בראשית, פרק י׳, פסוק כ׳

Following the great flood, the new human family branched out across the earth, forming a complex web of descendants. The lineage of Ham concludes with a consistent structural formula, mirroring the pattern used to trace the families of Japheth and Shem [אבן עזרא]. The historical record presents these family trees in reverse order from how the brothers were initially introduced. Rather than beginning with Shem, the narrative starts by detailing the descendants of Japheth before moving on to the children of Ham [מחוקקי יהודה; יהל אור]. The resulting record of Ham's family is built upon specific numerical foundations. The descendants of Cush and Egypt each number seven, while the Canaanite nations total twelve [קאסוטו].

As these early families multiplied, a gradual process of social evolution and geographic expansion took place. Leaders emerged, gathering people who shared a common tongue, claiming specific territories, and settling their relatives there until they grew into fully independent nations [מחוקקי יהודה; יהל אור]. Despite this profound geographic and linguistic splintering, the detailed record of their lands and languages serves to emphasize a deeper unity. Even as they scattered and developed distinct cultures, all these diverse groups remained fundamentally tied together by their shared origin as the children of Ham [רש״י, מזרחי, גור אריה].

The nature of this dispersion was not uniform across all groups. Some extended families settled in separate, distinct territories but still maintained a shared language and national identity with their relatives. Others experienced a much deeper division, breaking apart entirely to form completely independent nations, each speaking its own distinct language. Furthermore, subtle shifts in how the dispersion of Ham’s family is recorded compared to that of Japheth’s family suggest that their historical migrations unfolded differently. While the exact historical details of these migrations are lost to time, it is clear that each branch of the human family followed its own unique path of development and separation [העמק דבר].