(21) Huz.--The same name as Uz in Genesis 10:23; Genesis 36:28, the Hebrew in all cases being'Uz. For the various regions supposed to have been "the land of Uz," see Notes on Job 1:1; Jeremiah 25:20. Buz.--Probably he was the ancestor of Elihu (Job 32:2); but Buz, in Jeremiah 25:23, seems to have been a region in Idumea. Kemuel, the father of Aram.--He was not the progenitor of the Aramaic race, but the ancestor of the family of Ram, to which Elihu belonged (Job 32:2), Ram being the same as Aram (Keil). If so, Buz and Kemuel must have coalesced into one tribe. Verse 21. - Huz his firstborn, - (vide Genesis 10:23, where Uz appears as a son of Aram; and Genesis 36:28, where he recurs as a descendant of Esau. That he was a progenitor of Job (Jerome) has no better foundation than Job 1:1 - and Buz his brother, - mentioned along with Dedan and Tema as an Arabian tribe (Jeremiah 25:23), and may have been an ancestor of Elihu (Job 32:2) - and Kemuel the father of Aram. "Not the founder of the Arameans, but the forefather of the family of Ram, to which the Buzite Elihu belonged; Aram being written for Ram, like Arammim, in 2 Kings 8:29, for Rammim, in 2 Chronicles 22:5" (Keil). 22:20-24 This chapter ends with some account of Nahor's family, who had settled at Haran. This seems to be given for the connexion which it had with the church of God. From thence Isaac and Jacob took wives; and before the account of those events this list is recorded. It shows that though Abraham saw his own family highly honoured with privileges, admitted into covenant, and blessed with the assurance of the promise, yet he did not look with disdain upon his relations, but was glad to hear of the increase and welfare of their families.Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother,.... The first of these gave name to the land of Uz, where Job dwelt, and who seems to be a descendant of this man, Job 1:1; and from whom sprung the Ausitae of Ptolemy (p), who dwelt near Babylon and by the Euphrates. The latter, was the father of the Buzites, of which family Elihu was, that interposed between Job and his friends, Job 32:2,and Kemuel the father of Aram; not that Aram from whom the Syrians are denominated Arameans, he was the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22, but one who perhaps was so called from dwelling among them, as Jacob is, called a Syrian, Deuteronomy 26:5, or he had this name given him in memory and honour of the more ancient Aram: from this Kemuel might come the Camelites, of which there were two sorts mentioned by Strabo (q), and who dwelt to the right of the river Euphrates, about three days' journey from it. (p) Geograph. l. 5. c. 19. (q) Geograph. l. 16. p. 515. |