When I decided to go through the Genesis chapter by chapter, I knew I would come upon a lot of genealogies that might be pretty boring. Genesis 10 however has some pretty interesting stuff. The author appears to choose who he expounds on at random. Maybe he only focuses on those who were most important to his audience. I am sure that a true in-depth study on this chapter would help to shine light on a lot of history and help the rest of the genealogies in the Bible make a little more sense. There are a lot of people here whose names and/or descendants are very important in the rest of the Bible.
Japheth is especially interesting to me because I think that he is my descendant, as well as the descendant of most other WASPs. His grandson Kittim must of had a country or region eventually named after him because the ships of Kittim show up in Daniel 11 during the battle of Armageddon. I know that some people think that the ships of Kittim (sometimes translated “ships from the west”) is a possible reference to the United States, though I think that is a big stretch.
We have the descendants of Ham, who were cursed by Noah in the previous chapter. And in keeping with the curse there is Nimrod setting up Babel, which is later known as Babylon whom the Jews are not big fans of.
One last thing to think about is Peleg. This passage is interesting when you bring up the topic of Pangea. This meaning that at one point all of the continents formed one land mass that eventually split into the seven of today. Does that theory find support in the Bible?