?

30Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring [seed] from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did [not?] know when she lay down or when she arose.

The incident with an intoxicated Noah and his grandson Canaan did not end well [Chapter XI Ham Aequator]. This is another situation of being taken advantage of while inebriated, perhaps. The cave location was very remote and the eldest daughter – the only sister recorded speaking – was concerned that their father Lot is old and may die and that any chance of a man visiting wasn’t presenting itself anytime soon. Their sisters and brothers-in-law in Sodom were dead and would not be leaving children. This is more likely, than thinking the world had ended and there were no men left to continue humankind. The three of them had left Zoar and knew there were other survivors. Either way, the daughters do not take their father into their confidence. 

The Biblical account presents the daughters as the ‘initiators and perpetrators of the incestuous rape’ of Lot over two nights, according to Esther Fuchs. The verb used by the older daughter about eighteen to twenty years old for giving Lot wine also means to irrigate the ground. Thus, the daughters intentions are not to just give their father a glass or two, but to fully saturate him and get Lot very drunk; before having sexual intercourse with him. The next night, the younger sister about fifteen to seventeen years old, repeats the course of action. The fact that the sisters get their father very drunk, may mean their actions were more altruistic than driven by desire.

The word used for offspring is zera, meaning seed or offspring in a general sense,  rather than for a specific ‘son.’ The intent is ultimately related to the eventual Messiah and fulfilment of Genesis 3:15. From a historical perspective, these acts were essential for the future birth of the Son of Man. The Creator would judge the daughters by their thoughts and not necessarily their deeds; as this is a recurrent theme in the Bible for those the Creator is working with. The daughters true intent was not to lay with their father for sexual gratification, but rather to ensure their family line continued. 

Support that Lot’s daughters were vindicated rather than Lot himself is the fact that the prohibition in Deuteronomy 23:2-4, 6 ESV, applies to males not females: “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. 

Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you – the sons of Jacob – with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.”

The angels who rescued Lot would have been cognisant of the fact that Ruth the Moabite would trace her lineage to the eldest sister, and her marriage to Boaz from  the tribe of Judah would result in descendants, including King David and the Messianic Saviour. They would also have known that Naamah the Ammonite, would trace her lineage to the youngest sister and her marriage to King Solomon – the only wife of Solomon stated by name in the Bible – would result in the birth of Rehoboam, King of Judah after Solomon. 

The goodness of Lot’s daughters intentions displayed, in that they lay with their father only once and like Ruth – acted for an ideal – when she lay at the foot of Boaz’s bed in the threshing floor. 

34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did [not?] know when she lay down or when she arose. 

Scholars, such as Robert Alter have said that Lot’s daughters in sleeping with their father “suggests measure-for-measure justice meted out for his rash offer” to the mob outside their home. ‘Rabbis have observed that a man usually allows himself to be killed in order to save his wife and children… Lot was willing to allow the townspeople to abuse his daughters.’ In Sodom, Lot was ready to offer his daughters – possibly against their will – to engage in sexual relations with the people outside. Later, Lot’s daughters have relations with their unwitting father. These acts of incest are Lot’s punishment for his indecorous behaviour, according to some scholars. 

There are two Rabbinic views issued against the patriarch Lot. Firstly, that Lot ‘from the outset, decided to dwell in Sodom because he wanted to engage in the licentious [behaviour] of its inhabitants.’ Lot thought he could engage secretly in depravity. He is then later, humiliated through his daughters seducing him. R Nahman bar Hanan said to the effect: “Whoever is driven by his lust for fornication, will eventually be fed from his own flesh.” Lot was so eager to engage in promiscuity, that in the end, his daughters played the harlot with him.

Secondly, Lot insidiously desired his daughters; for he was inebriated when the elder sister lay with him, though he was sober enough to know when she rose. 

This is indicated in the Old Testament ‘by the supralinear dot over the word u-ve-komah (“when she rose”).’ Though Lot was not aware of what was going to happen when he drunk the wine, he was aware of having sex with his eldest daughter by the time she left his bed. Therefore, his willingness to drink wine the next night – means to some – that he was complicit in repeating incest with his younger daughter. On the basis of what is said in Proverbs 18:1 CJB: “He who separates himself indulges his desires and shows contempt for sound advice of any kind”, some Rabbis conclude that Lot did lust after his daughters. Particularly, as Lot sought out a remote cave which allowed the facilitation of the incestuous events to occur. 

Even so, other Rabbis have reinterpreted the incest accounts of Lot and his daughters in the Bible in a more positive light due to the royal and messianic lineages it produced. Ironically, the other half of David’s lineage is similarly problematic for the Rabbis; as Tamar secures a son, by surreptitiously seducing her father-in-law Judah. The son Perez, in turn becomes an ancestor to Boaz and thus also, to King David.

36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Book of Jasher 19:55-60 

And Lot and two of his daughters that remained with him fled and escaped to the cave of Adullam, and they remained there for some time… 58 And they both lay with their father, and they conceived and bare sons… 60 And after this Lot and his two daughters went away from there, and he dwelt on the other side of the Jordan with his two daughters and their sons, and the sons of Lot grew up, and they went and took themselves wives from the land of Canaan, and they begat children and they were fruitful and multiplied.

The eldest daughter names her son Moab, which means ‘from my father.’ She has been  rather brazen and immodest in openly naming her son being born of her father. This leaves no doubt as to the union having been an incestuous one. The younger daughter names her son Ben-Ammi, which means ‘son of my clan,’ a more veiled euphemistic reference to her son’s origin. While the names of the sons are descriptive of their conception, they serve a negative etiological function for Israel’s neighbours – and frequent enemies – as the Moabites and the Ammonites. The definitions, puzzlingly humiliate Lot – as if revengeful retribution was a motive – while at the same time demeaning also his daughters who named the babies.

Chapter XI, The Moabites and the Ammonites, Emanuel Swedenborg – emphasis & bold mine:

‘It is a remarkable fact that the children of Lot should have commemorated their infamous origin in their very names. Moab means literally “water of a father,”while Ammon or Ben-ammi means”son of my mother.” These names, so horribly suggestive, were proudly retained by two whole nations throughout their history. The Old Testament is silent as to the personal story of the two sons of Lot, but they evidently repeated the story of the founders of the other Hebrew nations, becoming chieftains… and founding royal dynasties.… The descendants of Moab within a few generations took possession of the country formerly inhabited by the Emim, (“terrible ones”), a branch of the aboriginal Nephilim, even as their cousins, the descendants of Ammon, took possession of the country formerly occupied by the Zuzim and Zamzummim. The [partial] slaughter of these ancient giant races by Chedorlaomer and his allies no doubt cleared the way for the children of Lot. The Moabites found homes in the rich and well protected plateau to the east of the Dead Sea, extending from the land of Edom in the south to the land of Gilead in the north, while the Ammonites established themselves in the land of Gilead… and they dwelt here until they were driven into the eastern desert by the tribes of Gad and Reuben… their descendants recovered the land of Gilead after the Assyrians had carried away the tribe of Gad.’

2 Peter 2:6-8 ESV: … if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)

Lot is not included in Hebrews chapter eleven as one of the faithful, with Abraham and Sarah. He is called a righteous soul in the Greek Interlinear. By extension, he is included with righteous Noah, Daniel and Job mentioned in Ezekiel 14:14. Lot also has in common with Job the dramatic and sudden loss of family. Lot lost his wife, and at least two daughters and two sons-in-law. Job 1:1-2, 18-19 ESV: ‘There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters… “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you [refer Chapter XXIX Esau: The Thirteenth Tribe].”’ 

Ammon, the younger brother of Moab, is invariably described as the ‘children or sons of Ammon’ in the Bible, a clue to their status not being quite the same as Moab or other identities investigated thus far. The Hebrew definition of H5983 from H5971, for Ammon is tribal or inbred as one born from incest.

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The name Ben-ammi meaning: Son Of My Kinsman, Son Of My People from (1) the noun (ben), son, and (2) the noun (‘am), people or kinsman [kindred].

The only Ben-ammi in the Bible is the incestuous son of Lot and his younger daughter, who becomes the patriarch of the “sons” of Ammon, also known as the Ammonites (Genesis 19:38)… it’s curious that both the daughters… of this prominent figure remain nameless, also since Lot’s daughters are matriarchs of enormous nations.

The noun (ben) means son, or more general: a member of one particular social or economic node – called a “house”, which is built upon the instructions of one (‘ab), or “father”… within… a larger economy… This noun obviously resembles the verb (bana), to build, and the noun (‘eben), stone. Our noun’s feminine version, namely (bat), means daughter, which resembles the noun (bayit), meaning house. The word for mother, (’em), is highly similar to that of tribe or people, (‘umma). The verb (‘mm) probably expressed to be inclusive or comprehensive. Its rare uses in the Bible relate to making secrets or making info available to an in-crowd. 

For a meaning of the name Ammon, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads A People. Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Great People, taking the extension as an intensitive.’

The children of Ammon today are in part, the French Canadians of Quebec. They also comprise the northwesterly section of the nation of France; with the main body of French being descended  from Moab.

French Canadian men

Herman Hoeh – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Abraham also had a nephew named Lot. Lot had two sons, Moab and Ammon. They were born to him after the calamity that hit Sodom (Genesis 19:37-38). They lived by the Arabs east of the Dead Sea next to Palestine. They are still in the same region today! 

Their nation today is called Jordan, after the Jordan River. Jordan has been much in the news lately, Amman is the capital of Jordan now.’

The Arabs lived in north Africa and then the Arabian Peninsula; they never lived north of this area or next to Moab and Ammon. The peoples of present day Jordan as discussed, are descendants of Mizra, son of Ham [Chapter XIV Mizra: North Africa & Arabia]. Moab and Ammon migrated from Palestine a very long time ago; with some two thousand years elapsing.

‘Isaiah 11:14 points out that these two sons of Lot live near Palestine today. Since the days of Isaiah, the children of Moab have been “very small and without strength” (Isaiah 16:13-14). They have not been taken “into captivity” to another nation (Jeremiah 48:11), In these latter days boastful Moab lives “together with the children of Ammon” (Ezekiel 25:9-10). The Kingdom of Jordan occupies part of present-day Palestine and keeps the Jews from dwelling in Old Jerusalem. Jeremiah 49:1-2 prophesied this over 2500 years ago! But Arabs and Jordanians are not the only Hebrews!’

Isaiah chapter sixteen is a future reference to Moab. Moab and Ammon are anything but a ‘very few and feeble’ people. The Arabic peoples from Ham are not Hebrews. This appellation refers broadly to the descendants of Peleg through his grandson, Eber. It would include Moab and Ammon. In time it was applied primarily to the sons of Jacob. The chief city or capital of the Ammonites was Rabbah.

French Canadian women

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The name Rabbah meaning: Great from the verb (rabab), to be great or many

There are two cities named Rabbah in the Bible, the lesser known one is a city in the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:60). The most famous Rabbah was also known as Rabbath-bene-ammon or “Rabbath of the sons of Ammon” (Rabbath is really the same as Rabbah, just of an older spelling), which was the major city of Ammon (modern Amman, the capital of Jordan).

It’s first mentioned in the Bible as the final resting place of the huge iron bed of king Og of Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:11). What Og’s bunk was doing in an Ammonite metropolis is a bit of a mystery. Bashan was a kingdom located to the east of the Sea of Galilee, and Ammon country was to the east of the Salt Sea. But Og was the last of the Rephaim… and they were expelled by the Ammonites (Deuteronomy 2:20). It appears that the Ammonites had hoisted Og’s huge stead to their capital as a trophy.

Even though YHWH had ordered not to meddle with Ammon (Deuteronomy 2:19), the tribes of Gad and Reuben [plus the 1/2 tribe of East Manasseh] settled in their land anyway. Rabbah is listed as just over the border of Gad, which puts it in or near Reuben, although that’s not explicitly mentioned (Joshua 15:25). The reason for this is probably that the Ammonites held out in Rabbah until the time of king David.

While the author of 2 Samuel focuses mainly on David’s seduction of Bathsheba, her husband Uriah was engaged with the siege of Rabbah. The author casually reports that the Ammonites were destroyed and Rabbah captured by general Joab (2 Samuel 11:1, 12:26). The gold crown of the Ammonite king weighed a talent and was placed on David’s head, and the Ammonites were massacred in the most creative ways (2 Samuel 12:31)… Nahash is also the name of the cruel Ammonite king whom Saul defeated (1 Samuel 11:1). The son of this Nahash, Hanun, provoked David into the siege that ended in Rabbah’s ultimate defeat (2 Samuel 10:1). 

… the identical noun (rab) means chief or captain. Noun (rob) means multitude or abundance. Possibly a second yet identical verb (rabab) means to shoot, particularly of arrows. This may very well be a specified usage of our verb since arrows are customarily shot en masse by many archers. Noun (rab) means archer, and is identical to the adjective meaning many. Fittingly, noun (arbeh) denotes a kind of locust.

For a meaning of the name Rabbah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Great, Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Great City, and BDB Theological Dictionary proposes Great or Populous.’

There are hundreds of references to Ammon and Moab, in the Bible as they were an arch nemesis of the sons of Jacob. The reason for this was heightened by the fact they were great nations with large populations living next to each other. The fact that the sons of Jacob had returned to the land centuries after leaving had only exacerbated their natural enmity as two closely related family members who just didn’t get along. 

Chapter XI, The Moabites and the Ammonites, Emanuel Swedenborg – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Both became great and powerful clans or nations, but the Ammonites always preferred the roving life of… marauders, while Moab… develop[ed] into a settled, well organized and prosperous nation, the chief characteristics of which were wealth and moral corruption.

The prosperity and riches of Moab are vividly portrayed in the Word. In the cities of this land there was “a great multitude of people,” living on the “glory” and “fat of the land,” possessing “great treasure,” and crowding the temples of Chemosh and Baal Peor, where infants were sacrificed, and virgins prostituted in the name of religion. Outside of the towns were the “plentiful fields,” the vineyards and gardens of “summer fruit,” the meadows where hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle were browsing. Peace and prosperity reign everywhere; the people are fat and self-satisfied, butof the worship of the true God there is not a trace.

Small wonder that such a nation should view with alarm the approach of a great horde of desert wanderers, asking permission to pass through the land on their way to Canaan. They came as Hebrew kinsmen, worshipping an ancient but generally forsaken deity named Jehovah. Balak, the king of the Moabites, now bethought himself of a Syrian wizard, Balaam, who was know[n]: to prophecy in the name of Jehovah and who was wont to dispense his blessings or cursings for filthy lucre. If a prophet of Jehovah were to curse the children of Israel, the latter would surely be put to confusion. He, therefore, sent for the complaisant prophet, but great was his disgust when the magician was forced by his God to turn the intended curse into a blessing, the power and beauty of which are almost without equal in Hebrew literature. Dismayed, Balak now allied himself with the Midianites in an effort to destroy Israel by the seductions of harlots in the lascivious rites of Baal Peor, but again his scheme was frustrated, and he was glad to escape the frightful punishment meted out to the Midianites, who had been the most active in the plot.

The subsequent relations of Moab with Israel were of a somewhat mixed character, sometimes friendly, as is evident from the story of Ruth, the Moabitish ancestress of David, but more generally hostile. Not long after the Israelitish conquest, Eglon, king of Moab, by the assistance of Ammon and Amalek, “smote Israel and possessed himself of the city of palm trees,” (Jericho), The children of Israel now “served Eglon for eighteen years” (Judges 3:13), until they were delivered by Ehud. The Moabites, however, continued to harass the chosen people on various occasions, and were not subdued until David put to the sword two-thirds of the population, the remainder becoming bondsmen and subjected to a regular tribute, (2 Samuel 8:2; 23:20), thus literally fulfilling Balaam’s prophecy: “Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth of Ar,” (i.e., Moab). After the division of Solomon’s kingdom, Moab seems to have remained tributary to the kingdom of Israel, and in the time of Ahab paid an annual tribute of [100,000 rams] – an indication of the almost fabulous wealth of so small a nation.

After the death of Ahab the Moabites revolted and joined the Ammonites in an attack upon the kingdom of Judah. The allies, however, fell to fighting one another; and Judah, Israel and Edom now joined in a war against Moab; the latter fell into an ambush and were slaughtered; the land of Moab was swept clean by the besom of destruction; the cities were beaten down and their stones scattered over the fields… the wells of water were filled up, and all the trees of the land were cut down. The king of Moab, with his family and a small remnant of the army, took refuge in Kir-haraseth where, in the extremity of despair, and in full sight of the besiegers, “he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall.” (2 Kings 3:27.) 

The besieging army, struck with horror at this sight, now withdrew to their own lands. After this awful event, nothing further is known of the history of Moab for a long period, but it appears that Moab gradually recovered all of its former prosperity, and in addition took possession of the territory of Reuben, after this tribe had been carried away by the Assyrians. At the time of the Babylonian invasion, Moab submitted to Nebuchadnezzar, and after the return of the Jews from the captivity the Moabites took the lead in annoying those who were rebuilding Jerusalem. Even at the time of the last Jewish war the Moabites, according to Josephus, was still “a very great nation,” but two hundred years afterwards they were exterminated or absorbed by a great invasion of “the children of the East.”’

The Moabites were neither ‘exterminated or absorbed’ but rather, they were forced to migrate westwards. The Ammonites were a more diverse or fragmented people compared to their elder brother Moab. In Canaan the Ammonites had their own territory north of Moab, with their own capital – Rabbah. Ultimately they joined with Moab and migrated with them after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In modern times, most have unified with Moab in France, while the remainder migrated to New France in North America, eventually becoming the modern province of Quebec in Canada. 

Today, the term Rabbah – as in those Ammonites not with Moab – broadly means Quebec and Rabbah – as in specifically the capital city – is fulfilled by Quebec City.

Deuteronomy 2:16-22, 37

English Standard Version

16 “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ 

20 (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there – but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim – 21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 37 Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

The Israelites and Ammonites continually disputed territory and borders. The rift between Lot and Abraham, didn’t heal or improve with time it was continually aggravated. The instruction was clear: do not engage negatively with Ammon in any way or take their land.

Joshua 13:8-13

English Standard Version

8 With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh [half tribe of East Manasseh or Gilead] the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them: 9 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland of Medeba as far as Dibon; 10 and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary of the Ammonites; 11 and Gilead, and the region of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 12 all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); these Moses had struck and driven out. 13 Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.

After the sons of Jacob fought the existing Canaanite inhabitants and had either killed or subjugated them, the land was divided amongst the tribes on the eastern side of the River Jordan. The tribe of Manasseh had split in two. The half tribe of West Manasseh stayed with their brother Ephraim, while the half tribe of East Manasseh struck out on their own. With the tribes of Reuben and Gad, they requested to live on the east side of the River Jordan. These two and a half tribes believed the land was spacious and suitable to live. It did not come without difficulties; namely. Ammonites, Amorites, various tribes of Elioud giants  – such as king Og of the Rephaim – and Mount Herman, the once headquarters so-to-speak, of the Nephilim.

Judges 10:17-18

English Standard Version

17 Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead. And the people of Israel came together, and they encamped at Mizpah. 18 And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said one to another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 

Gilead, a name brought to the wider public’s attention by the author Margaret Attwood and her insightful novel, The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, was the broad area east of the River Jordan and bordering north of Ammon which had been settled by the two and a half tribes of Israel. In time, the word Gilead became more synonymous with the half tribe of East Manasseh than with Reuben or Gad.

Judges 11:11-33

English Standard Version

11 So Jephthah [ninth Judge of Israel for 6 years beginning 1106 BCE from the half tribe of East Manasseh or Gilead] went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah. 

12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites and said, “What do you have against me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?” 13 And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.” 14 Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites 15 and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites, 16 but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. 17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

18 “Then they journeyed through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. 19 Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our country,’ 20 but Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel. 21 And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country… 

23 So then the Lord, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them? 24 Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the Lord our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess. 25 Now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend against Israel, or did he ever go to war with them? 26 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years [1406 – 1106 BCE], why did you not deliver them within that time? 27 I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.” 28 But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead andManasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, andas far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

The king of the Ammonites raised an issue three hundred years old. The Moabites hadn’t made an issue of it, so why Ammon and why now was Jephthah’s reasoning. The Israelites had defeated the Amorites – after being refused passage through Edom and Moab – and probably some of their land, had once been Ammonite land. It was too late to dispute it now. The king of Ammon remained stubborn and proud, but did not win it back.

2 Samuel 12:26-31

English Standard Version

26 NowJoab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city. 27 And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; moreover, I have taken thecity of waters.*28 Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name.” 29 So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. 30 And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. 31 And he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them toil at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. 

Quebec is Kebec in Algonquin, meaning ‘where the river narrows.’ The Province of Quebec has a vast coastline. The motto of Quebec City is Don de Dieu feray valoir: “I shall put God’s gift to good use.” The Don de Dieu was one of three ships which set sail from France under captain Henry Couillard and on July 3, 1608 explorer Samuel de Champlain – established a fort at Cape Diamond and – founded Quebec City, the oldest city in Canada. The Montmorency Falls are located on the Montmorency River and are about 270 feet tall – one hundred feet taller than Niagara Falls. One of Quebec’s most important resources is water,* harnessed for hydroelectric power.

David exacted harsh measures on the Ammonites, which didn’t improve relations, but showed the strength of negative feeling between the two peoples. His actions did contravene the instruction of not to contend or ‘to struggle in opposition’ or ‘strive in rivalry’ with Ammon.

1 Chronicles 19:19

English Standard Version

And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him. So the Syrians[Aram-Gether]were not willing to savethe Ammonites anymore.

1 Kings 11:7

English Standard Version

Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 4:1-9

English Standard Version

Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews [Judeans]. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building – if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” 

4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. 6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. 

7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs [not Arabs from Mizra. Arabians meaning, in the eastern peninsula of Arabia – probably Joktan] and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites [Philistines] heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. 9 And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

The Medes and Persians had allowed captives from Judah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its walls and Temple compound. Tobiah the Ammonite was one who mocked their efforts.

Jeremiah 40:11-16

English Standard Version

11 Likewise, when all the Judeans who were in Moab and among the Ammonites and in Edom and in other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over them, 12 then all the Judeans returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance. 13 Now Johanan the son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah 

14 and said to him, “Do you know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam would not believe them. 15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah at Mizpah, “Please let me go and strike down Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no one will know it. Why should he take your life, so that all the Judeans who are gathered about you would be scattered, and the remnant of Judah would perish?” 16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “You shall not do this thing, for you are speaking falsely of Ishmael.” [Ishmael (not Abraham’s son) did assassinate Gedaliah]

Jeremiah 49:1-6 

English Standard Version

Concerning the Ammonites. Thus says the Lord: “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcom [a prominent god of Ammon, with Molech] dispossessed Gad and his people settled in its cities? 2 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will cause the battle cry to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound, and its villages shall be burned with fire; then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord. 3 “Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! [the descendants of Lot’s youngest daughter] Put on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the hedges! For Milcom shall go into exile, with his priests and his officials.4 Why do you boast of your valleys, O faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’ 

5 Behold, I will bring terror upon you, declares the Lord God of hosts, from all who are around you, and you shall be driven out, every man straight before him, with none to gather the fugitives. 6 “But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the Lord.”

In modern times, France and Quebec have been blessed with wealth and abundance.

Ezekiel 21:28-32

English Standard Version

28 “And you, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter. It is polished to consume and to flash like lightning – 29 while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you – to place you on the necks of the profane wicked, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment. 30 Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you. 31 And I will pour out my indignation upon you; I will blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, [similar to the fire inflicted on Sodom]and I will deliver you into the hands of brutish men, skillful to destroy. 32 You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken.” 

The punishment decreed at the end of the latter days when the Son of Man returns. Many nations will suffer similar fates and some because of their attitude and treatment of the sons of Jacob.

Ezekiel 25:1-11

English Standard Version

The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. 3 Say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God, Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, andover the house of Judah when they went into exile, 4 therefore behold, I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments among you and make their dwellings in your midst. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. 5 I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a fold for flocks. 

Then you will know that I am the Lord. 6 For thus says the Lord God: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, 7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

8 “Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir said, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,’ 9 therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab [France] from the cities, from its cities on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 I will give it along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations, 11 and I will execute judgments upon Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Whether this prophecy is dual, with a future fulfilment, time will tell. The people of the east in the past as well as today includes a number of alternatives. It could mean a dominant near neighbour and relative as in Ishmael, who originally dwelt in the east, known as Arabia or alternatively the wilderness. Secondly and unlikely, Assyria or Russia – the king of the North – as they spared Moab and the Ammonites in the past as well as predicted for the future – Daniel 11.41. As it appears to be the far future, possibly further distant than the King of the North timeframe, it could mean the far East and descendants of Japheth – such as Magog, Tubal and Meschech [Revelation 16:12] – in partial ironic fulfilment of the sons of Japheth dwelling in the tents of Shem – Genesis 9:27.

Daniel 11:40-41

English Standard Version

40 “At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack  him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with chariots and horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall come into countries and shall overflow and pass through. 41 He shall come into the glorious land. And tens of thousands shall fall, but these shall be delivered out of his [Asshur’s] hand [Russia]: Edom and Moab [France]and the main part of the Ammonites [Paris and north western France].

The French Canadians heralded from principally the north and western regions of France, particularly Normandy and Poitou. Every region with direct access to the Ocean and with a tradition of long-term fishing expeditions, attracted migrants to New France. Apparently, French Canadian soldiers were surprised when they landed in Normandy, discovering how much Norman French was like their own dialect.

The Tribe of Benjamin are the Normans, Peter Salemi – emphasis & bold mine:

‘A review of census records for the year 1700 reveals that of New France’s French-speaking colonists, 29% came from the provinces of Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge, and Angoumois in the mother country; 22% from Normandy and Perche; 15% from Paris and Ile-de-France; 13% from Anjou, Touraine, Beauce, and Maine; 9% from Brittany, Picardy, and Champagne; 5% from Limousin, Périgord, and Guyenne; 7% from other regions. 

Thus over 50% of immigrants to Quebec, and possibly much more, came from north of the Loire river in France, i.e., areas of Norman, Breton, and Frankish settlement.In addition, many of the Seigneurs (Lords) of Quebec, e.g., the families of de Lotbinière, Panet, Montizambert, etc., were Norman, who left Normandy in 1686.’

Amos 1:13-15

English Standard Version

13 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. 14 So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds, with shouting on the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; 15 and their king shall go into exile, he and his princes together,” says the Lord.

Zephaniah 2:8-10

Amplified Bible

“I have heard the taunting of Moab [and] the revilingsof the sons of Ammon, With which they have taunted My people And become arrogant against their territory [by violently and cruelly violating Israel’s boundary and trying to seize its land]. 9 “Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, “Moab will in fact become like Sodom [and] the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah, [a]land possessed by nettlesand salt pits, And a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them And what is left of My nation will inherit them [as their own].”10 This they shall have in return for their pride, because they have taunted and become arrogant against the people of the Lord of hosts. 

Ammon had no authority to try to possess Gilead or take it from Israel. The sitting on the sidelines and relishing Judah’s downfall and subsequent captivity at the hands of the Chaldeans, has also been a cause of Ammon and particularly Moab, receiving retribution [Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans and Chapter XXX Judah & Benjamin – the Regal Tribes].

An important person mentioned earlier from the line of Ammon was Naamah, a royal princess of Ammon – not to be confused with the daughter of evil Lamech prior to the Flood. An additional reason for the sons of Jacob not to wage war and destroy Ammon and Moab. Her name means ‘sweet, lovely’ or ‘pleasant’ from the verb naem. Naamah married Solomon before he became king in 970 BCE. Their son, Rehoboam was born in 971 BCE. Naamah provided the heir to the throne of Judah and she is the only wife of Solomon, mentioned by name in the Bible. Naamah is also only one of two foreign Queen Mothers of Israel or Judah, with Jezebel – a Princess of Tyre and the daughter of the Phoenician King Ethbaal. Naamah, may well have been an influence on Solomon who later turned away from the Eternal, to worship Ammonite and Moabite gods.

1 Kings 14:21-23

English Standard Version

21 Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. 22 And [the House of] Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree… [refer Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]

15 Fun Quebec City Facts, Nadeen White, 2018 – capitalisation hers, emphasis & bold mine:

‘Quebec City is also known simply as Quebec [similar to Rabbah of the Ammonites]. It is located in the Canadian province of Quebec… [and] is the capital city… [as well as] the second largest city… Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec. 

Quebec is a French speaking province [and] is the official language… Approximately 80% of the residents speak French as their native language… It is the oldest French speaking [region] in North America. However, English is [also widely] spoken by most residents… Old Quebec is surrounded by fortified city walls [It is the only remaining walled city in North America north of Mexico] that were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985… 

Quebec produces a LOT of maple syrup… I had no idea that Canada produces about 70% of the world’s pure maple syrup. Out of that 70% about 90% is from the province of Quebec. Most of the maple syrup produced in the U.S. comes from Vermont. 

In 2010 the Province of Quebec produced roughly 7,989,000 gallons of maple syrup while Vermont produced roughly 890,000 gallons. Quebec isn’t just French… there are many Irish people here too! There is actually a large Irish community in Quebec. During the 17th century, Irish inhabitants of France were sent to Quebec to help populate the area. Historians estimate that about 40% of the population in Quebec is of Irish descent.

This is a startling fact and the Irish component in Quebec is more than interesting, it is of great significance. When we study the Irish and the British descended peoples of Canada, their relationship with the French Ammonites of Quebec will be fascinatingly evident. Quebec is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and during the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s a large number of Irish Catholics, migrated to Canada and Quebec. 

The Province of Quebec comprises nearly one-sixth of Canada’s total land area; is the largest of Canada’s ten provinces; and possesses an abundance of mineral wealth. The site of Quebec City, originally occupied by an Indian village named Stadacona, was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535. Quebec Province and city were formally French until being ceded to Great Britain in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris. This was the result of the famous Battle of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham – interesting coincidence – adjacent to the city in 1759, where the French were defeated. Later, Great Britain reinforced its military defences of the city in time to repel an attack during the American Revolution in the second Battle of Quebec in 1775. 

The arrival of displaced Loyalists following American independence, increased Quebec’s population and so did trade with Britain, much of it through the port of Quebec. Up until the mid-nineteenth century, Quebec’s economy was centred on French and then British mercantilism. The British Parliament passed the Constitutional Act of 1791, which split the large colony of Quebec into two provinces: Upper Canada – now the province of Ontario – and Lower Canada, now the province of Quebec. Quebec city, formerly the capital of the colony, remained the capital of Lower Canada.

After the British takeover of New France, Montreal – founded in 1642 and the second largest Canadian city after Toronto – gained the dominant economic position in the province, whereas Quebec remained an important port. Quebec is the second most populous province of Canada after Ontario with 8,604,500 people. ‘On November 27, 2006, the House of Commons passed a symbolic motion moved by Prime Minister Stephen Harper declaring “that this House recognize that the Quebecois [Francophones] form a nation within a united Canada.”However, there is considerable debate and uncertainty over what this means. The debate over the status of Quebec is a highly animated one to this day.’ 

Nearly half of the total population of Quebec are descendants of the ten thousand original French settlers. When the Dominion of Canada was established in 1867, French Canadians accounted for one-third of the newly formed country’s population. In 1974, French was made the official language in Quebec province. Between 1897 and 1936, Quebec competed with Ontario for domestic and foreign investment. Montreal was the headquarters of the national banks, the insurance corporations and the railway companies. Even so, Ontario, because of its proximity to the United States, its shared language and the vast amounts of hydroelectric power at Niagara Falls, was more attractive for United States investment. An ensuing struggle developed between Montreal and Toronto, with Toronto eventually gaining the upper hand.

The colony of New France included Acadia, with its first capital in Port-Royal in 1605. ‘The term Acadia today refers to regions of North America that are historically associated with the lands, descendants, or culture of the former region [in north eastern Canada]. It particularly refers to regions of The Maritimes with Acadian roots, language, and culture, primarily in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the Magdalen Islands, and Prince Edward Island, as well as in Maine.It can also refer to the Acadian diaspora in southern Louisiana, a region also referred to as Acadiana. In the abstract, Acadia refers to the existence of an Acadian culture in any of these regions. People living in Acadia are called Acadians which changed to Cajuns in Louisiana, the American pronunciation of Acadians.’ 

The word Acadia is similar to Akkad[ia] of Babylon and Acadian parallels the name, Akkadian. The original peoples of Akkad were descendants of Arphaxad and his great grandson Peleg. They were related to or from the peoples of Haran and Nahor. As Haran’s children include the modern French it is a notable association. Explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano is credited in originating the designation Acadia on his 16th century map, where he applied the ancient Greek name Arcadia to the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia. 

‘Arcadia’ is derived from the district in ancient Greece, ‘which had the extended meanings of ‘refuge’ or ‘idyllic place’.’ By the time of de Champlain, it was La Cadie without the r.In the Mi’ kmaq language, Cadie means ‘fertile land.’ We will revisit the link between the French and the ancient Greeks. A fascinating side note of history and all the more interesting once it is understood that the French Canadians are descended from Ammon; as well as the indirect parallel with Lot’s daughters, are the eight hundred women that most French Canadians are literally descended from. 

CBC, Filles du Roi, 2017 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘It’s 1663. New France has a population problem. To dominate the fur trade along the St. Lawrence River, New France needs people. Britain’s colonies to the south have 18 times as many settlers as New France. Britain has a wide-open policy on who can come to the colonies, meaning Brits from all walks of life are risking the perilous ocean voyage. France, on the other hand, has banned Protestants from going to New France. The British colonies have a farming-based economy, meaning men bring their wives over and have families, whereas the French settlers are mostly fur trappers and missionaries. That population gap is only getting wider. Britain’s colonies are growing, but in New France, which has only one woman for every six men, the population is stuck.

To help fix New France’s gender imbalance, two men come up with an innovative idea: Jean Talon (Intendant of the colony) and King Louis XIV decide to import young women to the colony to marry male settlers. The women would be known as the Filles du Roior “Daughters of the King.” Almost all the women are poor. Many are orphans. 

[Between the years 1663 to 1673, these women of marriageable age came from Rouen in the province of Normandy, La Rochelle in Aunis and included beggars and orphans from the streets of Paris]. One in 10 doesn’t survive the voyage from France. For the 800 women who make it, France pays for the women’s passage and provides a dowry… from the royal treasury. 

The women are also given a hope chest containing, among other things, a pair of hose, a pair of shoes, a bonnet, gloves, a comb, a belt and various sewing supplies. The Filles du Roi step off their boats into a foreign landscape. It Is a sparsely populated, heavily wooded wilderness. Many of them are from France’s cities and are about to get a harsh introduction to the backbreaking world of 17th century farm labour. Canadian winter will be unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. And in the coming years, many of them are going to be pregnant more often than not.

As daunting as that sounds, all of the Filles du Roi come to New France voluntarily. Even with the cold climate and hard toil, life in New France has advantages over the lives they left behind. Unlike many women at the time, the Filles du Roi are allowed to choose their husbands. Admittedly, they’re choosing from a very small pool – the population of New France is just over 3,000 and includes a disproportionately high number of priests. The women meet potential suitors in a series of chaperoned, interview-like “dates.”

The meetings are presided over by Jean Talon himself, along with Ursuline nun Marie Guyart… The women sail down the St. Lawrence, stopping first at Quebec City, then Trois-Rivieres, and eventually making their way to Montreal. At every stop, they have to make a choice; go with one of the men there, or see if there’s a better husband waiting down river. The women are given 50 livres – the equivalent of roughly $1,000 today – as a dowry. As poor women without dowries, finding a husband (let alone one they liked), would have been nearly impossible in France. There are other advantages, too. Abundant food means that women in New France live longer than their peers in Europe.

Families with more than 10 children get an additional annual pension of 300 livres ($6,000) from the crown. The program leads to a population explosion unlike anything Canada has seen since. The average family has five children – almost twice as many as the “Baby Boom” that follows WWII. The population of New France more than doubles in a decade. Two-thirds of today’s French-Canadians can trace their ancestry back to one of these 800 women. Their influence was felt outside Quebec, as well. Some famous Americans also claim a Fille du Roi as an ancestor, including Hiliary Clinton, Madonna and Angelina Jolie. There are very few first-hand accounts of the lives of the Filles du Roi. Few of them could read or write.Their histories have largely been told by subsequent generations. That said, one thing we know with absolute certainty: the Quebec we know today owes a lot to the fortitude of these incredibly tough women.’

Moab is Ammon’s elder brother and comprises the bulk of the French people. In the past, his peoples were also more numerous and they interacted with the sons of Jacob constantly through conventional warfare – unlike the guerrilla tactics of the Ammonites. The name Abarim – which has been an invaluable biblical word definition and concordance website – was actually a mountain range in the land of Moab.

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The name Moab meaning: Who Is Your Father?, Water Of A Father from (1) (mi), who, or (may), “water of …”, and (2) the noun (‘ab), father

The etymology and original meaning of the name Moab is unknown. The word moab is foreign to Hebrew… However, to a creative Hebrew audience, the name may have sounded like a compilation of two elements: the interrogative particle (me), what or (mi), who… The noun (‘ab) means father… It’s unclear where this word (‘ab) comes from but the verb abu means to decide.

Thus the name Moab would carry the meaning of Who’s… or What’s Your Father? a rhetorical question to which the story may easily give rise. Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names takes a different approach and goes with the word (may), meaning water… Water represents the great unknown from which the dry land of the known emerges. Thus Jones reads Water Of A Father, and explains this to mean seed or progeny. The problem here is that semen is never referred to as a father’s waters.

The name Ar meaning: City from the noun (‘ir), city

The name Ar (or more complete: Ar of Moab – see Numbers 21:28) was a city on the southern shore of the river Arnon (Numbers 21:15). When YHWH delivers his famous “do not harass Moab” sermon, he declares that he gave Ar to the sons of Lot (which would be the Ammonites and the Moabites – Deuteronomy 2:9). Much later, the prophet Isaiah declares his blood curdling prophecies against Moab, and foretells its utter destruction, along with Kirof Moab (Isaiah 15:1).

Adjectives (‘ariri) and (‘ar’ar) mean stripped, childless or destitute. Noun (me’ara) literally means “place of being stripped” and is the Bible’s common word for cave. Verb (‘ur I) means to rouse oneself – literally to collect and bundle one’s feelings. Noun (‘ir) means excitement. Identical verb (‘ur II) means to be exposed or laid bare. Noun (ma’or) means nakedness and noun (ma’arom) means naked one. Adjectives (‘erom), (‘erom), (‘arom) and (‘arom) mean naked. Noun (‘or) means skin or hide. Verb (‘ara) also means to be naked or bare. Nouns (‘ara), (ma’ara) and (ma’ar) refer to bare or exposed places. Nouns (‘erwa) and (‘erya) mean nakedness or exposure. Noun (ta’ar) denotes a thing that makes bare: a razor or sheath of a sword.

The name Kir meaning: Wall from the noun (qir), wall 

The noun (qarqa’) means floor; earth trampled into a compact state. The verb (qarqar) means to forcibly compact, to pound down. Verb (qara), and its by-form (qara’), mean to near, to meet or to happen upon. Noun (qora) describes a rafter or beam; the things that come together to form a roof, and which obviously relate to bricks pieced into a wall. Nouns (qareh) and (miqreh) mean chance or accident, fortune or fate. Noun (qeri)means opposition, contrariness. 

For this same reason, the nouns (qiryah) and (qeret) are the words for city and federation of cities.Adjective (qari’) means called or summoned… And noun (miqra’) means convocation or called assembly. Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has A Wall, A Fortress, but this word for wall typically doesn’t refer to a military wall.’

Numbers 21:28-29

English Standard Version

28 For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed the heights of the [River] Arnon. 29 Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters captives, to an Amorite king, Sihon.

Ar and Kir of Moab appear to be the most prominent settlements of Moab. Today, they could equate to the capital Paris and possibly the principal port – also the second biggest city – Marseille. The numbers of the Israelites and their series of military victories became a serious concern to Moab; though Moab was unaware of the Eternal’s edict to the sons of Jacob: to not attack Moab and Ammon. In a preemptive strike, King Balak of Moab, summoned a Seer and Prophet to pronounce a curse on the sons of Jacob. Though the best laid plan did not eventuate as the Moabites would have hoped.

Numbers 22:1-41

English Standard Version

Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. 

2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. 4 And Moab said to the elders of Midian [descendants from Abraham and his second wife, Keturah], “This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” So Balak the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, 5 sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the people of Amaw, to call him, saying, 

“Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth [estimates account for three million plus people, including 600,000 fighting men able to take up arms], and they are dwelling opposite me.Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.” 

7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand. And they came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message… 9 And God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” 10 And Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me…

12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” 13 So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.” 14 So the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.” 15 Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these.  

16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, 17 for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me.’” 18 But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. 19 So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.” 20 And God came to Balaam at night andsaid to him,“If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.” 21 So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.

22 But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand [like a Cherub – Genesis 3:24]. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road… 28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” … 31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. 

32 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” 34 Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” 35 And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

36 When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab [Ar], on the border formed by the Arnon, at the extremity of the border… 38 Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.” 39 Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. 40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent for Balaam and for the princes who were with him. 41 And in the morning Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal…

In Numbers Twenty-three, Balaam does not curse Israel but speaks of the blessings given them by the Creator. In Numbers Twenty-four, Balaam then precedes to curse the enemies of the sons of Jacob after adding a blessing to the Israelites.

Numbers 24:10-14, 17

English Standard Version

10 And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. 11 Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, ‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” 12 And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, 13 ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’? 14 And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.”17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near [the promised Messiah]: a star [blessing of Ephraim] shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter [blessing of Judah] shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.

Deuteronomy 2:9-11

English Standard Version

9 And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar [the capital] to the people of Lot for a possession.’ 10 The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim.

Deuteronomy 34:1-8

English Standard Version

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan [the far north east], 2 all Naphtali [the north], the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea [the far south west], 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 

So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he [the Eternal] buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 Andthe people of Israel wept for Mosesin the plains of Moab thirty days…

Judges 3:12-14, 26-30

English Standard Version

12 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 

13 He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites [grandson of Esau],and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms. 14 And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

26 Ehud [second Judge of Israel from the tribe of Benjamin] escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. 28 And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. 29 And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years [Ehud was a Judge of Israel for the same period from 1284 to 1204 BCE].

A famous descendant of Moab and ancestor of King David, as mentioned previously, is Ruth. Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The name Ruth means: Friend, Associate, Vision, View from the noun (rea’), friend or companion and from the noun (re’ut), a looking or understanding.

Ruth was the Moabite wife of Mahlon, son of Elimelech and Naomi of Bethlehem. Their other son, Chilion, married Orphah also of Moab. When the men die [in battle with Israel], Ruth and Naomi move back to Bethlehem, where Ruth marries Boaz. In order to do so, Boaz appeals to the Leviratic Law, which dictates that when a man dies childless, his brother is to marry his widow and sire children in the name of the deceased man (Ruth 4:10, Deuteronomy 25:5). Ruth and Boaz become the parents of Obed, the grandparents of Jesse and the great-grandparents of David, thegreat king of Israel, and finally the ancestors of Jesus…

Verb (ra’a I) means to pasture or feed and the participle (ra’a) means shepherd… Verb (ra’a II) means to associate with. Nouns (rea’), (re’eh) and (merea’) mean friend, associate or “neighbor”. Nouns (ra’ya), (re’a) and (re’ut) describe a female attendant, mate or friend. Scholars who follow this root group see the name Ruth as a feminine derivation of the root (ra’a II), meaning to associate with, or be a friend of. And thus, they say, the name Ruth means (Lady-) Friend or (Lady-) Companion. The… NOBSE Study Bible Name List agrees and reads Female Companion for a meaning of the name Ruth. The… Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) proposes a different etymology and goes after the root (ra’a), meaning to see… The verb (ra’a) means to see, and by extension to understand. It may mean to become visible (of, say, an angel) or to become understandable (of, say, a theory). Noun (ro’eh) means either seer, or prophetic vision, and noun (mar’a) means either vision as means of revelation, or mirror.

