Genesis 10:32

Summary

The verse closes the genealogical list of Genesis 10 by identifying the preceding material as the mishpechot ("clans", H4940) of Noah's sons, organized by descent and nation. It then states that from these groups the nations dispersed over the earth after the flood.

Key words

• mishpechot ("clans of", H4940) — feminine plural construct noun; grammatically links to "sons of Noah" that follows, marking these as kinship-based subdivisions rather than simple individuals.
• toledotam ("their descendants", H8435) — feminine plural construct noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix -am ("their", H9028); construct chain indicates the criterion by which the clans are organized (by lineage).
• goyehem ("their nations", H1471A) — masculine plural construct noun with the same suffix -hem, paired with toledotam through the preposition be- ("in", H9003), giving a double classification: "according to their descendants, in their nations."
• nifredu ("they separated", H6504) — niphal perfect, 3rd person plural. The niphal stem marks the action as passive or reflexive: the nations "were separated" or "separated themselves," rather than an external agent explicitly dividing them.
• ha-mabbul ("the flood", H3999) — definite singular noun preceded by the preposition achar ("after", H0310A) construct, anchoring the dispersal event temporally relative to the flood narrative.

What the text says

The verse opens with the demonstrative elleh ("these", H0428), pointing back to the genealogical table just given, and predicates it with the construct chain mishpechot benei-Noach ("clans of the sons of Noah", H4940 + H1121A), establishing that the preceding list represents family/clan divisions. Two prepositional phrases follow — le-toledotam ("according to their descendants") and be-goyehem ("in their nations") — both built on construct nouns with matching 3rd masculine plural suffixes, presenting two overlapping frameworks (lineage and national grouping) for the same data.

The second half of the verse repeats me-elleh ("from these", H0428 with prefixed min-), again pointing to the aforementioned clans, and introduces the verb nifredu ("they separated", H6504), a niphal perfect. Because the niphal stem in Biblical Hebrew often carries passive or middle voice, the grammar leaves the agent of separation unspecified — the text states that "the nations" (ha-goyim, H1471A, definite plural) "were separated" or "separated themselves" ba-aretz ("on the earth", H0776G) achar ha-mabbul ("after the flood", H3999). The construct achar functions temporally, sequencing this dispersal after the flood event narrated earlier in Genesis.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders goyehem ("their nations") more expansively as κατὰ ἔθνη αὐτῶν ("according to their nations") and adds νῆσοι ("islands") before τῶν ἐθνῶν ("of the nations") in the dispersal clause — a word with no corresponding lexical item in the Hebrew text provided. The Vulgate's juxta populos et nationes suas similarly doubles the classification (peoples and nations) where the Hebrew has two prepositional phrases (le-toledotam, be-goyehem) built on different Hebrew roots (descent vs. nation). Both LXX (διεσπάρησαν, "were scattered") and Vulgate (divisae sunt, "were divided") render the niphal nifredu with passive verbs, consistent with the Hebrew niphal's passive/reflexive sense.