Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]

An interesting question has just been put to me concerning Genesis 
10:21:

Is Japheth older or younger than Shem? 

According to the accents of the Masoretic Text, NIV (also KJV, NKJV) 
is correct: "21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was 
Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber." LXX and (so I 
am told) older Jewish commentators support this view.

But all other modern translations I have at hand (in various 
languages) translate something like NRSV "To Shem... the elder brother 
of Japheth".

MT is ...):AXEY YEPET HAG.FDOWL, with a disjunctive accent (Tipha) on 
):AXEY and a conjunctive accent (Mereka) in YEPET.

Elsewhere Shem is always the first listed. He seems to have had at 
least the right of the firstborn (from the perspective of the 
"Semitic" writers). But was he necessarily actually the firstborn? 
Might a "Japhethite" commentator prefer to interpret Japheth as the 
eldest?

Any comments?

Peter Kirk