Specifically, Jones sees the name Ruth as a contraction of the noun (re’ut), meaning look. Hence, for a meaning of the name Ruth, Jones reads Beauty but perhaps better would be Vision. There’s no telling whether to an ancient Hebrew audience the name Ruth sounded like Female Friend or Beauty, but all-in-all Ruth is quite a name.’

Ruth 1:15-18

English Standard Version

15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law [Orphah] has gone back to her people and to her gods [Chemosh]; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem [in Judah] at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 2:1-20

English Standard Version

Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” … 8 Then Boaz said to Ruth… “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done… 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.” “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 And Naomi said… “The man is a close relative of ours…

Ruth 3:1-14

English Standard Version

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? 2 Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 3 Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor… 4 when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.”

8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! 

9 He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” 10 And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord… in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. 11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. 14 So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another [comparable to, yet in contrast with the scenario involving Lot and his daughters].

Some scholars maintain that Ruth and Boaz had an intimate relationship before they married. In contradistinction to her ancestor – the elder daughter of Lot – Ruth did not entice Boaz into temptation. The terms used in verse four do have sexual connotations, as Ruth was showing that she wanted to be married. The word uncover, means to make visible, to be naked. In this case, Boaz’s feet were exposed. They then became cold and hence Boaz woke up naturally. Some commentators state that feet here, are a euphemism for sexual organs. This is very tenuous at best.

‘And lie down…’ This can also have sexual connotations, though only when paired with the Hebrew terms eṯ and ‘im [with] as in passages such as Genesis 19:32-35; Exodus 22:15; Leviticus 18:22; Deuteronomy 22:22; 1 Samuel 2:22 and 2 Samuel 11:4. The text says that she ‘lay at his feet until morning.’ Ruth slept there until morning, not that she slept with Boaz until morning. Though it could be interpreted as morally questionable to have a woman spend the night with a single man; Boaz kept Ruth with him until morning, because of the dangers of her going home alone in the middle of the night. It was more honourable to protect her until just before dawn, so that she could slip away before first light.

‘Spread your wings over your servant…’ means Ruth asked Boaz to spread his covering over her – a Hebrew idiom for marriage – Ezekiel 16:8; Deuteronomy 22:30; 27:20 and Malachi 2:16. Ruth probably visited at night to maintain privacy, so that Boaz wouldn’t feel pressured into making a public decision to marry her. Boaz was asleep and when he awoke, the text says he was ‘startled.’ If Boaz had just engaged in sex with Ruth, he obviously wouldn’t have been startled. Boaz also refers to Ruth as a ‘worthy woman.’ This is the same phrase used for a godly wife in Proverbs 31:10. He would hardly say these words after just engaging in fornication. Boaz was careful to keep and follow the kinsman-redeemer laws, even though he clearly loved Ruth and wanted to marry her; this highlights his integrity towards Ruth, not sexual permissiveness.

Ruth 4:9-17

English Standard Version

9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife… 

11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, 12 and may your house be like the house of Perez [Pharez, a royal line], whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.” 13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her [the first time], and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son… 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

2 Samuel 8:2

English Standard Version

And he [King David] defeated Moab and he measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death, [!] and one full line to be spared [1/3].And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.

2 Kings 3:4-27

English Standard Version

4 Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. 5 But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6 So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. 7 And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to battle against Moab?” And he said, “I will go. I am as you are, my people [Houses of Judah and Benjamin] as your people [Kingdom of Ten Tribes of Israel], my horses as your horses.” 8 Then he said, “By which way shall we march?” Jehoram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of Edom.”

So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. 10 Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” 11 And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?” Then one of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here,who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” 12 And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

13 And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” 

14 And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. 15 But now bring me a musician.” And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. 16 And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry streambed full of pools.’ 17 For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals.’ 

18 This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand, 19 and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop up all springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones.”[!] 20 The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water. [Recall, a definition of Moab is ‘water of a father.’]

21 When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out and were drawn up at the border. 22 And when they rose early in the morning and the sun shone on thewater, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. 23 And they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely fought together and struck one another down. Now then, Moab, to the spoil!” 24 But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose and struck the Moabites, till they fled before them. And they went forward, striking the Moabites as they went. 25 And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone until it was covered. They stopped every spring of water and felled all the good trees, till only its stones were left in Kir-hareseth [not the Kir of Moab], and the slingers surrounded and attacked it. 26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him 700 swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom, but they could not. 

27 Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on thewall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.

These were severely harsh measures and war atrocities by the Israelites towards the Moabites. Not a big surprise that hatred brewed and raged within Moab. The sons of Jacob were disobeying the command to not harass or contend in war with Moab and then added cruelty to make it immensely worse.

2 Kings 16:9

English Standard Version

… The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus [Aram-Gether] and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir [of Moab], and he killed Rezin [the king of Damascus].

Psalm 60:7-8

English Standard Version

7 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter. 8Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

Isaiah 15:1-9

English Standard Version

… Because Ar of Moab [the capital] is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir of Moab [the second city] is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone.2 He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. On every head is baldness; every beard is shorn; 3 in the streets they wear sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears.4… the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles. 5 My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to ZoarFor at the ascent of Luhith [possible neighbouring great grandson of Abraham and Keturah – Genesis 25:3] they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction… 8 For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; her wailing reaches to Eglaim; her wailing reaches to Beer-elim. 9 For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; for I will bring upon Dibon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land.

Isaiah 16:1-13

English Standard Version

Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion. 2 Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon… 4 let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, 5 then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.”We have heard of the pride of Moab – how proud he is! – of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.

Moab’s pride is their biggest stumbling block

Job 41:34 RSV: 

“[They behold] everything that is high;[they (the Adversary) are a ruler] over all the [children] of pride.”

Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth. 8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches… And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting. 11 Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth. 

12 And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail. 13 This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. 14 But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”

Germany has an eagle, the United Kingdom has a lion and Spain has a bull; France have a rooster as a symbol and mascot. The origin of this emblem dates back to the Gallic origins of the French nation when the Romans laughed at Gauls because of a linguistic pun. In Latin, the word gallus means Gaul, but also cockerel. The supposed stubbornness and brazen pride of the people was to be turned on its head as the French took the bird to their hearts as an icon of their nation. The French kings adopted the rooster as a symbol of courage and bravery. During the French Revolution, the cockerel became a symbol of the people and the State and was engraved on coins. Napoleon preferred the eagle – the symbol of imperial Rome – but the rooster won out over the raptor, as an apt symbol for French pride. The rooster is visible throughout France: on French stamps, at the entrance of the Élysée Palace, on jerseys of French football, rugby and handball teams and on the shirts of Olympic athletes. Mercury was often portrayed with the cockerel; a sacred animal among the Continental Celts. 

Jeremiah 48:1-30, 38-47

English Standard Version

2 …the renown of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they planned disaster against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!’ You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue you. 3 …’Desolation and great destruction!’ 4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have made a cry… 6 Flee! Save yourselves! You will be like a juniper in the desert! 7 For, because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be taken; and Chemosh shall go into exile with his priests and his officials… 9 “Give wings to Moab, for she would fly away; her cities shall become a desolation, with no inhabitant in them. 

11 “Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile; so his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. 12 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I shall send to him pourers who will pour him, and empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces. 13 Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. 14 “How do you say, ‘We are heroes and mighty men of war’? 15 The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up, and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter, declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. 16 The calamity of Moab is near at hand, and his affliction hastens swiftly. 17 Grieve for him, all you who are around him, and all who know his name; say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff.’

18 “Come down from your glory, and sit on the parched ground, O inhabitant of Dibon! For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you; he has destroyed your strongholds… 20 Moab is put to shame, for it is broken; wail and cry! Tell it beside the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste. 21 “Judgment has come upon the tableland… and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. 25 The horn [symbol of power] of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares the Lord. 26 “Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the Lord, so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. 27 Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head? 28 “Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, O inhabitants of Moab!

29 … We have heard of the pride of Moab – he is very proud – of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart. 30 I know his insolence, declares the Lord; his boasts are false, his deeds are false. 

38 On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a vessel for which no one cares, declares the Lord. 39 How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all that are around him.”

40 For thus says the Lord: “Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Moab; 41 the cities shall be taken and the strongholds seized. The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains; 42 Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people, because he magnified himself against the Lord… For I will bring these things upon Moab, the year of their punishment, declares the Lord. 45 “In the shadow of Heshbon fugitives stop without strength, for fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the house of Sihon; it has destroyed the forehead of Moab, the crown of the sons of tumult. 46 Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons have been taken captive, and your daughters into captivity. 47 Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the Lord.” Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

Ezekiel 25:8-11

English Standard Version

8 “Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir said, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,’ 9 therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab from the cities, from its cities on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 I will give it along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations, 11 and I will execute judgments upon Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Amos 2:1-3

English Standard Version

Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom. 

2 So I will send a fire upon Moab [reminiscent of Sodom’s fate], and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amid uproar, amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet; 3 I will cut off the ruler from its midst, and will kill all its princes with him,” says the Lord.

Daniel 2:32-39

English Standard Version

32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 39 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 

Daniel 7:6

English Standard Version

6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

Daniel 8:20-22

English Standard Version

As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. 21 And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king [Alexander the Great]. 22 As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power.

Previously, we learned that the head of gold was the Chaldean Empire – the ancestors of the Northern & Central Italians [refer Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans] – of Babylon, represented by a lion with wings. Also, one leg of iron was the Byzantine, Eastern Roman Empire – comprising the ancestors of the Russians [refer Chapter XX  Will the Real Assyria Stand Up: Asshur & Russia] – represented as half of a monstrous beast. The chest and arms of silver was the Medo-Persian empire – the ancestors of the Turko-Mongol and Turkish peoples [refer Chapter IV Central Asia – Madai & the Medes and Chapter XVIII Elam & Turkey] – represented by a bear, as well as a ram. 

The torso and thighs are representative of the Greco-Macedonian empire – the ancestors of the French – which toppled the Medes and Persians. 

Alexander III or the Great, defeated Persia in 331 BCE and the power of Greece lasted until 146 BCE, when it became a protectorate of the burgeoning Roman empire. After Alexander, who reigned briefly yet emphatically from 336 to 323 BCE and the subsequent seven short-lived emperor reigns from 323 to 288 BCE, four divisions of the Greek empire arose, each led by one of Alexander’s generals. Ptolemy from281 to 279 BCE, administered Egypt and North Africa; Seleucus in 281 BCE governed Syria, Asia Minor and the East. Lysimachus during 288 to 285 BCE, took control of Thrace – until it united with Greece and Macedonia – and Cassander from 315 to 297 BCE, who ruled over Macedonia and Greece. 

The two thighs of Nebuchadnezzar’s statute represent the distinct Macedonian and Greek components of the Empire – in other words, Ammon and Moab. The Greco-Macedonian empire was more robust and stronger than the two preceding empires, as evidenced by being likened to bronze as opposed to gold or silver. Militarily, it defeated its enemies with raw power and speed unlike any before it, as evidenced by the agile goat compared to the ram of Persia and the lighter leopard in contrast to the heavier and slower bear of Persia, as well as the lion of Chaldea. 

Alexander, with the agility of a goat crossed the Hellespont after conquering neighbouring, yet related Grecia and began his march to revenge the humiliation inflicted upon Greece by Xerxes a century before. Alexander Conquered Troy, then met Persian opposition at Granicus. After subjugating all of Asia Minor, he battled a host of supposedly half a million Persians, whom Darius III – king from 336 to 330 BCE – had assembled. They met in the plain of Issus on November 5, 333 BCE and Alexander slaughtered the greatly superior Persian force – outnumbered two to one – and broke the back of Persian opposition. Proceeding southward, city after city fell without a real fight except for Tyre in 332 BCE and Gaza, which were both subdued after sieges.

Marching southwards to Egypt, Alexander conquered the entire country with little effort and founded the world renowned capital city of Alexandria. It became the largest city of the Hellenic world. Continuing east, he fought a third momentous battle against Persia on October 1, 331 BCE with Darius at Gaugamela and again defeated a greatly superior force. Alexander’s armies reached right to India, but his troops, weary with battle, refused to go further. Returning to Babylon, Alexander intended to make this the capital of his entire empire. Though he died a victim of his profligate eating, drinking and whoring, coupled with an attack of malaria at the age of thirty-three on June 11, 323 BCE. 

As brief as was his rule, his indelible mark on the world was permanent. The description of the leopard – one of the swiftest of animals and greatest, of predatory carnivores – portrays the lightning speed of attack of Alexander’s armies which was unprecedented. Alexander never lost a siege or battle – despite typically being outnumbered – from 338 to 325 BCE. His record is an entirely impressive, fought twenty, won twenty. 

The four wings on the back of the leopard not only represent agility and speed, but with the four heads, symbolise the fulfilled historic fact, that Alexander’s empire was eventually controlled by four principal generals. 

As John F Walvoord remarks: “The accuracy of this prophecy is so evident that liberal scholars who consider detailed prophecy an impossibility are forced to postulate that the entire book of Daniel is in fact a forgery written by a pseudo-Daniel who lived after these events of Alexander’s conquest had already taken place. This unwilling confession of the accuracy of Biblical prophecy is in itself most significant and a testimony to the accuracy of prophecy as a whole.”

Alexander the Great, thought, acted and fought on his gut instinct. The gut located in the lower torso as evidenced on Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. He was also influenced by his lower groin, in his private life. Some may say, ‘how very French.’ Cyrus the Great, as pictured by the chest, let his heart influence him when he fell for Esther from the tribe of Benjamin; allowing the tribe of Judah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and Temple. Nebuchadnezzar certainly depicted a more cerebral approach in his reign with his methodical deconstruction of his enemies and impressive building projects, as represented by the head of gold.

Alexander was born in Pella, the capital of Macedon and from age thirteen, was tutored by Aristotle until he was sixteen. His mother was Olympias, the fourth of eight wives and principal wife of Philip II of Macedon. Alexander was raised to read, play the lyre, ride, fight and hunt. His mother had huge ambitions and encouraged Alexander to believe it was his destiny to conquer the Persian Empire. He had a great desire for knowledge, a love for philosophy and was an avid reader. Though Alexander was impulsive, with a violent temper his intelligent and rational side was also demonstrated by his ability and success as a general and military strategist. It would seem he had an equal appreciation of men as he had for women, though both were lesser than his dependance on alcohol. 

There have been a succession of Greek ages. The ones dominated by Moab and Ammon were the later Classical age of Greece from 500 to 323 BCE and the Hellenistic era of 323 to 146 BCE. The sons of Lot were the ancestors of peoples living in Greece before these epochs, as were the sons of Jacob; stretching back to Archaic Greece during the centuries from 800 to 500 BCE and beyond to Ancient Greece, including the Mycenaean period of 1600 to 1200 BCE and the Dark age of Greece lasting from 1200 to 800 BCE.

University of Oxford, Professor of Classics and Ancient History, Simon Hornblower  – emphasis & bold mine:

‘… about 1200 BCE, to the death of Alexander… in 323 BCE. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic, and scientific achievements that formed a legacy with unparalleled influence on Western civilization.’

By the time frame comprising Classical Greece, the peoples of the region had begun to change in composition from those who had constituted Greece from 1600 BCE. The city-states up to approximately 1000 to 800 BCE had been reflective of different peoples. The rise of Macedon and its control of greater Greece saw the transition to the descendants of Ammon and Moab. The people of Troy and the greater Troad, were colonial descendants of Ammon and Moab and both the Trojans and the Macedonians were ancestors of the Frankish peoples who form modern day France. We will investigate the original founding of Troy, which is credited not to the sons of Lot but rather descendants of the tribe of Judah. The original peoples who had grouped primarily around Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Arcadia and Olympia were primarily colonies of the descendants of the sons of Jacob. In time, they were transplanted by the peoples of Moab and Ammon. The Spartans are similarly related, though they are not descendants of either Lot or Jacob. 

Italians and Race, Dr Orville Boyd Jenkins – emphasis & bold mine:

‘From pre-Roman times, it appears there was already a clear distinction of short, darker-skinned, dark-haired peoples from pre-history being [overlaid] and mixed with taller, sometimes larger built, blond and blue-eyed groups. It is now generally believed thatthe Greeks also were larger, blond and blue-eyed people, which was the case when Alexander the Great spread his forces and opened up colonies all over the Middle East and Egypt. This is also attested in frescos from the era, as well as in various references to their looks.’

Both the earlier Greeks, the sons of Jacob and later Greeks from Ammon and Moab are today broadly classed as Germanic or Teutonic. The French are a Germanic-Celtic, rather pseudo Latin mix. This inclusion of fairer skin, blond hair and blue eyes was attributable to both ‘sets’ of Greeks. Alexander the Great himself, no different, as various reports reveal. 

The Greek biographer Plutarch lived circa  45 to 120 CE, describes Alexander’s appearance as: ‘… for those peculiarities which many of his successors and friends afterwards tried to imitate, namely, the poise of the neck, which was bent slightly to the left, and the melting glance of his eyes, this artist has accurately observed… he was of a fair colour, as they say, and his fairness passed into ruddiness on his breast particularly, and in his face. Moreover, that a very pleasant odour exhaled from his skin and that there was a fragrance about his mouth and all his flesh, so that his garments were filled with it, this we have read in the Memoirs of Aristoxenus.’

Alexander Romance suggested that Alexander III possessed heterochromia iridium: that one eye was dark and the other light. British historian Peter Green compiled a description of Alexander’s appearance, based on his review of statues and ancient documents: ‘Physically, Alexander was not prepossessing. Even by Macedonian standards he was very short, though stocky and tough. His beard was scanty, and he stood out against his hirsute Macedonian barons by going clean-shaven. His neck was in some way twisted, so that he appeared to be gazing upward at an angle. His eyes (one blue, one brown) revealed a dewy, feminine quality. He had a high complexion and a harsh voice.’ Egyptian Historian Joann Fletcher has also said that Alexander had blond hair.

French men

Many people are intrigued by the amazing story of Troy. Three Hollywood feature films have been produced on the fantastic events, yet much of the scholarly community view it entirely as myth. Yet with all legends truth is within the tale, though admittedly it is difficult in this case to separate fact from fiction. 

Regardless, the Trojan war continues to stand out during the Dark age of Ancient Greece. The siege of Troy is said to have lasted some nine to ten years and its eventual fall, through the ruse of the Trojan Horse, occurred approximately, according to an unconventional chronology, between 1186 and 1184 BCE.

Those historians who believe the story of the Trojan War are derived from a real historical conflict, often use the dates given by Eratosthenes of 1194 to 1184 BCE; which roughly corresponds to the archaeological evidence of the catastrophic burning of Troy VII and a late Bronze Age collapse. Other researchers more recently, have dated the events somewhere between 1260 to 1180 BCE.

French women

The Trojan War Chronological, Historical and Archaeological Evidence, Gérard Gertoux – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The Trojan War is the foundation of Greek history. If Greek historians had little doubt of its existence they remained extremely sceptical regarding its mythological origin. Archaeology has confirmed one essential point: there was indeed a general conflagration in the Greek world around 1200 BCE, the assumed period of that war, which caused the disappearance of two powerful empires: 

Mycenaean on one hand and Hittite with its vassals on the other hand. The inscriptions of Ramses III’s [1184-1153 BCE] year 8 [1177 BCE] describe actually a general invasion of the Mediterranean by the “Sea Peoples”, but without giving any reason. 

A precise chronological reconstruction, based on a few absolute dates, shows that the annexation of the kingdom of Cyprus (Alasia), closely linked to the Mycenaean world, by Hittite King Tudhaliya IV played a role of detonator in the confrontation between a Greek heterogeneous confederation, consisting of pirates and privateers on one side and a set of vassal kingdoms of the Hittite empire, such as Troy and Ugarit, on the other. This struggle to control a vital sea path, from Crete to Egypt, via Cyprus, which ended with a complete mutual destruction in 1185 BCE, the climax of the famous Trojan War, had begun 10 years earlier. Surprisingly, this conclusion was already that of Eratosthenes (276-193). Historical and epigraphic context shows that Homer wrote his epic shortly after Queen Elissa founded Carthage (c. 870 BCE).’ 

The supposed mythic events surrounding the collapse of Troy begin when Paris – same name as future capital of France – a Prince of Troy and son of Priam who reigned from circa 1200 to 1185 BCE and the King of Troy, is visiting King Melenaus of Sparta and staying in the Spartan Palace. Paris knew of Melenaus’s wife Helen and had fallen in love with her. Paris hid Helen on his ship for the return voyage to Troy. Paris’s older brother Prince Hector did not agree with Paris, yet sailed home regardless. King Priam welcomed Helen and took her into the family as one of his own. Priam was reputed to have had fifty sons and twelve daughters. The city of Troy was splendidly wealthy and impregnable. Recall the prominent city of Kir of Moab, meaning wall.

Raging with revenge, King Melenaus of Sparta calls for the assistance and a favour from his brother King Agamemnon II who ruled Argos, circa 1202 to 1185 BCE. Though all closely related, the Trojans, Spartans or Dorians and the Achaean Greeks were different peoples. Agamemnon called in the services of Achilles, a killing machine and a fabled warrior of Demi-god stature. King Agamemnon had at his disposal a realistic number of approximately one hundred ships and ten thousand men, including allies from Athens. 

According to Thucydides, Agamemnon raised an enormous fleet utilising other Greek cities of close to twelve hundred Boeotian [100+ men] and Philoctetes [50 men] ships – with a force of some 60,000 to 130,000 troops. To end the decade long stalemate, Odysseus – an ally of Menelaus – devised the ruse of a giant hollow wooden horse, an animal that was sacred to the Trojans. Once inside Troys walls and the Trojans defeated, the Greeks burned the city and divided the spoils. Cassandra – Priam’s daughter who had warned not to take the horse inside the city – was apparently awarded to Agamemnon. Neoptolemus, a son of Achilles obtained Andromache, the wife of Hector – the son of Priam, who had been killed by Achilles – and Odysseus was given Hecuba, Priam’s wife. 

That most Achaean heroes did not return to their homes and instead founded colonies elsewhere was ‘interpreted by Thucydides as being due to their long absence.Nowadays the interpretation followed by most scholars is that the Achaean leaders driven out of their lands by the turmoil at the end of the Mycenaean era preferred to claim descent from exiles of the Trojan War.’ Simply, these Greeks migrated as all ancient peoples continually moved due to the search for better opportunities, usually prodded by other peoples pressing towards their territory, due to either population expansion, food shortages, famine or war. There was a continuous domino effect throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe of Shem’s descendants until peoples finally settled in their current geographical and political positions beginning from approximately 800 to 1000 CE.

The Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with a site in Anatolia on a peninsula called the Troad or now known as the Biga Peninsula, which forms the basis of Homer’s Iliad. Ironically, Alexander the Great later conquered the Troad and Troy, when it was part of the Persian Empire. He visited the site in 334 BCE and offered sacrifices at tombs associated with the Homeric heroes of Achilles and Patroclus his cousin, killed by Hector. Alexander was reputed to be related to Achilles via his mother who was apparently descended from a royal house. Troy is known in Greek as Troia; also by association with the region to the east, as Ilios or Ilion. In Latin, Troja or Ilium, as it was known during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. 

A large mound known locally as Hisarlik, had long been understood to hold the ruins of a city named Ilion or Ilium which had flourished in Hellenistic and Roman times. In 1822 Charles Maclaren a Scottish journalist, posited that this was the site of Homeric Troy; though for the next fifty years, his idea received little attention from Classical scholars, most of whom regarded the Trojan legend as a fictional creation based on myth and not history. ‘Those who did believe in the existence of a real Troy thought it to be at Bunarbashi (Pinarbasi), a short distance south of Hisarlik. It took Frank Calvert an English Levantine emigrant and scholarly amateur archaeologist, until 1860 to begin exploratory work on Hisarlik. It was he who persuaded the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann to work at Hisarlik, though Schliemann soon took full credit for adopting Maclaren’s identification and demonstrating to the world that it was correct.’

There are nine major periods of ancient Troy designated by archaeologists, that are labeled I to IX, starting from the bottom with the oldest settlement, Troy I. ‘In periods I to VII Troy was a fortified stronghold that served as the capital of the Troad and the residence of a king, his family, officials, advisers, retinue, and slaves. Troy VI and VII [are] assigned to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, circa 1900 to 1100 BCE. Based on the evidence of imported Mycenaean pottery, the end of Troy VIIa is dated to between 1260 and 1240 BCE. The Cincinnati expedition under Blengen concluded that Troy VIIa was very likely the capital of King Priam described in Homer’s Iliad, which was destroyed by the Greek armies of Agamemnon. 

The partly rebuilt Troy VIIb shows evidence of new settlers with a lower level of material culture, who vanished altogether by 1100 BCE. For about the next four centuries the site was virtually abandoned. The glorious and rich city Homer describes was believed to be Troy VI by many twentieth century authors, and destroyed about 1275 BC, probably by an earthquake. Its successor, Troy VIIa, was destroyed around 1180 BC; it was long considered a poorer city, and dismissed as a candidate for Homeric Troy, but since the excavation campaign of 1988, it has come to be regarded as the most likely candidate.’ 

I am not convinced with the VIIa and VIIb archaeological split. I would propose that VI is the same Troy as described by Homer and the same Troy which Priam was king of when it was destroyed. Troy VI included the height of its splendour from circa 1400 to 1180 BCE. What has been labeled VIIb, I would rename Troy VII. I agree that Troy VIIb was an attempt to rebuild, maintain and sustain a Troy that was now a shadow of its former grandeur and ultimately given up as a viable project by 1100 BCE. Is there an agenda to lessen Troy’s prestige during 1194 and 1184 BCE and thus discredit the whole saga’s validity. Possibly propaganda running parallel, are the accounts that assert there were very few survivors from Troy.

Homeric Troy is described as a wealthy and populous city, yet the idea of a lesser Troy: ‘a relatively minor settlement, perhaps [just] a princely seat’ is advanced by scholars. In 1988, Korfmann’s team searched the terrain surrounding the citadel site at Hisarlik, investigating the wider settlement. Korfmann’s findings from ‘geomagnetic surveying and isolated excavations, led him to conclude in favour of a greater Troy – that is, a settlement of some size and prosperity.’ 

The question of what language was spoken by the Trojans has been a burning question. No evidence of a Trojan language seems to have survived. It was thought that the Trojans were Greek, though they were not in the Achaean domain and actually opposed to the Achaeans. Both remain a mystery, until we understand the Trojans were descended from Moab and Ammon and the Greeks at this time were principally sons of Jacob. The animosity between the two peoples still alive and strong. Their differences not just due to culture but family lineage. Passages from the Iliad also allude that the Trojans were not Greek.

Who were the Trojans and where did they come from? Luciana Cavallaro, 2014 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Many scholars, including Carl Blengen American archaeologist who worked at the site in the 1930s, believed the Trojans were of Greek origin. This conjecture was attributed to the Greek names given to the characters in the Iliad but that isn’t the case. Homer mentioned a close relationship between the Trojan allies and in particular with the Dardanians.Excavations at the site of Troy/Ilios/Troya/Troia have found artefacts that showed the Trojans were in fact indigenous to the region and related to the Indo-European people who migrated to the area.

Archaeological investigations have surmised the people from Dardania and Troy shared a kinship, their ancestry a mixture of Anatolian and Luwians [the Luwians proper are the original Hatti. If these Dardanians are Luwians, then they could be related, just as the French (from Haran) are related to the Italians from Nahor – refer Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans]. The latter came from south eastern Anatolia [Asia-minor], a province the Romans later called Cilicia. The Greeks and Romans thought Dardania was a subset of Troy however it was the other way around. Troy was a state of Dardania [the region, though Dardania was also the name of a city].

There are also the names of the Trojans, given in Greek as the audience was Hellenistic and more recognisable. Alexander/Alaksandu, better known as Paris was first noted in Hittite text and ruler who established trading links with the Hittites. Wilusa, Hittite word for the Greek interpretation Ilios. Priam/Piyama-Radu and Hektor are considered indigenous names though the spelling of the former changed. The Greeks did migrate to the west coast of Asia Minor and there is evidence they settled in the famous city. This was identified as Troy VIII.’

As stated in the preceding article, one proposal is that the Indo-European Luwians who arrived in the western coastal region of Anatolia are the West-Luwian speakers of Arzawa, who migrated westward. Another theory is that the Dardanians were Thracians who crossed the Dardanelles, named after the Dardans. The remains of their material culture reveal close ties with Thracians and Anatolian groups, as well as some Greek contact. Added to this is that later, a Thraco-Illyrian tribal state, the Dar-dan-i, dwelt to the north of Mace-don

There is good cause to consider the Trojans and Greeks were offshoots and colonies from Lot and Jacob respectively. Like all colonial origins, they begin with migrants on board ships; in this case, from Canaan or Palestine. The descendants of Lot and Jacob would have been well aware of the Aegean-Grecian world via the Phoenician’s trade routes and the Mycenaean-Minoan – later Philistine – civilisation present there.

Dardania, the city purportedly founded by Dardanus, as well as the name also given to the region, was located in the northwestern corner of Anatolia and to the immediate north of Troy – facing modern Gallipoli across the Dardanelles. It is included as part of the Troad, the peninsula region at the far north-western corner of Asia-minor, now modern Turkey. Dardania historically has been defined as ‘a district of the Troad, lying along the Hellespont, southwest of Abydos, and adjacent to the territory of Ilium. Its people (Dardani) appear in the Trojan War under Aeneas, in close alliance with the Trojans, with whose name their own is often interchanged…’ Aeneas is referred to in Virgil’s Aeneid interchangeably as a Dardan or as a Trojan, but strictly speaking Aeneas was of the Dardanian branch.

Thus some consider the Dardanians or Dardans as being the same stock as the Trojans – Dardanian and Tojan being synonymous – while others like Homer distinguish the two as clearly identifiable people – not two branches of a single group. The answer includes both propositions; in that Moab and Ammon are the same stock, both having Lot as their father, yet they are also two separate lines from two different brothers. Therefore, two different though related peoples, combined through marriage. The twist is that the original Dardanus was not descended from Lot but rather from Jacob. The Dardanians and the Teucri or Teukroi are credited as collaborating in building Troy as a state. As information is scant and legend and history are fused, it is a challenge in constructing a reliable chronology regarding the original founders.  

Teucer’s father is recorded as the mythical Scamandrus born circa 1627 BCE; ruling his people from 1603 to 1581 BCE. It was at that time his territory was allegedly absorbed by the Dardanians. In Greek mythology the daughter of Teucer was Batea. Batea married Dardanus who subsequently inherits rulership from Teucer of the Teucri in 1581, lasting until 1550 BCE, under the name of the Dardanians. Probably, the Teucri represent the relatively indigenous northwestern Anatolians of the second millennium BCE, while the Indo-European Dardanians, the migratory arrivals integrated into Teucri society, but who very quickly dominated it. Dardanus was born circa 1675 BCE in the land of Goshen, while the sons of Jacob were living in Egypt; for Dardanus was from a royal line of Judah, the son of Jacob.

Dardanus had a son Ilus or Ilos, who ruled from 1550 to 1514 BCE; a king who died young and childless. Ilus’s younger brother, Erecthonius or Erictanus was born circa 1540 BCE and became king after Ilus. Erichthonius married Astyoche, daughter of the ‘river-god’ Simoeis, and she bore him a son, who was named Tros, who lived circa 1474 to 1415 BCE. Erichthonius was said to be the richest ruler in the world at that time, because he owned three thousand mares.

According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Dardanus had another son named Zacynthus by Bataea and Zacynthus was the first settler on the island afterwards called Zacynthus. Dionysius also said that Dardanus’s son Idaeus, gave his name to the Idaean mountains, that is Mount Ida, where Idaeus built a temple to the Mother of the Gods – that is to Cybele – and instituted mysteries and ceremonies still observed in Phrygia in Dionysius’s time. There are operas on the subject of Dardanus by Jean-Philippe Rameau [1739]. Interesting coincidence that the operas are composed by a Frenchman.

Tros is the family member credited as the ruler of the Trojans, whereby the origin of the name Troad, as well as its inhabitants, the Trojans derive. Tros married Callirrhoe and had three sons with her, including the youngest son, Ganymede. Tros bequeathed the rulership of the Trojans to – Ilos, who chose to be near the sea and strengthened Troy on the plain – his eldest son [not Ilos the son of Dardanus] and the rulership of Dardania, near Mount Ida, to his second son, Assaracus in 1415 BCE. Ilos founded the royal line of Ilium or Ilios which may equate to the Hittite [Hatti] Wilusa from [W]ilios. Assaracus and his Dardanian descendants maintained close links with their Trojan cousins. 

To give a context for the period of circa 1600 BCE with the approximate founding of Troy and the birth of Dardanus circa 1675 BCE through to 1415 BCE and the death of his grandson Tros: Moab and Ammon were born circa 1878 or 1877 BCE after the destruction of Sodom, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old. Similarly, Abraham’s son Isaac was born in 1877 BCE, when Abraham was one hundred years old. Jacob’s son Joseph died in 1616 BCE at the age of one hundred and ten in Egypt, but by the birth of Moses some ninety years later in 1527 BCE, the sons of Jacob were in bondage to a ruling Dynasty who did not remember Joseph – Exodus 1:8 [refer Appendix VII Moses & the Exodus: Fabrication or Fact?]. 

The exodus of the sons of Jacob from Egypt occurred in 1446 BCE, 430 years after Abraham’s 99th year – Exodus 12:40-41 and Galatians 3:17. The three hundred and seventy-five years during 1400 to 1025 BCE was the period of the Judges in Israel until Saul became king. The early period and then height of Troy encompassed the approximate period of four hundred and twenty years from 1600 to 1180 BCE. From 1400 BCE onwards, the Moabites and children of Ammon were at continual loggerheads with Israel. Moving to Dardania and Troy was an attractive proposition for those who had the financial means. It may explain the wealth of Troy, if many inhabitants were wealthy immigrants.

The two families remained intertwined. Ilos married Eurydice, and became the father of Laomedon. Ilos’s daughter Themiste, married his nephew, Capys of the Dardanian line. Ilos’s son Laomedon succeeded him as king of Troy. Assaracus’ son, Capys and his wife Themiste had a son called Anchises. Of the two royal lines, those of Troy or Ilium became more powerful than the older Dardanian line, particularly under the rule of Laomedon; even though there was only three generations of kings in Troy, compared to the line of eight successive kings in Dardania. King Laomedon was known for his arrogance, his impiety and his refusal to honour his promises.

Then enters Priam or Priamos, the only son to survive in a war against Heracles. Priam had been ransomed by his sister Hesione and became the new king in 1200 BCE. He had formally been known as Podacres. Priam’s first wife was Arisbe, daughter of Merops king of Percote. They had a son Aesacus, who was a gifted seer. Priam soon married Hecuba, daughter of Dymas and gave Arisbe to Hyrtacos. With Hecuba, Priam became the father of Hector, Paris, Cassandra, Helenus, Deiphobus and countless others as mentioned. Apollodorus recorded that Hecuba was the mother of ten sons and four daughters. 

Before Paris was born, Hecuba had a vision and a seer interpreted her vision, saying that Paris would one day cause the destruction of Troy. So Paris was sent to live in the wilderness. Years later, Paris returned to Troy and was recognised. Their parents had apparently forgotten the warning by the seer and welcomed him home. Priam would have returned Helen when the Greek embassy demanded the return of Helen to her husband King Menelaus the Spartan; but Paris prevailed upon his father to refuse. As a result, the war lasted for ten years and all but one son Helenus, would die in the war. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles allegedly killed King Priam on the last day of the war. 

Who is Dardanus, the founder of Dardania, the city and subsequent region? A persistent secular legend from Greece and Rome, identifies a man called Dara as Dardanus, founder of ancient Troy, or rather Dardan. One translation of the Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus, mentions King Solomon as being wiser than two men named Calcol and Dara or Darda and gives Dara’s name as Dardanos. In 1 Chronicles 2:6 we read of Zarah, who had five sons and his fourth and fifth sons were Calcol and Dara or Darda. Zarah was a son of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. We will return to Calcol when we study Judah, as he is credited with founding the city of Athens [Chapter XXX Judah & Benjamin -the Regal Tribes].

The Greek poet Homer said that Dardanus was a son of Zeus, the chief of the Greek gods. The Roman and Greek legends support that Zeus called Jupiter in Latin, was a son of Saturn who was also called Kronus. Writing about the Greek gods, Sanchuniathon a Phoenician historian said that ‘Kronus’ was whom the Phoenicians called Israel, that is Jacob and he had a son called Jehud – who is, Judah. What is important is not the Greek mythology but rather the family relationship between Jacob, Judah and Zarah’s son Darda, the great grandson of Jacob as real historic figures. 

Critics focus on the Greek mythology and say every Greek city cited Zeus as their founder god and thus dismiss Darda as a founder of Troy. Critics also say the Bible does not give ‘direct evidence’ that any Israelites ‘abandoned the forty-year march… and travelled to the Aegean Sea or Black Sea… to found their own kingdoms.’ This is ironic as the rest of the time, the Bible is just a collection of fanciful stories, yet in this instance it is valued for not giving evidence,as if this evidence would be believed. We will look in detail into the sons of Jacob and the historical data that family members actually departed the congregation of Israel not just during the exodus sojourn for forty years from 1446 to 1407/1406 BCE, but prior to their departure from Egypt.

The early migration of Darda is mentioned in How Israel Came to Britain, Canadian British Israel Association – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Actually, groups of Israelites began to migrate away from the main body before the Israel nation was formed – while, as a people, they were still in bondage in Egypt. One of these groups under the leadership of Calcol, a prince of the tribe of Judah, went westward across the Mediterranean eventually settling in Ulster (Ireland). Another, under the leadership of Dardanus, a brother of Calcol, crossed to Asia Minor to found the Kingdom later known as Troy. E Raymond Capt in his work, Jacob’s Pillar, 1977, writes that Darda wasEgyptian in that he lived there during the bondage and was the son of Zarah. This Darda according to Capt, was one and the same with ‘Dardanus’, the ‘Egyptian founder of Troy.’

Hecataeus of Abdera, a fourth century BCE Greek historian, stated that “Now the Egyptians say that also after these events [the plagues of the Exodus] a great number of colonies were spread from Egypt all over the inhabited world… They say also that those who set forth with Danaus, likewise from Egypt, settled what is practically the oldest city of Greece, Argos, and that the nations of the Colchi in Pontus and that of the Jews (remnant of Judah), which lies between Arabia and Syria, were founded as colonies by certain emigrants from their country [Egypt]; and this is the reason why it is a long-established institution among these peoples to circumcise their male children, the custom having been brought over from Egypt. Even the Athenians, they say, are colonists from Sais in Egypt.” [Quoted from Diodorus of Sicily. G H Oldfather, 1933. Volume I, books I-II, 1-34, page 91]. We will return to both Calcol and his brother Darda.

Depending on which interpretation of history one receives, the fallout from Troy’s defeat is as follows. If the ten year war was one against the Mycenae, then the lone royal survivor was Aeneas a member of the Dardanian branch of the Trojan royal family. His father was Anchises. Aeneas fought on behalf of Troy against the Mycenae. Datings for the ten year war – or siege for the Helenus version – range from as early as 1196 to as late 1183 BCE. Thus, 1194 to 1184 BCE is a good median. 

Aeneas is said to have lead the two sons of Antenor, Archelochus and Acamas as well as the Dardanians, allies of Troy during the Trojan War. After the sack of Troy, Aeneas and his followers were allowed to leave with their lives. His descendants according to Virgil in the Aenid, continued to rule the Trojans. They travelled for seven years, settling in Latium – central Italy, corresponding with Lazio. Opposed by Latinus, ruler of the Latins, Aeneas bests him in battle and is then accepted, marrying his daughter, Lavinia. Many subsequent rulers of Rome claimed descent from Aeneas and the Houses of Troy and Dardania. This raises an integral point. The rulers or the royal line of Troy – splitting into two houses, the Trojan and Dardanian – were from Dara, the son of Zarah. Zarah was a twin of Pharez. We will study each in detail. Both twins were to be ancestors of royal lines. We will learn that nearly every royal line in Europe has descended from or included the descendants of either Pharez or Zarah. 

The Romans, may well have some legitimacy to the claim of Trojan blood, as many royal houses probably could. 

The pivotal issue though is not this but that the sons of Dara ruled the peoples from Anatolia, the western Luwians. These people became known as Trojans and Dardanians after their rulers – Darda and Tros. The western Luwians were Moabite and Ammonite colonists, descended from Abraham’s brother Haran. Similarly, the eastern Luwians were related to Abraham’s other brother Nahor [refer Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans]. These peoples were known as the Hatti, who later incorporated the Chaldeans and then many centuries later were intermingled with the Ostrogoths and Lombardi, settling in northern and central Italy today. The original royal houses of Troy and Darda were from the Tribe of Judah. A portion of Ammon and Moab were the main body of Trojans and Dardanians, who in time migrated to the area of Macedonia and ultimately comprised the later Greeks of the Classical and Hellenistic periods. 

The alternative Trojan history is where Helenus is the lone royal survivor from the Trojan line. Trojan king lists follow Helenus with Genger and then a Francus or Franco. Many centuries later there is another Francus, a king of the West Franks. Historians say Franc-us is a fabrication of history and inserted into the Trojan line by the Merovingian kings of France. 

What is fascinating, is not whether this is true or not, but rather that the Merovingians in part, the Franks and the Trojans are actually all one and the same, regardless of whether a Francus was the great grandson of King Priam or not. 

Other kings included in the Trojan king list are Pepin of France, Louis I of France and sandwiched between the two, one of the most influential and important kings in history, Charles I or the Great, better known as Charlemagne. The following works on Troy are all written by French men. I wonder if any understood that they themselves were the  living descendants of the very people they were writing about; or whether their attachment is a strong subconscious ardour and inclination they have not rationalised or quite put their finger on.

Britannica: 

‘The key work in the medieval exploitation of the Trojan theme was a French romance, the Roman de Troie (1154–60), by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. Later medieval writers used the Roman de Troie until it was superseded by a Latin prose account, the Historia destructionis Troiae (c. 1287; “History of the Destruction of Troy”), by Guido delle Colonne. The French author Raoul Le Fèvre’s Recueil des histoires de Troye (1464), an account based on Guido, was translated into English by William Caxton and became the first book to be printed in English as The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye (c. 1474).’

Regarding the rise of city-states or Poleis in Greece, Britannica states – emphasis theirs: 

‘A related factor is Phoenician influence (related, because the early Phoenicians were great colonizers, who must often have met trading Greeks). The Phoenician coast was settled by communities similar in many respects to the early Greek poleis. It is arguable that Phoenician influence, and Semitic influence generally, on early Greece has been seriously underrated [refer Chapter XII Canaan & Africa, Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil & Chapter XXVII Abraham & Keturah Benelux & Scandinavia].’

