Peleg: Time of Division

Alice C. Linsley


To Eber were born two sons: the first was called Peleg, because it was in his time that the earth was divided, and his brother was called Joktan. (Genesis 10:25)

The Hebrew word for earth is "eretz" and should be rendered in this verse as "territory" because the account is about the Hebrew ruler Eber dividing his territory between two sons that may have been twins. It appears that Eber assigned to each royal son a portion of his territory.

This verse has perplexed readers for centuries. It has been suggested that the separation of the clans occurred after the Tower of Babel when God confused the languages. However, all of the languages spoken by the peoples listed in Genesis 4-12 are in the Afro-Asiatic family and it is believed they emerged from a common Proto-Afroasiatic source. Many of these early Hebrew rulers spoke Akkadian, the oldest known Semitic language.

Alexander Militarev, a Russian scholar of Semitic, Berber, Canarian, and Afroasiatic languages, linked proto-Afroasiatic to the Natufian people. He wrote that the "Proto-Afrasian language, on the verge of a split into daughter languages" (Cushitic, Omotic, Egyptian, Semitic and Chadic-Berber) "should be roughly dated to the ninth millennium B.C." That would be around 6000 years before the time of the biblical Noah.

Another view insists that this division pertains to tectonic activity. This view was espoused by the German scholar Alfred Wagener. However, analysis of Genesis 4 and 5 indicates that Peleg lived in the Bronze Age. The tectonic drift interpretation is impossible as humans were not on the surface of the earth until long after the separation of the continents. Wagener's interpretation ignores a vast body of data in Genesis about Noah and his descendants. Noah's homeland was in Borno or Benue (Land of Noah) in the region of Lake Chad. He lived during the wet period known as the African Aqualithic. 

The word "Peleg" has to do with separation and control of water. Genesis reveals that the early Hebrew rulers controlled major water systems of the ancient Fertile Crescent. 

Peleg's brother was Joktan whose descendants came to reside in Southern Arabia. The are known as the Joktanite clans.

Hebrew brothers often lived geographically distant. The line of Raamah, Nimrod's brother, resided in southwestern Arabia. The line of Nimrod settled in the Tigris-Euphrates region (Mesopotamia) where writing was the work of royal scribes. Overtime the geographical separation of Hebrew priestly lines led to the adoption of different languages. However, the Hebrew ruler-priest caste continued to intermarry (caste endogamy). They did not change the unique and distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern of their ancestors. 

It is not entirely clear at what point the clans became geographically separated, but it is clear that their kinship pattern did not change. Apparently, the division of Eber's territory occurred about five generations before Abraham, but the separation should be understood as geographical, not social.

Genesis 10:25 is speaking of separate territories. Two sons cannot both rule over the father's land holding. According to the early Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern, the firstborn son of the first wife was heir to the father's kingdom. Other sons are sent away to establish territories of their own. This pattern drove the Hebrew dispersion out of the Nile Valley.

However, in the case of twin sons, the Hebrew rule might choose to divide his territory between the sons.

Note that the name "Peleg" doesn’t appear in the lines from which Abraham descends. Analysis of the data reveals that critical information is missing about the chiefs who were contemporaries of Reu, Serug and Nahor. (See chart below, using data from Genesis 10:24-30.)

The information that is missing concerns the descendants of the Hebrew ruler Sheba. The descendants of Sheba are traced through Abraham and his patrilineal cousin Keturah. Keturah was of the Hebrew clan of Sheba in whose territory there were many wells (Beer-Sheba means "Well of Sheba".) It seems that Peleg is an ancestor of the people of Sheba.

The Queen of Sheba probably did not rule over the same territory as Sheba the Elder, her powerful Hebrew ancestor. By the time of Solomon came to power, Sheba's territory was diminished. David likely took control of some of those lands in the south. David's claim to the throne was contested by a man named Sheba. That man lost his life when he took refuge in the city of Abel Beth Maacah where he was beheaded (2 Sam. 20:1-22).

It is possible that Melchizedek, the ruler-priest of Jerusalem in Abraham's time, was a descendant of Sheba. 

Related reading: Were Peleg and Joktan Twins?; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Noah's Homeland; How Big Was Noah's Flood; Noah's Sons and Their Descendants; Keturah was Abraham's Second Wife; Keturah was a Hebrew Wife