> 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.
It seems to me that the ambiguity is intrinsic in the
Hebrew; I'm not sure I understand how the trope provides
much evidence one way or the other. The phrase ):aXeY
YePeT HaG.fDoWL could mean either "brother of YePeT, [who
was] the elder" or "the elder brother of YePet".