Arpachshad

They are living in the Holy Land.

And then she goes about the descendants of Shem, Shem was the ancestor of all those who lived on the eastern side of the Euphrates and basically the Iraq area and he had sons were Elam, Assyria, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram and except for many many other children and then one of his His son, Arpachshad, was the father of Shelach.

Shelach was the father of Aver.

Aver was a fellow who later on, together with his grandfather Shem, built a yeshiva where Avram actually studied.

These are the genealogical records of Shem.

Shem was 100 years old when he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood.

Shem lived 500 years after he fathered Arpachshad, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Arpachshad lived 35 years when he fathered Shelah.

Arpachshad lived 403 years after he fathered Shelah and fathered sons and daughters.

Shelah lived 30 years and he fathered Eber.

Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber and fathered sons and daughters.

But in the end, Ashur does not destroy Israel.

And some say Arpachshad is the Chaldeans, or what are known as the Chazdim, who did destroy Israel.

You should know that the Chazdim were Semites.

And when the Semites started moving in the direction of Mesopotamia, nobody wanted them.

U'bnei Aram, the children of Aram, were Utz, V'chul, V'geter, V'umash.

And Utz may be where Job or Eov came from, which is the land of Edom.

V'apachshad Yalad, and Arpachshad gave birth to, Et Shelach, V'Shelach Yalad Et Ever.

Shelach, they gave birth to Shelach, which is probably short for Metushelach, which is a name we saw before, Methuselah.

Ever seems to be a great-grandson of Shem.

He's listed a few verses later when the son of Shem, Arpachshad, is told, "Yaled et Shalah," and then, "Shelach yaled et Eber." So four generations down from Shem is a child named Eber.

It could well be that Eber here refers to Hebrew people, people who came from Ever HaNahar, as Avraham is described, from across the river, and we're discussing here the fact that the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, come from Shem, and that would be an important thing to list at the beginning of the introduction to Shem.

But I want to discuss a really interesting rabbinic Midrashic tradition that riffs on this relationship, this special relationship between Shem and Eber.

Shem was someone who had children and he was also the father of all the children of Eber.

Now, why is that a significant clause? Because when we look at Shem's sons, His sons were Elam, Ashur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

None of those are Ever.

But Arpachshad, one of those sons, gave birth or begot Shelach, and Shelach begot Ever.

Now, what that means is that Ever was actually the great-grandson of Shem.

So now why does the verse say that he was father of all the children of Ever? We do get the children of Ever eventually.

And the sons of Aram, Uz, and Hul, and Gathur, and Mash.

And Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber.

And unto Eber were born two sons.

The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided, and his brother's name was Yochtan.

Therefore was the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

These are the generations of Shem.

Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arpachshad two years after the flood.

And Shem lived after he begot Arpachshad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

Sons were also born to Shem, who was Japheth's older brother and the father of all the sons of Eber.

Shem's sons were Elam, Asher, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

Aram's sons were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber.

Two sons were born to Eber.

The name of the first was Peleg, because in his days the land was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan.