Comentário sobre Gênesis 10:1

AND UNTO THEM WERE SONS BORN AFTER THE FLOOD. The intent thereof is to imply that even though they were fit to have children before the flood — for in those generations it was normal to beget children at about sixty years of age²⁵⁹See above, 5:15, 21. — these did not beget children even at the age of a hundred, only until after the flood, for G-d restrained them from having children in order that they should not perish in the flood or that it [not] be necessary to save many persons in the ark. And so also did G-d do to this entire family: Lamech was delayed in begetting Noah until more than twice the age of his ancestors,²⁶⁰Enoch begot Methuselah at the age of sixty-five (above, 5:21), and Lamech begot Noah at the age of 182 (ibid., Verse 28). Noah begot his sons when he was five hundred years old (ibid., Verse 32). and Noah much more. This is already mentioned in the commentary of Rashi²⁶¹Above, 5:32. who quotes from Bereshith Rabbah.²⁶²26:2.

ואלה תולדת בני נח, who were Shem, Cham, and Yaphet. The ones named after this were their offspring, תולדותם.

ויולדו להם בנים אחר המבול, “children were born for them after the deluge.” Although the fathers and mothers were capable of having children already before the onset of the deluge, G’d had deliberately prevented them from having children in order not to have to destroy their offspring as part of the deluge, and in order not to have to save too many people crowding the ark.

Sie selbst waren vor der Sündflut, ihre Kinder aber bereits unter dem Einflusse der neuen Verhältnisse geboren. Es folgt nun eine Reihe von Verzweigungen dieser neuen Menschenfamilie. Wir leisten Verzicht darauf, nachzuweisen, zu welchen bekannten Völkerstämmen und deren Verzweigungen diese Namen etwa in Beziehung stehen dürften. Wir erwähnen, dass sie immer mehr und mehr in ihrer vollständig historischen Wirklichkeit auch denjenigen Forschern hervortreten, die sonst der תורה nicht zu folgen pflegen, und gestatten uns nur einige mehr allgemeine Bemerkungen.

ויולדו להם, we have already seen when these sons of Noach had entered the ark that they had not yet had any children. Why then was it necessary to write the line “children were born to them?” The only reason the Torah wrote this line is to tell us that neither of Noach’s sons engaged in marital intercourse while in the ark so that no children were born in the ark. Even though we have already commented on this in connection with the report of Noach and his family leaving the ark, (8,19) and the manner in which their leaving the ark had been worded, one could err and conclude that the offspring mentioned here under the heading of ויולדו could apply to Noach’s own children, the Torah explains in greater detail that only Shem, Cham, and Yaphet are the sons of Noach, and only they and their wives entered the ark together with him and his wife; (7,13) and by writing that children were born to them after the deluge this makes this crystal clear.