The first significant date in Greek history, in the Archaic age was 776 BCE, the year of the first Olympic Games in Olympia, which was located west of Arcadia – recall Acadia, Canada – and northwest of Sparta in the west of Greece. This was the highlight of the Archaic age which culminated with the Persian wars. This era included Homer and his epics The Iliad and The Odyssey.

In the period from Dark to Archaic Greece there were two powerful interrelationships which influenced Greek society, the colonizing mother city and its daughter city and the shared membership of an amphictyony. The most common link was that between two cities with the emphasis of shared ancestry. This diplomatic kinship was taken seriously right until the Hellenistic period and was the basis of key alliances; developing into the proxenia. Proxenoi were citizens of one state who looked after the interests of citizens of their related, neighbour state. This was evident in type between Sparta and Athens against Troy and was really exploited by Athens in the fifth century.

In Archaic Greece an amphictyony – literally, ‘dwellers around’ – comprised a ‘league of neighbors’ called an Amphictyonic League, which was an ancient religiousassociation of Greek tribes and states formed in the dim past, between the Trojan war and the rise of the various Greek poleis. The most important was the Delphic Amphictyony. Originally composed of twelve tribes dwelling around Thermopylae, this league was centred first on the shrine of Demeter and later became associated with the Temple of Apollo [another name for Azazel] at Delphi. The founder is said to be Amphictyon, brother of Hellen – the purported male ancestor of all Hellenes. The twelve founders were the Oetaeans, Boeotians of Thebes, Dolopes, Dorians of Sparta, the Ionians of Athens, Phthian Achaeans, Locrians, Magnesians, Malians, Perrhaebians, Phocians, Pythians of Delphi and the Thessalians. The League doctrine required that no member would be entirely wiped out in war and no water supply of any member would be cut even in wartime. It did not prevent members from the numerous clashes with each other, about dominance over temples. 

Oxford University Press states: ‘[Amphictyony] a word borrowed from institutions in classical Greece and applied by some historians of Israel to its supposed organization before the monarchy [time of the Judges] as a confederation of twelve clans. It was suggested that there was a central shrine at which a cultic object was a shared responsibility among the twelve. But the amphictyony theory has now been generally abandoned.’ The number of twelve tribes is too coincidental to ignore. The premise of not destroying a family clan, is reminiscent of the war of the eleven tribes against the tribe of Benjamin, which would have wiped them out if six hundred men had not fled and hidden, so that the remaining tribes relented – Judges 20:1-48. The early Greeks as mentioned, included the related sons of Jacob. The idea of the amphictyony sounds completely plausible from an Israelite, as well as a Moabite, Ammonite perspective. As a lot of blood had been spilt between the two families. 

The region of Canaan, Palestine or the Levantine, as discussed previously, was a prized parcel of real estate and so became a very crowded part of the world [refer Chapter XII Canaan & Africa]. The draw to move away to lands partially established, yet with space and opportunities beckoned to the sons of Jacob and Lot. Just as the New World was attractive a few hundred years ago, ancient Greece and the Aegean was the destination of choice. This explains the flowering of cities, rather than countries or empires in the region as they were colonies of a number of differing tribes and peoples. The influx of migrating peoples also explains why the Myceaneans – formerly Minoans and latterly Philistines – left mainland Greece, for the myriad islands and particularly Crete [refer Chapter XV The Philistines: Latino-Hispani America].

Another way of reinforcing this relationship between citizens from different city-states was through epigamia. This was enacted through an arrangement by which the husband’s family by marriage were treated as citizens of the wife’s poleis if the husband settled there. In contrast, Plutarch mentions that there was no intermarriage between members of two of the villages of Attica – Pallene and Hagnous. Not because they were dissimilar, rather they were too closely related and thus there was a ban on endogamy. This situation remarkably parallels the peoples of French Ammonite stock in Canada and Louisiana.

The Endogamy Files: What Is Endogamy? The DNA Geek, 2020 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Endogamy is a word that gets bandied around a lot in genetic genealogy circles, but what it means and how it affects our work is less clear. This post is the first in a series about what endogamy is, why it matters, how to detect it, and how to work with it. Endogamy is the practice of mating within a specific group. All human populations have practiced endogamy to one extent or another.  Some still do.  

Endogamy can occur because the group is geographically isolated from other people, like Native Hawaiians were; because they prefer to marry within their religion, ethnicity, language, and/or social caste, as most cultures do; or for other reasons, like consolidating power among royalty. Key to endogamy is that the group is small enough that, over time, marriages occur between cousins. Not necessarily first or even second cousins (although that can occur), but between third, fourth, and more distant cousins. Over and over. And over. 

It’s important to remember that endogamy is not incest, which is sexual relations between close relatives, like a father and daughter or uncle and niece.  Incest is associated with a substantial risk of early death or genetic disorders in the child, while marriages between even first cousins are much safer.  

Endogamy causes something called pedigree collapse, but not all pedigree collapse rises to the level of endogamy. The home person… is the child of parents who were third cousins to one another.  That is, the parents shared a pair of great-great grandparents.  As a result, their child… has 30 unique great-great-great grandparents instead of the expected 32.  One set of 3-great grandparents shows up twice in the child’s tree.  We say the pedigree is “collapsing” rather than doubling in number with each generation back, as we’d expect. But pedigree collapse is not endogamy. Pedigree collapse is one or a few isolated incidents of cousin marriage, while endogamy occurs repeatedly over many, many generations. 

This is my mother’s tree. She’s Cajun [a Louisianian descended of French Canadian immigrants from Acadia, speaking an archaic form of French], a culture that was geographically and culturally isolated in southern Louisiana and, before that, in what is now Nova Scotia. Cajuns have been marrying mainly within their own population since the 1600s… [like the expression “All Cajuns are cousins”!] My mother’s parents were fourth cousins. I don’t think they knew, because my grandmother’s father was born out of wedlock. My grandfather’s parents were third cousins; they definitely knew. There’s no known incest in this tree, but the cousin marriages go on and on, back to the earliest settlers in Port-Royal, Acadia (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) in the early 1600s, because there simply weren’t a lot of options for marriage partners.

The closest cousin marriages I’ve identified in this tree are between first cousins.  Consider Isaure Marie Guidry (1863–1933), my mother’s great grandmother… Her parents, Alexis Onésime Guidry and Palmire Dupré, were first cousins through their shared grandparents Louis–David Guidry and Marie Modeste Borda. To complicate matters even more, Onésime had been widowed before marrying Palmire. His previous wife, Celestine, was Palmire’s older sister, and Celestine had a daughter named Marie. So Marie and Isaure were half sisters their father Onésime, and first cousins through their mothers Celestine and Palmire. (This combination is often termed three-quarter siblings.) But they were also second cousins through Onésime and their mothers. Technically, Marie and Isaure were second cousins twice over, once through Onésime and Celestine and once through Onésime and Palmire, but you get the picture.  It’s enough to make your head spin!

Isaure and Marie died more than 75 years before the advent of genetic genealogy using autosomal DNA, but what would their match to one another look like if we could analyze their genomes today? As half sisters, we’d expect them to share about 1750 cM, as first cousins another 850 cM or so, and as double second cousins roughly 200 cM twice over.  In many parts of their genomes, they’d match on both copies of their two chromosomes, much like full siblings do. In fact, they might well be indistinguishable from full sisters using the methods we use for genealogy. While Isaure and Marie are an extreme case, DNA matching is affected to some degree in all endogamous populations.  People who are no closer than fourth cousins might share enough DNA to be predicted as third cousins, because they’re picking up “extra” shared DNA through their other relationships.

For example, my mother shares 184 cM with D.M. If you were to plug that number into the DNA Painter SCP tool, you’d see a combined probability of 89.1% that they were either in the second cousin group (38.8% chance) or the second cousin once removed group (50.3%). In fact, their closest relationship is third cousins, who average only about 50 cM. On the other hand, Mom and D.M. are also third cousins once removed twice over, fourth cousins once removed, and fifth cousins… that we know of.  All those distant relationships add to the shared centimorgan tally. Thus, the overall effect of endogamy is to make many of our DNA matches appear to be more closely related than they really are. This complicates everything, from basic relationship prediction to more advanced and powerful techniques, like the… What are the Odds? tool.

Is the entire human population endogamous? After all, we only mate (well, mate successfully) with other humans and have been doing so for ten thousand years or more, since the last archaic humans, like Denisovans and Neanderthals, died out.  Technically, we’re all (very distant) cousins, and all of our pedigrees collapse eventually. What do you think?’

By the sixth century BCE, the dominant cities in Grecia were Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. They had all increased their influence to include surrounding smaller towns and rural areas. Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers. Herodotus described one such trader from the later Archaic period, Sostratus of Aegina, a man of fabulous wealth. 

Then in the early 1970s a remarkable inscription was found in Etruria, Italy – a dedication to Apollo, in the name of Sostratus of Aegina. This discovery revealed that the source of his wealth was trade with Etruria and other parts of Italy. A rapidly increasing population in the preceding centuries had resulted in emigration of many Greeks to form colonies in Southern Italy and Sicily. The Greek colonies of Sicily, especially Syracuse were drawn into conflicts with the Carthaginians – Portuguese-Brazilian descended peoples [refer Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil]. The conflict lasted from 600 to 265 BCE until the Romans intervened. A year later, the Punic wars began. 

Beginning about 500 BCE, the Athenians and Spartans tussled for hegemony of Greece, though the Athenians were no longer the Israelites – of six hundred years before – but Moab – with Ammon located in Macedonia to the north. For these were the children of Lot, whose migrations southward had pushed the other Greeks to leave. 

The Spartans who were distinct and not descended from Moab, Ammon or Jacob, were never defeated by Philip II or Alexander III and remained outside of the Greek Empire. Around the same time, in 499 BCE, the Ionian city states under Persian rule rebelled against their Persian-backed, tyrannical rulers. Supported by troops predominantly from Athens, they advanced as far as Sardis burning the city before being driven back by a Persian counterattack.The revolt continued for five years until finally the rebel Ionians were defeated. 

Darius I, king from 522 to 486 BCE, did not forget that Athens had assisted the Ionian revolt and he assembled an armada to exact retribution.Though heavily outnumbered, the plucky Athenians and allies, defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490. The Athenians and Persians continued to wage war until about 450, with the Athenians  driving the Persians out of the Aegean. They then turned on the Spartans with the Peloponnesian War beginning in 431 BCE, and lasting to 404 BCE. Eventually, Sparta brought an end to Athens empire though was ultimately left severely weakened itself. 

By 360 BCE, the Greek states had worn themselves out and ‘the exhaustion of the Greek heartland coincided with the rise of Macedon, led by Philip II.’ In 359, two strong leaders came to the thrones of both Persia and Macedon, ruling for nearly the exact same periods: Artaxerses III, from 359 to 338 BCE; and Philip from 359 to 336 BCE. 

The Parthenon situated on the Acropolis of Athens was built between 447 and 438 BCE. A temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Parthenos meant a ‘maiden, girl, virgin’ or an ‘unmarried woman.’ Construction began at the height of the Athenian Empire. The Parthenon replaced an older temple of Athena which was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BCE. It also served a practical purpose as the city treasury. 

Philip took twenty years in not just unifying his kingdom, but also expanding north and westwards, conquering Thrace as well as Thessaly to the south. His reforms to the Macedonian army were pivotal in his success. In 338 BCE he invaded the southern city-states of Thebes and Athens, defeating them at the Battle of Chaeronea. Now king of all but Sparta; Philip then entered into war against the Achaemenid Empire but was assassinated by one of his bodyguards Pausanias of Orestis, early during the conflict … and so entered, Alexander the Great onto the world stage, aged just twenty, born July 20, 356 BCE.

‘Modern belief in the Greek-ness of the Macedonian language was strengthened by the publication in 1994 of an important curse tablet from Pella that appears provisionally to indicate that the Macedonian language was a form of northwest Greek. Macedonian religion looks Greek; there are local variations, but that is equally true of incontestably Greek places in, for instance, the Peloponnese. Many Macedonian personal names resemble Greek ones, and it has recently been suggested that such onomastic [relating to names] evidence indicates that the Macedonian settlers originally [may have] migrated from northern Thessalian Perrhaibia and the region around Mt. Olympus – as already suggested by a poem ascribed to the Archaic poet Hesiod. The Classical Age was resplendent with most of the cultural wonders associated with Ancient Greece. It corresponds with the period of the height of democracy, the flowering of Greek tragedy in the hands of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the architectural marvels, like the Parthenon, at Athens.’ 

The Greek word for philosophy, philosophia, translates as the ‘love for wisdom.’ The discipline dates back to ancient times with some of the greatest philosophers, including Pythagoras circa 570 to 495 BCE; Parmenides circa 540-? BCE; Socrates circa 469 to 399 BCE; Plato circa 428 to 348 BCE; Aristotle 384 to 322 BCE; and Epicurus 341 to 270 BCE. 

There are famous modern day philosophical thinkers who have had their contributions recognised as well. The same people descended from Lot, known as the Greeks, are now known as the French and are still producing the majority of the finest thinkers in the world. Examples include: John Calvin 1509 to 1564; Rene Descartes 1596 to 1650; Blaise Pascal 1623 to 1662; Voltaire 1694 to 1778, Auguste Comte 1798 to 1857, Jean Paul Sartre 1905 to 1980; Simone de Beauvoir 1908 to 1986; Albert Camus 1913 to 1960; and Michael Foucault 1926 to 1984. Some of the major Greek contributors to science, lived during the Hellenistic era, including Euclid and Archimedes. 

In 600 BCE, a portion of the Greek Empire – an early portion of Moab and Ammon – settled in Southern France and founded the colony of Massalia; now the city that is called Marseille and the oldest city in France – Kir of Moab. The primary link between the Classical Greeks and the French are not the Gauls, but the Franks. The original Gauls are not the ancestors of Moab and Ammon. We will study these Gauls in detail in a later chapter. 

As the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes believe they are Vikings and identify with that culture and past history, the truth, is that the original Vikings left Scandinavia and settled in Britain and Ireland [Chapter XXXII Issachar, Zebulun, Asher & Naphtali – the Antipodean Tribes]. Likewise the French identify with a Gallic past, yet they are not Gauls, for the true Gauls vacated France for the shores of Britain and Ireland. The Gauls were a Celtic race who left their name in northwestern Italy as Gallia, in Belgium as Belgica and in France as Celtica. The nation of France emerged from this Gallic region of the Celtic culture and peoples. Gallia remains a name for France in the Latin, with Francogallia.

The Merovingian dynasty of the Franks attracts considerable interest from researchers and the public alike, in a similar vein to the Trojan kings. We will discuss them further in a subsequent chapter as they are perhaps not all that they seem. The Merovingian  kings were ostensibly a Frankish, Salian dynasty lasting some three hundred years – 476 to 750 CE – and are traditionally reckoned as the first race of the ‘kings of France.’ They importantly for the French identity, ended the hegemony of the Visigoths in Gaul. Merovingian derives from the name Merovech meaning Sea-Bull, the father of Childeric I, who ruled a tribe of Salian Franks from his capital at Tournai. 

Childeric was succeeded by his son Clovis I in 481/482 CE. Many regard Clovis as the beginning point for the history of France. Clovis I extended his rule over all the Salian Franks by conquering or annexing the territories of the Ripuarian Franks and the Alemanni; uniting nearly all of Gaul except for Burgundy – the seeds of modern Switzerland – and what is now Provence. Important choices by Clovis included making Paris his new capital and converting to Christianity sometime during 496 to 506. 

At Clovis I’s death in 511, – and in a situation similar to Alexander at the time of his death – his realm was divided among his four sons, Theuderic I, Chlodomir, Childebert I and Chlotar I. Despite the frequently bloody competition between them, the brothers managed to extend Frankish rule over Thuringia in 531 and Burgundy in 534; as well as gaining control over Septimania on the Mediterranean coast, Bavaria and the lands of the Saxons to the north. By 558 CE, Chlotar I was the only surviving son of Clovis. 

The Merovingians grew their hair long [refer Spartans, Chapter XXIX Esau: The Thirteenth Tribe and Samson, Chapter XXXIV Dan: The Invisible Tribe] which distinguished them among the Franks who cut their hair short. Contemporaries referred to them as the ‘long-haired kings’, in Latin reges criniti. A Merovingian whose hair was cut could not rule. The Merovingians used a distinct stock of names. Clovis, evolved into Louis and remained common among French royalty to the 19th century. 

The Trojan Origins of European Royalty! John D Keyser – capitals and emphasis his, bold mine:

‘The old Trojan Royal House – of the line of DARDANUS – was restored to power after the Greek defeat at Troy in 1149. As noted by Herman L. Hoeh:

“A complete list of TROJAN RULERS after the fall of Troy in 1181 may be found in the original Spanish work by Bartholome Gutierrez entitled: Historia del estado presente y antiguo, de la mui noble y mui leal ciudad de Xerez de la Frontera. It was published in Xerez, Spain in 1886” (Compendium of World History, Volume II).

‘… HELENUS, the son of Priam and Hecuba, fled Troy after the first Trojan War and settled in Illyria or Epirus. There Helenus and his followers founded the cities of Buthrotum and Chaonia. During the Second Trojan War in 1149, the descendants of Helenus REGAINED CONTROL of Troy from the Greeks and restored the Royal House of DARDANUS to the city. 

The Spanish history by Gutierrez records the names of Helenus’ descendants who controlled Troy and the surrounding region until the Third Trojan War in 677… At the fall of Troy in 677, members of the Trojan Royal Family, and most of the population of the city, fled to the NORTHERN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA in eastern Europe. For the next 234 years, in this region, the… TROJAN HOUSE provided eleven rulers over the people who fled Troy…

In 442 B.C. MARCOMIR, Antenor’s son, ascended the throne; and in 441 he migrated out of Scythia and settled the people on the DANUBE. In 431 the Goths forced him, along with over 175,000 men, out of the area and into the country now called West Friesland, Gelders and Holland. Then, nine years later, Marcomir crossed the Rhine and conquered part of Gaul – MODERN FRANCE! He made his brother governor, and continued the gradual conquest of the entirety of Gaul.

Eventually this people became known as FRANKS or Franconians after a king called FRANCUS who reigned from 39 – 11 B.C. The last King of the Franks – Marcomir V – won a great victory over the Romans at Cologne in 382 A. D. and recovered all the lands in the possession of the Romans, except Armoria or Little Brittany, in 390. However, he was slain in battle three years later and the Romans conquered the FRANKS – commanding them to refrain from electing kings over themselves. Instead, the Franks elected Dukes to reign over them, starting with Genebald I in 328 A.D.

The fifth duke of the East Franks, Pharamund (404-419) is recognized by early historians as being the FIRST TRUE KING OF FRANCE. In 427 the succession passed to Clodion who founded the MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY. There is something VERY INTERESTING about this dynasty that bears explanation:

“Its kings all wore LONG HAIR. They kept their kingly office until the Pope suggested to the East Franks (Germans) that they could gain the power over the Merovingians by cutting the king’s hair. The last Merovingian was accordingly tonsured. The government thereafter passed to Pippin, father of the German king Charlemagne, who RESTORED the Roman Empire to the west in 800. The history of the Merovingians, WHO DESCENDED [in part] FROM THE TROJAN LINE AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH, is made especially interesting in a book entitled The Long-haired Kings, by J. M. Wallace-Hadrill. (See especially chapter 7.) The Merovingians recognized that though they came from Judah, THEY WERE NOT OF THE THRONE OF DAVID and would hold their power only so long as they kept a NAZARITE TRADITION – long hair – symbolizing their subjection to a Higher Power – God – who rules supreme among men. (See Numbers 6)” (Compendium of World History, Volume II, page 183).’

We will learn that there is serious doubt about the Merovingian kings being wholly from the tribe of Judah, let alone a royal line from his sons Pharez or Zarah. 

The Genesis 6 Conspiracy, Gary Wayne, 2014, page 445 – emphasis his, bold mine:

‘Even the name Lancelot, according to Ried, derived from L’Alan de Lot, Alan from the Lot Valley of southwest France. The Lot Valley is the same region that the Essenes, Templars, Rex Deus, Cathars, and Merovingians settled in. Lot derives from Lot, the nephew of Abraham, recorded in the Nephilim-infested Sodom and Gomorrrah narrative. 

Lot also inexplicably shows up in the original Camu-lot. One wonders, were Camulot and the Lot region of France thus considered by Gnostics as the new Sodom and Gomorrah cities of light?’

The Franks like other Germanic peoples had resided in Scandinavia before their migration southwards and prior to that, they are linked to the Black Sea area. The Franks from the beginning, were divided into two distinct political yet related groups. The Salian Franks of very probable Moabite descent, dwelt in the west of France. This Frankish kingdom became known as Neustria and encompassed northern France, Burgundy, Orleans – upper central France – and Provence. The Ripuarian Franks, most likely from Ammon, dwelt in the Rhineland region of northwestern Germany; which in turn became known as Austrasia and later encompassed Austria, the Netherlands and northern Germany. The name Ripuarian is thought to mean ‘river people’ or ‘river dwellers.’ One is reminded of Ammon’s capital Rabbah, the city of water and Quebec with its strong association with water and the sea. The name Franci, from Frank is linked with the english word frank, to be ‘free.’ Other meanings include the Germanic words for ‘javelin, fierce, bold’ and ‘insolent.’

The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar in the seventh century, claimed the Franks came originally from Troy, citing the works of Virgil and Hieronymous: ‘Blessed Jerome has written about the ancient kings of the Franks, whose story was first told by the poet Virgil: their first king was Priam and, after Troy was captured by trickery, they departed. 

Afterwards they had as king Friga, then they split into two parts, the first going into Macedonia, the second group, which left Asia with Friga were called the Frigii, settled on the banks of the Danube and the Ocean Sea – Black Sea. Again splitting into two groups, half of them entered Europe with their king Francio. After crossing Europe with their wives and children they occupied the banks of the Rhine and not far from the Rhine began to build the city of “Troy.”’

The Liber Historiae Francorum [or Gesta regum Francorum] describes how 12,000 Trojans, alledgely led by Priam and Antenor sailed from Troy to the River Don and on to Pannonia which is on the River Danube settling near the Sea of Azov. There they founded a city called Sicambria. The Sicambri circa 55 BCE are linked to the area occupied by the Salian Franks in northwestern France. The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which it is claimed they received the name of Franks, meaning ‘savage.’

There are many kings called great and within that group, there are only a select few who cast a long shadow over the other rulers labelled great. The great of the great, if you will. For instance, Alexander the Great of Macedon. Another, is Charles I or Charlemagne who lived from 742 to 814 CE. He was the son of Pepin III, king from 751 to 768, and Bertrada of Laon. 

Charlemagne co-ruled with his brother Carloman I from 768 until his death in 771. Pepin had peacefully wrenched the monarchy away from Chileric III, by beseeching Pope Zachary [741-752 CE] for the need of a strong ruler such as himself: the Mayor of the Palace, effectively wielding the true power over the Frankish kingdom. Charlemagne is considered the founder of both the French and German monarchies. The French monarchy would continue to be a great power in Europe for the following thousand years. 

It is thought that Charlemagne was born in Liege in Belgium, or Aachen in Germany, where he died. He displayed a talent for languages and could speak Latin and understood Greek, amongst others. Charlemagne expanded the Frankish kingdom; establishing the Carolingian Empire. As a zealous defender of Christianity, Charlemagne gave money and land to the Catholic church and protected successive popes. 

To acknowledge Charlemagne’s power and reinforce his support of the church, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans on December 25, 800, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome – thus uniting Western Europe and the Holy Roman Empire for the first time since the fall of Rome. ‘Charlemagne ruled from the start by force of his personality which embodied the warrior-king ethos combined with Christian vision.’

Charlemagne maintained a violent and protracted thirty year series of battles from 772 to 804 CE – called the Saxon Wars – against the German Saxons, a pagan worshipping Germanic tribe who had earned a reputation for ruthlessness. 

In 782 at the Massacre of Verden, Charlemagne ordered the slaughter of some four and a half thousand Saxons and tried to force them to convert to Christianity; declaring that anyone who did not get baptised or follow the Catholic faith, would be put to death. The aim was to break the Saxon’s will to fight, but they still would not surrender their autonomy or repudiate their religion. In 804, Charlemagne deported over ten thousand Saxons to Neustria in his kingdom and replaced them in Saxony with his own people. This effectively won the conflict, while earning the enmity of the Scandinavian kings; who bid their time until Charlemagne’s death and then unleashing Viking raids on Francia during 820 to 840. 

Charlemagne’s son Louis was born in 778 to his second wife, Hildegard of the Vinzgau, who had nine children by the time she died at the age of 26 in 783. When King Louis I, the Pious died in 840, the empire was divided among his three sons who fought each other for supremacy. Their conflict was concluded by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 which divided the empire between Louis’s sons. Louis II, the German [843-876] received East Francia; Lothair I [843-855], Middle Francia; and Charles II, the Bald [843-877] gained West Francia. None of the kings were interested in working with their brothers and the empire’s infrastructure, as well as most of the reforms advanced by Charlemagne, deteriorated. His notable reforms included the first public schools and a monetary standard. 

Hollister describes the king: ‘Charlemagne towered over his contemporaries both figuratively and literally. He was 6 feet 3 ½ inches tall [ironic as his father was very short], thick-necked, and pot bellied yet imposing in appearance for all that. He could be warm and talkative, but he could also be hard, cruel, and violent, and his subjects came to regard him with both admiration and fear… Above all else, Charlemagne was a warrior-king. He led his armies on yearly campaigns as a matter of course. Only gradually did he develop a notion of Christian mission and a program of unifying and systematically expanding the Christian West.’ 

Notable events in French history include, the Hundred Years War with the English, beginning in 1337. Then in 1348, the plague of Black Death spread through France killing a large percentage of the population. In 1415, the English defeated the French at the Battle of Agincourt. In 1453, the Hundred Years’ War finally drew to a close when the French defeated the English at the Battle of Castillon. The year 1643 saw Louis XIV become King of France. He ruled for seventy-two years and was known as Louis the Great and the Sun King. In 1778, France became involved in the American War of Independence, siding with the colonies in their drive for independent governance from Great Britain. The most popular French king names have been Louis with eighteen kings, Charles with ten and Philip with five – the name of Alexander the Great’s father.

In 1789, the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille. In 1792, the French Republic was proclaimed and the following year, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed by guillotine. In 1799, Napoleon grabbed power, overthrowing the French Directory; making himself Emperor. Conquering most of Europe by 1811, he had been officially crowned Emperor of France in 1804. By 1815, Napoleon was defeated by a coalition, led by England’s the Duke of Wellington.

There is much that could be said regarding Napoleon I. The following, is a brief synopsis from Britannia – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Napoleon I, French in full Napoléon Bonaparte… byname the Corsican or the Little Corporal, French byname Le Corse or Le Petit Caporal, (born August 15, 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica – died May 5, 1821, St. Helena Island), French general, first consul (1799-1804), and emperor of the French (1804-1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West. He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Naploeonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes; reorganized education; and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. Napoleon’s many reforms left a lasting mark on the institutions of France and of much of western Europe. But his driving passion was the military expansion of French dominion, and, though at his fall he left France little larger than it had been at the outbreak of the revolution in 1789, he was almost unanimously revered during his lifetime and until the end of the Second Empire under his nephew Napoleon III as one of history’s great heroes.’

There is an air of the Germanic or Flemish-Dutch about Charlemagne, not so with Napoleon Bonaparte who is wholly French, sharing much with his spiritual ante descent, Alexander the Great. Both of which share one major attribute and that was superior military innovation; which gave them an edge over their opponents. Sandwiched between Charlemagne and Napoleon is another formidable French leader and warrior, Joan of Arc. It was vital that England did not gain a stranglehold on France and Joan was the difference.

Britannia – emphasis & bold mine:

‘St. Joan of Arc, byname the Maid of Orléans… (born circa 1412, Domrémy, Bar, France – died May 30, 1431, Rouen; canonized May 16, 1920… national heroine of France, a peasant girl who, believing that she was acting under divine guidance, led the French army in a momentous victory at Orleans [1429] that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War. 

Captured a year afterward, Joan was burned to death by the English and their French collaborators as a heretic. She became the greatest national heroine of her compatriots, and her achievement was a decisive factor in the later awakening of French national consciousness. Joan was the daughter of a tenant farmer… In her mission of expelling the English and their Burgundian allies… she felt herself to be guided by the voices of St. Michael [and others]… Joan was endowed with remarkable mental and physical courage, as well as a robust common sense, and she possessed many attributes characteristic of the female visionaries who were a noted feature of her time. These qualities included extreme personal piety, a claim to direct communication with the saints, and a consequent reliance upon individual experience of God’s presence beyond the ministrations of the priesthood and the confines of the institutional church.’

The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Notice the similarity with  the customary tablets used for the Ten commandments; with the United States Declaration of Independence; and with the Eye of providence – the all-seeing eye ofa god. This Eye is a symbol that has an eye enclosed in a pyramid, surrounded by rays of light from the Sun to represent superficially, the divine providence of God watching over humanity. In reality, the god who watches, is the one who holds this world captive. 

The Eye of Providence appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, depicted on the one dollar bill. The Eye of Providence was adopted in 1782, but was first proposed as an element of the Great Seal in 1776. Coincidentally, it is thought to be the suggestion of the artistic consultant, Pierre Eugene du Simitiere – of French ancestry born in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1889, the famous and iconic Eiffel Tower was built in Paris for the World’s Fair

France suffered greatly in both World War I and World War II, with considerable loss of life and split blood on its soil. In 1940 During World War II, France was occupied by the Germans and under their direct control. German officials oversaw all aspects of government, supported by the military. Any infraction of the rules could be dealt with by the Nazis bureaucrats or by the military. Vichy France was a puppet government. It was governed by French officials, with the Germans maintaining only a small oversight group to ensure that Vichy France did not contravene the interests of the Germans. The Vichy government generally cooperated with the Germans; rounding up and deporting Jews and anyone else the Nazis declared as their enemies.

Most Resistance activity was fought in the occupied territories, as there was little incentive to take action against the Germans in Vichy France. It would have impacted the measure of self-governance the French already had and run the risk of inciting severe penalties against the civilian population. Relatively few French actually took an active part in the Resistance. Many offered passive support by not reporting Resistance movements, but the vast majority of French citizens in both occupied and Vichy France simply avoided doing anything to attract the attention of the gestapo or of collaborating Frenchmen. Allied forces liberated the country in 1944. 

An additional interesting coincidence is France’s close association with the Modern Olympic Games. It was the Greeks who staged the first Olympic Games in Olympia during 776 BCE and it was a modern ‘Greek’, French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin who spoke of the Games’ revival. Athens was understandably, awarded the first re-instituted Games in 1896 in homage to the Olympics’ Greek origins. Though Paris hosting the second games in 1900, was truer to its returning to its spiritual and physical origin. Paris was the first home of the International Olympic Committee, before it moved to Lausanne, Switzerland. France also hosted the Summer Olympics in 1924 and has hosted the Winter Games three times.

Britannica: ‘France has long provided a geographic, economic, and linguistic bridge joining northern and southern Europe. It is Europe’s most important agricultural producer and one of the world’s leading industrial powers.’ A long standing and well known theme of the French nation, is the insistence on the supremacy of the individual. Historian Jules Michelet remarked, ‘England is an empire, Germany is a nation, a race, France is a person.’  This is surely reflective of the French national character; one that was born from a familial origin more intimate than the beginning of other nations.

Writer Gustave Flaubert philosophically deduced: ‘I am no more modern than I am ancient, no more French than Chinese; and the idea of la patrie, the fatherland – that is, the obligation to live on a bit of earth coloured red or blue on a map, and to detest the other bits coloured green or black – has always seemed to me narrow, restricted, and ferociously stupid.’ 

France is a major world power as evidenced as being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and China. In 2015 France was listed as being ‘the best networked state in the world’ as a country that ‘is [a] member of more multi-lateral organisations than any other country.’ France is a leading member of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF) of eighty-four fully or partly French speaking nations. In 2017 France was the fourth largest donor of development aid in the world, after the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. A 2018 study by Credit Suisse ranked the French Armed Forces as the world’s sixth largest and most powerful military in Europe, behind Russia. 

France is an integral member of the intergovernmental organisation comprising the seven most powerful economies – not including China and India – in the world, the G7. France’s second biggest export is automobiles. French automobile brands include renowned Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Alpine and Bugatti. France is famous for the most prestiges wines in the world as well as champagne – from the region of the same name – and cognac exports. Many cosmetic brands originate from France, including Vichy, Nuxe, Yves-Rocher and Bioderma. 

France had a GDP of $2.72 trillion in 2019, ranking as the seventh largest economy in the world. Tourism is a very important industry and France receives the most visitors of any country each year with Paris voted the most visited capital in the world and voted the most romantic city destination.  France is a mixed economy, with many private and semi-private businesses across a diverse range of industries. There is heavy government involvement in certain key sectors such as defence and electrical power generation. The French government’s commitment to economic intervention in favour of social equality, creates challenges for the economy such as a rigid labor market with high unemployment and a large public debt relative to other advanced economies.

‘The following product groups represent the highest dollar value in France’s import purchases during 2021

  1. Machinery including computers: US$84.2 billion
  2. Vehicles: $75.9 billion 
  3. Mineral fuels including oil: $70.8 billion 
  4. Electrical machinery, equipment: $64.1 billion 
  5. Pharmaceuticals: $33.9 billion 
  6. Plastics, plastic articles: $29.2 billion 
  7. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $23.3 billion 
  8. Organic chemicals: $16.5 billion 
  9. Iron, steel: $15.2 billion 
  10. Articles of iron or steel: $14.3 billion


The fastest growers among the top product categories from 2020 to 2021 were mineral fuels including oil (up 80.4%), iron or steel as materials (up 57.1%), items made from iron or steel (up 37.2%), plastics as a material and items made from plastic (up 31.4%) and electrical machinery or equipment (up 19.5%).’

The French Tricolore

France ranks highly in the top ten countries with the largest gold reserves, one behind Italy at number three. France in fourth position is ahead of those nations we have investigated so far, Russia [5], China [6], Switzerland [7], Japan [8] and India [9]. France has 2,436.0 tonnes of gold which represents 64.5 percent of its foreign reserves. The French central bank has sold little of its gold reserves in recent years. ‘The Banque de France vaults in Paris are one of the four designated depositories of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).’

France was the most populous nation in Europe in 1801, containing about one sixth of the continent’s inhabitants. By 1936, the French population had increased by fifty percent; though in the same period the number of people in Italy and Germany had nearly trebled and in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands the population had nearly quadrupled. The population of France today is 65,653,861 people, the fourth highest in Europe between the United Kingdom and Italy. France has never been a major source of international migrants, unlike the other major nations surrounding it. 

In the seventeenth century due to religious persecution, France lost more than four hundred thousand Huguenot refugees – usually highly skilled – mainly to Prussia in northeast Germany, to England, the Netherlands and the United States. In the same century, relatively small numbers of emigrants first settled in North America, particularly eastern Canada and Quebec and in the southern state of Louisiana. Small numbers of French, especially from Brittany and Normandy continue to relocate to Canada.

A well known online encyclopaedia states, that ‘most French people are of Celtic (Gauls) origin, with an admixture of Italic (Roman) and Germanic (Franks) groups.’ As touched upon, the Gauls were in fact early British and Irish peoples and it is the Salian and Ripuarian Franks who are the nucleus of the French nation. The Latin and Celtic component reveals their familial resemblance to the Italians and Swiss respectively; whom represent their cousins from both Nahor and Haran. We will discover when we investigate Haran’s brother Abraham and his descendants the why and where from of the Germanic component in the French people. The fact that France is composed of two brothers is the key piece of the French puzzle and explains their approximate north western to south eastern population demographic divide.

The major differences between the North and South of France, Santa Fe Relocation, 2017 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The two regions of France are heavily influenced by the surrounding countries and the weather. While many aspects of Northern France are reminiscent of Germany and Belgium, such as the architecture [industry and commerce], Southern France feels more Mediterranean,sharing many features [such as cuisine and pace of life] with Spain and Italy. 

The lifestyle and culture varies between the two regions… In Northern France most people tend to be quite honest and blunt, but they also tend to form much deeper relationships with people… The easiest way to make friends in Southern France is to speak the language.’

Continuing: ‘Large-scale immigration over the last century and a half has led to a more multicultural society. In 2004, the Institute Montaigne estimated that within Metropolitan France, 51 million people were White (85% of the population), 6 million were Northwest African (10%), 2 million were Black (3.3%), and 1 million were Asian (1.7%). In 2005, it was Western Europe’s leading recipient of asylum seekers… In 2010, France… [was] among the top five asylum recipients in the world… [even though] France established controls to curb Eastern European migration. Immigration remains a contentious political issue.’ Recall Ezekiel 25:10 ESV: ‘I will give [Moab] along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations…’

The region of Catalonia though within Spain, also includes Catalan speakers in the historical French region of Roussillon. For some four hundred years this Catalan territory has been united with France, called ‘Catalunya nord’ and today known as Pyrenees Orientales with the city of Perpignan. The autonomous community of Catalonia is the richest and most highly industrialised region of Spain; reflecting its difference with the rest of Spain. For instance, the Catalan textile industry achieved prominence between 1283 and 1313; long remaining the premier industry of Spain until the 1950s. 

Britannia – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Catalonia was formerly a principality of the crown of Aragon, and it has played an important role in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. From the 17th century it was the centre of a separatist movement that sometimes dominated Spanish affairs. In 2006 Catalonia was granted“nation” status and given the same level of taxation responsibility as the Spanish central government. Spain’s Constitutional Court struck down portions of this autonomy statute in 2010, ruling that Catalans constituted a “nationality” but that Catalonia was not, itself, a “nation.”’ 

This is strikingly similar to the ruling accorded to Quebec in Canada.

‘Scotland’s referendum on independence from the United Kingdom in… 2014, although ultimately unsuccessful, [galvanised] the independence movement in Catalonia. Convergence and Union leader Artur Mas called for the long-promised, albeit nonbinding, independence referendum to be held… The move was immediately challenged by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and the independence campaign was suspended while the Constitutional Court considered the legality of the vote. Ultimately, Mas proceeded with the referendum but framed it as an informal poll of Catalan opinion. With more than one-third of registered voters participating in the balloting, over 80 percent expressed a desire for independence.’

This sentiment survives till this day, though there has been a power struggle between the central government in Madrid and that of the Catalonian capital, Barcelona; which is currently stalled and in Madrid’s favour. The Catalan government surveys regularly its people ‘regarding its “sentiment of belonging”.’ In July 2019, the results indicated that 46.7% of Catalans would favour independence from Spain. This has dropped markedly after the heavy handed response from Madrid in 2018. With the stronger centralist tendencies in France however, French Catalans display a much less open sense of uniqueness, having been integrated more seamlessly ‘into the unitary French national identity.’ 

There are 7,596,131 people in Catalonia and in France 423,112 people. It is not surprising that the French Catalonians feel more at home in France than their Spanish counter parts if they are from similar stock. We only learn of Spanish Catalonian and Basque discontent not French Catalonian and Basque grievances.

The etymology of Basque according to some scholars is based on bhar-s-, meaning ‘summit, point’ or ‘leaves.’ Barscunes may have meant ‘the mountain people, the tall ones’ or the proud ones. The last definition is interesting considering the pride of Moab. Euskal Herria is the oldest documented Basque name for the area they inhabit, dating from the sixteenth century. The Spanish Basque Country, is the largest and most populated part of the Basque territories. It includes two main regions, the Basque Autonomous Community – capital city, Vitoria-Gasteiz – and the Chartered Community of Navarre – capital city, Pamplona. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states ‘that Navarre may become a part of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country if it is so decided by its people and institutions… To date, there has been no implementation of this law.’

For many French Basques, their identity is mixed with a sense of being Basque and French. Whereas in the Spanish Basque Country, there are many Basques who don’t have a sense of Spanish identity at all. Former Basque rugby union player and French international, Imanol Harinordoquy, said about his national identity: ‘I am French and Basque. There is no conflict, I am proud of both… I have friends who are involved in the political side of things but that is not for me. My only interest is the culture, the Euskera language, the people, our history and ways.’

Rugby union is an important sport in parts of France, particularly in Paris and Marseille. It is also a popular sport among French Basques, with major clubs Biarritz Olympique and Aviron Bayonnais traditional heavy weights in the premier division of French Rugby. Biarritz regularly play Champion Cup matches, especially knockout matches in San Sebastian, Spain. Games between the Basque clubs and Catalan club USA Perpignan are always hard fought. The fact that the French Basque and Catalans are so keen on rugby may allude to their Moab and Ammon heritage. Though Rugby is played in Spain, it is amongst the French that it is a passion. These French consider France the spiritual home of rugby, even in lieu of its origins in England.

An online encyclopaedia mentions: ‘Strabo’s account of the north of Spain in his Geographica (written between approximately 20 BC and 20 AD) makes a mention of “a sort of woman-rule…” a first mention of the – for the period – unusual position of women. Women could inherit and control property as well as officiate in churches… matrilineal inheritance laws, and agricultural work performed by women continued in Basque country until the early twentieth century. Could this be a hearkening back to the unique circumstances and reverence surrounding Moab and Ammon’s respective mothers?

For more than a century, scholars have widely discussed the high status of Basque women in law codes, as well as their positions as judges, inheritors, and arbitrators through ante-Roman, medieval, and modern times. The system of laws governing succession in the French Basque region reflected total equality between the sexes. Up until the eve of the French Revolution, the Basque woman was truly ‘the mistress of the house’, hereditary guardian, and head of the lineage.’ This may have a link to the Amazons who lived in the Aegean Sea – south of the Troad and the isle of Lesbos – either a clan of warrior women or a woman dominated society.

The Basque Country and Catalonia Flags

Interestingly, the French capital Paris, apart from being known as the City of Love and the number one visited city in the world, is also known as the City of Lights. Paris played a leading role during the Age of Enlightenment as well as literally being one of the first European cities to install gas city street lights in 1820; with the first electric streetlight appearing in 1878. 

A somber and stygian matter is the aspect of Moab and Ammons’ origin. Surveys have labelled the French as the most depressed nation. In 2011, the World Health Organisation in a report, said the French are the most likely to suffer from ‘a major depressive episode’ in their lifetimes. This followed a report in 2008, where the French learned that ‘they consume more anti-depressants than any other country.’ What could be an underlying cause?

A repeated coincidence of a Frenchman undertaking the nature of the following study. Claude Lévi-Strauss, a French and Jewish anthropologist and ethnologist ‘was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology.’ The chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France from 1959 to 1982; he was elected a member of the Académie française in 1973 and was also a member of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Levi-Strauss received a number of honours from universities and institutions throughout the world and with James George Frazer and Franz Boas, is considered a ‘father of modern anthropology.’ His significant work was aimed – through a structural method – ‘at discovering universal invariants in human society, chief among which he believed to be the incest taboo.’

A poll by Ipsos in late 2020, estimated one in ten French people have been the victim of sexual abuse within the family as children or adolescents: 78% were female and 22% male. The poll suggested the number of incest cases has risen from 3% of the population in 2009 – equating to 2 million victims – to 10% in 2020; an alarming 6.7 million victims. This is shocking, though it is worth noting that the countries with the highest rate of incest are… France and Spain. Also, not all people polled are forthcoming, thus the ten percent figure may actually be higher as evidenced by the anti-depressant consumption. 

