Bible Strands
Genesis 10:29
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator continues the Table of Nations genealogy by listing the final descendants of Joktan before shifting to geographical boundaries. This verse functions as a concluding catalog within a broader historical record of post-Flood family divisions.
The words — כָּל־אֵלֶּה (kol-'elleh) translates literally to "all these," serving as a collective marker that binds the preceding proper names into a single lineage. The repeated וְ/אֶת־ (ve./'Et) particle marks each name as a direct object in a straightforward enumerative structure.
The thread — The names Ophir and Havilah recur in later texts to designate distant regions tied to wealth and ancient settlement. 1 Kings 9:28 associates Ophir with Solomon’s gold imports, while Genesis 25:18 and 1 Samuel 15:7 locate Havilah within the territorial bounds of Ishmael’s descendants and the Amalekite campaigns.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to recognize how biblical history anchors abstract geography in specific familial lineages. It demands tracking how ancestral names later function as place names, mapping the biblical worldview onto the ancient Near Eastern landscape.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 9:28 They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.
- Genesis 25:18 Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.
- 1 Samuel 15:7 Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
- 1 Kings 22:48 Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
- 1 Chronicles 8:18 Ishmerai, Izliah, and Jobab were the sons of Elpaal.
- 1 Chronicles 9:10 From the priests: Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, and Jachin;
- 1 Chronicles 9:13 and 1,760 of their relatives, the heads of their families, able men for the work of the service of the house of God.
- Job 22:24 and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,
- Job 28:16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.
- Psalms 45:9 The daughters of kings are among your honored women; the queen stands at your right hand, adorned with the gold of Ophir.