At time of writing, under French law there is no legal age of consent, though the Senate voted for the threshold to be set at 13. At present a victim of rape or abuse is considered consenting by default and has to prove non-consent. New legislation proposes criminalising sexual acts between an adult and a child under 13 – currently an “offence” and not a “crime” – and extending the statute of limitations to give victims more time to bring legal proceedings. Not to single France out entirely, there are other nations with either a lax view or lenient laws regarding consenting adult incest. France is not being confined as unique by this measure; though the percentage of its occurrence is of significance, in the shadow of the French descending from Moab and Ammon. 

The continuous perpetuation of a certain percentage of incestuous births within the population, could possibly have a bearing on the blood, hormone and DNA composition of said people in society. 

Leviticus 17:10-11

New English Translation

10 “‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst who eats [or mingles] any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, 11 for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life.

It was in 1616, when William Harvey – an English physician and scientist who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology – confirmed what was already in the scriptures, declaring that ‘life is in the blood.’ 

Blood services the body in delivering oxygen and nutrients. It also polices, by attacking what it perceives to be invaders. This perception of what is an invader, varies from person to person. The immune system is complex and based on recognising certain proteins and removing those it does not recognise. What sets of proteins blood removes, determines your blood type. There are three basic types of blood, A, B and O. With minor variations these combine to make thirty types of blood.

Blood that is designated O is a universal blood type and the most prevalent among the earth’s human inhabitants – 40%. O positive is deemed the oldest blood type. Though some consider A the oldest, then B and O the most recent. O blood does not possess the antigens of either A or B type blood. The opposite blood type does have both antigens and is called AB. Antigens are molecules that the body responds, in producing an antibody or a cell, to destroy the antigen. There are about six hundred antigens, though most are not significant to typing blood.

Blood is also designated as either positive or negative. It depends on a single protein – on the surface of red blood cells – the D antigen, called the Rh factor. Rh factor used to be called the Rhesus factor, after the monkey which was used to learn about this substance in 1937. If it is present, it is Rh positive and if the protein is absent, it is called Rh negative. This missing factor can be problematic in blood transfusions and conditions of the newborn where it can be life threatening. 

Women who are blood type O or Rh negative are at risk of frequent miscarriages, especially if their partner is an antigen-positive blood type and thus the foetus is also Rh positive. As a mother is not exposed to antigens until the first childbirth, it’s only when she’s pregnant for the second time that problems could present. Alternatively, if the baby goes to term, there is a risk of haemolytic disease for the newborn – when the baby’s blood cells are destroyed by antibodies from the mother’s blood.

Curiously, Rh negative blood type O, is considered the purest blood known to mankind and is the universal donor blood for all blood types. Rh- factor is something called a recessive trait. Someone who is Rh+ might have a hidden Rh- in their DNA. If that person and his or her partner both pass an Rh- down to a child, that child will be Rh negative. Even though at least one parent is Rh+ factor. 

There are two types of Rh positive men. Fifty-five percent of men are heterozygous, whereby their genetics allow them to produce an Rh- child fifty percent of the time and Rh+ the other fifty percent. The second type of male is homozygous and produces only Rh+ offspring.

Having pure O Rh negative blood means one’s ancestors were also O Rh negative and this is why it is very rare. A higher percent of this pure blood survives in certain sections of people, for instance in old royal family lines. O, A and B Rh positive are all common as A and B Rh negative are also very rare with O Rh negative. The exception is blood type AB which is very rare whether one is Rh- or Rh+.

O-positive is most prevalent in Latinos then Africans and less so in Asians and Caucasians. Whereas O-negative is most prevalent in Caucasians and least in Asians. A-positive and A-negative are most prevalent in Caucasians, then Latinos. B-positive is most prevalent in Asians and Africans and B-negative is most prevalent in Caucasians, though least in Asians. AB-positive is most prevalent in Asians and AB-negative while least in Asians, is found most in Caucasians. In summary, the most predominant blood types for the four racial strains delineated are: 

Africans:       O-positive, B-positive

Latinos:         O-positive, A positive 

Caucasians:  A-positive – O-negative, A-negative, B-negative, AB-negative

Asians:          B-positive, AB-positive

These findings reveal that all four negative blood types are predominant amongst Caucasian people. Latinos and Africans who are related through Ham, both dominate O-positive. Caucasians dominate A-positive and Asians dominate B-positive.

According to distribution of blood types per blood donors:

O+   37%

A+   36%

B+     9 %

AB+  3%

O-      7%

A-      6%

B-       1%

AB-    1%

As all mankind descended from the same ancestors, that is Adam and Eve, our blood should be compatible – humankind would all have the same blood… but, we don’t. Rh Positive blood can be traced back to the Rhesus monkey and other primates. Rh negative blood cannot be traced to anywhere else in nature – and can’t be cloned.

As one cannot, successfully mate a mule with a mule – the result from a horse and a donkey – one cannot breed two mixed species even if they are the same. The result as mentioned, is Haemolytic disease, a condition where the immune system attacks an Rh positive baby, inherited from the father, if the mother is Rh negative. The mother’s blood collects antibodies to destroy an alien presence, like it would a virus. A staggering situation. So why would a mother’s body sabotage and annihilate her own flesh and blood? Unless perhaps for some reason, it isn’t. A Rh- woman with a Rh- man has an even smaller chance of having a baby born alive.

Nowhere else in nature, does this occur… apart from animal hybrids. This fact, by itself, indicates deliberate outside interference of cross-breeding between two similar but genetically different species. This fact puts a serious dent in the evolutionary process as Rh Negative blood indicates that at some point in humankind’s supposed evolution, it was paused while a mutational intervention took place and then evolution was restarted. 

The obvious points in history where this may have happened are a. when Cain’s Homo sapiens line integrated with the Homo neanderthalensis line of people from day Six of creation, b. at the time of Noah and the genetic split between his three sons, c. the time of Peleg and the scattering of the nations from Babel in Mesopotamia, or d. could it be a much more recent event and possibly linked with the birth of Moab and Ammon?

As we have previously discovered the link between Neanderthal man and the East Asians today, it is worth noting an article reprinted from Archaeology, entitled: Genetic Study Examines Neanderthal Blood Types, Stephanie Mazieres, July 30, 2021 – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Marseille, France – According to a Cosmos Magazine report, paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and her colleagues at Aix-Marseille University used information from three Neanderthal genomes and one 64,000-year-old Denisovan genome to investigate their blood types. Only one Neanderthal’s blood had been typed in the past, and was found to betype Ounder the ABO system used to classify the blood of modern humans. Since all chimpanzees are type A, and all gorillas are type B, it was assumed that all Neanderthals were type O. 

But the new study found that the Neanderthal woman’s 100,000-year-old remains from Siberia’s Denisova Cave hadtype A blood; the Neanderthal woman’s 48,000-year-old remains from Siberia’s Chagyrskaya Cave also had type A blood; and the Neanderthal woman’s 64,000-year-old remains from Croatia’s Vindija Cave had type B blood. All three Neanderthals, however, carried a now-rare Rhesus type called Rhesus plus incomplete,” which had only been found in the DNA of one member of Australia’s Western Desert Aboriginal people. “At the time, it was assumed to be a new Rhesus type that had arisen in Australia,” Condemi said. The rare Rhesus type has also now been found in 80 people from Papua New Guinea. “Now we know that it had existed in the past and was lost,” Condemi explained.’

What is relevant about this finding is that the Aborigine and Papua New Guineans are primarily descendants of Cush from Ham, though they have intermixed with descendants from Javan of Japheth as shown by their Haplogroups. The peoples of East Asia are descended from Japheth, and also possess the highest levels of Neanderthal DNA. Hence the Rhesus plus incomplete may be linked with Japheth rather than Ham [refer Chapter VII Javan: Archipelago South East Asia & Polynesia and Chapter XIII India & Pakistan: Cush & Phut].

One researcher considered the theory that the Neanderthals were Rh negative and that they are the key to our ancestry. They contacted the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany and found out that not only were the two specimens examined Rh+, but they were homozygotes, meaning they didn’t even carry the Rh- blood factor recessively. In fact, the amount of Neanderthal DNA is very high within populations with very low or no Rh negatives amongst them. For instance, the Native American tribes have absolutely zero Rh- negative genes in their populations. Added to this, it is now agreed upon that the differences between the Neanderthal tribes was actually greater than those of human ethnic groups.

In northern Spain and southern France amongst the Basque, there is the highest concentration of the Rh negative factor in the world, some 32% – the range depending on location, of between 21 to 43%. Up to 60% of the Basque carry one negative gene. Only about 16% of Europeans have a Rh negative group. As little as 3% of Africans and 1% of Asian or Native American descendants have a Rh negative group. Added to this, the Basque exhibit substantially lower levels of Type B blood and a higher incidence of Type O blood of 55%, which is very similar to Latinos of 53%.

Recall in chapter III, that the Amerindian exhibits the following: ‘Type O happens to be the primary blood type among the indigenous populations of the Americas, in particular within Central and South America populations, with a frequency of nearly one hundred percent. In contrast, in indigenous North American populations the frequency of type A ranges from sixteen to eighty-two percent. This data supports the initial Amerindians descended from an isolated population with a minimal number of individuals.’ Thus it would seem that a restricted gene pool maintains a predominant genetic factor, whether it be a particular blood type or rhesus factor.

Today’s Basques are offspring of an original group which could well have been one hundred percent Rh- negative. They exhibit the highest Rh- negative factor in Europe when compared with other groups. There are a few communities in Switzerland and the Netherlands with similarly high percentages. The Swiss finding is pertinent since they are also descended from Haran, as are the French via Haran’s son Lot.

On a national level, Australia has invariably topped the percentage of Rh- in the world with 19.5%. A couple of factors offered as likely causes are: 1. A high percentage of Australians have Scottish and Irish ancestry and so their high number of Rh- negatives impacts the percentage. 2. Some believe that amongst the prisoners England re-located to Australia, a very high percentage were Rh negative. Though this is likely inaccurate as the data for Poland from a 1997 study, placed them at an overall frequency of 19.67%.

Another group often mentioned are the Berber tribes in the Atlas mountain region of Morocco. It has been claimed that they have a 40% Rh- factor; whereas on a national average, the Moroccans are approximately 9% Rh negative. A more recent study has contradicted this high percentage with a result of 5.5% Rhesus negative. The previous observation of a high frequency of blood type O was confirmed; which may have been impacted by the inclusion of 40% African admixture. Thus, claims that Berber groups have unusually high numbers of Rh negatives should not be counted until a new, large scale definitive study is conducted.

Of interest, is the high percentage of Rh- people in Ireland and Scotland. Particularly, the peoples of northwest Ireland, the Highland Scots and the western Islanders of Norway, who all have between 16 and 25% Rh negatives. The Norwegians are accounted by those Scots, who were transported to Norway as slaves. Scotland is a country where there is a strong variation of blood type frequencies based on location. Between twenty and a little bit over thirty percent of Rh- can be expected in most of the extreme northern and western regions. In the west coast region of Inverness, where the Rh negative percentage has been measured at 30.44%, the percentage of blood type O has also been noted as substantially high. Ireland is purported to have around 25% Rh negatives in several reports while others demonstrate a percentage nearer 15 to 16%. However studies have indicated that Northern Ireland has a high percentage of approximately 27%. The following list shows those countries and regions in order with the highest rates of Rhesus negative.

Basque Country

[Atlas Mountain region of Moroccan Berbers – to be confirmed]

Scotland 

Northern Ireland

[Parts of Switzerland  and the Rhone Valley – 26.5%]

Catalonia 20-25%

[Parts of the Netherlands; Bunschoten-Spakenburg – 25%]

Poland

Australia – high proportion of Irish – 30% of population – and Scottish

[Parts of Brazil with high proportion of Basque – 19%]

[Parts of Chile – high proportion of Basque]

Republic of Ireland 

[Sinai Peninsula Bedouins; what is interesting about this particular group is the similarity between their male DNA and the male DNA of Cohanim Jews]

[Scandinavia – specifically Southwest Norway, from Scottish slave ancestry]

Notice on the world map that the predominant Rh- levels are in all the nations descended from Shem and specifically his sons Arphaxad and Aram. Though Aram is misleading, as it is the inclusion of the Basque in Spain and Brazil which increases the percentages in those countries. 

Iceland is worth noting in that only one percent of its population is Rh-. A very low figure compared to Scandinavia. It is perplexing, as two-thirds of its population is Scandinavian and one-third Irish or Scottish descent. These peoples range from 16 to 25% and above, yet Iceland contradicts the pattern. We will learn in Chapter XXVII, that Icelanders are a distinct people in their own right and a classification of either Scandinavian or Celtic though migratory and historically correct, is inaccurate with regard to their ethnic identity. 

Celts and the Basques, James Vandale, 2006 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘… the geneticist Luiga Luca Cavalli-Sforza has completed a gene map of the peoples of Europe… The genetic boundary between Basques and non-Basques is very sharp on the Spanish side. On the French side, the boundary is more diffuse:it shades off gradually toward the Garonne in the north.’ 

These findings are entirely in agreement with what is known of the history of the  distinctly different and unique, Basque language. It is the oldest language in Europe, and its origins are unknown. 

As the languages in neighbouring countries in Europe show no resemblance to the Basque language, it has become an inexplicable mystery to the linguist. 

‘The people of the Basque region have a greater than 50 percent concentration of the RH negative gene… Basques are believed to have been theoriginators of the RH negative blood factor – the original genetic pool from which this factor came. While RH negatives are a small minority in the “white” and other races, and practically non-existent in “orientals”, the current Basques still are over 33 % RH negative. [A] salient genetic feature is the shape and sutures (bone joints) of cranial bones of Basques… [and a] skeletal difference is the tendency to having a thicker breast bone.’
 

Thus, the Basque are more like the French than the Spanish. This supports their link with Moab and Ammon rather than from Gether [Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil]. If the Basque are the originators of the Rh- factor then this would date the origin to exactly 3,900 years ago and the births of Moab and Ammon [1878/77 BCE – 2022/23].

When blood type is inherited from parents, the factor element of the blood is the most consistent characteristic passed on to offspring. Variations or aberrations are extremely rare. The majority of people – as high as 94% – have Rh positive blood. As blood type is one of the least mutable human characteristics, the big question facing scientists remains: Where did the Rh negative factor come from?

Due to the high percentage of European numbers, some conclude this may be when a Caucasian line was introduced into the genetic code. Dates proposed for this range from 35,000 to 5,000 years ago. The fact that a number of people lack this factor is a puzzling phenomenon that appears to defy evolution. Most scientists advocate a ‘random’ mutation – in other words, one that defies evolution. As there is a cause for every effect, a reason for the mutation must exist.

Rh-Negative Blood: An Exotic Bloodline or Random Mutation? Caleb Strom, 2020 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘… some [people] suggest that Rh-Negative blood must be of a non-human origin. Theories range from supernatural ones such as being of divine descent or membership in a divinely chosen people-group, to more scientific or pseudoscientific explanations… One blogger has gone as far as to say that those with Rh-Negative blood are descendants of the Hyperborean race, which they believe to be the original human race. Followers of this idea believe that this race was blonde-haired and blue-eyed and included most major spiritual teachers in history, including Jesus [Christ]. Some people who are not satisfied with the idea that those with RH-Negative blood are another form of humanity have suggested that the trait originates from extraterrestrials either interbreeding with humans or creating humans through genetic engineering.

What is unusual about Rh-Negative blood is that the gene for it is surprisingly common despite being potentially harmful. When a woman who is Rh-Negative is pregnant with a child that is Rh-Positive, the mother’s immune system creates protective anti-bodies to the Rh-Positive blood, and her blood essentially becomes toxic to the child. To some people, this looks like the mother’s body is rejecting the baby – which has led them to suggest that perhaps the reason for the rejection is incompatibility based on the mother and child being ofdifferent species. Others suggest that lineages with the gene for Rh-Negative blood are merely special in some way and were not meant to be mixed with lineages which are predominantly Rh-Positive.

This unusual trait can, however, also be explained in terms of relatively mundane human genetics and natural selection. One possibility is that the gene for Rh-Negative blood has some sort of selective advantage that outweighed the negative consequences of having Rh-Negative blood. Although it could still be that there is a common, unique ancestral lineage connecting populations with high prevalence of Rh-Negative blood [yes, most likely due to mainly descending from Arphaxad], the fact that the populations where the gene occurs in high prevalence appear otherwise unrelated to each other makes it less likely and in need of more evidence [not so, as these peoples are predominately from Arphaxad and intermarrying between them all is highly likely].

The extraterrestrial explanation is even more problematic because the Rh-Negative gene is clearly a variation of an otherwise completely human gene. Unless it was specifically engineered by extraterrestrials from a pre-existing human gene, it is unlikely that it comes from anything other than Homo Sapiens. The other problem with the Rh-Negative blood type being the result of hybridization with extraterrestrials is that extraterrestrials are likely to have a completely different biology and genome than human beings. Their genome might not even be based on DNA – but something else such as RNA, or some exotic form of genetic storage that never evolved on Earth.

the explanation that the Rh-Negative blood type is just a mutation that became common in some populations due to aselective advantage [is] the most likely option. It is also the one that most easily survives the application of Occam’s Razor. If this blood type was because of another human species, let alone extraterrestrials, many more unnecessary assumptions that are difficult to verify have to be made. As a result, the evidence currently points toward little more than an ordinary mutationas the cause of the Rh-Negative blood phenotype.’

Humans are not from Earth, Ellis Silver 2017, pages 152-154 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The origins of rhesus negative blood are unknown, but it’s also commonly known as “alien blood” so that might provide a clue. Whether there’s any genetic advantage in having (or not having) rhesus negative blood is currently unknown. Some researchers suspect that those with this type of blood might be more resistant to parasitic diseases… The D antigen could have been lost through genetic mutation or external manipulation. If we’d all evolved from a single African ancestor… then we’d all be biologically compatible. But we’re not, and our scientists can’t explain why. Since we’re not all compatible, this suggests that we aren’t just  a single species. It also lends credence to the fact we may be a hybrid race… as well as being nicknamed alien blood… [it] is also… known as royal blood. There’s reported to be a very high incidence of it in members of the royal families of Western Europe, and especially in the British royal family… you could easily come up with the hypothesis that the original kings and queens of Europe might have been aliens.’

Or, one might surmise that a high level of endogamy and or incest which creates ‘a restricted gene pool maintains a predominant genetic factor, whether it be a particular blood type or rhesus factor.’

The Mystery of Rh- Negative Blood – Genetic Origin Unknown, Nella Adriana Corak-Sebetic, 2017 – capitalisation theirs, emphasis and bold mine:

‘Geneticists generally claim the RH-negative factor is a mutation of unknown origin which apparently happened only a few thousand years ago. These ´negative´ blooded people spread heavily into the area of what is now Spain, England, Ireland, France and later into America, Canada and Australia.

Interestingly, popular sciences [endeavour] to attribute Rh-neg blood groups to “mutations.” A solid alternative case may be extended to the conclusion that Rh-neg is NOT a mutation, but possibly the original human blood group. This, however, does not reflect tenured thought, and thus has never been adequately researched.

That there was a group of “pure” humans, not directly related to the evolutionary processes on Earth, is a distinct possibility. This reasoning would suggest that the original humans on our planet [were] not directly related to the apes, but at some point were “MADE” or genetically engineered to give such impression.

Perhaps it was never intended that the Rh-positives become the dominant species. That through some as yet undetermined epoch, the genetically impure group gradually became the controlling species, except for several remote enclaves, initiated a wide-ranging genocidal pogrom, effectively wiping out those who gave birth to them. All of which begs the questions: What reasons were the sub-species created, what was the process of conquest, what was the duration, and does it continue?’

From this same article, a selection of quotes from the scientific community.

a. In all blood groups there exists a common microbe that in essence is the life force itself.

b. Do not ever take a blood transfusion. The main reason for this has to do with cellular/genetic/galactic memory of blood. This is coded into the entire structure of the blood. All the emotions that the donor has felt during his entire lifetime are part of the blood. 

This cannot be filtered out. For example if you get a heart of a man who died in a car accident, all the cells of that organ have the memory of the accident and every emotion that was felt while dying. These emotions confuse your own coding and then mass internal confusion happens at the cellular level and the order turns into chaos. When you measure the heart harmonics of people with “O” RH-neg blood, they are usually lower if they are smokers and heavy red meat eaters. The ones who eat fish and vegetables are in the normal range.

c. The Celtic people of Ireland and Great Britain also have high incidences of the RH- factor and it has recently been proven that there is a genetic link between the Basque andthe Celts.  This research proves that the Celtic people came from the Basque regions of France and Spain and a group must have migrated over to the islands of Great Britain. 

d. In some areas, the Rh-Negative blood factor is referred to as “Blood Royale” or “Royal Blood”. For centuries, European royalty have been inflicted with Hemophilia or “bleeders disease”. 

‘Apparently, Queen Victoria was a “carrier” of Hemophilia and gave it to all of her children who then intermarried and infected the bloodlines of [every] throne in Europe during the 1800s and 1900s. As a direct result, Hemophilia became known as the “Royal Disease”. To keep this in perspective, only about 5% of all “royalty” have Rh-Factor negative blood…which means less than the general population. That would indicate that the vast majority of rulers”and “monarchs are NOT Rhesus-factor negative. Is this by chance? or by genetic engineering called “arranged marriages”? 

… but if European Royalty refuse to marry into the Rh Negative blood line it means one thing… Rh-Neg people are a “competing royal line”. How do you get rid of it once and for all? Although the British would love for you to think that Victoria was the world’s first carrier… don’t be confused. It was the Hapsburg’s disease. Was Victoria a Hapsburg?The unofficial motto of the Hapsburg family was “Bella gerunt alii, tu, felix Austria, nubes!”(”Where others must fight wars, you, fortunate Austria, marry!).It’s curious that “marriage” can be a “dynastic” undertaking but it can also be a perverse form of “bio-warfare” or “genetic warfare”.

Was [haemophilia] a disease of Spanish Royalty? … [and] was marriage to Victoria’s daughters a way to kill or weaken future “non-Hapsburg” kings… since mostly males only contract the disease from their mothers? Still, Hemophilia was in Royalty long before Victoria. Victoria’s daughters passed the disease into the Spanish, German and Russian Royal lines and threatened the thrones of all of Europes major powers. It would appear that Victoria is actually a direct descendant of Ferdinand of Castille…’

Eye color, hair color, blood type, and the rhesus factor: exploring possible genetic links to sexual orientation, Lee Ellis, Christopher Ficek, Donald Burke and Shyamal Das, 2008 – emphasis & bold mine:

The present study sought to expand the limited evidence that sexual orientation is influenced by genetic factors. This was accomplished by seeking statistical differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals for four traits that are known to be genetically determined: eye color, natural hair color, blood type, andthe Rhesus factor. 

Using a sample of over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian college students supplemented with additional homosexual subjects obtained through internet contacts, we found no significant differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals regarding eye color or hair color. In the case of blood type and the Rh factor, however, interesting patterns emerged. Heterosexual males and females exhibited statistically identical frequencies of the A blood type,while gay men exhibited a relatively low incidence and lesbians had a relatively high incidence [of type A blood](p < .05). In the case of the Rh factor, unusually high proportions of homosexuals of both sexeswere Rh- when compared to heterosexuals (p < .06). The findings suggest that a connection may exist between sexual orientation and genes both on chromosome 9(where blood type is determined) andon chromosome 1 (where the Rh factor is regulated).’

I have quoted this paper not as condemnation of alternative lifestyles, but rather the significant coincidence of Lot living in a city, where same sex relations occurred; not to mention a society where humans and possibly angels and/or Nephilim were having sexual contact. Though the Rh- factor may, or may not have derived from these encounters, the question remains. 

The alternative is to concentrate on Lot’s daughter’s sons, Moab and Ammon. Was the Rh- factor a mechanism in response to the incest… for the protection of the descendants of Moab and Ammon, which has gradually filtered through to other descendants of Shem through intermarriage and relationships with those outside of Moab and Ammon’s people. In the pages of the Bible there is not any other indication that any nation or peoples began directly through a father and his daughters; so that this event is portrayed as a one time, unique occurrence in human history.

This may explain the very low percentages of R- factor in the equatorial and oriental peoples. It is curious that Rh negative blood cannot be duplicated or cloned. As is the higher percentage of Rh negative people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. 

Is it just a coincidence that the Basque possess the highest percentages of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b in Europe; or that they have the highest percentages of Rh- in the world? So that by these two criteria, they exhibit endogamy to its fullest extreme and so are in all probability, descended from Moab or Ammon… who were born from the most restricted gene pool ever documented?

Unknown author – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘For many years people have been searching for the wrong thing. Could the true “missing link” actually be man himself? The unknown link between earth and the stars – hybrid man. Man may be the missing link between primate and extraterrestrial. It seems inconceivable to me that those working on the evolution theory have overlooked this possibility. How can they state, that these people are lacking a factor contained in all other earthly primates, including the naked ape, and not ask why? What other characteristics are common among these people that are uncommon to other people? Is there a real difference other than just a different blood?’ 

A school of thought, is that white skin, with blond or red hair and blu or green eyes, was introduced into the Homo sapien line from the Nephilim; who exhibited the exact same characteristics. It is claimed that people with the following traits [a single comprehensive list compiled from various other lists] are in some way related to Nephilim, or by extension aliens. Confusingly, though likely more accurately, the same list is also applied to Rh negative people, so that there has been a blurring of symptoms and traits.

  • Higher than average IQ
  • More sensitive vision, hearing and other senses
  • Lower body temperature
  • Higher blood pressure or lower, with a low pulse rate
  • Increased occurrence of psychic & intuitive abilities, particularly if type O negative
  • Predominantly green, or hazel eyes that change colour, including piercing  blue eyes
  • Red or reddish tint to hair colour
  • Widows peak, tongue rolling, ear lobes, freckles, Polydactyly – 6 fingers or toes – Webbed feet or hands, Albinism
  • Increased sensitivity to heat and sunlight
  • Cannot be cloned
  • Extra rib or vertebra, a tail bone, or tail Cauda
  • Alien Abduction and other unexplained or strange phenomenon – UFO, Para-normal
  • A feeling of not belonging to the human race
  • Truth seekers and a desire for higher wisdom
  • Sense of a “Mission” in life
  • Empathy and Compassion for Mankind
  • ESP Ability
  • Love of Space and Science
  • Unexplained Scars
  • Empathetic Illnesses and tendancy to be healers
  • Higher Negative-ion shielding from positive ‘charged’ viruses and bacteria around the body 
  • Capability to disrupt electrical devices
  • Psychic Dreams
  • High sensitivity to electromagnetic, as well as, extremely low frequency fields

If Noah – who according to Enoch looked like the Nephilim – and or, his son Shem and their wives introduced the white skin mutation [refer Chapter XVI Shem Occidentalis] then these characteristics may or may not be linked to non-humans.

True World History Humanity’s Saga, Stewart A Swerdlow 2014, page 32 – bold mine:

‘… Noah was born with red skin and had white hair. He was depicted in appearance as the “Sons of God”. This text refers to him as if he had alien features.Noah was not the same as other human beings on Earth.’

Human blood is iron based, but some animals have copper based blood turning it blue – called hemocyanin. Blood is red because of the presence of haemoglobin. Octopi, Lobsters, spiders, molluscs, arthropods and other animals can and do in fact have blue blood. Humans do not. The claim that rhesus negative blood is copper based, or that the term blue blood originates from copper based blood in rhesus negatives is not true. Though the concept of blue blood must have an origination from somewhere. Is it linked to the Nephilim. Is this why Royalty and the powers that be, historically have been labeled as Blue Blooded.

Royals have tended to have paler skin than average; therefore their veins are seen more easily and viewed through skin tissue, look blue. As it is mainly sea creatures which have blue blood, Angellica Goodson labels it as copper based aquatic blood. She also claims that it is a ‘human alien hybrid’ blood line that carries it. The hybrid lines are associated with the Serpent and Reptillian bloodlines as purported by various authors.

Goodson explains that the misidentification Rh negative with Nephilim ‘started years ago on a physic website where a letter was posted from an anonymous person stating that she was an Rh negative but giving her alien human hybrid characteristics instead of the characteristics of a “Pure Scandinavian Rh Negative.” The misidentification has [since] gone viral online as [incorrect information].’ 

Goodson continues – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Some people carry both Rh Negative and Copper Based Aquatic Alien human hybrid anomalies. They number [under 7% of the global Population]. Copper Based Aquatic Blood is alien human hybrid blood,which has nothing to do with the Rh – Blood Factor. Those with the pure Rh – Factor carry what is referred to as “Power in the Blood.” Those with Copper Based Aquatic Blood [include] those who are being abducted by aliens… because they carry alien genetics, which they inherited from their ancestorsThe main reason aliens are interested in those with pure Rh- Negative blood is for their DNA.’

As the subject is drifting away from the original topic yet still related, we will conclude with three additional quotes; that may be of value to readers interested in the topics addressed in Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega. 

The Genesis 6 Conspiracy, Gary Wayne, Page 353 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Alien Abductions hold familiar kinship with fairy folk and fairy abductions… fairies have a need to reproduce with humans… like aliens. Fairies never abduct old people – only babies, young men, and young women… like aliens. Goblins, elves, trolls, and gnomes are known in mythology as beings that are described as “grays”… they are eager to breed with humans to modify and refresh their genetic makeup so that they might continue to survive…they need to mate with humans because they need an injection of new genes to bolster their weakened genetic makeup.’

Blue Blood, True Blood, Conflict and Creation, Stewart A Swerdlow, 2002 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘[The Reptilians] developed a plan to insidiously… [blend] their genetics with the genetics of… humans. Because the human prototype already had Reptilian genetics, it was easy to access the mind-pattern [refer Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]. The Reptilian frequency was already established in the brain stem as well as the Reptilian brain section of these hybrid humans.

The population of Sumer was chosen as the starting point. These humans were primarily descendants of the Martian, Maldekian, and Lyraen refugees. The Reptilians have a preference for the genetics of blonde-haired, blue-eyed people whose mind-patterns and genetics are so easily controlled. They abducted members of the ruling classes, including political leaders. Using these humans, they began a new hybridization program that took several generations to perfect. Their goal was to reach a human/ Reptilian genetic 50/50 split. This would produce a human-looking Reptilian that could easily shapeshift from Reptilian to human, then back again. Shapeshifting was accomplished simply by concentrating on the genetics the hybrid wished to open, or lock up, whatever the case may be. Once the hybridization program was complete, the Sumerian leaders were now shapeshifting Reptilians. The new Reptilian hybrid became the elite of that culture. Their blood, because of the increased Reptilian DNA, contained more of a copper content. Since copper-based blood turns blue-green upon oxidizing, these Reptilian hybrids were called “Bluebloods”.

The Bluebloods quickly realized that with a 50/50 human/Reptilian genetic split, it was necessary to intermarry to maintain the 50/50 split bloodline necessary to shapeshift. When the split increased too far to the Reptilian side, shapeshifting became difficult, and holding human form became impossible. In these cases, it was discovered that the ingestion of human hormones, flesh, and blood, allowed the Reptilians to maintain the human form. 

Human form was necessary to maintain to avoid scaring the population, which was now not accustomed to the Reptilian form. Control of the masses was easier when the orders came from a humanoid. The Reptilian format was kept to religious icons and legends. The statues of their gods and goddesses reflect the Reptilian influence, even showing a female Reptilian holding a hybrid baby [refer Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]. 


The shapeshifting Reptilian Bluebloods asked the Sirians for help with the daily maintenance of their human forms. The Sirians determined that feeding the hybrids human hormones and blood in an altered animal form would be the easiest way to do it unnoticed by the population. The sacrificial animal used by most Middle Eastern people was the wild boar, so the Sirians chose it as the basis for this new animal hybrid.Human genetics were mixed with those of the wild boar to create the domesticated pig. This animal was served daily to the Bluebloods as a method of temporarily maintaining their human form until they could use an actual human in a sacrificial ceremony.

Because the domesticated pig is a combination of human and animal genetics, eating it is a form of cannibalism. This explains why the Hebrews considered it unclean to eat [Leviticus 11:7-8 and Deuteronomy 14:8]. This is also why the pig is considered to be the most intelligent animal on Earth, why pig skin can be grafted directly onto humans in burn cases, and why pig heart valves can be used in humans with little difficulty. Cancer drugs and other chemicals are often tested on pigs before humans. In many respects, pigs can be considered a form of humanity. To a lesser degree, the same is true about cats.

As time progressed, the civilization of Sumer declined and transformed into other cultures. Vast migrations from Sumer to other locations in Central Asia occurred [the time of Peleg – Genesis 10:10, 25]. The migrating peoples took their Blueblood leaders with them, as they were their royalty and kings. The Sumerians became known as the sum-Aryans, or just, Aryans.’

Starseed Journey – RH Negative Blood, 2009 – capitalisation theirs, emphasis & bold mine: 

‘… the British Royal Family… [and] the Blue Bloods of Europe… are said to have stolen THE DIVINE RIGHT TO RULE the world from their Scandinavian predecessors before recorded history. The British Royals and Blue Bloods of Europe appear to be a bloodline of people with Scandinavian DNA and the DNA of a dark race… The Royals and”Blue Bloods” can be tracked back to the Lost Tribe of Dan and Cain in the Old Testament who are described as having had red hair and green-eyes. They are also referred to as the Serpent Bloodline“or”Reptilian Bloodline.”Further some even say these royal “Blue Bloods,” are a hybrid human reptilian bloodline… If this is true, they are not the original bloodline on earth and worse than that they have… reptilian DNA flowing through their veins.

It would appear that the Hindus ancient history is wrapped round spiritual traditions… [in] which ancient peoples referred to… [a] Land of the Gods… The ancient histories of all the major nations and religions on earth mention a time when… mankind lived in a temperate paradise… referred to [as] Hyperborea… a “GARDEN OF EDEN”… These legends tell us that the Scandinavian race was the original race in Hyperborea until the gods came down and started to… manipulate the DNA of the original Scandinavians creating hybrid races of genetically altered human beings. These evil gods began a human hybrid program in Hyperborea, which is eerily similar to what was being described in Genesis Chapter 6. All cultures also speak of reptilian gods who created a hybrid race of kings and queens that sat on the thrones of all ancient kingdoms that can be tracked back to ancient Sumer [and] Babylon in Iraq.

[A] group of evil entities entered our three dimensional world that were created by Yaldabaoth the Demiurge, they were reptilian entities. One of these entities was known as Yahweh Ildabaoth… Once the physical bodies had been created these evil artisans… were able to… clone human DNA. Those falling for the Alien [Agenda”] believe that the (spirit) entities we wrongly call Aliens today, created human beings. However… the entities who came into our… world to… clone human beings were NOT CAPABLE OF CREATING HUMAN BEINGS AND ARE STILL NOT ABLE TO. These entities did have the ability to… clone hybrids using human, reptilian, animal and bird DNA, which is how the “Serpent Bloodlines” were created… illicit sexual activity with the gods is the actual meaning behind “ORIGINAL SIN.” [Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]’

The Y-chromosomal Haplotype and Haplogroup distribution of modern Switzerland still reflects the alpine divide as a geographical barrier for human migration

Forensic Science International: Genetics, Martin Zieger & Silvia Utz, Volume 48 September 2020 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘A sample of 606 Swiss individuals has been characterized for 27 Y-STR and 34 Y-SNPs, defining major European haplogroups. For the first time, a subsample from the southernmost part of Switzerland, the Italian speaking canton Ticino, has been included. The data reveals significant intra-national differences in the distribution of haplogroups R1b-U106, R1b-U152, I1 and J2a north and south of the alpine divide, with R1b-U152 being the most frequent haplogroup among all Swiss subpopulations [also the dominant R1b Haplogroup in France and Italy], reaching 26% in average and 53 % in the Ticino sample. 

In addition, a high percentage of haplogroup E1b1b-M35 in Eastern Switzerland corresponds well with data reported from Western Austria. In general, we detected a low level of differentiation between the subgroups north of the alpine divide. This is the first comprehensive Y chromosomal dataset for Switzerland, demonstrating significant population substructure due to an intra-national geographical barrier.’

Swiss men

‘Pairwise FST calculations based on the maximal STR marker set (YFilerPlus® + PowerPlex Y23®) show little intra-national differentiation among the 6 regional subpopulations (Table 2). In line with our previous observations, all subpopulations show the largest FST values in pairwise comparison with the southernmost Swiss canton Ticino subpopulation, with the largest difference being the one between Northwestern Switzerland and Ticino. We also compared our dataset to datasets from other countries, using the AMOVA tool from YHRD. The multiple dimensional scaling plot in Fig. 2a localizes the Swiss data between the datasets from neighboring countries. For one of the direct neighboring countries, no data was included, since there was no French dataset forPowerPlex® Y23 available on the YHRD. 

If we divide the sample into language subgroups, the German speaking subpopulation locates even closer to the Austrian sample, whereas the French speaking subpopulation is somewhat closer to the samples from Belgiumand Spain. Surprisingly,theItalian speaking sample co-localizes with the sample from Spainand issignificantly different from the Italian sample, registered on YHRD[due to the Swiss being a distinct people from the Italians, French and Germans, regardless of the different languages spoken]. As a control, we also checked the genetic distance of our regional subsamples to the four other Swiss YFiler datasets registered on YHRD. They show all a high degree of similarity, except for the sample from Basel that exhibits extremely large RST values towards all the other subpopulations, ranging from 0.084 to 0.173, even towards the sample from the same region of Northwestern Switzerland (0.101). All RST values and corresponding p-values generated with the YHRD AMOVA tool are available in Supplementary Table 2. 

Pairwise FST values among the different regional subgroups. NW = Northwestern Switzerland; CS = Central Switzerland; BE = Bern area; TI = Ticino; WS = Western Switzerland; SG = St. Gallen.’


NWCSBETIWSSG
SG0.00680.00630.00640.01090.0049
WS0.00430.00320.00360.0077
TI0.01410.01020.0085

BE0.00500.0044


CS0.0063



NW




Swiss women

‘Fig. 2. Multiple dimensional scaling blot based on RST values, generated for PowerPlex® Y23 datasets with the AMOVA tool from YHRD. A) Comparison of the whole sample (“Switzerland”) to other national European datasets, registered on YHRD. B) Comparison of Swiss (“CH”) subpopulations based on mother tongue to national datasets from neighboring countries. Spain was included as the next western country in mainland Europe, since no French samplefor PowerPlex® Y23 was available on the YHRD.The data points for Spain and the Italian speaking Swiss subsample collapse into one.’

On PCA graphs, the Swiss-French are marginally closer to the French than Swiss-Germans, though all three form an equilateral triangle. The Swiss-Germans have an affinity with Western Germans and also with the Dutch in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. We will see this confirmed between the Swiss and Dutch later when observing their respective Haplogroups. The fact that Swiss-Italians* are genetically closer to the Spanish rather than Italians as a whole, will not be a surprise to the constant reader who has read the preceding chapters [refer Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil and Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans].

‘For the comparison of the haplogroup distributions among different regional subgroups, the regions defined in our previous work were maintained. All haplogroup proportions are listed in Table 5. We detected five significant regional differences in haplogroup spread. Whereas the [Y-DNA] haplogroups I1-M253 and R1b-U106 are more or less evenly distributed north of the Alps, they are almost absent from the Ticino sample. In return, haplogroups J2a-M410 and R1b-U152 are far more abundant in the Ticino sample than in the rest of the country. Furthermore, we detected a significant enrichment of haplogroup E1b1b-M35 in the easternmost sample from St. Gallen. We could also detect a slightly larger proportion of E1b1b-M35 in the sample from Western Switzerland. However, this observation [proved] not to be significant.

As expected, we observe a good correspondence of the dataset with the metapopulation “Western European”, what can be concluded from the distribution of the estimated haplotype frequencies. The fact that 90% of the haplotypes are predicted to be more frequent in the Western European than in the global panel, can be seen as a successful quality control of the sampling scheme. The population sample also fits well in the context of the neighboring countries and shows no noteworthy differences compared to the Swiss datasets previously registered on the YHRD. 

The only exception concerns the sample from Basel. However, since the Basel sample on YHRD shows large genetic differences with all other Swiss samples, including our sample collected from the same region, we assume some kind of sampling error for this regional subsample and we would like to suggest that it should be used with caution for any interpretation and comparison. The fact that the Italian* speaking subsample co-locates rather with the sample from Spain than with the sample from Italy,might be attributed to the higher overall percentage of haplogroup R1b in Spain than in Italy. The fraction of R1b in the Spanish population corresponds better to the 70 % R1b in the Ticino sample. Given the dubious reputation of the prediction tools, we were surprised how well the haplogroup predictions corresponded to the haplogroups determined by SNaPshot assay.’ 


NWCSWSSGBETIHg (tot)
E1b1b (M35)44913**467
G (M201)129661249
I1 (M253)1391012112*10
I2 (M223)753444
I2 (P215)4421222
J1 (M267)1110
J2a (M410)114610*3
J2b (M102)4331343
N (M46)10
O (M175)10
QR (M45)20
R1a (M198)7454424
R1b (U106)12151213172*13
R1b (U152)192924282053***26
R1b (U198)110
R1b (M269)14141913181616
R1b (M343)10
R2 (M124)10
KLT (M9)21121
F (M213)10

‘So, even though we would agree that for reliable results, every SNP should be finally determined in the wet lab, we cannot deny that for samples of Western European ancestry, predictors seem to deliver good preliminary results. The HAPEST predictor we used here has already been shown to deliver accurate predictions for typical European haplogroups. We assume that such a high accuracy of haplogroup prediction of 95% could be achieved only because we have very good data coverage for Western Europe. For most reliable predictions, we recommend combining an YHRD search with the haplogroup prediction tool. All haplogroups that were concordant between YHRD ancestry information and HAPEST haplogroup prediction turned out to be correct.

SNP typing for common European haplogroups revealed some expected patterns, demonstrating that the modern Swiss population still reflects the Alps as geographical barrier for human migration. We detected significantly less haplogroup I1-M253 south of the alpine divide than in the German and French speaking parts of Switzerland. This was expected, since I1 is most common in Northern Europe and can only be found in small proportions south of the Alps. We detected significant differences in the distribution of two sublineages of R1b-M269 north and south of the Alps: notably lineages R1b-U106 [Germanic -Germany and England]and R1b-U152 [Latin – Italy and France]. R1b-U106 is mainly spread along the river Rhine, reaching the largest proportions at the southern coast of the North Sea.R1b-U106 evolved approximately at the same time than haplogroup R1b-P312/S116. R1b-U152 is a sublineage of R1b-P312/S116 of younger origin. 

It has been suggested that it originates from a Franco-Cantabrian region and has been brought to the Alps and northern Italy by migration along the Mediterranean coast. Today it reaches its highest percentages in northern Italy. Northwestern Italy has a very high percentage of haplogroup R1b (around 70 %) with the highest proportions in the area of Bergamo. In this pre-alpine region, located about 50 km from Ticino, the percentage of individuals with haplogroup R1b-U152 is around 50 %, just as for our Ticino sample. Haplogroup R1b-U152 is significantly less frequent north of the Alps, but remains the most frequent haplogroup throughout the entire country [as it is in Italy and France].’

These findings concerning Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b as evidenced by the preceding table confirm that the Swiss are less like the northern Germans or southern English in that they do not possess R1b-U198 beyond a trace element. The Alpine split of the north and south, confirms that though many Swiss are related to the Germans through R1b-U106; the fact remains that R1b-U152 is the main Haplogroup throughout all Switzerland. Confirming that they are more closely related to the French and Italians. This should not be a surprise when we understand that the Swiss descend from Haran, who is the father of Lot’s descendants in France; and the elder brother of Nahor, the father of many Central and Northern Italians.

The Genomic Heritage of French Canadians, Razib Khan, 2011 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘One of the great things about the mass personal genomic revolution is that it allows people to have direct access to their own information. This is important for the more than 90% of the human population which has sketchy genealogical records. 

But even with genealogical records there are often omissions and biases in transmission of information. This is one reason that HAP, Dodecad and Eurogenes BGA are so interesting: they combine what people already know with scientific genealogy. This intersection can often be very inferentially fruitful.

But what about if you had a whole population with rich robust conventional genealogical records? Combined with the power of the new genomics you could really crank up the level of insight. Where to find these records? A reason that Jewish genetics is so useful and interesting is that there is often a relative dearth of records when it comes to the lineages of American Ashkenazi Jews. Many American Jews even today are often sketchy about the region of the “Old Country” from which their forebears arrived. Jews have been interesting from a genetic perspective because of the relative excess of ethnically distinctive Mendelian disorders within their population. 

There happens to be another group in North America with the same characteristic: the French Canadians. And importantly, in the French Canadian population you do have copious genealogical records. The origins of this group lay in the 17th and 18th century, and the Roman Catholic Church has often been a punctilious institution when it comes to preserving events under its purview such as baptisms and marriages. The genealogical archives are so robust that last fall a research group input centuries of ancestry for [2,221] French Canadians, and used it to infer patterns of genetic relationships as a function of geography, as well as long term contribution by provenance.

That paper found that nearly 70% of the immigrant founding stock in this data set came directly from France. For the period before 1700 that fraction exceeds 95%. Of the remainder, about 15% of the founding stock were Acadians, who themselves were presumably mostly of French origin.Because of the earlier migration of the French founding stock, they left a stronger impact on future generations: But this research did not look directly at genetics. Rather, these inferences were generated from genealogical records which go back to the founding of Quebec and maintained coherency and integrity from generation to generation. Some of the members of the same research group now have a paper out which looks at the genomics of French Canadians, and directly compares their results to that of the earlier paper.’

Genomic and genealogical investigation of the French Canadian founder population structure – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Characterizing the genetic structure of worldwide populations is important for understanding human history and is essential to the design and analysis of genetic epidemiological [health and disease conditions] studies. In this study, we examined genetic structure and distant relatedness and their effect on the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) and homozygosity in the founder population of Quebec (Canada). In the French Canadian founder population, such analysis can be performed using both genomic and genealogical data. We investigated genetic differences, extent of LD, and homozygosity in 140 individuals from seven sub-populations of Quebec characterized by different demographic histories reflecting complex founder events. 

Genetic findings from genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data were correlated with genealogical information on each of these sub-populations. Our genomic data showed significant population structure and relatedness present in the contemporary Quebec population, also reflected in LD and homozygosity levels. 

Our extended genealogical data corroborated these findings and indicated that this structure is consistent with the settlement patterns involving several founder events. This provides an independent and complementary validation of genomic-based studies of population structure. Combined genomic and genealogical data in the Quebec founder population provide insights into the effects of the interplay of two important sources of bias in genetic epidemiological studies, unrecognized genetic structure and cryptic relatedness.’

‘In 1760 there were 70,000 residents in the areas of Canada which were under French rule. A substantial fraction of these derived from the much smaller 17th century founding population. Today the number of North Americans with some known French Canadian ancestry numbers around [10 million people]. I happen to know an individual whose great-great-grandmother was French Canadian. Using the internet it turned out that I could trace this woman’s ancestry along one line back to the countryside outside of Poitiers in the mid 16th century! Being conservative it seems that at least 5 million North Americans have overwhelming descent from the 1760 founding stock. These are the core French Canadians.

An immediate inference one might make from these background facts, the rapid expansion of the French Canadian ethnic group from a small core founding stock, is that they would have gone through a population bottleneck.”The data here are mixed. On the one hand, there are particular Mendelian diseases associated with French Canadians. This is evidence of some level of inbreeding which would randomly increase the frequencies of deleterious recessively expressed alleles. 

And yet as noted in the paper French Canadians do not seem to have lower genetic diversity than the parental stock of French in the HGDP data set. Why? Because to go through a population bottleneck which is genetically significant you need a very small window of census size indeed. Tens of thousands is sufficiently large enough to preserve most of the genetic variation in the founder population which is not private to families. The sort of genetic polymorphisms which might have been typed for in widely distributed SNP chips. But that’s not the end of the story.’

‘Though French Canadians don’t seem [to] exhibit the hallmarks of having gone through an extreme population bottleneck as an aggregate, it turns out that in the populations surveyed there was evidence of substructure. The map… shows you the regions where the samples were drawn. Unlike the earlier study the sample size is smaller; this is a nod to the difference between a purely genealogical study and a genomic one. There needs to be money and time invested in typing individuals. Relatively public genealogical records are a different matter. Apparently the Gaspesia sample population were from a relatively later settlement. The urban samples naturally include descendants of local French Canadians, as well as rural to urban transplants.’

‘As one would expect the French Canadian sample clustered with the CEU (Utah whites from the HapMap) and French (from the HGDP) in the world wide PCA. And not surprisingly they exhibited smaller genetic distance to the French than to the Utah whites (who were of mostly British extraction). 

Using Fst, which measures the extent of genetic variance partitioning between populations, the values from the aggregate French Canadian sample to the CEU sample was 0.0014 and to the French HGDP sample was 0.00078. The Montreal French Canadian group exhibited values of 0.0020 and 0.0012. But, it is important to observe that there was statistically significant differences between the various French Canadian populations as well (excluding the Montreal-Quebec City pairing). This may explain the existence of particular Mendelian diseases in the French Canadian population despite their lack of reduced genetic variation: there’s localized pockets of inbreeding which are not smoked out by looking at total variation statistics. Additionally, the authors conclude that not taking this substructure into account in medical genetics could lead to false positives. Inter-population differences in disease susceptibilities correlated with genome-wide differences in allele frequencies could produce spurious associations.

In the final section the paper notes that there are some peculiarities in the genetics of the French Canadians which do indicate some level of genetic homogeneity, at least by locality. To explore this issue they focus on two genomic phenomena which measure correlations of alleles, genetic variations, over spans of the genome within populations. The two phenomena are linkage disequilibrium, which measures association across loci of particular variants, and runs-of-homozygosity, which highlights genomic regions where homozygosity seems enriched beyond expectation (the former is inter-locus, while the latter is intra-locus). Both of these values could be indicators of some level of population bottleneck or substructure, where stochastic evolutionary forces shift a population away from equilibrium as measured by the balance of parameters such as drift, selection, and mutation.’

‘To the right is a mashup of figures 5 and 6. On the left you have a figure which shows the extent of linkage disequilibrium as a function of distance between SNP. As you would expect the greater the distance between two SNPs, the more likely they’re to be in equilibrium as recombination has broken apart associations. The closer and closer two markers, the more likely they’re to be linked, physically and statistically. But there’s a difference between the two LD plots. There’s no difference between the CEU and French Canadian samples in the top panel, but there is in the bottom one. Why? The bottom panel shows LD between markers much further apart. Acadians in particular seem to exhibit more long distance LD than the other populations. This may be a sign of a population bottleneck and inbreeding. Also, please note that the Utah white CEU sample is probably relatively similar to the French Canadians in its demographic history as North American groups go. It is homogeneous and expanded rapidly from a small founder group. To the right you have in the top panel total length of ROH per individual, and the bottom length of ROH greater than 1 MB. Again, the Acadians seem to be standouts in terms of their difference from the CEU reference. Interestingly, there’s no difference between CEU, French, and the two French Canadian urban samples. I suspect this is due to the fact that in Montreal and Quebec City the distinctive inbreeding found in the other samples has been eliminated through intermarriage. ROH disappear when you introduce heterozygosity through outbreeding.

What has all this told us? From a medical genetic perspective it is implying that population structure matters when evaluating French Canadians, an Acadian is not interchangeable with a native of Montreal.In terms of ethnically clustered diseases of French Canadians, in the USA the Cajuns, it may not be that there are patterns across the whole ethnic group, but trends within subgroups characterized by long-term endogamy. I wonder if the same might be true of Ashkenazi. 

Is there is a difference between Galicians and Litvaks? Such regional differences among European Jews are new, but the French Canadians themselves are the result of the past three centuries. These results also seem to reinforce the Frenchness of the French Canadians. A group which one could analyze in a similar vein would be the Boers, who are an amalgam of French Protestants, Dutch, and Germans, but seem to exhibit a dominance of the Dutch element culturally.

Finally, the French Canadians may give us a small window in the long term demographic patterns and genetic dynamics which might be operative on a nearby ethnic group: the Puritans of New England. Because of their fecundity [fruitfulness] it seems likely that tens of millions of Americans today descend from the 30,000 or so English settlers who arrived in New England in the two decades between 1620 and 1640 [this very likely to be accurate]. This is the subject of the Greta Migration Project. With numbers in the few tens of thousands it seems unlikely that much of a thorough population bottleneck occurred with this group in a genetic sense in the aggregate. But the results from the French Canadians indicate that isolated groups can be subject to stochastic dynamics, and develop in their own peculiar directions.’

In later chapters, the Jews, Boers and Puritans will be investigated. What this article is confirming is that these peoples, regardless of religious, cultural and historical factors or influences all remain homogenous peoples genetically. This evidence validates the proposal that these three peoples, with French Canadians are distinct peoples in their own right and not an amalgam of different unrelated ethnic groups.

Catalonians and Gascons of France, Khazaria – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Being Western Europeans, it is no surprise that the most common Y-DNA haplogroup among Catalans is a branch of the R1b haplogroup. R1b1b2a1 is nearly exclusive to western Europe, and the sub-haplogroup R1b1b2a1a2c is common among Catalans and Gascons.

The place of the Basques in the European Y-chromosome diversity landscape. European Journal of Human Genetics 13:12, multiple authors, (2005): pages 1293-1302.’ 

“The Y chromosomes of 68 male Basques were analyzed. About 86 percent of them carried varieties of haplogroup R1*(xR1a,R1b3f)-M173 [R1-M173], of which most carried R1b3*-M269 [R1b-M269]. This is a commonality between Basques and other western Europeans. 7.1 percent of the Basques in this study (a lower frequency than other scientists had found) carried the Iberian-specific subclades R1b3d-M153 [R1b-M153 – Basque & Gascon] and R1b3f-SRY2627 [R1b-M167 Catalonian]…”

An mtDNA perspective of French genetic variation. Annals of Human Biology 34:1 multiple authors, (January-February 2007): pages 68-79.

This mitochondrial DNA study of 868 people from 12 areas of France includes Basques from the Basque province of Lapurdi in France. These French Basques were found to have noteworthy differences in mtDNA distribution compared to Spanish Basques.

Excerpts from the body of the paper: 

“… It is somewhat surprising to find Hg U4 at a relatively high frequency (6.2%) and diversity among the French Basques (absent in Spanish Basques), because this sub-clade of U is largely East European and West Siberian (Tambets et al. 2003) in its distribution. In contrast to U4, Hg U5b2 is rare among French Basques (2.5%), and more frequent in the Spanish Basques. One other particularity of the French Basque is found within Hg J, more frequent than in the Spanish Basques, and also the presence of the Hg J1c haplotype with HVS-I motif 16069-16126-16300. The derivatives of this branch of Hg J have been so far found mostly in Near Eastern populations (Richards et al. 2002; Metspalu et al. 2004; and authors’ unpublished data). Likewise to U4, Hg T1 is found only in French Basques.

… On the other hand,haplogroups such as U5and HV0 that are frequent in Spanish Basques are absent or rare in the French Basques, while for Hg U4 its distribution is the opposite. The pattern observed in the mtDNA pool of the French Basques from the Lapurdi region may be explained by genetic drift and cultural isolation in a relatively small long-term effective population size. In addition, it is also likely that both French and Spanish Basques, although sharing a common linguistic and probably also genetic ancestry, have been affected by admixture from different sources. 

Meanwhile, the overall high frequency of autosomal recessive coagulation factors deficiencies in French Basques population (Bauduer et al. 2004) argues in favour of genetic drift acting on this population… Taken together, our findings support the notion that ‘Basques’ are a strongly sub-divided population and support a conclusion that French and Spanish Basques have been effectively isolated from each other for a long enough period to allow random genetic drift to differentiate them.”’

In other words, the Basque – who are related to the French – have retained their ‘Frenchness’, whereas those Basque who have dwelt with the Aramaean Spanish for many centuries or longer, show the resulting admixture. PCA graphs place the French Basque equally distant from southwest French and northwest Spanish. Ethnologists and geneticists have stressed the differences; saying the Basque especially and Catalonians, are entirely distinct from the Spanish, which is correct and the French, which is incorrect. The mixing with the Spanish on their side of the border has had an impact on the Basque and Catalonian Haplogroup sequencing. The Basque and Catalonians on the French side of the border have remained truer to their French origin culturally and ethnically, as descendants of probably Moab and possibly Ammon. 

We Are Not Our Ancestors: Evidence for Discontinuity between Prehistoric and Modern Europeans – Journal of Genetic Genealogy, Ellen Levy-Coffman, 2005 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Other genetic studies on the Basque have focused on examining blood groups, STR loci, and autosomal markers, often in an attempt to support the Paleolithic paradigm. However, in light of the aDNA studies, Basque distinctiveness can be accounted for by the processes of genetic drift, inbreeding over long periods of time and natural selective processes. Moreover, the researchers noted that the Basque are unique among European populations due to their extremely high rate of consanguinity [‘close relationship or connection by descent from a common ancestor’]. Basque social and cultural traditions continue to promote consanguinity. 

The genetic impact of such inbreeding has yet to fully explored by geneticists, but the high frequency of inherited disorders among the Basque, including Coagulation Deficiences (Factor XI) and Mutation F508 (Cystic Fibrosis Gene), support the suggestion that drift, inbreeding, and a small population size maintained over many generations, as opposed to significant retention of Paleolithic genetic ancestry, best explains the present genetic makeup of the Basque (Alonso 2005; Bauduer 2005).

Finally, even researchers that have found limited genetic evidence of probable Paleolithic ancestry among the Basque also acknowledge that such findings do not support the contention that contemporary Basque retain significant genetic links with indigenous Paleolithic Europeans. (Gonzalez 2006) For instance, although the Basque mtDNA lineage U8a may date to the late Paleolithic, it is rarely found today among modern-day Europeans and, furthermore, constitutes only[one percent] of contemporary Basque mtDNA results. Thus, U8a has diminished in frequency among populations today in a manner similar to the N1a lineage.’

French Genetics: Abstracts and Summaries, Kevin Alan Brook – Emphais  & bold mine:

‘French people mostly live in France but also live in neighboring Belgium and Switzerland and their descendants notably moved in large numbers to Quebec and Acadia. They are called Walloons in Belgium. The French are a complex mixture of ancient Celtic, Iberian, Italic [Moab], Germanic [Ammon], and[ancient] Greek peoples [Moab & Ammon].The standard French, Norman, and Occitan languages are members of the Romance linguistic family and all are written in the Latin alphabet.

Participants in the French Heritage DNA project belong to such Y-DNA (paternal-line) haplogroups as I-M253, I-P109, I-P37, J-P58, J-Z387, R-L21 [northwest France] (a branch of R1b), R-M269 (R1b1a2, the most common branch of R1b in western Europe), R-L552, and R-U198.

Participants in the French Swiss DNA Project whose most distantly known ancestors were French people from Switzerland carry the Y-DNA haplogroups E-L542, E-V13, E-V36, E-M78, G-P15, G-M201, I-M253, I-Z138, N-M178, R-M269, R-U106, and R-U152.

Y-chromosomal DNA analysis in French male lineages. Forensic Science International: Genetics 9, multiple authors, (March 2014): pages 162-168. First published online on December 29, 2013. 

The authors analyze Y-DNA haplogroups’ variation across France using a pool of 558 samples taken from men from 7 French regions: Alsace, Auvergne, Bretagne, Île-de-France, Midi-Pyrénées, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Figure 2 lists all the Y-chromosomal haplogroups they found and their frequencies on a per-region basis. The haplogroups are BD, E*, E1b1b1*, E1b1b1a, E1b1b1b, E1b1b1c*, E1b1b1c1, F*, G, I*, I2a2, J*, J1a, J2, K*, L, N1c, P*, R1*, R1a, R1b1*, R1b1b2*, R1b1b2a1*, R1b1b2a1a, R1b1b2a2d, R1b1b2a2e, R1b1b2a2g, and T.’

Excerpt from the Abstract: 

“Even though we find that most of the individual populations in France were not differentiated from each other, Bretagne population shows population substructure…” 

Excerpt from the body of the article: 

“From a total of 27 binary markers typed in the seven regions of France, 22 different haplogroups were found. The most frequent haplogroup in all the regions was R1b1b2*(xR1b1b2a1, 2d, 2e, 2g), with the exception of Alsace, where the most common one was R1b1b2a2g.”

The coming of the Greeks to Provence and Corsica: Y-chromosome models of archaic Greek colonisation of the western Mediterranean. BMC Evolutionary Biology 11:69, multiple authors, (March 14, 2011). 

This paper’s goal was to study the genetic traces of Greek colonization in Provence in southern mainland France. 51 samples from Provençal Frenchmen were compared with 58 samples from people from Smyrna and 31 from Asia Minor Phokaia. The Y-DNA haplogroup E-V13 is known to be “characteristic of the Greek and Balkan mainland”. It was found among 19% of the Phokaian samples and 12% of the Smyrnian samples as well as among 4% of the Provençal Frenchmen, 4.6% of East Corsicans, and 1.6% of West Corsicans. Altogether, according to the Results section, taking into account all haplogroups, “An admixture analysis estimated that 17% of the Y-chromosomes of Provence may be attributed to [ancient] Greek colonization.”

An mtDNA perspective of French genetic variation. Annals of Human Biology 34:1, multiple authors, (January-February 2007): pages 68-79. 

Mitochondrial DNA was evaluated for 868 samples these researchers and previous researchers gathered from inhabitants of France, predominantly from 12 specific locations, including but not limited to regions like Normandy, Seine-Maritime, and North-East in the north and Languedoc and Provence in the south. Ethnic French people proper as well as Bretons, Corsicans, and Basques living in France were tested… H is by far the most common mtDNA haplogroup in France with the frequency of 45.56%. Others include (but are not limited to) K at 8.74%, U5 at 8.3%, J at 7.65%, HV0 at 4.77%, U4 at 2.31%, I at 2.02%, and T1 at 1.66%. The authors conclude: “The mtDNA haplogroup composition of the French does not differ significantly from the surrounding European genetic landscape.” However, they did find some level of distinctiveness among the Bretons and Basques…’

Eupedia, Genetic history of the Benelux and France, Maciamo Hay, 2017 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Note that the total [Haplogroups] for France is biased towards North Americans of French descent (mostly from Québec), as genealogical DNA tests have not yet become popular among French people. 

R1b is the most common haplogroup in France. It includes four main subclades: the Atlantic Celtic R1b-L21in the north-west, the Gascon-Iberian R1b-DF27 (including the Basque R1b-M153) in the south-west, the Germanic R1b-U106 in the north,and the Gaulish Celtic and Italic R1b-U152 in the east.’

R1b-L21 [M529 / S145] is concentrated in Brittany and shared with the Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

R1b-DF27 not only includes M153 associated with the Basque and the Gascon, but also M167 [SRY2627] which is concentrated in Catalonia and shared with the Basque as well as being found in Cornwall, England; Wales, Bavaria, Germany; Belgium and the Netherlands.

R1b-U106 [M405 / S21] is concentrated in Frisia, northern Netherlands and shared with Benelux, Germany, Austria, Norway and England. 

R1b-U152 [S28] is predominately found in northern and central Italy and shared with Switzerland and France.

Notice that these various R1b Haplogroup strains are principally aligned with northern and central Europe rather than southern Europe. People often think of France as a Latin country; it is actually more Teutonic. For even its supposed ‘Latin’ influence as shown by its genetic links with Switzerland and Italy, are actually non-Latin, for both these nations though containing a Latin element, are still predominantly Teutonic or ‘Germanic’ nations – all having R1b-U152 as its dominating Haplogroup [refer Chapter XXV Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans].

The ancient Burgundians, a Germanic tribe from eastern Denmark, appear to have carried considerable percentages of haplogroups R1a* and Q*, two haplogroups that are now found at unusually high frequencies around the former Kingdom of the Burgundians, in what is now the Rhône-Alpes region and the north of Provence [see Switzerland]. 

Haplogroup R1b has numerous branches, each with their own origins. The ancient Gauls during the Bronze Age and Iron Age belonged primarily to R1b-P312 [S116 Iberia: Spain & Portugal], which is divided in three main subclades: DF27, L21 and U152. All of them are found throughout France, but DF27 is more common in the southern half of France, while L21 is especially common [in] the Northwest. Britons fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the 5th and 6th centuries crossed the Channel and settled in great number in Brittany, which increased the percentage of R1b-L21 in that region. Nowadays half of all R1b in Brittany is L21 (35% of all Y-DNA). 

Later in the Middle Ages Normandy, Anjou, Brittany and other parts of western France came under English rule, and some L21 may have come from England during that period. But it is most likely that Northwest Gaul already had a substantial percentage of L21 during the Iron Age.

The U152 clade of R1b is the most homogeneously distributed, with between 15% and 20% in most French regions. It is associated with Hallstatt and La Tène Celts that migrated from the North of the Alps to Gaul during the Iron Age, but also with the Cisalpine Gauls and Italic people from Italy. The ancient Romans and other Italic peoples would have belonged to the U152>Z56, U152>Z193 and some U152>L2 subclades [this is an incorrect assumption]. Other L2 subclades [NW Europe] and the Z36 clade were found among the Etruscans (confirmed) [correct as we will discover] and probably also among the Alpine Celts [incorrect]. 

Data about deep clades is still sparse in France, but Italic Z56 and Z193 appear to be most common in Provence (~9%), followed by Champagne-Lorraine (5%), Alsace and Poitou-Charentes (both ~4.5%), Bourgogne-France Comté (4%) and Rhône-Alpes (3%). The ancient Romans also carried Greek/Balkanic R1b-Z2103 lineages [incorrect]. This haplogroup is found in the same regions, with a peak in the Rhône-Alpes region (~9%).

Germanic tribes brought R1b-U106 to France. It was particularly common among the Franksand was the lineage of the Kings of France. Nowadays it is most common in Ile-de-France [including the capital, Paris]and Picardy (both ~16%), followed by Alsace (14.5%), Normandy (13.5%) and Flanders-Artois (11%). Other Germanic lineages are I1, I2a2a-L801, R1a-L664 and R1a-Z284. Almost all the I2a2a and R1a in northern and eastern France is of Germanic origin.’

Around 80% of G2a in France falls under the Celtic Z1816 clade. Another 15% is made up of the U1 branch, typically the L13 clade, which is usually of Italic/Roman origin. The remaining 5% of G2a descends from local Neolithic farmers. Most J2a in France belongs to the M67 and the M319 subclades, which were found among ancient Etruscans and Greeks.’ 

This is highly telling, as we will discover that the Etruscans were ‘Greek’ before leaving the Aegean and settling in central Italy. The Etruscans are related to the latter Greeks  who formed the Greco-Macedonian Empire. In other words, the Etruscans and Moab and Ammon are closely related.

‘These lineages probably came from Italy in Roman times, apart from some Greek lineages in the Côte d’Azur. J1 was also found among the Etruscans and is the likely source of the non-Jewish J1 in France.J2b was found in Bronze Age Illyria, among Iron Age Etruscans and Daunians, but was probably also found in other parts of central and southern Italy as well as in Greece. In France it would be mostly of Graeco-Roman (including Etruscan) origin. Nowadays J2b makes up roughly half of all J2 in Provence and Languedoc, one third in Midi-Pyrénées and Lorraine, but under 20% in Aquitaine and Poitou-Charentes. It’s rare elsewhere.’

‘This map shows an estimation of the dominant ancestry in each region of France based on anthropological studies. Will DNA confirm this general pattern? Here is a summary of Y-DNA haplogroups found in France, and the ancient ethnicities associated with them:

  • Germanic/Nordic : R1b-U106, I1, I2-L801
  • Gaulish Celtic : R1b-U152 [Alpine]
  • Atlantic Celts : R1b-L21 [British & Irish Celts]
  • Iberian Celts : R1b-DF27, R1b-P312
  • Basque : R1b-DF27, R1b-M153 
  • Greek: E1b1b, E-M123, J2, R1b-L23 [Balkans, Greece, Turkey, southern Italy], G2a, T1a, J1

Regardless of descriptive labels for regions and ancestry, or where one draws an approximate line to split France into approximate halves, the above map confirms the dual nature of the French. The areas encompassing the Germanic, Celto-Germanic and Celto-Italic lineages roughly highlight one half and the Celtic, Greco-Roman and Celtiberian the other.

The mtDNA Haplogroups for the Swiss and French are as follows:

Switzerland: H [47.9%] – J [11.5%] – T2 [9.3%] – U5 [6.7%] – K [5.3%] – 

HV0+V [4.9%] – U4 [3.1%] – T1 [2.2%] – W [1.8%] – L [0.9%] –

U2 [0.9] – U3 [0.9] – I [0.9%] – HV [0.4%] – U [0.4] – X [0.4]

France: H [44.3%] – K [8.7%] – U5 [8.2%] – J [7.7%] – T2 [6.2%] – 

HV0+V [5%] – U4 [2.5%] – HV [2%] – I [2%] – T1 [1.9%] – W [1.9%] –

U2 [1.6%] – U [1.4%] – U3 [1%] – L [0.9] – X [0.9] 

                                 H     J    T2   U5   K  HVO+V  HV    U4    T1

Switzerland          48    12     9     7     5        5         0.5      3       2

France                   44     8      6    8     9        5             3      3       2

The mtDNA table showing the family resemblance between the Swiss and the French, yet the subtle difference between Haran and Lot’s children Moab and Ammon.

                                 H     J    T2   U5     K   HVO+V  HV    U4     T1

Switzerland          48   12     9      7       5          5        0.5       3       2

Spain                     44     7     6      8       6          8        0.7       2       2

France                   44     8     6     8       9          5            3        3      2

Italy                       40     8     8     5       8          3            3        2      3

Comparing the Swiss and French with their immediate neighbours, cements the family ties between cousins. Something we will see repeated frequently as we progress with the peoples of northwestern Europe. The French and Spanish are alike in levels of H, T2 and U5, though in the other main mt-DNA Haplogroups comprising J, K, HV0+V, HV, U4 and T1, the French align more closely with the Italians. 

                          H       HV   HV0+V    J        T2        U        U5       K

Switzerland    48    0.4          5          12         9      0.4         7         5

France             44       2           5           8          6         1          8        9

Brazil               44        2                      11 

Portugal          44     0.1          5           7         6          3          7         6

Spain               44     0.7          8           7         6          2         8         6

Poland            44         1          5            8         7       1.4        10        4

Russia             41         2          4            8         7          2        10        4

Greece             41        3        1.8          10         7          3          5        5

Italy                 40       3           3            8          8         3          5        8            

Ukraine          39        4           4            8         8      0.6        10        5

Romania        37        2           4           11          5         2          7        8

Finland           36                       7          6          2     0.8        21        5

Turkey            31         5       0.7            9          4         6         3         6

Iran                 17         7       0.6          14           5       12         3         7

Adding Switzerland and France to our table of nations descended from Shem thus far, has Switzerland now as one bookend of the European descended peoples replacing Brazil, with Iran remaining at the other end. A pattern has emerged showing the percentage levels for the main European mt-DNA Haplogroup H, increasing as one heads west across Europe, with France following this pattern. Switzerland though, has not fitted into this genetic type as it sits firmly in central Europe. What we will notice as we progress, is that the nations of northwestern Europe – in the main – exhibit higher levels of mtDNA Haplogroup H further north; with the Swiss being the first to evidence this fact.

It is worth reminding ourselves that ‘Haplogroup R-M269 is the sub-clade of human Y-chromosome Haplogroup R1b [which] is defined by the SNP marker M269. According to ISOGG 2020 it is phylogenetically classified as R1b1a1b. R-M269 is the most common European Haplogroup in the genetic composition of mainly Western Europe; increasing in frequency from an east to west gradient. For instance in Poland, it is found in 22.7% of the male population, compared to Wales at 92.3%. It is carried by over 110 million European men. 

Scientists propose that the age of the M269 mutation is somewhere between 4,000 to 10,000 years ago. This time frame is plausible and neatly fits with the birth of Peleg and hence the beginning of the R1b mutation, circa 7727 BCE, according to an unconventional chronology. The most recently significant R1b mutations originated with Abraham and his descendants beginning in 1977 BCE.’

The sub-Haplogroup of R1b, U106 or S21, is frequent in central to western Europe, reaching 66.8% in Germany; while the sub-lineage R-S116 is the most frequent in the Iberian Peninsula. R-U152 is more frequent in France and Italy; R-U198 in England; and R-M529 in the Celtic nations of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.’ 

As we progress through the descendants of Shem, the levels of R1b vary and gradually increase. We will keep a record of the levels for the two main R1b sub-Haplogroups – M269 and U106 – for some of the nations we will study.

‘Italy’s dominant Haplogroup is R1b and we can see the marked difference comparing with nations from Eastern Europe and beyond. It is worth mentioning that the north to south axis is as important as the east to west and so this explains why for instance Poland has slightly higher percentages of both clades of R1b than Russia as it is further west. Comparably, the Czech Republic displays a higher level of R-U106 than Italy which is further south; yet less R-M269 overall as it is the descendants of Peleg, Aram and the mixed line of Casluh and Caphtor which have the highest levels of R1b [refer Chapters XV The Philistines: Latino-Hispano America and Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil].’

Turkey:    R-M269   14%   –  R-U106   0.4%

Russia:     R-M269   21%   –  R-U106   5.4%

Slovenia  R-M269   17%    –  R-U106      4%

Czech       R-M269  28%    –  R-U106    14% 

Poland     R-M269  23%    –  R-U106      8% 

Ukraine   R-M269  25%    –  R-U106      9%

Italy         R-M269   53%   –  R-U106      6%

France     R-M269   52%   –  R-U106      7%

Swiss       R-M269   58%   –  R-U106    13%

The addition of Switzerland and France highlights the north to south and east to west pattern we have noted. The Swiss exhibit higher levels of the Germanic R-U106 as reflected by their geographic position in central Europe; similar with the Czechs. Switzerland’s position northwards of both France and Italy is reflected by their higher level of R-M269. The French and Italians unsurprisingly, share an almost exact measure of R1b M269 and U106.

The Y-DNA Haplogroups for the Swiss and French:

Switzerland: R1b [50%] – I1 [14%] – I2a2 [8%] – E1b1b [7.5%] – 

G2a [7.5%] – R1a [3.5%] – J2 [3%] – Ia21 [1.5%] –

Q [1.5%] – N1c1 [ 1%] – J1 [0.5%] – T1a [0.5%] 

France: R1b [58.5%] – I1 [8.5%] – E1b1b [7.5%] – J2 [6%] – 

G2a [5.5%] – I2a2 [3.5%] – I2a1 [3%] – R1a [3] –

J1 [1.5] – T1a [1] – Q [0.5] 

In keeping with cousins exhibiting similar traits and sharing more in common – more than they have with their own siblings – we will find that the Swiss Y-DNA Haplogroup sequencing is reminisce of the Dutch. Closer bonds shared with a cousin rather than a sibling can be explained, due to a more exact sharing of common Haplogroups and genetic DNA code.

                         R1b     R1a     I1    I2a1     I2a2    E1b1b    J2     J1     G2a

Switzerland    50         4       14      2          8             8        3     0.5       8

France             59         3         9      3          4             8        6         2       6

Comparing the main Y-DNA Haplogroups, we see a greater divergence between Switzerland and France than with the mtDNA Haplogroups; though still close enough to express a family relationship. 

The main Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b is highest in Brittany with 77.3% and then Centre-Val de Loire with 70.6%. The lowest level of R1b is in Alsace with 43.7% and then Aquitaine with 48%. The highest percentage for I1 is found in Flanders-Artois with 16% and then Alsace with 15%. The highest level of R1a is in Languedoc-Roussillon with 10%; the highest level of J2 is found in Corsica with 14%; and the highest percentage of E1b1b is in Ile-de-France with 19%.

                         R1b     R1a     I1    I2a1   I2a2    E1b1b    J2     J1     G2a

N Italy              50        5        7       1          4           11       10      2        8  

Switzerland     50       4      14       2          8            8         3      1         8

Tuscany           53        4       4       2           3            9       12      2         9

Lombardy       59        4       3       1            5           10        6               10

France             59        3       9       3            4            8        6       2        6

A comparison with the Northern Italian region of Lombardy shows a similarity with France. Switzerland has commonalty with the Central region Tuscany. Both France and Switzerland have common ground with northern Italy as a whole from a Y-DNA perspective. From a PCA standpoint, The French and Swiss have more in common the  they do with Italy.

Continuing our Y-DNA comparison table from the previous chapters, with the addition  of Switzerland and France – the second major descendants from Peleg’s line, of Haran and his son Lot . 

                         J        J1      J2     E1b1b    G      R1a     R1b      R1    

Georgia         43      16       27         2        30        9        10       19 

Armenia        33      11       22        6         12         5        30      35  

Turkey           33       9       24       11         11         8        16       24

Iran                32       9       23         7        10       16        10       26

Greece           26       3       23       21          6       12        16       28

Italy               19       3        16       14          9         4        39       43

Romania       15        1       14        14          3       18        16       34

Portugal        13        3       10       14          7       1.5       56       58

Brazil             10                 10       11          5          4       54       58

Spain             10     1.5         8         7          3         2        69       71     

France            8        2         6          8         6         3        59       62

Ukraine          5     0.5     4.5          7          3       44         8       52

Switzerland   4     0.5        3          8          8        4        50       54

Poland            3                   3          4          2       58       13        71

Russia             3                   3         3           1       46         6       52

Finland                                        0.5                      5         4         9

‘Georgia continues as one bookend with the highest Haplogroup J2, J1 and G2a percentages. Finland is… the opposite bookend, with no Haplogroup J and the lowest R1 levels. Poland exhibits the highest percentage of R1a… while Greece has the most E1b1b… Spain’s total R1 is equalled by Poland, though in opposite percentages for R1a and R1b.’ France has the second highest percentage of R1b after Spain, indicative of its westerly location. 

‘Focussing on the key Y-DNA Haplogroups associated with the majority of the European nations in the north of Europe. Haplogroups R1, I1 and I2 segment Europe roughly into quarters. 

Haplogroup R1b is prominent in the west; R1a in the east; I1 and I2a2 in the north and west; with I2a1 in the south and east. Haplogroup N1c1 is prominent in the north, in counter balance to J2, J1, E1b1b and G2a which are more commonly found in southern Europe.’ 

                       R1a      R1b       I1     I2a1      I2a2    N1c

Portugal        1.5         56         2      1.5           5          

Spain                2         69      1.5         5           1

France              3         59        9          3          4            

Switzerland     4         50      14          2          8          1

Brazil                4         54                  [9]            

Italy                  4         39         5        3           3         

Finland            5           4       28                   0.5      62

Turkey             8         16         1         4         0.5        4  

Greece            12         16         4       10         1.5      

Iran                 16         10                 0.5                      1           

Romania        18         16         4       28           3        2

Ukraine          44          8         5        21       0.5         6

Russia             46          6         5        11                    23

Poland            58         13        9          6          2         4

‘The comparison table shifts in emphasis when northern European Y-DNA Haplogroups comprising I1, I2a2 and N1c1 are included.’ 

Switzerland and France are sandwiched between Portugal/Spain and Italy/Brazil. They are both at the low end of Haplogroup R1a and the higher end with R1b. Two Haplogroups are of note for the Swiss. First they have a trace of the very northern Haplogroup N1c1 – unlike France – in common with nations in the far northeast of Europe or its periphery, such as Finland and Russia. Second, Switzerland has the highest levels of Haplogroup I2a2 so far; and the second highest in Haplogroup I1 -after Finland – prevalent especially in northwestern Europe. We are able to observe evidence of the palpable east and west European divide as revealed by those nations with either R1a or R1b as their predominant paternal Haplogroup.

One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honour.

Proverbs 29:23 English Standard Version

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

Galileo Galilei [1564-1642]

“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.”

Mahatma Gandhi

© Orion Gold 2021 – All rights reserved. Permission to copy, use or distribute, if acknowledgement of the original authorship is attributed to Orion Gold

Italy: Nahor & the Chaldeans

Chapter XXV

Peleg, the brother of Joktan, is not only synonymous with a split in Arphaxad’s line, but more famously with the division of all the peoples and races from Japheth, Ham and Shem who had congregated in the Mesopotamian region [refer Chapter XXIV Arphaxad & Joktan: Balts, Slavs & the Balkans]. The failed Tower of Babel venture circa 6755 BCE, had ended with the Son of Man – by some means unexplained – confounding the universal language spoken [refer Chapter XXI The Incredible Identity, origin & Destiny of Nimrod]. Now, eleven of the main lines of people began to spread abroad; the seven from Japheth and the four from Ham. Cush, Phut and Mizra to northeast Africa and Egypt; Canaan to the land of Palestine. Gomer and Javan heading towards the Mediterranean and Magog, Tubal, Meschech and Madai northward to Anatolia or Asia Minor. The majority of Tiras’s descendants heading west into south eastern Europe as Gomer and Javan; but unlike them, continuing westwards via Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and onto North America [refer Chapter III Tiras the Amerindian].

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘The name Peleg meaning Division, Dividing Canal from the verb (palag), to split or divide. Noun (peleg) means channel or canal and noun (pelagga) means stream or division. Nouns (pelugga) and noun (miplagga) mean division.

NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names agree: the name Peleg means Division or Divider, although the word is commonly used to denote a channel or canal. Note that this “division of the earth” follows the pattern of the second creation day, in which Joktan represents the waters under the dividing firmament, which eventually produced dry land and all its creatures, while Peleg represents the dividing firmament, which eventually came to house the celestial lights that would lead the living on earth (Genesis 15:5, Daniel 12:3).’

The genealogy of Arphaxad to Abraham is listed in Genesis chapter eleven. Peleg had a son called Reu, born 6827 BCE, according to an unconventional chronology. Reu’s name in Hebrew means, a ‘friend, associate.’ In the Book of Jubilees we read further in chapter 10:18-27.

… Peleg took to himself a wife, whose name was Lomna the daughter of Sina’ar, and she bare him a son… and he called his name Reu; for he said: ‘Behold the children of men have become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shinar’ 

…for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying, ‘Go to, let us ascend thereby into heaven.’… And the Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower* and overthrew it upon the earth, and behold it was between Asshur and Babylon in the land of Shinar, and they called its name ‘Overthrow’.

Two points of interest are the dating of the tower of Babel during the time of Peleg and the meaning of Peleg’s name to include a division associated with water. In an unconventional chronology, Peleg was born in 7727 BCE and died 4737 BCE; during the precessional Age of Cancer, from 8810 to 6650 BCE. Human life spans were considerably reduced post-flood though still enormously long compared to the dramatic decrease, which occurred in Abraham’s lifetime some five generations later. Peleg lived for 2,990 years. During this time frame, Nimrod challenges the Eternal and gathered the nations in support of his rebellion; with the Tower of Babel being a literal and symbolic statement of their united defiance. Nimrod had been alive for about a thousand years or longer when Peleg was born. An early date for the confusion of the languages and the dividing of the earth is circa 7275 BCE and a later date is 6232 BCE. Dividing in two gives 6755 BCE. This appears plausible as Nimrod would be still ‘young’ and Peleg about a third of the way through his life. 

This approximate dating supports a gap in history between this event and the sudden ‘[re]appearance’ of the early – but more accurately intermediate – Sumerian Civilisation circa 6000 BCE. It also ties in with the three hundred year transitional period – from 6976 to 6676 BCE – between the Treta Yuga Silver Age and the Dwapara Yuga Bronze Age; the epoch before our current Kali Yuga Iron Age, running from 3676 BCE to 2025 CE. Four short years from the time of writing until we enter another three hundred year transitional period, that also coincides with the Age of Aquarius. Though Aquarius is an air sign, it has a strong connection with water. Cancer, the Age at the time of the earth’s division is a water sign and is a startling coincidence. 

The end of the Kali Yuga in 2015: Unravelling the mysteries of the Yuga Cycle, Bibhu Dev Misra, 2012 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The 300 year transitional period between the Treta Yuga (Silver Age) and the Dwapara Yuga (Bronze Age) from 6976 BC – 6676 BC also coincides with a significant environmental event –the Black Sea Catastrophe which has recently been dated to 6700 BC. The Black Sea once used to be a freshwater lake. That is, until the Mediterranean Sea, swollen with melted glacial waters, breached a natural dam, and cut through the narrow Bosphorous Strait, catastrophically flooding the Black Sea. This raised the water levels of the Black Sea by several hundred feet, flooded more than 60,000 square miles of land, and significantly expanded the Black Sea shoreline (by around 30%). This event fundamentally changed the course of civilization in Southeastern Europe and western Anatolia. Geologists Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, who had first proposed the Black Sea Catastrophe hypothesis, have gone to the extent of comparing it to Noah’s Flood.

Similar major flooding events were taking place in many parts of the world, as massive glacial lakes, swelled by the waters of the melting ice, breached their ice barriers, and rushed into the surrounding areas. In the book Underworld, Graham Hancock has described some of the terrible events that ravaged the planet during that time. Sometime between 6900 BC – 6200 BC the Laurentide ice-sheet disintegrated in the Hudson Bay and an enormous quantity of glacial waters from the inland Lake Agassiz/Ojibway discharged into the Labrador Sea. This was possibly the “single largest flood of the Quarternary Period”, which may have single-handedly raised global sea-level by half a metre. The period between 7000 BC – 6000 BC was also characterized by the occurrences of gigantic earthquakes in Europe. In northern Sweden, some of these earthquakes caused “waves on the ground”, 10 metres high, referred to as “rock tsunamis”. It is possible that the global chain of cataclysmic events during this transitional period may have been triggered by a single underlying cause, which we are yet to find out.’

The ‘mighty wind’ which the Lord sent against the tower* would most likely have been a detonation of some kind. We will run into a similar scenario in the next chapter when we investigate the life of Lot and the destruction of Sodom with its neighbouring cities some five thousand years after the tower of Babel’s obliteration. A blast of this magnitude may have set off considerable seismic activity, leading to earthquakes and localised flooding throughout the Middle East and well beyond. 

Reu also had a son, called Serug, born 5867 BCE. Serug’s name in Hebrew means, ‘branch’ from the verb sarag to be ‘intertwined.’ Between Serug’s birth and his son Nahor [I], Shem died in 5717 BCE, age 6,120 years and Arphaxad died in 5617 BCE, age 5,100 years [refer Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]. 

Book of Jubilees 11:1-6

… Reu took to himself a wife, and her name was ‘Ora, the daughter of Ur, the son of Kesed, and she bare him a son, and he called his name Seroh… And the sons of Noah began to war on each other, to take captive and to slay each other, and to shed the blood of men on the earth, and to eat blood, and to build strong cities, and walls, and towers, and individuals (began) to exalt themselves above the nation, and to found the beginnings of kingdoms, and to go to war people against people, and nation against nation, and city against city, and all (began) to do evil, and to acquire arms, and to teach their sons war, and they began to capture cities, and to sell male and female slaves. And Ur, the son of Kesed, built the city of ‘Ara of theChaldees, and called its name after his own name and the name of his father. 

And they made for themselves molten images, and they worshipped each the idol… and they began to make graven images and unclean simulacra, and malignant spirits assisted and seduced (them) into committing transgression and uncleanness. And the prince Mastema [Chief of Spirits]… sent forth other spirits, those which were put under his hand, to do all manner of wrong and sin… to corrupt and destroy, and to shed blood upon the earth. 

For this reason he called the name of Seroh, Serug, for every one turned to do all manner of sin and transgression. And he grew up, and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, near to the father of his wife’s mother, and he worshipped idols, and he took to himself a wife… and her name was Melka, the daughter of Kaber, the daughter of his father’s brother.

Kesed is a family name, as Nahor [II] had a grandson called Chesed. We will return to the people called Chaldees or Chaldeans. Nahor I, Abraham’s grandfather was born in 4967 BCE, while Peleg later died in 4737 BCE. Nahor I died in 2887 BCE, though his son Terah of purported Nimrod fame, was born in 4077 BCE. Terah in Hebrew derives from the verb tarah, meaning: ‘wanderer’ or ‘turn’ and the noun ruah, means, ‘wind, breath’ or ‘spirit.’ 

Book of Jubilees 11:7-14

And she [Melka] bare him Nahor [I]… and he grew and dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, and his father taught him the researches of the Chaldeestodivine and augur, according to the signs of heaven. And… he took to himself a wife, and her name was ‘Ijaska, the daughter of Nestag of the Chaldees. And she bare him Terah… And the prince Mastema sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of their labours. And the years began to be barren… it was only with great effort that they could save a little of all the fruit of the earth in their days… Terah took to himself a wife, and her name was ‘Edna, the daughter of ‘Abram, the daughter of his father’s sister. And…she bare him a son, and he called his name Abram, by the name of the father of his mother; for he had died before his daughter had conceived a son.

Abram is a family name along with Kesed and Nahor. There are two Nahors. Nahor I the grandfather of Abraham and Nahor II the brother of Abraham. It is Abraham’s brother we are studying and will refer to him simply, as Nahor. In Genesis 11:26, we learn of Terah’s three sons, Abram, later known as Abraham, Nahor and Haran. 

It is similar to Genesis 10:1, where Shem, Ham and Japheth were listed, but in fact Japheth is the eldest and Shem the youngest. Abram is stated first as his descendant would fulfil the Genesis 3:15 prophecy. Though Haran is the eldest and Nahor is in the middle as the second born son of Terah. We will discover that Haran died prematurely and it was territory named after him, where Abraham later dwelt. More importantly, in support for Haran being the eldest is that Nahor married a niece from Haran’s family. Haran had children first and they were marriageable age, for Nahor. Similarly, Abraham also married family. What is not clear superficially, is whose exactly.

Haran was born in 2009 BCE and Abraham was born in 1977 BCE. Nahor was born perhaps circa 1993 BCE. Nahor in Hebrew means: ‘snort’ or ‘scorched’ from the verb nhr, ‘to snort vigorously’ and the root harar, ‘to be a central hub of heat.’ 

Abarim Publications – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The root (harar) describes a society’s central and enclosed source of heat. It thus may express a geographical depression, but more so a being hot and ultimately a being a ruler (whether by might, political clout or wisdom).

Verb (harar I) means to be hot, burned or charred. Noun (harer) denotes a parched place and noun (harhur) describes a violent heat or fever. The unused verb (harar II) means to be free… which is the opposite of being a slave. Noun (hor) means noble or nobleman. The unused verb (harar III) appears to refer to the enclosure of kilns and ovens, as the first ones were most likely built in natural hollows. The noun… (hor)… mean[s] hole or cavern, but obviously relate to the previous word in that freemen surround themselves with walls and armies.

Verb (hara) means to burn or ignite (in the Bible solely in an emotional way: to get angry). Noun (haron) describes the burning of anger. Verb (hawar) means to be or grow white (like ash or baked bricks). Verb (nahar) looks very much like a passive or reflexive version of (harar) or its participle. This verb isn’t used in the Bible but nouns (nahar) and (naharah) describe the vigorous snorting of a horse, and noun (nahir) means nostril (which in turn reminds of a cavern).

Whatever the true etymology and original meaning, to any Hebrew audience the name Nahor would mean both A Snort or A Snorting, and Charred or Scorched, or even Noble or Freeman. For a meaning of the name Nahor… Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads… Breathing Hard.

Joshua 24:2

English Standard Version

And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fatherslived beyond the Euphrates [Ur of the Chaldees], Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods [Genesis 31:53].

Book of Jasher 9:7-8

7 And the king [of Ur] and all his servants, and Terah with all his household were then the first of those that served gods of wood and stone. 8 And Terah had twelve gods of large size, made of wood and stone, after the twelve months of the year, and he served each one monthly, and every month Terah would bring his meat offering and drink offering to his gods; thus did Terah all the days.

Jubilees 12:1-15

And it came to pass… that Abram said to Terah his father, saying, ‘Father!’ 

And he said, ‘Behold, here am I, my son.’ And he said, ‘What help and profit have we from those idols which thou dost worship,  And before which thou dost bow thyself? For there is no spirit in them, For they are dumb forms, and a misleading of the heart. Worship them not: Worship the God of heaven, Who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth And does everything upon the earth, Andhas created everything by His word, And all life is from before His face. Why do ye worship things that have no spirit in them? For they are the work of (men’s) hands, And on your shoulders do ye bear them, And ye have no help from them, But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them, And a misleading of the heart to those who worship them: Worship them not.’

And his father said unto him, ‘I also know it, my son, but what shall I do with a people who have made me to serve before them?And if I tell them the truth, they will slay me; for their soul cleaves to them to worship them and honour them. Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee.’ And these words he spake to his two brothers, and they were angry with him and he kept silent.

Recall, Terah is recorded as originally serving Nimrod directly at his command, administering the Babylonian religious system resurrected by Nimrod after the Flood with his mother-wife Semiramis – the evil Angel Lilith [refer Chapter XXI The Incredible identity, Origin & Destiny of Nimrod and Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]. The entanglement of that situation clung to Terah as if he were shrink-wrapped in plastic. This alignment to the mystery religion is beyond coincidental, as Terah’s descendants through Nahor, have continued their unrivalled involvement and allegiance, to the present day. After Nimrod’s demise, Terah maintained an exalted position in Ur with huge strings attached.

To give this up was a monumental request from Abraham. To defy the people who viewed Terah as synonymous with Nimrod’s legacy, was tantamount to death. 

Book of Jasher 7:41, 49-51

41 And he [the king] placed Terah the son of Nahor the prince of his host, and he dignified him and elevated him above all his princes… 49 And Terah the son of Nahor, prince of Nimrod’s host, was in those daysvery great in the sight of the king andhis subjects, and the king and princes loved him, and they elevated him very high. 50 And Terah took a wife and her name was Amthelo [Edna in the Book of Jubilees] the daughter of Cornebo; and the wife of Terah [later] conceived and bare him a son… 51 … and Terah called the name of his son that was born to him Abram, because the king had raised him in those days, and dignified him above all his princes that were with him. 

Different sources include Shem, Abraham or Esau as the eventual slayer of Nimrod. If Nimrod was born circa 8700 BCE, it is dubious whether he would still be alive some 7,000 years later when Abram was born in 1977 BCE. Shem died in 5717 BCE and is the only candidate of the the three that makes sense. Nimrod’s days after the failed tower were numbered and his demise in this era would appear logical. We will look at two different versions of the events that transpired surrounding the death of Abram’s eldest brother Haran and his family’s rather hasty departure from Ur in Sumer. The two accounts may be inaccurate or contain elements of what happened. Either way, Abram’s family fled; most likely driven by their dissatisfaction with a religious-political system they no longer could support.  

The Book of Jasher in chapter 8:1-36, enumerates an apparent history between Nimrod and Abraham, which began at his birth. I would propose that it was actually the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Shulgi. Shulgi is to Ur as Hammurabi was to Babylon and Chedorlaomer was to Elam [refer Chapter XIX Chedorlaomer & the War of Nine Kings]. King Shulgi preceded them both by a few years and was a prominent ruler of his time and the most famous monarch to have reigned from Ur – after his father the renowned Ur-Nammu – and reigned forty-six years from 1970 to 1924 BCE. 

It was in 1927 BCE that Abram’s family departed Ur for Haran – when Abram was fifty years old. Therefore, I have substituted the name of Nimrod with either Ur-Nammu – who reigned from 1988 to 1970 BCE – or Shulgi as applicable, to give the account an element of veracity that it lacks with Nimrod as a king of Ur. Besides, Nimrod had been the king of ancient Babylon, yet the king of Babylon at the time of Abram’s birth in 1977 BCE was the second king of the Amorite, Dynasty I of Babylon Sumu-la-El who began his thirty-five year reign three years earlier in 1980 BCE.

1 And it was in the night that Abram was born, that all the servants of Terah, and all the wise men of [Ur-Nammu], and his conjurors came and ate and drank in the house of Terah, and they rejoiced with him on that night. 

2 And when all the wise men and conjurors went out from the house of Terah, they lifted up their eyes toward heaven that night to look at the stars, and they saw, and behold one very large star came from the east and ran in the heavens, and he swallowed up the four stars from the four sides of the heavens. 

4 And they said to each other, This only betokens the child that has been born to Terah this night, who will grow up and be fruitful, and multiply, and possess all the earth, he and his children for ever, and he and his seed will slay great kings, and inherit their lands. 6 And they spoke and said to each other, Behold the sight that we saw last night is hidden from the king, it has not been made known to him. 7 And should this thing get known to the king in the latter days, he will say to us, Why have you concealed this matter from me, andthen we shall all suffer death; therefore, now let us go and tell the king the sight which we saw, and the interpretation thereof, and we shall then remain clear. 

8 And they did so… and we saw a great star coming from the east, and the same star ran with great speed, and swallowed up four great stars, from the four sides of the heavens. 11 … this thing applies to the child that is born to Terah, who will grow up and multiply greatly, and become powerful, and kill all the kings of the earth, and inherit all their lands, he and his seed forever. 14 And the king heard their words and they seemed good in his sight, and he sent and called for Terah… 15 And the king said to Terah… 16 And now therefore give me the child, that we may slay him before his evil springs up against us, and I will give you for his value, your house full of silver and gold. 28 And Terah saw that the anger of the king was kindled against him, and he answered the king, saying, All that I have is in the king’s power; whatever the king desires to do to his servant, that let him do, yea, even my son, he is in the king’s power, without value in exchange, he and his two brothers that are older than he [Haran and Nahor]. 29 And the king said to Terah, No, but I will purchase your younger son for a price… 

Terah said, Let my king give me three days’ time [3 is the number of decision and finality] till I consider this matter within myself, and consult with my family concerning the words of my king; and he pressed the king greatly to agree to this. 31 And the king hearkened to Terah, and he did so and he gave him three days’ time, and Terah went out from the king’s presence, and he came home to his family and spoke to them all the words of the king; and the people were greatly afraid. 32 And it was in the third day that the king sent to Terah, saying, Send me your son for a price as I spoke to you; and shouldst you not do this, I will send and slay all you hast in your house, so that you shall not even have a dog remaining. 33 And Terah hastened, (as the thing was urgent from the king), and he took a child from one of his servants, which his handmaid had born to him that day, and Terah brought the child to the king and received value for him. 

34 And Yahweh was with Terah in this matter, that [Ur-Nammu] might not cause Abram’s death, and the king took the child from Terah and with all his might dashed his head to the ground, for he thought it had been Abram; and this was concealed from him from that day, and it was forgotten by the king, as it was the will of Providence not to suffer Abram’s death. 35 And Terah took Abram his son secretly, together with his mother and nurse, and he concealed them in a cave, and he brought them their provisions monthly. 36 And Yahweh was with Abram in the cave and he grew up, and Abram was in the cave ten years, and the king [Shulgi] andhis princes, soothsayers andsages, thought that the king [Ur-Nammu] had killed Abram. 

Book of Jubilees 12:1-15:

And in the [fiftieth] year [1927 BCE] of the life of Abram… Abram arose by night, and burned the house of the idols, and he burned all that was in the house and no man knew it. And they arose in the night and sought to save their gods from the midst of the fire. And Haran hasted to save them, but the fire flamed over him, and he was burnt in the fire, and he died [at 82 years of age] in Ur of the Chaldees before Terah his father [who died in 1842 BCE], and they buried [Haran] in Ur of the Chaldees [Sumer]. 

Stalled with the palpable reticence of Terah, Abraham took matters into his own hands. Abraham would later when rescuing Lot, attack and ambush King Chedorlaomer the Elamite and his coalition army by cover of night. This Ur of Chaldea was located south of Babylon, in the area known as Sumer – the southern portion of the Land of Shinar. The descendants of Joktan had primarily dwelt in Sumer and the descendants of Peleg, to the north in Akkadia where the city of Babylon was located.

And Terah went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, he and his sons, to go into the land of [northern] Lebanon… and he dwelt in the land of Haran, and Abram dwelt with Terah his father in Haran [for 25 years, from 1927 to 1902 BCE].

At this point, after the devastating loss of his eldest son Haran, Terah – his name meaning, wanderer – decides to leave Ur and his privileged life behind. They leave to begin a new life, to soften the blow of Haran’s loss as well as possibly concern about retribution from Shulgi the king. Terah may have acted differently if he had known Haran had died at the hands of Abraham. Saying that, the Book of Jasher claims a very different version of events surrounding Haran’s death.

Book of Jasher 11:33-61, 12:1-70

33 And when Abram saw all these things his anger was kindled against his father, and he hastened and took a hatchet in his hand, and came unto the chamber of the gods, and he broke all his father’s gods. 34 And when he had done breaking the images, he placed the hatchet in the hand of the great god which was there before them, and he went out; and Terah his father came home, for he had heard at the door the sound of the striking of the hatchet; so Terah came into the house to know what this was about. 

35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going out. 36 And Terah entered the room and found all the idols fallen down and broken… 37 And when Terah saw this his anger was greatly kindled… 38 And he found Abram his son still sitting in the house; and he said to him, What is this work you hast done to my gods? 

… 42 Is there in these gods spirit, soul or powerto do all you hast told me? Are they not wood and stone, and have I not myself made them, and canst you speak such lies, saying that the large god that was with them smote them? It is you that didst place the hatchet in his hands, and then say he smote them all. 43 And Abram answered his father and said to him, And how canst you then serve these idols in whom there is no power to do any thing? Can those idols in which you trust deliver you? can they hear your prayers when you call upon them? Can they deliver you from the hands of your enemies, or will they fight your battles for you against your enemies, that you shouldst serve wood and stone which can neither speak nor hear? 46 Did not our fathers in days of old sin in this matter, and Yahweh the Almighty of the universe brought the waters of the flood upon them and destroyed the whole earth?

52 … and they went and brought Abram before the king. And [Shulgi] and all his princes and servants were that day sitting before him, and Terah sat also before them. 53 And the king said to Abram, What is this that you hast done to your father and to his gods? And Abram answered the king in the words that he spoke to his father… The large god that was with them in the house did to them what you hast heard. 

Abram exhibits a black sense of humour and a level of audaciousness before Shulgi, the son of renowned King Ur-Nammu.

54 And the king said to Abram, Had they power to speak and eat and do as you hast said? And Abram answered the king, saying, And if there be no power in them why dost you serve them and cause the sons of men to err through your follies? 56 O foolish, simple, and ignorant king, woe unto you forever. 60 And if your wicked heart will not hearken to my words to cause you to forsake your evil ways, and to serve the eternal Yahweh, then wilt you die in shame in the latter days, you, your people and all who are connected with you, hearing your words or walking in your evil ways.

1 And when the king heard the words of Abram he ordered him to be put into prison; and Abram was ten days in prison. 3 And the king said to the princes and sages, Have you heard what Abram, the son of Terah, has done to his father? 5 And they all answered the king saying, The man who reviles the king should be hanged upon a tree [a reference to crucifixion]; but having done all the things that he said, and having despised our gods, he must therefore be burned to death, for this is the law in this matter. 6 … And the king did so, and he commanded his servants that they should prepare a fire for three days and three nights in the king’s furnace… and the king ordered them to take Abram from prison and bring him out to be burned [a shadow of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego: Daniel 3:12-30]. 

7 And all the king’s servants, princes, lords, governors, and judges, and all the inhabitants of the land, about nine hundred thousand men, stood opposite the furnace to see Abram. 8 And all the women and little ones crowded upon the roofs and towers to see what was doing with Abram, and they all stood together at a distance; and there was not a man left that did not come on that day to behold the scene. 9 And when Abram was come, the conjurors of the king and the sages saw Abram, and they cried out to the king, saying, Our sovereign lord, surely this is the man whom we know to have been the child at whose birth the great star swallowed the four stars, which we declared to the king…

10 And behold now his father has also transgressed your commands, and mocked you by bringing you another child, which you didst kill. 11 And when the king heard their words, he was exceedingly wroth, and he ordered Terah to be brought before him. 15 And the king said Who advised you to this? Tell me, do not hide aught from me, and then you shall not die. 16 And Terah was greatly terrified in the king’s presence, and he said to the king, It was Haran my eldest son who advised me to this; and Haran was in those days that Abram was born, two and thirty years old. 17 But Haran did not advise his father to anything, for Terah said this to the king in order to deliver his soul from the king, for he feared greatly; and the king said to Terah, Haran your son who advised you to this shall die through fire with Abram; for the sentence of death is upon him for having rebelled against the king’s desire in doing this thing. 

18 And Haran at that time felt inclined to follow the ways of Abram, but he kept it within himself. 19 And Haran said in his heart, Behold now the king has seized Abram on account of these things which Abram did, and it shall come to pass, that if Abram prevail over the king I will follow him, but if the king prevail I will go after the king. 20 And when Terah had spoken this to the king concerning Haran his son, the king ordered Haran to be seized with Abram. 22 And the king’s servants took Abram and his brother, and they stripped them of all their clothes excepting their lower garments which were upon them. 23 And they bound their hands and feet with linen cords, and the servants of the king lifted them up and cast them both into the furnace.

24And Yahweh loved Abram and he had compassion over him, and Yahweh [the Son of Man] came down and delivered Abram from the fire and he was not burned [just as the Son of God had saved Shadrach and his friends: Daniel 3:25]. 25 But all the cords with which they bound him were burned, while Abram remained and walked about in the fire. 26 And Haran died when they had cast him into the fire, and he was burned to ashes, for his heart was not perfect with Yahweh; and those men who cast him into the fire, the flame of the fire spread over them, and they were burned, and twelve men of them died.

27 And Abram walked in the midst of the fire three days and three nights, and all the servants of the king saw him walking in the fire, and they came and told the king, saying, Behold we have seen Abram walking about in the midst of the fire, and even the lower garments which are upon him are not burned, but the cord with which he was bound is burned. 28 And when the king heard their words his heart fainted and he would not believe them; so he sent other faithful princes to see this matter, and they went and saw it and told it to the king; and the king rose to go and see it, and he saw Abram walking to and fro in the midst of the fire, and he saw Haran’s body burned, andthe king wondered greatly. 

29 And the king ordered Abram to be taken out from the fire; and his servants approached to take him out and they could not, for the fire was round about and the flame ascending toward them from the furnace. 30 And the king’s servants fled from it, and the king rebuked them, saying, Make haste and bring Abram out of the fire that you shall not die. 31 And the servants of the king again approached to bring Abram out, and the flames came upon them and burned their faces so that eight of them died.

32 And when the king saw that his servants could not approach the fire lest they should be burned, the king called to Abram, O servant of Yahweh who is in heaven, go forth from amidst the fire and come hither before me; and Abram hearkened to the voice of the king, and he went forth from the fire and came and stood before the king. 34 And the king said to Abram, How is it that you wast not burned in the fire? 35 And Abram said to the king, Yahweh of heaven and earth in whom I trust and who has all in his power, He delivered me from the fire into which you didst cast me.

36 … And the king, princes, and inhabitants of the land, seeing that Abram was delivered from the fire, they came and bowed down to Abram. 38 And Abram said to them, Do not bow down to me, but bow down to Yahweh of the world who made you, and serve him, and go in his ways for it is he who delivered me from out of this fire, and it is he who created the souls and spirits of all men, and formed man in his mother’s womb, and brought him forth into the world, and it is he who will deliver those who trust in him from all pain. 39 And this thing seemed very wonderful in the eyes of the king and princes, that Abram was saved from the fire and that Haran was burned; and the king gave Abram many presents and he gave him his two head servants from the king’s house; the name of one was Oni and the name of the other was Eliezer. 

40 And all the kings, princes and servants gave Abram many gifts of silver and gold and pearl, and the king and his princes sent him away, and he went in peace. 41 And Abram went forth from the king in peace, and many of the king’s servants followed him, and about three hundred men joined him. 42 And Abram returned on that day and went to his father’s house, he and the men that followed him, and Abram served Yahweh his Almighty all the days of his life, and he walked in his ways and followed his law. 43 And from that day forward Abram inclined the hearts of the sons of men to serve Yahweh. 

57 Now therefore my king, surely you know… since your sages saw this at the birth of Abram, and if my king will suffer Abram to live in the earth it will be to the injury of my lord and king, for all the days that Abram lives neither you nor your kingdom will be established, for this was known formerly at his birth; and why will not my king slay him, that his evil may be kept from you in latter days? 58 And [Shulgi] hearkened to the voice of Anuki, and he sent some of his servants in secret to go and seize Abram, and bring him before the king to suffer death. 59 And Eliezer, Abram’s servant whom the king had given him, was at that time in the presence of the king, and he heard what Anuki had advised the king, and what the king had said to cause Abram’s death. 

60 And Eliezer said to Abram, Hasten, rise up and save your soul, that you may not die through the hands of the king, for thus did he see in a dream concerning you, and thus did Anuki interpret it, and thus also did Anuki advise the king concerning you. 61 And Abram hearkened to the voice of Eliezer, and Abram hastened and ran for safety… and the king’s servants… searched through out the country and he was not to be found, and… the king’s anger against Abram was stilled, as they did not find him, and the king drove from his mind this matter concerning Abram. 63 And Abram… was still afraid of the king; and Terah came to see Abram his son secretly… 64 And Abram said to his father, Dost you not know that the king thinks to slay me, and to annihilate my name from the earth by the advice of his wicked counsellors? 

65 Now whom hast you here and what hast you in this land? Arise, let us go together to the land of Canaan, that we may be delivered from his hand, lest you perish also… 66 Dost you not know or hast you not heard, that it is not through love that [Shulgi] gives you all this honor, but it is only for his benefit that he bestows all this good upon you? 67 And if he do unto you greater good than this, surely these are only vanities of the world, for wealth and riches cannot avail in the day of wrath and anger. 68 Now therefore hearken to my voice, and let us arise and go to the land of Canaan, out of the reach of injury from [Shulgi]; and serve you Yahweh who created you in the earth and it will be well with you; and cast away all the vain things which you pursuest. 70 And Terah hearkened to the voice of his son Abram, and Terah did all that Abram said, for this was from Yahweh, that the king should not cause Abram’s death. 

In this version, it wasn’t Abraham who accidentally killed his brother. Terah had his own firstborn son murdered. It was Terah with the grisly secret to hide. Nor did Terah altogether need Abraham to convince him to leave Ur, for how long before Shulgi’s mind returned to Terah’s betrayal, by hiding Abram after his birth. In each account, the common denominators are a. the death of Haran because he did not have the same relationship with the Eternal as Abram, b. Abram’s dissatisfaction with his fathers’s religious beliefs and allegiance to Ur’s king and his persuading Terah to repent and c. motives for Terah and or Abram to leave Ur behind. This was no mean decision, as Terah’s family were counted as aristocracy; royalty even, as we shall learn about Abraham. It was a complete uprooting and sacrifice to abandon the privileged yet complicated life, titles, standing and influence in Ur. 

The land of Haran, named after Terah’s eldest son Haran, was in a direct line northwest from Ur. Ur was fifty miles south of Babylon. From Ur of the Chaldees to the region of Haran is approximately 600 miles. Haran was located on the edge of southeastern Asia Minor, halfway along the Fertile Crescent between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean and just beyond the northern reaches of the land that became known as Lebanon – the ‘land of Laban’ a grandson of Nahor. Terah and his family did not make it to the final destination of Canaan, deciding to stay in Haran. 

Genesis 11:31

English Standard Version

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, andSaraihis daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Book of Jasher 13:1-2 

1 … And when they came as far as the land of Haran they remained there,for it was exceedingly good land for pasture, and of sufficient extent for those who accompanied them. 2 And the people of the land of Haran saw that Abram was good and upright with Yahweh and men, and that Yahweh his Almighty was with him, and some of the people of the land of Haran came and joined Abram, and he taught them the instruction of Yahweh and his ways; and these men remained with Abram in his house and they adhered to him. 

Terah died in Haran – Genesis 11:32. Apart from Haran, there was another city called Ur; though not to be confused with Ur located six hundred miles southeast.

Genesis 11:27-29

English Standard Version

27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah andIscah.30Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Nahor married his niece – the daughter of his deceased brother Haran. Haran has three children mentioned in the Bible, Lot, Milcah and the mysterious Iscah. They were all born and raised in the city of Ur in Sumer. Before we turn to Milcah and Nahor, let’s look at Iscah and Sarai.

Genesis 20:9-13

English Standard Version

9 Then Abimelech [the Philistine king] called Abraham [c. 1878 BCE] and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought,‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my [half] sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her,‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.

Abraham feared he would be murdered for his beautiful wife Sarai – her name was later changed to Sarah. Sarai in Hebrew means, my princess and Sarah, similarly, means princess. He says to Abimelech that she is his half-sister. Yet, we read above in Genesis 11:31, that Sarai was Terah’s daughter-in-law. It does not say that Sarah is Terah’s daughter. Abraham also claims that she has a different mother. We learned in the Book of Jasher that Terah had a wife named Amthelo. The Bible always delineates if a man has more than one wife. It doesn’t say this for Terah. The Book of Jasher states that Terah married again, though later in his old age. Two clear falsifications from Abraham, to add to the original one, of Sarah not being his wife. This situation had already occurred previously when Abraham and Sarah had travelled to Egypt.

Genesis 12:10-20

English Standard Version

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 

13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

These two accounts are often highlighted by commentators to show that the highly obedient patriarch to the Creator, lied – twice. Technically, the lie to Abimelech was a half-truth if the story were true. It would be more constructive, if the time spent on critiquing Abraham’s behaviour had been used to question the discrepancy in Abraham and Sarah’s cover story. For Sarah was accomplice in saying that Abraham was her brother. The Pharaoh in question – according to an unconventional chronology and a synchronisation of the Egyptian dynasties – was the third Pharaoh of the I Dynasty, Djer. The meeting took place in 1902 BCE, when Sarah was sixty-five years old and just after Abraham had moved from Haran to Canaan. Djer ruled a united Egypt from 1922 to 1875 BCE.

The only plausible answer, if Sarah was not Terah’s daughter and therefore not Abraham’s sister, is that she is Iscah; the sister of Milcah and the daughter of Haran. In the Talmud, Rabbi Isaac states that Iscah is synonymous with Sarai. Thus, the two sisters, Milcah and Sarai, married the two younger brothers of Haran: Nahor and Abraham. The uncles, married their nieces. In the Book of Leviticus, marriages between aunt and nephew would be later outlawed [Leviticus 18:14, 20:19], though it did not forbid marriage between an uncle and niece, nor deem it incestuous. 

The name Iscah in Hebrew means, one who looks forth. This is interesting, as Sarah was barren, and so ‘one who looks forth’ for a baby, is an apt name.

The Book of Jasher 12:44 & 9:1-6

And at that time Nahor and Abram took unto themselves wives, the daughters of their brother Haran; the wife of Nahor was Milca and the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. And Sarai, wife of Abram, was barren; she had no offspring in those days. And Haran, the son of Terah, Abram’s oldest brother, took a wife in those days. 2 Haran was thirty-nine years old when he took her; and the wife of Haran conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Lot [born 1970 BCE, seven years after Abraham]. 3 And she conceived again and bare a daughter, and she called her name Milca; and she again conceived and bare a daughter, and she called her name Sarai. 

4 Haran was forty-two years old when he begat Sarai [1967 BCE],which was in the tenth year of the life of Abram; and in those days Abram and his mother and nurse went out from the cave, as the king [Shulgi] and his subjects had forgotten the affair of Abram… and Abram knew Yahweh from three years old, and he went in the ways of Yahweh until the day of his death…

It is interesting to note that Abraham’s nephew was of a similar age. My interpretation of their relationship, their closeness as evidenced with Abraham following Lot when he had been captured, securing his life in a dare devil night time raid; had incorrectly been that they were like father and son. Rather, their ages show that they must have had a relationship akin to brothers. This presumably would have been strengthened with the loss of Lot’s father – when he was forty-three – and Abraham’s eldest brother, Haran. Also, if accurate, Abraham’s tender age highlights that the Eternal was working with Abraham from very young, showing that Abraham was precocious, open minded and humble. Quite often, though not always, it is a reoccurring theme that the Creator works with His true servants either very rarely from before birth; sometimes rarely, from birth; or still infrequently, from when still a child. 

Genesis 22:20-24

English Standard Version

20 Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 

21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 (Bethuel fathered Rebekah.) [Genesis 24:24] These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 

24 Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Nahor and Milcah had eight sons. Uz the firstborn, or Huz in some translations and the interlinear version. Buz means ‘to despise’ or ‘hold as insignificant’ and ‘my contempt.’ Huz is similar to Uz and means ‘wood, counsel’ and ‘fastened.’ We briefly covered Uz, the son of Aram and their fastened location in Italy [refer Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil]. The peoples of Italy, are the principal descendants of Nahor. Early in their northern Mesopotamian history, they settled in the same region as sons of Aram – specifically Uz – and that relationship is evident in modernItaly. To reinforce this, Kemuel, the third son is the only one stated with a son, or grandson of Nahor and his name is… Aram.

Nahor also had a concubine called Reumah and she bare four sons to Nahor and so we have a third gene pool to add to Milcah’s sons and the descendants of Uz from Aram. DNA and Haplogroup evidence point to Reumah’s ancestry as being possibly from Arphaxad’s great grandson Joktan. 

Whereas Milcah, as her husband Nahor, were descended from Joktan’s brother Peleg – Genesis 10:25. What is significant, is that the southern Italians and Sicilians are more closely related to Greeks than they are to other Italians. The Greeks themselves are descended from Joktan’s sixth son, Uzal [refer Chapter XXIV Arphaxad & Joktan: Balts, Slavs & the Balkans]. It is more than a passing coincidence that variations of Uz, Huz, Buz and Aram from Nahor; Uz from Aram; and Uzal from Joktan, should all be found in the modern Italian nation. 

Therefore the three sections of Italy: North, Central and Southern are represented by Aram, Milcah and Reumah. That said, the descendants of Nahor and Uz from Aram have in part blended, so that northern and central Italy are a mix of the two. Still, PCA graphs reveal that northern Italians are genetically closer to the related peoples from Aram in Spain and Portugal. And while the central Italians sit between the northern and southern Italians; it is the Italians in the north of Italy with which they share more in common.

Apart from Aram, many additional grandson’s of Nahor are listed in the Book of Jasher 22:15-39:

15 And Abraham’s brother Nahor and his father and all belonging to them dwelt in Haran, for they did not come with Abraham to the land of Canaan. 16 And children were born to Nahor which Milca the daughter of Haran, and sister to Sarah, Abraham’s wife, bare to him. 

17 And these are the names of those that were born to him, Uz, Buz, Kemuel, Kesed, Chazo, Pildash, Tidlaf, and Bethuel, being eight sons, these are the children of Milca which she bare to Nahor, Abraham’s brother… 19 And the children that were born to Nahor were twelve sons besides his daughters, and they also had children born to them in Haran.

20 And the children of Uz the first born of Nahor were Abi, Cheref, Gadin, Melus, and Deborahtheir sister. 21 And the sons of Buz were Berachel, Naamath, Sheva, and Madonu. 22 And the sons of Kemuel were Aram and Rechob. 23 And the sons of Kesed were Anamlech, Meshai, Benon and Yifi; and the sons of Chazo were Pildash, Mechiand Opher. 24 And the sons of Pildash were Arud, Chamum, Meredand Moloch. 25 And the sons of Tidlaf [Jidlaph] were Mushan, Cushan and Mutzi.

26 And the children of Bethuel were Sechar, Laban and their sister Rebecca.

27 These are the families of the children of Nahor, that were born to them in Haran; and Aram the son of Kemuel and Rechob his brother went away from Haran, and they found a valley in the land by the river Euphrates. 28 And they built a city there, and they called the name of the city after the name of Pethor the son of Aram, that is Aram Naherayim [near Padan-Aram] unto this day.

29 And the children of Kesed also went to dwell where they could find a place, and they went and they found a valley opposite to the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 30 And they there built themselves a city, and they called the name at the city Kesed after the name of their father, that is the land Kasdim* unto this day, and the Kasdim [Chaldeans] dwelt in that land and they were fruitful and multiplied** exceedingly.

A simplified map of the three main waves of people who entered the Italian Peninsula after the departure of the Romans. They constituted the Heruli, Ostrogoths or eastern Goths and the Lombards; who broadly represent descendants of Joktan, Aram and the branches of Nahor’s family. Anciently, Nahor’s tribes were known as the Chaldees who overthrew Babylon and made it their capital; just as in Italy today and the appropriating of Rome – modern Babylon – as the capital of the Italians.

31 And Terah, father of Nahor and Abraham, went and took another wife in his old age, and her name was Pelilah, and she conceived and bare him a son and he called his name Zoba [1867 BCE]. 32 And Terah lived twenty-five years after he begat Zoba. 33 And Terah died in that year, that is in the thirty-fifth year [1842 BCE] of the birth of Isaac [1877 BCE] son of Abraham… 35 And Zoba the son of Terah lived thirty years [1837 BCE] and he begat Aram, Achlis and Merik. 36 And Aram son of Zoba son of Terah, had three wives and he begat twelve sons and three daughters; and the Lord gave to Aram the son of Zoba, riches and possessions, and abundance of cattle, and flocks and herds, and the man increased** greatly.

And so today, the descendants of Terah and Nahor have been richly blessed as figures show for the economy, standard of living and quality of life of the Italian nation.

37 And Aram the son of Zoba and his brother[s] and all his household journeyed from Haran, and they went to dwell where they should find a place, for their property was too great to remain in Haran; for they could not stop in Haran together with their brethren the children of Nahor. 38 And Aram the son of Zoba went with his brethren [Achlis and Merik], and they found a valley at a distance toward the eastern country and they dwelt there. 39 And they also built a city there, and they called the name thereof Aram, after the name of their eldest brother; that is Aram Zoba to this day.

Aram, Achlis and Merik – sons of Zoba, son of Terah – went to dwell where the sons of Kesed the son of Nahor – Anamlech, Meshai, Benon and Yifi – had gone to dwell. Also, where Aram and Rechob – sons of Kemuel, son of Nahor – had travelled. All three groups dwelt south of Haran and in a vicinity west of Shinar. This region was adjacent to Uz, son of Aram the son of Shem, and is the Padan-Aram where Bethuel’s family also migrated. In essence, this means that the ‘Aramaean’ elements from Nahor and Terah merged with Uz from Aram and form the dual regions of northern and central Italy. 

Kemuel means, ‘congregation of God, God’s rising’ and ‘God’s grain.’ The ancient peoples of Nahor were instrumental in the Babylonian Mystery religion and today it is  continued by the Universal Roman Catholic Church in the smallest state in the world, the Vatican City. Nahor’s people also made the city of Babylon, their own and today that great capital is represented by the city of Rome. Just like the ancient capital of Assyria, Nineveh is replicated today in Moscow [refer Chapter XX Will the Real Assyria Stand Up: Asshur & Russia]. The other parallel, is that as the sons of Joktan lived in ancient Sumer, the south eastern portion of the Land of Shinar, the descendants of Peleg – mainly comprised of Nahor’s children – lived adjacently to the northwest in Akkad. 

Today, the sons of Joktan live – to the east – adjacent to the Italian Peninsula [refer Chapter XXIV Arphaxad & Joktan: Balts, Slavs & the Balkans].

Chesed means, ‘as if it were a; field, mountain, breast, protecting spirit.’ The Alfred Jones’ Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads for Chesed: Increase. Though for the word Chaldean: ‘as it were demons’. The Hebrew word for Chaldeans is Kashedim* the plural of Chesed. Researchers state that Nahor named his son after the people he came from. That is, an earlier Kesed as mentioned in the Book of Jubilees. Similarly, others claim the word Chaldean or Chaldee does not derive from Chesed; because Chesed is stated in chapter twenty-two of Genesis, whereas the word Chaldean is used in Genesis chapter eleven to describe Abraham’s origination in ‘Ur of the Chaldeans.’ The second view is explained by either post-dated editing, or by the fact it is substantiating the first view raised. 

The line from Arphaxad to Peleg and then to Nahor is just one line of descent. It is recorded in the Bible, that other peoples came from that line. It goes without saying that other sons and daughters were born to all the different families. Family trees grow large very quickly and could not all be recorded in scripture. In the book of Jubilees we read of Peleg’s son Reu. Reu married Ora, the daughter of Ur, who was the son of the earlier Kesed. Both Ur and Kesed were family names. The name Ur first being used in southern Mesopotamia for a city and then again in Haran. The A-kkad-ians and Kashed-im were Arphaxad’s children and so Nahor using the name Kesed was not inexplicable, nor a deliberate attempt to name his son after the Kashedim. It would be like being an English person from England and having either word as your last name as people do today, for instance: John England.

Another point is that the word or prefix Kush, Kash and Kish that was common in the Babylonian region, is more reflective of the original Babylonians – and Assyrians – than that of Cush, descended from Ham as discussed in Chapters XX and XXI. Speaking of family names, the prime repeating name has the prefix Reu. Reu the son of Peleg, just mentioned; Reu-mah the concubine of Nahor and later we will see there is a Reu-el, in the family of Esau – also Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, the priest of Midian who’s name was Reu-el –  and a Reu-ben, the first born son in the family of Jacob.

Nahor’s fifth son’s name Hazo means, ‘seer, vision’ or ‘to see or have a vision.’ Pildash means, ‘steely, flashing steel, fiery iron.’ Jidlaph means, ‘he will weep, he weeps, he drips.’ Bethuel, the father of Rebekah means, ‘man of God, house of God’ and ‘virgin of God.’ There is a religious or pious theme reflected in the definitions of these names. Today, the Italian people are not just staunchly Catholic, it is the heart and headquarters of the Catholic faith. 

The mother of these eight sons, Milcah’s name means, ‘queen’ or ‘counsel.’ Milcah was an ancestor of the patriarch Jacob. Milcah’s son Bethuel moved to Padan-Aram and fathered Rebekah [Genesis 24:15]. 

Milcah’s granddaughter Rebekah, then married Milcah’s nephew Isaac [Genesis 24:67] and gave birth to Jacob [Genesis 25:21], who became Israel. Milcah and her sister Sarah are contrasted in that she conceived a bounty of sons and Sarah was barren. Eventually, Sarah also shared being as an ancestor of Jacob, in that she bore Isaac his father [Genesis 21:1-4]. 

The mother of Nahor’s remaining four sons was Reumah and her name means, ‘exalted’ or ‘wild ox.’ Reumah’s sons names are Tebah, which means, ‘confidence, slaughter’ or ‘butcher.’ Gaham means, ‘flame, burning.’ Tahash means, ‘to hurry’ or ‘hasten.’ Maacah means, ‘oppression, to press’ or ‘squeeze.’ It could be said that these names reflect the Latin temperament.

Nahor moved from Ur of the Chaldees with his father Terah and younger brother Abraham. While they settled in Haran, Nahor dwelt adjacent to Aramean territory, the land of Aram’s son Uz, which became known as Aram Naharaim, founding the city of Nahor.

Genesis 24:10

Young’s Literal Translation

And the servant taketh ten camels of the camels of his lord and goeth, also of all the goods of his lord in his hand, and he riseth, and goeth unto Aram-Naharaim, unto the city of Nahor…

The word Nahar-aimmeans ‘two rivers,’that is, the Euphrates and the Tigris. From Hebrew, it has been translated into Greek as the midst of [two] rivers.

Genesis 25:20

English Standard Version

and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.

The word paddan means ‘area’ in Aramean, thus the name Paddan-Aram could be translated as the region, area – or even field – of the Arameans. The descendants of Nahor are already interchangeably known as Arameans and Syrians. Bethuel had moved away from but still adjacent to the region of Aram-Naharaim.

Genesis 27:43

English Standard Version

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran

Rebekah is speaking to Jacob after he had deceived his father regarding the birthright blessing. Laban was her brother, the son of Bethuel, son of Nahor and was living in Haran. Haran was synonymous with the territory of Padan-Aram, near Aram-Naharaim.

Genesis 29:4-5

English Standard Version

4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers [or cousins], where do you come from?” They said, “We are from Haran.” 5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.”

Laban is called the son of Nahor, though the Hebrew word for son can mean a descendant, as in a grandson. Abraham, Lot, the son of Haran and Nahor all dwelt near each other either in Haran which included the northern Ur, Aram-Naharaim or Padan-Aram. Nahor’s descendants in the Bible are collectively called Chaldeans from the word Chaldees, derived from Kashedim, linked to the Hebrew names Kesed and Chesed. They are not called Aramaeans or Syrians from an historical or prophetic viewpoint after the book of Genesis. 

Herman Hoeh in Origin of the Nations states – capitalisation his, emphasis & bold mine:

‘Abraham lived among the Chaldeans. One whole book of the Bible – Habakkuk – is entirely devoted to a prophecy concerning the Chaldeans in these latter days! But where are the Chaldeans today? Certainly they are not at ancient Babylon. No one lives there! Notice first where the Chaldeans were. Abraham came from “Ur of the Chaldees”. Ancient Ur was in Mesopotamia. Ur is a shortened name for Urfa. There were once two cities by that name. 

Stephen, in his inspired sermon, makes plain that it was the northern Ur in Mesopotamia from which Abram came (Acts 7:2-3). That is where the Chaldeans first dwelt – over 400 miles northwest of ancient Babylon. Who are these Chaldeans so frequently mentioned in Bible prophecy? Here is the plain, simple explanation recognized by most Hebrew scholars. The word “Chaldean” comes from the Greek. The original Hebrew word is Chasdim, meaning “the people of Chesed”. Notice that Chesed was a common name in the family of Abraham (Genesis 22:22).

Next, consider the original Hebrew word translated in our Bibles as “Arphaxad”. Most biblical encyclopaedias will clearly show that the Hebrew form is Arfachesed MEANING ARFA OR URFA THE CHALDEAN! The Chaldeans come from Arphaxad. They are his children. Abraham was a branch of this stock! The city of Ur was named after Arfa or Urfa, the Chaldean. Chaldean probably means “capturer”, just as Jacob means “supplanter”. The reason that some Chaldeans were later associated with Babylon in Daniel’s time is that a small part of them was later settled by the Assyrians near Babylon. The original inspired Hebrew of Isaiah 23:13 explains this: “Behold, the land of the Chaldeans – this is the people that was not, when Asshur founded it for shipmen”. How clear.

The Chaldeans were divided, not an organized nation. A part of them was transplanted to Babylon. At Babylon they became the ruling class. But the remainder settled farther north around Lake Van, about halfway between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. Here they were called Chald[e]ans… Sometimes they were referred to as HURRI or Hurrians, after Haran (Genesis 11:29; 22:20-24). Sometimes they bore the name GUTI, probably meaning “people of God”.’

The Amorites and Kassites; the Guti and Gutium; the Goths and Visigoths; were all descended from Aram as studied in Chapter XXIII. The Ostrogoths or eastern Goths who swept into the Italian Peninsula and partially into the Balkans were related and possibly composed of a mix of the descendants of Nahor and Aram, or predominantly from Nahor. Dr Hoeh raises the point for two locations for the ancient Chaldeans. The fragmented nature of their structure mirrors modern day Italy, which did not form a single unified nation until 1861. The Chaldeans from Nahor are not the same as the Guti from Gether a son of Aram; nor with the Hurrians who descend from Nahor’s elder brother Haran. Similarly, the ancient Mitanni kingdom may have comprised a mixture of Nahor and Uz from Aram, or predominantly the ancestors of the Chaldeans. We will revisit this when we study Haran in the following chapter.

A H Sayce, pages 62-64 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘At a later date the tribe of Kassi obtained a permanent footing in Babylonia and established a dynasty there which lasted for several centuries [circa 1200-800 BCE]. Kassites and Babylonians intermingled together, and the long continuance of Kassite rule has been thought to explain the name of Kasdim given to the inhabitants of Babylonia in the Old Testament. 

Chesed, of which Kasdim is the Hebrew plural, has been explained as Kas-da the country of the Kassites… it is quite as easy to derive Kasdim from the Assyrian verb Kasddu to conquer so that the Kasidi or Kasdim would be the Kassite conquerors of the Chaldaean plain.In the Septuagint the Hebrew word Kasdim is translated… Chaldaeans… Chaldaean and Babylonian had become synonymous terms, and Babylonia had come to be known as Chaldaea…’

I am not convinced the Kassites were one and the same with the Chaldeans; rather I  consider them a division of Aram. The Kassites migrated from the east, from a similar location as the Guti. The Kassites, in direction of travel and time-frame, do not sit squarely enough to identify as the Chaldeans. The Kassites rose to prominence in the south of Mesopotamia at the same time as the Mitanni were rising in the north. The major accomplishment of the Kassites was to unify Mesopotamian culture, centred around Babylon, instead of continuing the separate independence of the surrounding city-states. This paved the way for the Chaldeans to rule a strong capital in Babylon and a unified region of neighbouring cities.

Dynasty X from 626 to 539 BCE was the most famous ruling dynasty of the Chaldeans and included Nebuchadnezzar II, who features prominently in the Old Testament. The first king Nabopolassar – who reigned from 626 to 605 BCE – was a native of Babylon, who drove out the Assyrians and re-established an independent Babylonian kingdom. His son, Nebuchadnezzar ruled from 605 to 562 BCE and it was he, who took the Kingdom of Judah into captivity. He was succeeded by his son, Amel-Marduk [565-560 BCE]. His reign was short-lived as the throne was usurped by Nebuchadnezzar’s son-in-law Neriglissar from 560 to 556 BCE. Then his son Labashi-Marduk, briefly reigned in 556 BCE, who in turn had the throne usurped by another possible son [Daniel 5:2,11,13,18] of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus [556-539 BCE]. 

Nabonidus ruled until the fall of Babylon, at the hands of Cyrus the Great and the Medo-Persian empire [refer Chapter IV Central Asia – Madai & the Medes and Chapter XVIII Elam & Turkey]. This tumultuous sequence of toppled regimes is reminiscent of modern day Italian government and its frequent changes of ruling political parties and prime minsters.  In 2019, Italy had sixty-nine governments since the end of World War II, with an average of nearly one every year, each lasting on average for merely thirteen months. It ‘is a revolving door like no other in Europe.’

The Chaldeans are mentioned in a large number of scriptures in the Bible.

Isaiah 23:13

New English Translation

Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, demolished its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins.

The Chaldeans had originally transformed Babylon and Babylonia into a wealthy, prosperous region. Assyrian rule left it impoverished and powerless.

Habakkuk 1:6

English Standard Version

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation [Latin temperament], who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

Job 1:17

Amplified Bible

17 While he was still speaking, another [messenger] also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and have taken them away and have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 

Ezra 5:11-13

English Standard Version

11 And this was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants [tribes of Judah and Benjamin] of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel [Solomon] built and finished. 12 But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia. 13 However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt.’

Ezekiel 23:14-17, 23

English Standard Version

14 … She [Kingdom of Judah] saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, 15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. 16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust. 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod [visitation] and Shoa [rich] and Koa [cutting off]… 

The vermillion is reminiscent of the crimson worn by Cardinals in the Vatican. The next passage laments the fall of Babylon to the Medes. The Chaldeans were zealous, religious and deeply steeped in astrology, the occult and the mystery religion. Plus, the Chaldeans were renowned for their cultural influence and artistic talent. Just as modern Italy led the renaissance and is a global influencer in cuisine, fashion, art and film. This might explain the focus on the feminine aspect describing their empire in the Book of Isaiah. 

Isaiah chapter forty-seven, is similar to the verses we read regarding the Prince and the ‘King’ of Tyre in Ezekiel twenty-eight [refer Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega]. The description of the fall of ancient Babylon, runs in tandem with the descriptions in the Book of Revelation regarding future Babylon. 

Also, the Queen forevermore, I am, and there is no one besides me, is none other than the original Queen of Heaven, Asherah. Her wisdom – pride and knowledge – from which the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil derives, led her astray. This path was chosen by her desire to stay in the blended spirit and physical realm, where she was a god and pseudo-creator. This is what was offered by trickery to Eve – a descent wholly from spirit to the physical with no way back.

Isaiah 47:1-15

Amplified Bible

‘“Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground [in abject humiliation]; there is no throne for you, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For you will no longer be called tender and delicate. 2 “Take millstones [as a female slave does]and grind meal; Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, Uncover the leg, cross the rivers [at the command of your captors]. 3 “Your nakedness will be uncovered, Your shame will also be exposed; I will take vengeance and will spare no man.” 4 Our Redeemer [will do all this], the Lord of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel. 5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms. 

6 “I was angry with My people, I profaned [Judah] My inheritance And gave them into your hand [Babylon]. You showed them no mercy; You made your yoke very heavy on the aged. 7 “And you said, ‘I shall be a queen [H1404 – gbereth: ‘lady, mistress’ from root H1376 – gbiyr: ‘lord, ruler’] forevermore [H5769 – olam: ‘perpetual, continuous existence, unending’].’ You did not consider these things, Nor did you [seriously] remember the [ultimate] outcome of such conduct. 8 “Now, then, hear this, you who live a luxuriant life, You who dwell safely and securely, Who say in your heart (mind), ‘I am [the queen],and there is no one besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, Nor know the loss of children.’ 9 “But these two things shall come to you abruptly, in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in full measure In spite of your many [claims of power through your] sorceries, In spite of the great power of your enchantments. 

10 “For you [Babylon] have trusted and felt confident in your wickedness; you have said, No one sees me.’[as with Samael, ‘blinded of God’] Your wisdom [Matthew 10:16 ESV “… so be wise as serpents…] and your knowledge [Genesis 3:6 Amplified Bible “And when the woman saw that the tree was… to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful (knowledgable) ] have led you astray, And you have said in your heart (mind),‘I am, and there is no one besides me [H657 ‘ephec & H656 ‘aphec, meaning: ‘to cease, come to an end, be clean gone, fail, finality, end, at an end’].’ 

[Exodus 3:14 ESV “God [elohiym, a God, not the God] said to Moses, “I am [H1961 hayah & H1933 hava, meaning: ‘to fall, to become, to happen, to come about, to come to pass. to appear, to arise, to come into being, to be instituted, to be established, to be brought about, to be, to exist’] who I am. {or I will be what I will be}” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” Either an evasive, cryptic and somewhat derisive reply or just honest, blunt and to the point].

The Name of God as revealed in Exodus 3:14, An explanation of its meaning,K J Cronin – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘Moses was quite understandably anticipating what the Israelites would say to him when he told them that their God had sent him to them. The first thing he anticipated them asking for was the name of their God, YHWH, which if Moses had not known would have proved that he was not sent by Him. 

It would, therefore, have been a perfectly reasonable and practical question for the Israelites to ask. As for Moses’ question of Exodus 3:13, “What should I say to them?”, we need only keep in mind one certainty to understand what Moses was asking for in these words. That certainty is that Moses already knew of the existence of a Divine name in Israelite tradition when he asked this question of God. We know this for certain because Moses refers to a Divine name in Israelite tradition immediately before he asks the question of God. It is very unlikely that he could have been aware of the existence of a Divine name without being aware of what it was and so I believe that we can say with certainty that Moses knew the name YHWH before he asked his question of Exodus 3:13. Moreover, we are informed that as a young man Moses regarded the Hebrews in his midst as his kinsfolk (Exodus 2:11). It is very unlikely that he would not have known the most important feature of his kinsfolk’s religion – the proper name of their God – and so our certainty is confirmed that Moses knew the name YHWH before asking the question of Exodus 3:13. Furthermore, his father-in-law in Midian was a priest (Exodus 2:16) and as such would surely have known the names of the most prominent regional deities amongst whom YHWH would have been counted, which also confirms our certainty that Moses would have known the name YHWH before he asked the question of Exodus 3:13. Bearing in mind these three points the question of Exodus 3:13 can perhaps best be understood as Moses saying to God “I know that You have a proper name, and I even know what that name is, but I still want direction from You as to how I should respond to the Israelites if they ask me for Your name”.

In response to his question Moses received what was no doubt more than he had expected when he asked the question of God, just as the Israelites received more than they could have expected when they asked Moses for the name of their God. Neither Moses nor the Israelites could have expected to receive two names in response to their respective questions but that is what they did receive.

For his part Moses received two answers to his question of Exodus 3:13, or two parts of the one answer, one of them in Exodus 3:14 and one in Exodus 3:15. He was told that when the Israelites ask him for the name of the God who sent him to them, he was first to say that ehyeh had sent him to them (3:14b) and he was then to say that YHWH had sent him to them (3:15). Both words are clearly intended to be understood as answers to the same question because the sentence structure in the two verses is identical, they have a shared vocabulary and there is only one question being answered.

Irrespective of the widespread opinion that these verses are attributable to the Elhoistic source, the entire passage is written with great care and deliberation and is clearly intended to be read and understood precisely as we find it. 

Considered in this way, and as the bold-type text makes clear, the most important difference between the two answers Moses receives to his question is that in the position where Exodus 3:14b has the word ehyeh, Exodus 3:15 has the name YHWH. Both are identified as sending Moses to the Israelites and because there is only one God doing the sending both must be names of the God of Israel. Moreover the word ehyeh is a first person singular of the verb, which means that as a name it can only be one by which God knows Himself; a Personal name. Therefore Ehyeh must be the Personal name of God and YHWH His proper name.It will be recalled that this conclusion is supported by the interpretations of Recanati, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Sarna and Buber among others.’

11 “Therefore disaster will come on you; You will not know how to make it disappear [with your magic]. And disaster will fall on you For which you cannot atone [with all your offerings to your gods]; And destruction about which you do not know Will come on you suddenly. 12 “Persist, then, [Babylon] in your enchantments And your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to profit [from them], Perhaps you may prevail and cause trembling. 

13  “You are wearied by your many counsels. Just let the astrologers, The stargazers, Those who predict by the new moons [each month]Stand up and save you from the things that will come upon you [Babylon]. 14 “In fact, they are like stubble; Fire burns them. They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame [much less save the nation], There is no blazing coal for warming Nor fire before which to sit! 15 “This is how they have become to you, those [astrologers and sorcerers] with whom you have labored, Those who have done business with you from your youth; Each has wandered in his own way. There is no one to save you.’

This passage in Isaiah chapter forty-seven is dual in intention and loaded with meaning. We have read regarding Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the stature of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay in preceding chapters. The first five chapters of the Book of Daniel are dedicated to the Chaldean empire; with the first four relating to King Nebuchadnezzar himself. The king’s astrologers were not able to recount the dream, let alone explain it. Daniel had it revealed to him by the Creator through Gabriel [Daniel 9:21] and explains:

Daniel 2:1-2, 31-38 

English Standard Version

In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. 31 You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold… 

37 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, 38 and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all – you are the head of gold

Recall, the Medo-Persian Empire [Chapter IV Central Asia – Madai & the Medes and Chapter XVIII Elam & Turkey] was the chest and arms of silver and one of the legs of iron was the Byzantine Empire, the eastern leg of the Roman Empire [refer Chapter XX Will the Real Assyria Stand Up: Asshur & Russia]. The feet and toes of iron and clay are a spirit-human mix. Daniel 2:43 says: ‘As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage – by the seed of men – but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. The Chaldean empire was the most cultured, refined and resplendent of the six kingdoms described or predicted. It remained shorter than the ones that followed and was not as militarily dominant as evidenced by the softer, though more valuable element of gold.

Another description of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire is in the Book of Daniel in chapter seven. We have previously covered the Medo-Persian empire, the second kingdom being described as a bear and also in chapter eight as a ram; the fourth kingdom, of which the Byzantium empire constitutes half of, being described in chapter seven as a ‘terrible beast with ten horns.’

Daniel 7:1-4, 17

English Standard Version

In the first year of Belshazzar [Nabonidus 556 BCE] king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. 2 Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.  17 ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.’

The lion – or a bull with a human head, known as a Lamassu – with eagles wings is a prevalent animal hybrid symbol in Chaldean history. It is also seen sometimes in Asshur’s  monuments as well Lud’s. Today, it is frequently seen in none other than Italy. The symbol of Saint Mark of Venice is a prime example.

In Daniel chapter four we read of Nebuchadnezzar’s greatness, his pride, his being humbled through madness and then his subsequent acknowledgment of the Creator for all that he had been given. The tree described, is a parallel analogy of the restraint of Asherah [refer Chapter XXII Alpha & Omega].

… I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you [Daniel] and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. 10 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these… [Daniel] answered and said… The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, 21 whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived – 22 it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. 

23 And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree anddestroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him…’

27 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.” 29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, whichI have built by my mighty power as a royal residenceand for the glory ofmy majesty?” 

31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you… until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” 33 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.

34 At the end of the days [seven years] I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, andI blessed the Most High,and praised and honored him who lives forever …35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” 36 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me [like Job]. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; andthose who walk in pride he is able to humble.

Prior to looking at the golden age of the Chaldeans, we will look at their ancient ancestors and clarify an important scholarly debate. We have noted the sons of Canaan; as the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan – with the Nephilim and Elioud giants. In time, other peoples came to be known by the names of some of the sons of Canaan. We have seen this with the Amorites and how that name became more well known for the blond Arameans, than it did for the darker-skinned Amor-ites from Canaan. 

A case in point is Heth. We have studied the original Heth, living in Hamath and now equating to modern Nigeria [refer Chapter XII Canaan & Africa]. In time there were a light-skinned people called Hittites. Where it becomes complex, is that these Hittites inherited the name of Hatti, not from the original Heth of Canaan, but rather from the Chaldeans, who were known as Chatti. To further complicate the issue, historians have associated Khatti and Kheta or Khetae with the Kittim, to then conclude that the Hatti and Hittites were tawny-skinned Asiatics descended from the Kittim of Javan. Kitti and present day Indonesia, is not the true identity of the Hatti or the Hittites.

We will study the Hittites in detail, for their imprint and impact on the world has been monumental in successive re-incarnations throughout history. Regarding the Hatti and the Hittites, the New World Encyclopaedia states, emphasis and bold mine:

‘”Hittites” is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa (the modern village of Bogazkoy in north-central Turkey), through most of the second millennium B.C.E. The Hittite kingdom, or at least its core region, was apparently called Hatti in the reconstructed Hittite language. 

However, the Hittites should be distinguished from the “Hattians,” an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E., and spoke a non-Indo-European language conventionally called Hattic.

Hittites or more recently, Hethites is also the common English name of a Biblical people, who are also called Children of Heth. These people are mentioned several times in the Old Testament, from the time of the Patriarchs up to Ezra’s return from Babylonian captivity of Judah. The archaeologists who discovered the Anatolian Hittites in the nineteenth century initially believed the two peoples to be the same, but this identification remains disputed.

Around 2000 B.C.E., the region centered in Hattusa that would later become the core of the Hittite kingdom was inhabited by people with a distinct culture who spoke a non-Indo-European language. The name “Hattic” is used by Anatolianists to distinguish this language from the Indo-European Hittite language, that appeared on the scene at the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E. and became the administrative language of the Hittite kingdom over the next six or seven centuries. 

As noted above, “Hittite” is a modern convention for referring to this language. The native term was Nesili, i.e. “in the language of Nesa.” The early Hittites, whose prior whereabouts are unknown, borrowed heavily from the pre-existing Hattian culture, and also from that of the Assyrian traders – in particular, the cuneiform writing and the use of cylindrical seals. Since Hattic continued to be used in the Hittite kingdom for religious purposes [a trait of the Chaldeans], and there is substantial continuity between the two cultures, it is not known whether the Hattic speakers – the Hattians – were displaced by the speakers of Hittite, were absorbed by them, or just adopted their language.’

To summarise the aforementioned quote: Two different, successive peoples dwelt in ancient Anatolia, with different languages, the Hatti and Hattic, a non-Indo-European language and then the Hittites, speaking Hittite an Indo-European language. The Hittites are definitely not the same as the sons of Heth, or Hethites from Canaan. Identifying them as one and the same, is a false premise which is correct to remain disputed amongst scholars. We will learn definitively once we study the Hittites, that the Hatti – the future Chaldeans – did not adopt the Hittite language nor did they become absorbed into the Hittite civilisation. Rather, the Hatti were displaced by the encroaching Hittites.

Amazing Bible Time Line – emphasis & bold mine:

It is a matter of considerable scholarly debate whether the biblical “Hittites” signified any or all of: 1) the original Hattites of Hatti; [no they do not] 2) their Indo-European conquerors (Nesili), who retained the name “Hatti” for Central Anatolia, and are today referred to as the “Hittites” (the subject of this article); [yes, they are the same] or 3) a Canaanite group who may or may not have been related to either or both of the Anatolian groups, and who also may or may not be identical with the later Neo-Hittite, Luwian polities [redundant]

Other biblical scholars have argued that rather than being connected with Heth, son of Canaan, [Heth and the Hittites are different] instead the Anatolian land of Hatti was mentioned in Old Testament literature and apocrypha as “Kittim” (Chittim), [incorrect] a people said to be named for a son of Javan.’

Sarah wife of Abraham. Fairy tale or Real History? Gerard Gertoux – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The Hittites who lived in Syria, and sometimes in Canaan, wanted to define themselves by their genealogical link “people from the land of Heth” as does the Bible (Genesis 26:34; 36:2), the original land being likely the region around Hat(ti)-tusa (Hattusa). According to the Bible, when Joshua entered the Promised Land (in 1493 BCE) [1407 BC] he expelled a number of nations, including the Hittites. These Hittites were located north of Syria. The few scattered references that we have to Hantili’s reign (1500-1495) indicate that he intended on maintaining Hittite influence on Syria. The Hittites, south of Euphrates, mentioned in the time of Joshua and Hantili I, are therefore the same. 

The Hittites met by Abraham were not quite the same as those of Joshua 37 since they are identified as sons of Heth, not Hittites. In the biblical narrative (Genesis 23:2-10), Ephron (“of a calf”), son of Zohar (“tawny”), was not a Hittite in the usual manner because his birth name and that of his father are not Hittite but Canaanite, implying that they had been settled in this region for a long time.’ 

Yes… Ephron was an original son of Heth, a son of Canaan, an African with dark skin.

Consequently the history of Hittites is complex, its official beginning is the period called Early Empire (c. 1530 BCE) but previously there was a period called Hattian period, with 3 ancestors kingdoms, those of Hattusa, Kanesh and Carchemish. Those ancient Hittites, called Hattians by scholars or sons of Heth, son of Canaan in Genesis 10:15, were [incorrectly called] the ancestors of the Hittites.’ 

The sons of Heth – black people – were not the ancestors of the Hittites; nor were the Hattians. The Hittites are related to the Hattians, but the Hattians are not the ancestors of the Hittites. Heth, Hatti and the Hittites are three separate, distinct peoples. Egyptian depictions of the Battle of Kadesh, show long-nosed Hattian soldiers, while the Hittite leaders look different; highlighting two different peoples.

Ancient history can be hazy for all cultures and empires with information largely based on king lists and inscriptions on tablets, steles and so forth. The Akkadian kingdom in central Mesopotamia, the northern half of the land of Shinar with Sumer, the older civilisation in the south, fascinates; yet their rise and fall are cloaked in shadows. After the Tower of Babel, all peoples dispersed eventually. The sons of Shem stayed closer to the main theatre of events, for longer. The Akkadians were the main body of Peleg’s side of Arphaxad’s family tree and later Sumer were from Joktan [refer Chapter XXIV Arphaxad & Joktan: Balts, Slavs & the Balkans]. 

The Amurru or Amorites from the northwest, circa 1994 BCE and the Gutians – both Aramaean peoples – from the east, circa 2067 BCE had invaded the region, with Terah and his family living further south, in northern Sumer at this time. Accad is listed in Genesis chapter ten with Babel, Erech and Calneh as the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom. The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between 2224 and 2064 BCE, following the conquests of its founder the great Sargon during 2224 to 2169 BCE. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was imposed on the neighbouring conquered states of Elam, the Guti and the Martu – or Amurru. Sargon had also defeated Sumer, Canaan and the Assyrians. Akkad is regarded as the first empire in recent ‘ancient’ history. 

Sargon claimed he did not know his father and that his mother was a changeling. A changeling is believed to be a fairy which has been left in place of a human, who has been stolen by fairies. Other sources say his mother was La’ibum or Itti-Bel, either a humble gardener, a hierodule – ‘a slave-prostitute living in a temple and dedicated to the service of a god’ – or a priestess to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar – Inanna in Sumer. Sargon was originally a Rabshakeh, orcupbearer to a king of Kish, Ur-Zababa – Kish as in Khatti, not from Cush.

After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the people of Mesopotamia eventually split into two major Akkadian speaking nations; Assyria in the upper north, and a few centuries later, Babylonia to its south. The third Dynasty of Ur from 1988 to 1882 BCE was founded by Ur-Namma or Ur-Nammu. Ur-Nammu became king after serving as governor to his father and Ur-Nammu – notice family name of Ur – was the first king to use the title, King of Sumer and Akkad. Ur-Nammu is credited with building the ziggurats at Ur and Uruk. The Code of Ur-Nammu, parallels the later Code of Hammurabi [refer Chapter XIX Chedorlaomer & the War of Nine Kings]. The phrase: There will come a king of the four quarters of the earth, originated from Akkadian soothsaying.

During the same time period of the preeminenceof Akkad- from 2224 to 2039 BCE the kingdom of the Hatti existed in western Asia Minor – as evidenced by Hittite and Assyrian records. The structure of archeological finds in sites like Hattush, reveal a highly developed culture, with distinct social classes. The Hattians were organised ‘in monarchial city-states. These states were ruled as theocratic kingdoms or principalities.’ A theocracy is ‘a system of government by priests claiming a divine commission’ and ‘a form of government in which a deity is recognised as the supreme civil ruler, the deity’s laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities.’ The Pope and Cardinals of the Vatican, bearing a more than coincidental similarity.

The pantheon of gods in Hatti, included the storm god Taru, represented by a bull and the sun goddess Furusemu, represented by a leopard, amongst other symbols. Certain reliefs show a female figure giving birth to a bull; as the the mother goddess Kattahha was mother to the storm god Taru [refer Chapter XV The Philistines: Latino-Hispano America]. 

Ancient symbols are often replicated in modern insignias by businesses and sports teams. For instance, the famous Italian sports car marque, Lamborghini. 

The Hittites incorporated much of the Hattian pantheon into their own religious beliefs. James Mellaart proposed that the Hattian ‘religion revolved around a water-from-the-earth concept. Pictorial and written sources show that the deity of paramount importance to the inhabitants of Anatolia was the terrestrial water-god. The Hittite legends of Telipinu and the serpentine dragon Illuyanka found their origin in the Hattian civilization.’

World History Encyclopaedia, Hatti, Joshua J Mark 2012 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The Hatti… migrated to the area sometime prior to 2400 BCE. The region was known as ‘Land of the Hatti’ from c. 2350 BCE until 630 BCE, attesting to the influence of the Hattian culture there.  Controlling a significant number of city states and small kingdoms, they had established lucrative trade with the region of Sumer (southern Mesopotamia) by the year 2700 BCE. The historian Erdal Yavuz writes: ‘Besides the timber and stone essential for construction, but deficient in Mesopotamia, Anatolia had rich mines which provided copper, silver, iron, and gold.’ Their trade with the cities of Mesopotamia enriched the region and helped to develop their kingdom. The historian Marc Van De Mieroop includes the Hatti among the nations… in the diplomatic and trade consortium he refers to as The Club of the Great Powers… it, included Mitanni, Babylonia, Assyria, Hattiand Egypt…

In 2500 BCE the Hatti established their capital high on a hill at the city of Hattusa [Seven Hills of Rome]and held lands securely in the surrounding areas, administering laws and regulating trade in a number of neighboring states. Between c. 2334-2279 BCE the great Sargon of Akkad invaded the region after sacking the city of Ur in 2330 BCE. He then turned his attention to Hattusa but failed to gain an advantage over the city’s defences which were especially strong in that it was located high on a well-defended and fortified plateau. 

Following Sargon’s campaigns in the region, his grandson Naram-Sin (2261-2224 BCE) continued his policies, fighting against the Hattic King Pamba late in the 23rd century BCE with as little success as his grandfather had. In spite of the constant harassment from the Akkadians, Hattic art flourished around 2200 BCE and, by 2000 BCE, their civilization was at its height with prosperous trading colonies established between Hattusa and their other city of Kanesh and, of course, continuing trade relations with Mesopotamia.

In 1700 BCE, the Kingdom of the Hatti was again invaded, this time by the Hittites, and the great city of Hattusa was stormed and destroyed by a king named Anitta from the neighboring Kingdom of Kussara. Excavations at the site show that the city was burned to the ground. King Anitta had such contempt for the city he had vanquished that he cursed the ground and further cursed whoever should re-build Hattusa and try to rule there. Even so, not long after, the city was re-built and re-populated by a later king of Kussara who called himself Hattusili [I]. 

Whoever the Hatti originally were, or where they came from, remains a mystery in the modern day owing to the… the lack of ancient records. The actual nature of the relationship between the Hatti and the Hittites remains a mystery in the modern day and waits on the discovery of ancient documentation to be resolved.’

Joshua Mark confirms the distinction between the Hatti and Hittites; admitting the lack of historical information regarding their relationship. When we study the Hittites, the relationship will become clearly apparent. The dates he provides are all earlier than Nahor’s life, for he was not born until circa 1993 BCE. These Hatti were ante-descendants of Nahor, descending from Peleg.

Later, the Chaldeans dwelt near the coastal area of the Persian Gulf and had not been  entirely subjugated by the Assyrians. In 630 BCE Nabopolassar became king of the Chaldeans and by 626 BCE he had forced the Assyrians out of Uruk and crowned himself king of Babylonia. He endeavoured to destroy Assyria, while at the same time, to restore the dilapidated network of canals in the neighbouring cities of and including, Babylon. 

As the Babylonians had grown tired of Assyrian rule and weary of internal struggles, they were easily persuaded to submit to the new Chaldean king. The result was a rapid social and economic consolidation, assisted by the fact that after the fall of Assyria, no external enemy threatened Babylonia for decades. In the cities, the temples were an important part of the economy and the business class regained its strength in the trades, commerce, livestock breeding as well as in agriculture. The collapse of the Assyrian empire, had meant many trade arteries were rerouted through Babylonia with the city of Babylon emerging as a world centre.

Naboploassar had fought the Assyrian King Ashur-uballiṭ II and then turned his attention against Egypt; his successes alternating with defeats. In 605 BCE Nabopolassar died in Babylon. 

Nabopolassar had named his oldest son Nabu-kudurri-usur, after the famous king of the second dynasty of Isin. He was trained carefully for his future kingship and shared responsibilities with his father. When Nabopolassar died, Nebuchadnezzar II was with his army in Syria. He had just crushingly defeated the Egyptians near Carchemish in a bloody battle and was pursuing them toward the south. He returned immediately to Babylon on hearing the news of his father’s death. Nebuchadnezzar’s numerous building inscriptions enumerate his many wars, most of them interestingly, ending with prayers

Nebuchadnezzar continued to frequently campaign in Syria in the bid to drive out the Egyptians. In 604 BCE he took the Philistine city of Ashkelon and attacked Palestine at the end of 598 BCE. King Jehoiakim of Judah had rebelled and was relying on aid from Egypt. Even so, Jerusalem was won on March 16, 597 BCE. Jehoiakim died during the siege, and his son, King Johoiachin, together with at least 3,000 people from Judah, were led into exile in Babylonia. The captives were treated well, according to document records.

Judah rebelled again in 589 BCE and Jerusalem was placed under siege. The city finally fell during 587 and 586 BCE and was completely destroyed. Many thousands from Judah and Benjamin were forced into Babylonian exile. The former Kingdom of Judah, was reduced to a province of the Babylonian empire. The revolt had been caused by an Egyptian invasion which pushed as far north as Sidon. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years without taking the city, as he had no decisive winning fleet at his disposal. In 568 and 567 BCE he attacked Egypt, again without much success, but from that time on the Egyptians refrained from further attacks on Palestine. 

Nebuchadnezzar was at peace with Media throughout his reign and he was a mediator after the Median-Lydian war which lasted five years from 590 to 585 BCE. The Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar grew, becoming one of the richest lands in western Asia – a remarkable transformation as it had been rather poor when it was ruled by the Assyrians. Babylon was the largest city of the civilised world. Nebuchadnezzar maintained the revitalised canal systems of his father and built many supplementary canals, making the land even more fertile; with trade and commerce booming during his reign.

Nebuchadnezzar’s building efforts easily surpassed those of most of the Assyrian kings before him. He fortified the old double walls of Babylon, adding a triple wall outside the old wall and erected a further wall, the Median Wall, north of the city between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. According to Greek estimates, the Median Wall was about one hundred feet high. Nebuchadnezzar enlarged the original palace, ‘adding many wings, so that hundreds of rooms with large inner courts were now at the disposal of the central offices of the empire. Colourful glazed-tile bas-reliefs decorated the walls. Terrace gardens, called the Hanging Gardens in later accounts, were [built]. Hundreds of thousands of workers are thought to have been required for all his ambitious building  projects.’

Britannica- emphasis & bold mine:

The temples were objects of special concern. He devoted himself first and foremost to the completion of Etemenanki, the “Tower of babel.” Construction of this building began in the time of Nebuchadrezzar I about 1110 [BCE]. It stood as a “building ruin” until the reign of Esarhaddon of Assyria, who resumed building about 680 but did not finish. [Nebuchadnezzar] II was able to complete the whole building. The mean dimensions of Etemenanki are to be found in the Esagila Tablet, which has been known since the late 19th century. Its base measured about 300 feet on each side, and it was 300 feet in height. There were five terrace like gradations surmounted by a temple, the whole tower being about twice the height of those of other temples. The wide street used for processions led along the eastern side by the inner city walls and crossed at the enormous Ishtar gate with its world-renowned bas-relief tiles. [Nebuchadnezzar] also built many smaller temples throughout the country.

The [last] king [of Dynasty X] was the Aramaean Nabonidus… [556–539 BCE] from Harran, one of the most interesting and enigmatic figures of ancient times. His mother, Addagoppe, was a priestess of the god Sin in Harran; she came to Babylon and managed to secure responsible offices for her son at court. The god of the moon rewarded her piety with a long life – she lived to be 103 – and she was buried in Harran with all the honours of a queen in 547 [BCE]. 

His viceroy in Babylonia was his son Bel-shar-usur, the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel in the Bible. Cyrus… [annexed] Media in 550. Nabonidus, in turn, allied himself with Croesus of Lydia [Lud] in order to fight Cyrus. Yet, when Cyrus attacked Lydia and annexed it in 546, Nabonidus was not able to help Croesus. Cyrus bode his time. In 542 Nabonidus returned to Babylonia, where his son had been able to maintain good order in external matters but had not overcome a growing internal opposition to his father. He appointed his daughter to be high priestess of the god Sin in Ur, thus returning to the Sumerian-Old Babylonian religious tradition. 

The priests of Marduk looked to Cyrus, hoping to have better relations with him than with Nabonidus; they promised Cyrus the surrender of Babylon without a fight if he would grant them their privileges in return. In 539 [BCE] Cyrus [I] attacked northern Babylonia with a large army, defeating Nabonidus, and entered the city of Babylon without a battle. The other cities did not offer any resistance either. Nabonidus surrendered, receiving a small territory in eastern Iran. Babylonia’s peaceful submission to Cyrus saved it from the fate of Assyria. It became a territory under the Persian crown but kept its cultural autonomy. Even the racially mixed western part of the Babylonian empire submitted without resistance.’

King Nebuchadnezzar was reportedly a very short man, though he overshadowed his height with his personality and achievements.

Nebuchadnezzar II king of Babylonia, Henry W F Saggs – emphasis & bold mine:

‘Nebuchadnezzar II… is known from cuneiform inscriptions, the Bible and later Jewish sources, and classical authors. His name, from the Akkadian Nabu-kudurri-usur, means “O  Nabu, watch over my heir.” While his father disclaimed royal descent, Nebuchadnezzar claimed the third-millennium Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin as ancestor. The year of his birth is uncertain, but it is not likely to have been before 630 BCE, for according to tradition Nebuchadnezzar began his military career as a young man, appearing as a military administrator by 610. He is first mentioned by his father as working as a labourer in the restoration of the temple of Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia.

After his father’s death on August 16, 605, Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon and ascended the throne within three weeks. This rapid consolidation of his accession and the fact that he could return to Syria shortly afterward reflected his strong grip on the empire. Much influenced by the Assyrian imperial tradition, Nebuchadnezzar consciously pursued a policy of expansion, claiming the grant of universal kingship by Marduk and praying to have “no opponent from horizon to sky.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s main activity, other than as military commander, was the rebuilding of Babylon. He completed and extended fortifications begun by his father, built a great moat and a new outer defense wall, paved the ceremonial Processional Way with limestone, rebuilt and embellished the principal temples, and cut canals. This he did not only for his own glorification but also in honour of the gods. He claimed to be “the one who set in the mouth of the people reverence for the great gods” and disparaged predecessors who had built palaces elsewhere than at Babylon and had only journeyed there for the New Year Feast. Little is known of his family life beyond the tradition that he married a Median princess, whose yearning for her native terrain he sought to ease by creating gardens simulating hills.

Despite the fateful part he played in Judah’s history, Nebuchadnezzar is seen in Jewish tradition in a predominantly favourable light. It was claimed that he gave orders for the protection of Jeremiah, who regarded him as God’s appointed instrument whom it was impiety to disobey, and the prophet Ezekiel expressed a similar view at the attack on Tyre. A corresponding attitude to Nebuchadnezzar, as God’s instrument against wrongdoers, occurs in the Apocrypha in 1 Esdras and, as protector to be prayed for, in Baruch. In Daniel (Old Testament) and in Bel and the Dragon (Apocrypha), Nebuchadnezzar appears as a man, initially deceived by bad advisers, who welcomes the situation in which truth is triumphant and God is vindicated.

In modern times Nebuchadnezzar has been treated as the type of godless conqueror; Napoleon was compared to him. The story of Nebuchadnezzar is the basis of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco [the coincidence of a modern Italian (Chaldean) writing about an ancient Chaldean (Italian)], while his supposed madness is the theme of William Blake’s picture “Nebuchadnezzar.”’

Did King Nebuchadnezzar Really Go Mad and Eat Grass for 7 Years? David Roos, 2020 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II is one of the greatest villains of the Hebrew Bible… In… 2 Kings, Nebuchadnezzar and his army lay siege to Jerusalem, loot gold and other treasures from the temple, abduct the Judean king and his court, and carry off 10,000 officers, artisans and skilled workers into exile in Babylon. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar returns and razes Solomon’s temple to the ground. And in another unforgettable story in Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is punished for his hubris and wanders the wilderness like a beast eating grass for seven years.

The question is: Did any of this really happen? For centuries, historians and biblical scholars have searched for clues about the real-life Nebuchadnezzar II… We know from the archaeological record that Nebuchadnezzar was a master builder, raising Babylon to a grandeur unmatched in the ancient Near East. But was Nebuchadnezzar really the tyrant who sacked Jerusalem and sent the Judeans into exile, and is there any truth to the Bible’s account of his “bestial” bout with madness?’

“Nebuchadnezzar is one of those characters in the Bible for whom we have an enormous amount of data from non-biblical sources,” says Eckart Frahm, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at Yale University. “There’s just a tremendous amount of material.”

‘Archaeologists have recovered tens of thousands of clay tablets and other inscribed objects from sites across the ancient Babylonian Empire, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea (modern-day Egypt and Israel) to the Persian Gulf (Iraq, Iran and Kuwait). They were written in cuneiform and include everything from royal proclamations to accounting documents. “Among [these texts] are many, many inscriptions written in Nebuchadnezzar’s own name,” says Frahm, “and obviously in these texts he presents himself not as a villain, but as the ‘great builder.’ He’s very eager to indicate that he built these massive temples and palaces, and that he’s also very pious. He confesses that he’s constantly thinking of the gods when building temples to them.”

Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t write anything about his political or military exploits, but some important details were captured in a remarkable set of clay tablets known as the Babylonian Chronicles.’

Or, it may have been the measure of the man, why Nebuchadnezzar chose to leave these aspects of pride in his life in the background and reflect on those of higher altruistic value. Nebuchadnezzar as recoded in the Book of Daniel had a change of heart after his affliction with madness – Daniel 4:34-37. His self image was humbled to include a relationship with a Creator who had opened his mind to understand and appreciate the matters that carry important consequence. 

In 2 Kings, we learn that the Judean King Jehoiakim refused to pay tribute to Babylon, so Nebuchanezzar invaded Judah to quash the rebellion. The Babylonian Chronicles confirm this, and provide an exact date for the conquest of Jerusalem (597 B.C.E.)’

“There’s no reason to doubt that this really happened,” says Frahm of both the first Babylonian siege in 597 B.C.E. and the second in 587 B.C.E. “On both occasions, many people in Jerusalem were in fact taken into exile, including the royal family.”

‘King Jehoiakim died either before or during the siege, leaving his 18-year-old son Jehoiachin to taste Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath. Along with the young king and his extended royal family, thousands of Jerusalem’s elites – officials, priests, warriors, artisans – were all marched to Babylon. In the early 20th century, archaeologists excavating beneath the ruins of an ancient Babylonian palace found 14 vaulted rooms they first believed to be part of the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but later figured out were part of a royal storehouse. In that storehouse were more clay tablets, mostly records of the day-to-day affairs of the palace. And among those tablets was a 3-inch tall fragment containing the name Jehoiakhin, king of Judah.” The fragment turned out to be part of a “ration list” indicating how much oil and foodstuffs were given to King Jehoiachin and his exiled Judean court in Babylon.”That was a remarkable find,” says Frahm. The ration list specifically mentions Jehoiachin, other Judean dignitaries and Jehoiachin’s five sons. The quantities of the rations were sizable…    

So where does this leave the famous story of Nebuchadnezzar losing his marbles and eating grass for seven years? [author allows his prejudice to spill over into derogatory sarcasm] Are there also hints in the historical record?… Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream that none of his court magicians could interpret, so he asks Daniel, a young exiled Judean known as a visionary. To Daniel, the dream is clear: If Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t repent and praise the one true God, he will be stricken with a madness that will cause him to wander the wilderness like a beast. Incredibly, there is an independent record of a Babylonian king going mad and wandering in the wilderness for years. But it wasn’t Nebuchadnezzar, says Frahm. In Babylonian texts, the “mad king” was Nabonidus, a king who ruled two decades after Nebuchadnezzar and ended up losing the Babylonian Empire to the Persians.’

The author places too much confidence in the suppositions of Frahm; as well as reading the Babylonian text at face value. Why would an otherwise impressive record of Nebuchadnezzar’s achievements be tarnished with a the sensitive episode of a sustained mental breakdown, or the fact he converted to worship the ‘God’ of the tribe of Judah? Easy to pin the story on a later, lesser king, if such is the case?

‘According to the records, King Nabonidus replaced the Babylonian gods with a new moon god and then led his troops on a strange campaign into the Arabian Desert to attack some towns, including Yathrib, the later Medina. 

He then dwelled the next 10 years in the Arabian city of Tayma. “This sojourn of Nabonidus in Arabia for 10 years is clearly the background of the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the wilderness,”says Frahm. There’s even physical proof of the Nabonidus story also being tied to a Hebrew sage. Four fragments discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls contained what’s now known as the Prayer of Nabonidus: I was afflicted [with an evil ulcer] for seven years…and an exorcist pardoned my sins. He was a Jew from among the [children of the exile of Judah, and said,] “Recount this in writing to [glorify and exalt] the Name of the [Most High God].” 

Frahm says that the “exorcist” in the Nabonidus account is clearly Daniel, and it’s easy to understand why the authors of Daniel would have substituted the “tyrant” Nebuchadnezzarin their retelling. “In this theology, where you have to be punished for the sins you committed, it makes sense that it’s Nebuchadnezzar and not Nabonidus who is said to have had this strange episode,” says Frahm.’

It would seem that this parallel yet, different account is about Nabonidus. An exorcist and ulcer are not part of Nebuchadnezzar’s story. Frahm has made sizeable jumps in assumption which are not necessarily true.

‘The Hebrew Bible is an incredible document, not only for the faithful, but for historians like Frahm. In books like 2 Kings and Jeremiah, there are accounts of Nebuchadnezzar and later Babylonian kings that have been independently confirmed by ancient cuneiform tablets recovered from Babylonian sites. But then you have the [story] in Daniel about… Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams and being cursed with a seven-year madness, all of which Frahm describes not as history, but literature [can’t have it both ways; either both are fiction or both are historical accounts]. What does the example of Nebuchadnezzar teach us about the historicity of the Bible? That it’s neither entirely factual nor entirely made up, Frahm says. “You have to look at the details,” says Frahm. “When we have these independent sources, as we do for the sixth century B.C.E., you do have a good chance of figuring out what is historically correct and what is later theological interpretation [this line of reasoning is circular, flimsy and biased].”’

Roos appears keen to discredit the biblical account and promote Frahm’s interpretation of the Babylonian texts. By Frahm’s own admission, he states the name of Nebuchadnezzar has been substituted with Nabonidus. If true, this would not be hard to understand and has support for two reasons. Firstly, Nebuchadnezzar II was the most prominent and successful ruler of the Chaldean Dynasty X of Babylon. Why besmirch his legacy and renown with an account of madness? It was easy to transfer this episode to a weak king who was the last king of the dynasty; whom let the kingdom slide away irrevocably to the Medes & Persians. 

Secondly, the Bible is clear that Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar had an involved and complex relationship. They have the starring roles in the first four chapters of the Book of Daniel. There is just the one chapter devoted to Daniel and Nabonidus and one does not find as close a relationship portrayed. 

Nor does Nabonidus appear to have any affinity with the Eternal as Nebuchadnezzar before him; therefore the Babylonian text accounts if accurate, do not align with the Bible and are to be mistrusted before the Book of Daniel.

Italian men

Forwarding some five hundred years, Germanic tribes are credited with originating from a homeland in southern Scandinavia – modern day Sweden and Norway – including the Jutland area in northern Denmark and a narrow strip of Baltic coastline. The East Germanic Goths were one of the first of the Germanic tribes to form a recognised kingdom and Jordanes states, according to Dio: ‘the Goths were ever wiser than other barbarians and were nearly like the Greeks.’ This is more than coincidental, in that the eastern Goths are closely related to the people we will study as the Greeks in the next chapter.

Those of noble birth amongst the Goths – from whom their kings and priests were appointed – were first known as Tarabostesei. The word ‘tarabostesei’ with its suffixes removed leaves tarabost. The first part, tara can have several meanings, including ‘bull’ or ‘fast.’ Recall the storm god of the Hatti, Taru the bull. The second half, ‘bost’ means ‘hand’ or ‘fist’.

The Goths were constantly attended by a subject tribe, the Heruli who later emerged in Italy as part of the Gothic kingdom of Rome, and to an extent by the Scirii as well. Edward Dawson proposes that there is a distinct possibility that the Goth name emerged as a result of Gaulish [Celtic] influence on a tribal name which derived from Woden or Wodan. ‘The use of Godan instead of Wodan by the Langobard tribe is [key], given the known tendency of Gaulish to convert a ‘w’ into a ‘gw’ or ‘gu’ sound. 

It then appears that Wodan [from Odin], Goth, and God are cognates.’ The people of Guti, Goth, or God.

The Ostrogoths, or Eastern Goths, dominated a vast swathe of what is now southern Russia and Ukraine by the mid-third century. In the Old English epic poem Widsith, the Ostrogoths are known as the Hreo-Gotum or Victory Goths. They migrated through eastern Europe and southwards through modern day Poland. In 487 CE the Scirian commander of Rome, Odoacer, defeated the Rugli tribe, long time allies of the Ostrogoths. This presented a future threat for Italy, with the Langobards migrating into the Rugli homelands in Lower Austria. Theodoric the Great, led the Ostrogothic invasion of Italy, supported by elements of the Rugli. Over throwing Rome and ruling from 493 to 526.

Italian women

The Langobards or Langobardi were the other significant body of people to invade and settle in Italy; who had originated in northwestern Germany from the 1st century CE and later migrated above northern Silesia – now western Poland as part of the Suevi or Suebi confederation of tribes. Recall, the Suevi continued on into the Iberian Peninsula and settled in Portugal [refer Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil]. The Suebi comprised Hul and Mash, sons of Aram. It is probable that they, like the Goths had earlier origins in southern Scandinavia and were forced to migrate due to population expansion. They were also known by their original ethnic name, the Winnili  – ‘Winn’ Germanic for ‘striving’ or ‘being victorious’.

In 415, continuing to wander – recall Terah’s name means, wanderer – from Poland, the Langobards had entered Vurgundaib. This is thought to be the original lands of the Burgundians – who eventually settled in present day Switzerland – located in the northern Carpathians. 

Their westwards journey by the tail end of the fifth century lead to the area equating with modern Austria. They began to attack the established order in Italy from 568 CE; invading northern Italy and surrounding the ‘island’ dominion in Venice. The Langobards, were now known as Lombards and they filled a void left by the demise of the Ostrogoth kingdom at the hands of Byzantium. 

The Lombards occupied territory which had been home to various Celtic tribes since the sixth century BCE, almost unopposed. Their attacks badly affected Rome, cutting it off from the Byzantine empire. Unlike the Ostrogoths, the Lombards did not seek to preserve the ancient Roman methods of governance. Their kingdom in the north and the independent Lombard duchies to the south in central Italy, added a Germanic essence to the peninsula which had begun with the Goth’s arrival. 

This highlights the distinction between the northern and north central Italians with the latinised south Central and southern Italians. The Lombards from the north descending from Aram’s son Uz and the Goths from Nahor’s wife Milcah. Whereas, the southern Italians and Sicilians contain a mixture from Nahor’s concubine Reumah and Joktan’s children, such as Uzal, the progenitor of the modern Greeks. Somewhere in this mix is Terah’s other son, Zoba and his son Aram.

The biggest city in southern Italy is Naples, with some three million people. The biggest city in central Italy is the capital Rome, with approximately four million people. The biggest city in northern Italy and the fashion capital of the world, Milan – though the French would beg to differ – has three million people. It is the capital of the Lombardy region, houses the Italian stock exchange, the Borsa Italiana and has the third largest economy according to GDP after the cities of London and Paris.

During 584 to 585, the Lombards invaded the Merovingian Frankish region of Provence. Returning in kind, the Frankish king of Austrasia, Childebert II and Guntramn, king of Burgundy, invaded Lombard Italy, or Lombardy as it came to be known. They captured Trent and opened negotiations with the eastern Roman emperor with the probable view, of carving up Italy between them. The Lombards, fearing Frankish domination, elected a new king called Authari, to end their disunity after ten years of rule by various Dukes. In 590, Authari was succeeded by Agilulf, the Duke of Turin, who was able to recover most of the portions of land that had been lost to the Frankish-Byzantine alliance. The Lombards, like the Visigioths of Spain were Arians, though they later converted to orthodox christianity in the latter part of the seventh century [refer Chapter XV the Philistines: Latino-Hispano America]. 

The invasion of papal territories by the Lombard kings Aistulf [749–756] and Desiderius [756–774] compelled Pope Adrian I to seek aid from the Frankish king Charlemagne. The Franks entered Italy in 773 and after a year’s siege Pavia fell to their armies. Desiderius was captured and Charlemagne became king of the Lombards as well as of the Franks. Lombard rule in Italy came to an end in 774. 

In a momentous and astute act, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne head of the Holy Roman Empire on December 25, 800 CE.

In the 1200s, powerful city-states – indicative of the ancient Chaldeans – began to develop throughout Italy including Florence, Milan, Venice, and Naples. The Renaissance began in Florence, Italy in the 1300s. The Lombards of Florence or Firenze, are credited with initialising banks and the system of banking. From these Princedoms, famous merchant families arose such as the Medici in Florence, who then formed political dynasties. 

Italy is responsible for driving the arts, sciences and exploration forward with massive worldwide impact; a precursor to the age of discovery, later joined by Portugal and Spain. Famous influencers, included: Galileo, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Volta, Dante, Ariosto, Verdi and Vivaldi. Today, Italian artists, writers, designers, musicians, chefs, actors and filmmakers have added immeasurably to global art and culture.

In 1796, Northern Italy was conquered by Napoleon and incorporated into the French Empire. Later in 1805, Napoleon declared Italy a kingdom. Subsequently in 1814, Napoleon was defeated and Italy was divided up into small states. In 1815, the process of reunification began and in 1871, the Kingdom of Italy was established for the second time. Rome and Venice had been separate states, but by 1866, Venice became part of Italy and by 1871, most of Italy including Rome was included as one united kingdom. The key personalities in achieving unification were General Garibaldi, spear heading the campaign in Naples and Sicily, the Count of Cavour who led the government of the House of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardina for the Northern Italian monarchy and Victor Emmanuel II – who became the first king of the united Italy.

‘From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy rapidly industrialised, mainly in the north, and acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained largely impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora.’ Many Italians migrated to Brazil – as well as Argentina, Uruguay and the United States.

Italy’s geographic shape resembles a boot. The other boot that completes the pair exists elsewhere. During World War I, Italy fought on the side of the Allies, though under the rule of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini, it waged war against the Allied powers in World War II. From 1945, Italy has had a multiparty system dominated by two large parties: the Christian Democratic Party and the Italian Communist Party. 

In the early 1990s the Italian party system underwent a radical transformation and the political centre collapsed, leaving a right and left polarisation of the party options which threw the north and south divide of Italy into sharper contrast and gave rise to political leaders like media magnate Silvio Berlusconi. 

Italy is considered to be one of the world’s most culturally and economically advanced countries,with 60,230,454 people. It is the third largest economy in the European Union, in the top ten in the world according to national wealth and the third largest with a central bank gold reserve, behind the United States and Germany. Italy has 2,451.8 tonnes of gold which equates to 69.3 percent of its foreign reserves. Italy has maintained the size of its reserves over a long period. 

Mario Draghi, a former Bank of Italy and also European Central Bank governor, ‘when asked by a reporter in 2013 what role gold plays in a central bank’s portfolio, answered that the metal was “a reserve of safety,” adding, “it gives you a fairly good protection against fluctuations against the dollar.”’ Recall that the Chaldeans were represented by the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. 

Italy ‘ranks very highly in life expectancy [due to its mediterranean diet], quality of life, healthcare and education. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs; it is both a regional power and a great power, and is ranked the world’s eighth most-powerful military. 

Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union… the country has long been a global centre of art, music, literature, philosophy, science and technology, and fashion, and has greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields including cinema, cuisine, sports, jurisprudence, banking and business.As a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to the world’s largest number of World Heritage sites (55), and is the fifth-most visited country’ in the world. The Chaldeans were one of the foremost cultured civilisations, just as Italy is today.

Italy is a member of the elite group of G7 nations; comprising the most advanced, developed and biggest economies in the world – excepting the burgeoning economies of the BRIC nations, comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China. These four as we have learned, represent the most prominent descendants from Japheth, Ham and Shem in the scriptures, in that they represent Tyre from Aram, Asshur or the Assyrians, Cush or biblically translated as Ethiopia and Magog, Tubal and Meschech. Japan is the one non-European nation in the seven, though by irony is the most westernised nation of those from the East just as Tarshish was anciently [refer Chapter IX Tarshish & Japan]. Italy is one of the four influential nations from Europe and as we shall discover, is closely related to them all – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – for they are all descended from either Nahor or one of his brothers, Haran and Abraham. 

There are numerous theories on the etymology of the name Italia. One is that it was borrowed via Greek from the Oscan Viteliu, ‘land of calves’ which in Latin is vitulus. Nahor’s concubine Reumah’s name, included wild ox as a meaning. The daughters of Laban, a grandson of Nahor, both married Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Leah’s name includes, wild cow in her name’s meaning and her younger sister Rachel, includes ewe, a female sheep in hers.

Flag of the Italian Navy, displaying the coat of arms of Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi the most prominent maritime republics. The strong shipping tradition is indicative of the sons of Aram.

‘The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Italian global shipments during 2021.

  1. Machinery including computers: US$108.1 billion 
  2. Vehicles: $45.4 billion
  3. Electrical machinery, equipment: $37.7 billion 
  4. Pharmaceuticals: $36.7 billion
  5. Plastics, plastic articles: $26.3 billion 
  6. Articles of iron or steel: $21.3 billion
  7. Gems, precious metals: $20.8 billion 
  8. Mineral fuels including oil: $19.6 billion 
  9. Iron, steel: $19.2 billion 
  10. Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefabricated buildings: $15.8 billion 

Mineral fuels including oil represents the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 75.3% from 2020 to 2021. That product category was propelled by Italy’s greater international sales of refined petroleum oils. In second place for improving export sales was iron and steel as materials via a 72.9% gain. Italy’s shipments of articles made from iron or steel posted the third-fastest acceleration in value, up by 28.2%.’
The world’s eighth largest economy according to GDP belongs to Italy, at an even $2.00 trillion in 2019. Italy’s economy and level of development vary notably by region, with a more developed, industrial economy in the north contrasted by underdeveloped southern regions. Italy’s second biggest export is automobiles, including several famous brands such as Fiat, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Maserati. One of Italy’s most famous exports is clothing, which includes world-famous brands like Versace, Gucci, Giorgio Armani and Prada. 

The flags of Italy, Venice and the Vatican City

Did you know that Italians have the most diverse DNA in Europe? L’Italo Americano, Giulia Franceschini, 2020 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘We usually say that America is a melting pot of cultures and races, but did you know that, according to genetic research, Italy may be just as varied? The study was carried out by a team of researchers from Rome’s Universita La Sapienza, in collaboration with the universities of Bologna, Cagliari and Pisa, and led by anthropologist Giovanni Destro Bisol in 2014. Its main findings show that Italian DNA has from 7 to 30 times more differences than those registered between the Portuguese andthe Hungarians. This variety is present everywhere, from North to South and includes also Italy’s islands, Sardinia and Sicily. In other words, Bisol et al.’s research shows that Italians have a higher level of diversity among themselves than populations living at opposite corners of the continent.’ 

The diagram below is a good example of the difference between those peoples descended from Ham’s son Mizra in North Africa and the Middle East [refer Chapter XIV Mizra: North Africa & Arabia] – below 0.0 y axis – and the peoples of Europe descending in the main from Shem’s son Arphaxad – above 0.0 y axis. It also shows the east to west gradient divide studied in the preceding chapter. The red markers show the similarity between Eastern Europeans such as Poles and Ukrainians with south eastern Europeans like Romanians and Greeks, who all descend from Joktan and are positioned less than 0.0 x axis. The Blue of southern Italy is the inter-connection between Eastern and Western Europe showing both their similarly with each half of the continent, yet also their uniqueness. Their markers lie predominantly above 0.0 x axis, as befits the the majority of Italian descent from Peleg or Aram over Joktan.

Genetic History of Ethnic Italians, unknown author, 2017:

‘In… recent decades there has been a huge increase in the study of human genetics. Practically it has substituted the banned (after WW2) studies on human races. Now we don’t divide world populations because of their eyes and/or hair color, but because of their so called genetic “haplogroup”.’ 

Ratio of blond haired people in Italy, with yellow shading over 20% of the population and black below 2.4% of the population. Highlighting the difference between the Teutonic [Aramaic] north; the Gothic [Chaldean] Centre; and the Latin [Joktan] south.

Eupedia explains the Y-DNA Haplogroup correlation for blond hair, red hair and blue eyes.

‘Fair hair was another physical trait associated with the Indo-Europeans. In contrast, the genes for blue eyes were already present among Mesolithic Europeans belonging to Y-haplogroup I [I1, I2a1 & I2a2]. The genes for blond hair are more strongly correlated with the distribution of haplogroup R1a, but those for red hair have not been found in Europe before the Bronze Age, and appear to have been spread primarily by R1b people.’

United States National Library of Medicine, Is eye color determined by genetics? – emphasis & bold mine: 

‘A person’s eye color results from pigmentation of a structure called the iris, which surrounds the small black hole in the center of the eye (the pupil) and helps control how much light can enter the eye. The color of the iris ranges on a continuum from very light blue to dark brown. 

Most of the time eye color is categorized as blue, green/hazel, or brown. Brown is the most frequent eye color worldwide. Lighter eye colors, such as blue and green, are found almost exclusively among people of European ancestry.

Eye color is determined by variations in a person’s genes. Most of the genes associated with eye color are involved in the production, transport, or storage of a pigment called melanin. Eye color is directly related to the amount and quality of melanin in the front layers of the iris. People with brown eyes have a large amount of melanin in the iris, while people with blue eyes have much less of this pigment.

A particular region on chromosome 15 plays a major role in eye color. Within this region, there are two genes located very close together: OCA2 and HERC2. The protein produced from the OCA2 gene, known as the P protein, is involved in the maturation of melanosomes, which are cellular structures that produce and store melanin. The P protein therefore plays a crucial role in the amount and quality of melanin that is present in the iris. Several common variations (polymorphisms) in the OCA2 gene reduce the amount of functional P protein that is produced. Less P protein means that less melanin is present in the iris, leading to blue eyes instead of brown in people with a polymorphism in this gene.

A region of the nearby HERC2 gene known as intron 86 contains a segment of DNA that controls the activity (expression) of the OCA2 gene, turning it on or off as needed. At least one polymorphism in this area of the HERC2 gene has been shown to reduce the expression of OCA2, which leads to less melanin in the iris and lighter-colored eyes.

Several other genes play smaller roles in determining eye color. Some of these genes are also involved in skin and hair coloring. Genes with reported roles in eye color include ASIP, IRF4, SLC24A4, SLC24A5, SLC45A2, TPCN2, TYR, and TYRP1. The effects of these genes likely combine with those of OCA2 and HERC2 to produce a continuum of eye colors in different people.’

As with fairer coloured hair, lighter eyes predominate ing the northern regions of Italy. In previous chapters, particularly with the descendants of Shem, there have been sometimes irregular patterns in which nations are more closely related with other countries when comparing mitochondrial DNA inherited from mothers, or Y chromosome DNA inherited from fathers. 

As Franceschini states, there is wide diversification in Italy from north to south. We will compare the mtDNA from several regions now we recognise the three component parts of Italy: north, central and southern Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia. Specific regions chosen to reflect these three sections are the highest population areas of Lombardy in the north, Tuscany, Latium or Lazio in Central Italy and Campania and Sicily in the south.

Lombardy: H [38.4%] – K [11.3%] – T2 [9%] – X [6.8%] – 

J [5.1%] – U5 [5.1%] – U4 [4%] – HV0+V [3.9%] – HV [3.4%] –

T1 [2.8%] – U1 [1.7%] – U2 [1.1%] 

Lombardy has the highest percentages of lesser Haplogroups K and X in Italy; though with regard to the most common mtDNA Haplogroup in Europeans, Lombardy has less than the Italian average for H. Whereas neighbouring Piedmont has the highest percentage of Haplogroup H with 56.5% and yet the lowest level of HV at 1.2%. The region of Veneto stands out with the highest percentage of Haplogroup T2 – a relatively young Haplogroup – of 18.8%. In contrast, Liguria has the lowest level of T2 with 4% but has the highest percentage of HV0+V, with 10%. 

Friuli-Venezia-Guilia in the far northeast has the second highest levels of Haplogroup H with 54%, yet interestingly, has the lowest levels of a number of Haplogroups: HV0+V, 0%; J, 4%; T1, 0%; K, 2%; I, 0% and X, 0%.

Tuscany: H [41.4%] – T2 [8.6%] – K [7.8%] – J [6.4%] – 

HV0+V [5.1%] – HV [4.8%] – U5 [4%] – U3 [3.5%] – T1 [2.7%] –

U3 [2.4%] – U4 [2.1%] – X [2.1%] – U2 [1.9%] – U1 [0.5%]

Latium: H [39.3%] – J [8.4%] – K [7.6%] – U3 [5.3%] – 

HV0+V [4.7%] – T2 [4.6%] – U5 [4.2%] – HV [3.2%] – X [3.1%] –

T1 [2.9%] – U2 [1.9%] – U1 [1.6%] – U [1.2%] – U4 [0.6%]

Both Tuscany and Latium are not far removed from each other or from Lombardy; with mainly average levels of most Haplogroups. In fact on PCA graphs, Northern Italians and Central Italians are similar. Even Corsicans though part of France; have a genetic composition in keeping with Central Italians. It is as we move southwards that we find observable differences. For Southern Italians are more alike with Greeks and Sardinians are not comparable with anyone, being as far removed from Southern and Central Italians as say an Iranian. 

Campania: H [43.8%] – J [8%] – K [7.4%] – T2 [6.3%] – 

U3 [5.2%] – U5 [4.1%] – T1 [4.1%] – HV [2.8%] – HV0+V [2.8%] –

U [2.2%] – U4 [1.9%] – X [1.7%] – U1 [1.1%] – U2 [0.6%]

Sicily: H [45.2%] – J [6.7%] – K [6.3%] – HV [5%] – 

T2 [4.4%] – X [3.7%] – U5 [3.3%] – T1 [2.7%] – HV0+V [2.3%] –

U1 [2%] – U1 [1.7%] – U4 [1.3%] – U2 [1%] – U3 [0.7%]

Sardinia: H [44.3%] – J [13%] – T2 [10.3%] – U5 [10%] – 

K [6%] – HV [4.4%] – HV0+V [3.7%] – T1 [2.9%] –

U [1.4%] – L [0.5%] – X [0.4%]

Both Campania and Sicily, as well as Sardinia exhibit above average percentages of prime Haplogroup H. Campania has the highest levels of T1 and Sardinia lacks a number of the U sub-Haplogroups. Calabria located in the southern most tip of Italy has the highest level of HV with 10% and also the lowest percentage of Haplogroup H with 28%. Calabria also has the highest percentage of Haplogroup J and Sardinia second with 14% and 13% respectively. 

The average percentages as shown across Italy as a whole. 

Italy: H [40.2%] – T2 [8.2%] – J [8.1%] – K [7.7%] – U5 [4.6%] – 

HV0+V [3.3%] – HV [2.9%] – T1 [3.3%] – U [2.7%] – U3 [2.1%] –

X [2%] – U4 [1.9%] – U2 [1.6%] –  U1 [1.5%] –  L [0.8%]

                            H       HV   HV0+V    J        T2     U5       K       X

Piedmont         57       1.2          7          7         6      1.2        7        3

Lombardy        38         3          4          5         9         5       11        7

Tuscany            41         5           5          6         9        4        8         2

Latium              39         3           5         8         5        4         8        3

Campania         44         3          3          8        6         4        7      1.7

Calabria            28       10          4        14       10       12        8        2

Sicily                 45          5          2          7        4          3        6        4

Sardinia            44         4          4        13       10       10        6     1.3

Italy                   40         3          3          8        8         5         8        2

The demarkation between regions is blurred and not overly obvious. There are few clear patterns. For example, Haplogroup H percentages fluctuate rather than steadily increase or decrease when heading southwards, though T2 levels do decrease overall. Lombardy’s higher levels of Haplogroup K, is invariably associated with Ashkenazi Jews and the Basque in Spain and France.

                           H       J      T2      K      HV    U5   HV0+V

Lombardy          38      5        9       11         3        5          4

Campania          44      8        6        7          3        4          3

Portugal             44       7       6        6       0.1        7          5

Spain                  44       7       6        6       0.7        8          8

According to PCA graphs, Portugal and Spain are closer to Lombardy. Contrastingly, the the stronger link in maternal mtDNA is between Campania in the south of Italy and Iberia. The addition of Brazil confirms a maternal link amongst these four regions.

                            H       U        T         J     HV0+V   HV        X         

Spain                44      14        9         7           8          0.7      1.7     

Portugal           44      13       10        7           5          0.1         2          

Brazil                44      16       14       11                          2         3         

Campania        44      15       10        8           3             3         2

It is now enlightening to add Italy to the mtDNA comparison table of the principle descendants of Shem.

                        H         HV    HV0+V      J        T2         U        U5       K

Brazil             44          2                         11 

Portugal        44       0.1           5             7         6           3          7         6

Spain             44       0.7           8            7          6           2         8         6

Poland          44           1           5             8         7        1.4        10        4

Russia           41           2           4            8          7           2        10        4

Greece           41          3         1.8          10          7          3          5         5

Italy               40         3            3            8          8          3          5         8            

Ukraine        39          4            4            8          8      0.6        10         5

Romania      37          2            4           11          5           2          7        8

Finland         36                        7            6          2       0.8        21        5

Turkey          31           5        0.7            9          4           6         3         6

Iran               17           7        0.6           14          5         12         3         7

A comparison of the principal mtDNA Haplogroups for Italy with the other prominent descendants of Shem studied so far, shows that Italy with its diverse blood lines, is unlike Turkey or Iran and with its combined genetic input from Nahor, Terah, Aram and Joktan sits quite closely with Greece. Italy in fact sits squarely in the middle of the table and bisects the descendants of Arphaxad in half. From an mtDNA perspective, it is not as close to its Latin cousins.

We have Aram at one end of the spectrum and Lud at the other, with the sons of Joktan interspersed between them and Asshur and now Nahor, relatively in the centre of those nations dominated by Haplogroup H. This highlights how closely related the sons of Shem are and particularly those from Arphaxad. Note the similarity between Portugal and Spain;  Russia and Ukraine; and Greece and Italy.

The Haplogroup map above emphatically shows on the maternal mtDNA side how closely related north and central Italy are; yet their paternal Y-DNA reveals a considerable difference. In other words, their original fathers were from different families, yet their mothers are near identical. This would mean that Aram’s son Uz must have married a relative of Milcah and Sarah, the daughters of Haran. On the other hand, southern Italy has a markedly different maternal lineage, as well as a unique paternal line of descent. Therefore, their original progenitors were not related to Uz, Nahor or either of their wives.

The Fifty-Three Known Forefathers of the Italian People: Latest Discoveries from Genetics, Michael Curtotti, 2018 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘If we go back far enough (thousands of years) we find (along the patrilineal line) that virtually all Italians are descended from only fifty-three men. A third kind of DNA “autosomal DNA” [First two: Y-DNA (paternal) and mt-DNA (maternal)] (found on all the chromosomes except the sex chromosome) is also used to find relatives and estimate ethnicity (although the latter process is controversial).

R1b, the highest proportion across Italy and one of the 53 forefathers we can now identify is “R1b-U152” [R1b1a-U152 (S28) is most frequent in northern and central Italy, France and Switzerland]… and is the patrilineal ancestor of over 22% of Italians. The highest representation of R1b-U152 occurs in Bergamo plains (53%) and Bergamo Valleys (46%) and Tortona (35%).

The next of our fifty-three forefathers is R1b-S116 [P312] who is the patrilineal ancestor of 8% of Italians. R1b-S116 is found most frequently in Spain [and Portugal].

R1b-U106 [S21, M405], who comes in at 3.8% is a forefather of proto-Germanic speakers [Germany, Low Countries, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom]. He lived 4700 years ago and his branch expanded from northern Europe around 1700-500 BCE. Some of his descendants will have arrived in Italy during the Gothic and Lombard periods.

R1b-L23 dates to 6100 years before the present and represents 3.5% of Italian paternal ancestry [Southern Italy, Greece, the Caucasus].The branch is most strongly represented in Anatolia[Asia Minor, modern Turkey] and may be associated with the ancient Hittites [the Hatti]…’

In connection with sub-Haplogroup R1b-U106, this would have been passed along Arphaxad’s line via Peleg and though present in Nahor, is actually the dominant R1b in the Germans. R-U106 appearing nearly 4,000 years ago when Nahor and his two brothers were born. The approximate date given of 4,700 years ago is quite accurate. The R1b-L23 date of 6100 BCE is also interesting in that this goes back to Peleg, the ancestor, of Nahor and his descendants, the Chaldeans; when the divisional Haplogroup split, between R1b and R1a in Arphaxad’s line occurred. The author, inadvertently says ancient Hittites, this doesn’t mean the later Hittites, but the earlier Hatti 0r Chatti, who are none other than the Chaldeans, descended primarily from Nahor – the modern day Italians.

Eupedia, Maciamo Hay, 2013 & 2017 – emphasis & bold mine:

‘According to the founding myth of Rome, Romulus and Remus descended from the Latin kings of Alba Longa, themselves descended from Trojan prince Aeneas, who fled to the Latium after the destruction of Troy by the Greeks. Troy may well have been founded by the early M269 and/or L23 branches of R1b… If there is any truth in the myth (as there usually is), the Trojans might have brought M269 or L23 (probably with other haplogroups, notably J2) to central Italy circa 1200 BCE, around the same time as U152 invaded from the north. 

The Etruscans, who are thought to have originated in western Anatolia, not far from Troy, might also have brought R1b-L23 to Italy, also blended with other haplogroups. Nowadays R1b-L23 [in the south] is the second most common subclade of R1b in Italy, although well behind R1b-U152 [in northern and central Italy].By comparing Sardinian… DNA, it can be estimated that the Sardinians have inherited between 16% and 24% of their Y-DNA from the Phoenicians.’

Investigation will show that with regard to the Trojans, M269 is an accurate assessment and L23 is not. The same can be said of the Etruscans. The more specific R1b sub-Haplogroups for both are actually M269 and U106. With regard to the Sardinians, Hay is more accurate if he meant the R1b-S116.

‘In 475, various East Germanic tribes (Herulians, Rugians, and Scirians) were refused federated status by [the] Roman emperor. Under the leadership of Odoacer, a former secretary of Attila, they deposed the last emperor and created the first Kingdom of Italy (476-493), bringing to an end the Western Roman Empire. 

The kingdom was taken over by the Ostrogoths, who ruled the whole of Italy except Sardinia until 553. The Ostrogoths’s capital was Ravenna. They were succeeded by the Lombards (568-774), who had to contend for the political control of Italy with the Byzantines. Like the Ostrogoths, the Lombards had invaded Italy from Pannonia and settled more densely in north-east Italy and in Lombardy, which was named after them. The Lombard capital was in Pavia, Lombardy. They set up many duchies, notably those of Friuli (based in Cividale), Trento, Tuscany (based in Lucca), Spoleto, Benevento, as well as in the major cities of Lombardy and Venetia.

In the 5th century the Goths would have become such a melting pot that their original Germanic Y-DNA might have only represented a small percentage of their lineages. This explains why there is apparently so little Germanic Y-DNA in south-western Franceand Spain(location of the former Visigothic kingdom) compared to other regions conquered by Germanic tribes in Western Europe, including Italy.

In contrast with the Goths and the Vandals, the Lombards left Scandinavia and descended due south through Germany, Austria and Slovenia, only leaving Germanic territory a few decades before reaching Italy.The Lombards would have consequently remained a predominantly Germanic tribe by the time they invaded Italy.’

Hay has drawn correct conclusions though possibly via incorrect summations. The reason there is ‘little’ Germanic DNA in Spain is because they are different peoples from the Germanic Germans. Northern Italians are labelled ‘Germanic’ yet they are in part kindred peoples with the Spanish and Portuguese [refer Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil]. The migratory route of the Lombards had little to do with their Germanic-ness.

The Vandals and Alans were not Germanic and the Visigoths and Suevi – the Spanish and Portuguese today – were not pure Germanic. The Visigoths and Suevi were relatively Germanic, when compared with the Vandals, Alans and Moors, who were descended from Ham, via Mizra’s descendants Casluh and Caphtor [refer Chapter XV The Philistines: Latino-Hispano America].

The Y-DNA percentages for the higher population regions of Italy, plus Sardinia; followed by a comparison with the nations of Shem studied to date, reveal the following.

Lombardy: R1b [59%] – G2a [10%] – E1b1b [10%] – J2 [6%] – 

I2a2 [5%] – R1a [4%] – I1 [2.5%] – I2a1 [1%] – T1a [1%] 

Tuscany: R1b [52.5%] – J2 [11.5%] – G2a [9%] – E1b1b [9%] – 

I1 [4%] – R1a [4%] – I2a2 [2.5%] – J1 [2%] – T1a [2%] –

I2a1 [1.5%] – L [0.5%]

Latium: R1b [29%] – J2 [18.5%] – E1b1b [16.5%] – G2a [11%] – 

I1 [8.5%] – T1a [4.5%] -I2a2 [3%] –  R1a [2%] – J1 [2%] –

Q [2%] – I2a1 [1%]

Campania: R1b [29%] – J2 [18%] – E1b1b [16%] – G2a [11%] – 

J1 [6%] – I2a1 [4%] – T1a [4%] – R1a [3%] – I1 [3%] – I2a2 [1.5%] 

Sicily: R1b [26%] – J2 [23%] – E1b1b [20.5%] – G2a [8.5%] – 

R1a [4.5%] – T1a [4%] – J1 [ 3.5%] – I1 [3.5%] – I2a1 [3%] –

I2a2 [1%] – Q [1%]  

Sardinia: I2a1 [37.5%] – R1b [18.5%] – G2a [12%] – E1b1b [9.5%] – 

J2 [9%] – J1 [4%] – I2a2 [2%] – T1a [1.5%] – R1a [1%] – L [0.5%]

With the exception of Sardinia, the four predominant Italian Y-DNA Haplogroups overall, include R1b, J2, E1b1b and G2a. This grouping is similar with Spain, Portugal and Brazil. Haplogroup R1b is indicative of western Europe, J2 of West Asia, E1b1b of North Africa and G2a of the Caucasus region. 

Lombardy has the highest average for R1b, though the highest level has been recorded in Tuscany with 76.2%. Sardinia has the lowest level of R1b, followed by Sicily. Lombardy has the lowest percentage for J2, while Calabria in the very south possesses an average of 29%. The highest percentage for E1b1b is found in Sicily; while Piedmont and Trentino-South Tyrol have the lowest with 6%. The highest level by far of I2a1 is Sardinia which is similar to certain countries in the Balkans [refer Chapter XXIV Arphaxad & Joktan: Balts, Slavs & the Balkans]. The highest percentages for I1 are found in Friuli-Venezia-Giuliai with 21% and also R1a with 13%; while Sardinia has the lowest I1 and Umbria and Molise each have with 0% of R1a.

                            R1b      J2     E1b1b     G2a    I1     I2a1     I2a2     R1a      J1

Lombardy          59         6         10          10      3         1           5          4         

Tuscany              53       12          9            9       4        2           3          4         2

Latium                29       19        17           11       9        1            3          2         2

Campania           29      18        16           11       3        4           2           3         6

Sicily                   26       23        21            9       4        3                        5         4

Sardinia              19         9        10          12               38           2           1         4  

There are a number of salient points highlighted in the Table. It is strikingly clear as confirmed by PCA data that the paternal ancestry for Sardinia is unlike the rest of Italy. Tuscany is counted with Central Italy, though from a paternal Haplogroup perspective, it has much in common with Lombardy in the North. 

Haplogroup R1b indicative of western Europe, decreases from north to central Italy markedly, with Latium – which includes Rome – being closer with southern Italy. It also supports the evidence that R1b generally decreases as one heads in a south eastern direction in Europe. 

In contrast, Haplogroups J2 and E1b1b increase. The J2 increase is understandable as it is rarer in northern Europe. Though even the Spanish and Portuguese do not have as high a percentage of J2. One has to look to Greece, Turkey and Iran for similar or higher levels. Haplogroup J2 is not just reflective of southern Europe but principally, of southeastern Europe, the near East and West Asia. 

Haplogroup E1b1b percentages are different, in that even Turkey and Iran do not compare with Sicily. It is only Greece that matches southern Italy. This should not be a surprise, as remember all these nations descend from Shem and as with cousins, some similarities are shared with certain cousins and other likenesses with different relatives. It bears out that those nations with these higher levels have combined a. being drawn to dwell further south in warmer climes and latitudes and b. they show higher levels of probable admixture, with the peoples of Mizra in North Africa and the Middle East.

Combining the regions into the three main areas as well as a total average for Italy produces the following results.

Italy North: R1b [49.5%] – E1b1b [11%] – J2 [10%] – G2a [7.5%] – 

I1 [7%] – R1a [4.5%] – I2a2 [3.5%] – T1a [2%] – J1 [1.5%] – I2a1 [1%] 

Italy Central: R1b [36%] – J2 [23%] – E1b1b [11.5%] – G2a [11%] – 

J1 [5%] – R1a [3%] – T1a [3%] – I1 [2.5%] – I2a1 [2%] – I2a2 [1.5%] 

Italy South: R1b [27.5%] – J2 [21.5%] – E1b1b [18.5%] – G2a [10.5%] – 

J1 [4%] – I2a1 [3.5%] – R1a [3%] – I1 [2.5] – T1a [2.5%] – I2a2 [1%]

Italy: R1b [39%] – J2 [15.5%] – E1b1b [13.5%] – G2a [9%] – 

I1 [4.5%] – R1a [4%] – I2a1 [3%] – J1 [3%] – I2a2 [2.5%] – T1a [2.5%] 

The approximate breakdown for E1b1b in Italy is E1b1b1a, 10%; E1b1b1c, 3%; and E1b1b1b, 1 %. Aside from the sub-Haplogroups mentioned of U152, U106, L23 and S116 for R1b, others include: L21 [M529] and M167. 

                                R1b      J2     E1b1b    G2a     I1     I2a1   I2a2    R1a      J1

Italy North             50       10         11          8        7         1         4         5         2

Italy Central          36       23         12         11        3        2         2         3         5

Italy South             28       22        19         11        3        4          1         3         4

Italy                         39       16         14          9        5        3         3         4         3

Italy subdivided into its three key parts, highlights a little clearer the Haplogroup level changes. Italy as a whole and averaged out reflects central Italy in both R1b and E1b1b. There is a clear three way split, which can be explained by three separate paternal lineages that have intertwined, yet remain distinct. The fathers being Uz from Aram and a wife probably related to Terah’s family; Nahor from Arphaxad and Peleg and his wife Milcah from Haran, as well as his concubine Ruemah, possibly from Joktan. 

Added to this mix and not to be discounted is a mysterious father, such as Aram from Zoba and Terah and again a wife from Joktan’s family. In total, three original progenitors with Nahor providing two of the eventual four lines. Central Italians show evidence of this in that J2 Haplogroup levels are akin to southern Italy, yet their E1b1b levels are different, being closer to northern Italy. Plus, the R1b percentage is marginally closer to southern Italians which is plausible for Nahor and Zoba were both sons of Terah; whereas Uz was from Aram with higher levels of R1b.

Haplogroup R-M269 is the sub-clade of human Y-chromosome Haplogroup R1b that is defined by the SNP marker M269. According to ISOGG 2020 it is phylogenetically classified as R1b1a1b.’ R-M269 is the most common European Haplogroup in the genetic composition of mainly Western Europe; increasing in frequency from an east to west gradient. For instance in Poland, it is found in 22.7% of the male population, compared to Wales at 92.3%. It is carried by over 110 million European men. 

Scientists propose that the age of the M269 mutation is somewhere between 4,000 to 10,000 years ago. This time frame is plausible and neatly fits with the birth of Peleg and hence the beginning of the R1b mutation, circa 7727 BCE, according to an unconventional chronology. The most recently significant R1b mutations originated with Abraham and his descendants beginning in 1977 BCE.

The sub-Haplogroup of R1b, U106 or S21, is frequent in central to western Europe, reaching 66.8% in Germany; while the sub-lineage R-S116 is the most frequent in the Iberian Peninsula. R-U152 is more frequent in France and Italy; R-U198 in England; and R-M529 in the Celtic nations of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. 

Progressing through the descendants of Shem, the levels of R1b vary and gradually increase. We will keep a record of the levels for the two main R1b sub-Haplogroups – M269 and U106 – for some of the nations we will study.

Turkey:    R-M269   14%   –  R-U106   0.4%

Russia:     R-M269   21%   –  R-U106   5.4%

Slovenia  R-M269   17%    –  R-U106      4%

Czech       R-M269  28%    –  R-U106    14% 

Poland     R-M269  23%    –  R-U106      8% 

Ukraine   R-M269  25%    –  R-U106      9%

Italy         R-M269   53%   –  R-U106      6%

Italy’s dominant Haplogroup is R1b and we can see the marked difference comparing with nations from Eastern Europe and beyond. It is worth mentioning that the north to south axis is as important as the east to west and so this explains why for instance Poland has slightly higher percentages of both clades of R1b than Russia as it is further west. Comparably, the Czech Republic displays a higher level of R-U106 than Italy which is further south; yet less R-M269 overall as it is the descendants of Peleg, Aram and the mixed line of Casluh and Caphtor which have the highest levels of R1b [refer Chapters XV The Philistines: Latino-Hispano America and Chapter XXIII Aram & Tyre: Spain, Portugal & Brazil].

Our Y-DNA comparison table from the previous chapters, now sees the addition of Italy – the first major descendant from Peleg’s line, Nahor. 

                       J        J1      J2     E1b1b    G      R1a     R1b      R1    

Georgia       43      16       27         2        30        9        10       19 

Armenia      33      11       22        6         12         5        30      35  

Turkey         33       9       24       11         11         8        16       24

Iran              32       9       23         7        10       16        10       26

Greece         26       3       23       21          6       12        16       28

Italy             19       3        16       14          9         4        39       43

Romania     15        1       14        14          3       18        16       34

Portugal      13        3       10       14          7       1.5       56       58

Brazil           10                 10       11          5          4       54       58

Spain           10     1.5         8         7          3         2       69        71     

Ukraine        5     0.5     4.5          7          3       44         8       52

Poland          3                   3          4          2       58       13        71

Russia           3                   3         3           1       46         6       52

Finland                                      0.5                      5         4         9

‘Georgia continues as one bookend with the highest Haplogroup J2, J1 and G2a percentages. Finland is… the opposite bookend, with no Haplogroup J and the lowest R1 levels. Poland exhibits the highest percentage of R1a… while Greece has [the most] E1b1b… Spain’s total R1 is equalled by Poland, though in opposite percentages for R1a and R1b.’ Italy slots in towards the middle of the table with relatively average figures for all their main Haplogroups. This mirrors Italy’s geographic position in bisecting western and eastern Europe and the descendants of Peleg and Joktan.

‘Focussing on the key Y-DNA Haplogroups associated with the majority of the European nations in the north [of Europe]. Haplogroups R1, I1 and I2 segment Europe roughly into quarters. Haplogroup R1b is prominent in the west; R1a in the east; I1 and I2a2 in the north and west; with I2a1 in the south and east. Haplogroup N1c1 is prominent in the north, in counter balance to J2, J1, E1b1b and G2a which are more commonly found in southern Europe.’ 

                     R1a      R1b       I1     I2a1      I2a2    N1c

Portugal      1.5         56         2      1.5           5          

Spain              2         69      1.5         5           1

Brazil              4         54                  [9]            

Italy                4         39         5        3           3         

Finland          5           4       28                   0.5      62

Turkey           8         16         1         4         0.5        4  

Greece          12         16         4       10         1.5      

Iran               16         10                 0.5                      1           

Romania      18         16         4       28           3        2

Ukraine        44          8         5        21       0.5         6

Russia           46          6         5        11                    23

Poland          58         13        9          6          2         4

‘The comparison table shifts in emphasis when northern European Y-DNA Haplogroups comprising I1, I2a2 and N1c1 are included.’ Italy has more in common with the other Aramaic nations of south western Europe, which is not a great surprise. It sits towards the top of the table due to its low levels of R1a and higher percentage of R1b. Being a southern and western European nation, Italy does not exhibit more than low percentages of Haplogroups I1 and I2. Italy has little in common with those nations further north and east such as Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Though as mentioned, Southern Italy has commonality with Greece.

Italy is considered a Latin country like Spain, yet the reality is, that Italy is half to two-thirds Gothic, who many would label as Germanic; with the remainder of its north Germanic in a more Teuton sense. Italy has past, Greek, Roman and Celtic influences and so all this added together results in a Latin nation. Spain has almost the same influences and a Germanic Visigoth demographic dominance, yet it is a Latin nation. For Latin encompasses a related culture, romance language, religion and to some degree, ethnicity. Italy’s composition is actually similar to France; with a ‘Latin’ south and a ‘Germanic’ north. Italy and France, straddle the two world’s ethnically; though in language it is Italy and Spain which are more closely related.

Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to… knowledge…

Proverbs 22:17 English Standard Version

“Majorities are generally wrong, if only in their reasons for being right.”

George Saintsbury

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