In response regarding Isaiah 49:12: some authorities explain this name SINIM as referring to Syene in upper Egypt (as in Ezekiel 29:10; 30:6), quoting the NRSV:
...and these from the land of Syene.
I think this is correct because various ancient texts have Syene.

From my own study, I find that China and the Orient is most often indicated in OT texts as MIZRAKH SHEMISH (rising of the sun, Ps. 50:1), or as ERETZ KEDEM (land of the East, Gen. 25:6; Zech. 8:7). In the NT it is ANATOLAS HELIOU (rising of the sun), as in Rev. 7:2; 16:12. The word KEDEM actually means "front" and is used in reference to the eastward direction (front of the east) or in reference to time (the front of time). There are a number of OT prophetic texts containing the word KEDEM (Gen. 49:26) that are often translated 'everlasting' or 'ancient,' but can equally well be translated as 'orient.'

It is reported in various news articles and web pages that China and Israel have long had very cordial relations, which are continually getting closer (though much of this is secret). The US government has strenuously demanded that Israel stop giving China America's most advanced technology. According to US State Department findings, Israel and China are allies and have been for a long time. Some senators have wanted America to break relations with Israel because of this.

There are prophecies that have been given in China's house churches, that China will soon be taken over by the gospel and will become a Christian nation entirely.

These are a few findings that give a new view about China. I have two essays in my website http://www.eifiles.cn relating to this topic that I'm posting here.
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ORIENTAL ORIGINS IN THE BIBLE
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A Bible study project by Paul Phelps

Bible quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version
except for my own translations or as otherwise indicated.
 

The Bible speaks about origins and this study examines Biblical genealogy to find the origin of the Oriental peoples, the world’s largest family of nations. The orient has the largest population group of earth. Anthropological and historical evidences indicate that all East Asian peoples had their origin in China. From the Bible we can identify the first people group in China.

All men in fact belong to one family because Adam and Eve were parents of all (Gen. 3:20) but there are three genealogies after the Flood; Gen. 9:18-19,
The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem,
Ham, and Japheth... These three were the sons of Noah;
and from these the whole earth was peopled.

Bible scholars have traced Ham’s descendants into Africa, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific regions. The name Ham means hot and indicates that Ham’s people went to hot climates. Japheth’s descendants are traceable to the Aryan people of Europe, central Asia, Iran, and north India. The name Japheth means enlarged (expanded in size); it reveals the nature of the Japhetic people and is prophetic of their world-wide expansion.

Bible scholarship tradition has the view that Shem's descendants settled only in western Asia, mostly Arabs and Jews. But this conclusion does not take east Asia into account (half of humanity) and gives only a small portion to Shem. But that cannot be correct because Shem was given the greatest honour of all. It is also said, “Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem...” (Gen. 9:26).

According to the Biblical record, Shem is the original forefather of both the West Asian people and the East Asian people. In the Genesis record, the ancestry of all the East Asian people can be traced to Shem.

Shem means honourable name, which fits well with East Asian cultural values. In the Hebrew Bible, God is referred to as ‘The Honourable Name’ (HA-SHÈM), thus associating God with the people of Shem. In Gen. 10:21, Shem is called “the father of all the children of Eber,” meaning the Hebrew people. The word Hebrew means ‘of Eber,’ or ‘descended from Eber.’ Gen. 10:25,
To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg,
for in his days the earth was divided,
and his brother’s name was Joktan.

The Hebrew race has therefore descended from Eber in two branches: Peleg and Joktan. The name Peleg means division (Babylonian division, Gen. 11:7-9), and the name Joktan means diminished (reduced in size).

Joktan’s family of thirteen sons is the largest family of early Bible times. Only Joktan’s first-generation lineage was recorded; Gen. 10:26-29; I Chron. 1:19-23. (Even this much is unusual because Joktan’s descendants are not mentioned in later Bible history.) All later Bible history is based on Peleg’s lineage (Gen. 11) so readers have traditionally thought Peleg’s descendants are the only existing Hebrews. Peleg’s lineage has more visibility in the Bible because it led up to Abraham—and God took Abraham’s people to lead the Bible narrative. But Joktan's descendants made another even larger branch of Hebrews. The total disappearance of Joktan’s people from the Bible narrative means his family left west Asia entirely and migrated to another land far away.

For over a century Noah and the Flood survivors were migrating in the east, (eastwards of the Euphrates River plain, which is Shinar).
Gen. 11:2,
And as they migrated from the east,
they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

The plain of Shinar was later renamed Babylon (see Gen. 11:9). The Hebrew phrase ‘from the east’ is MI-KÈDEM. A literal translation of MI is ‘coming from’ or ‘from’ (and it cannot be translated otherwise). KÈDEM is ‘the front of the east,’ or ‘the orient.’ The root meaning of KÈDEM is ‘front’ —in the geographic sense referring to the east Asian coastlands facing sunrise. In the time sense it can also be ‘ancient beginnings’ (the front of time), and may sometimes be translated as ‘ancient orient.’ In Gen. 11:2, the word KÈDEM tells us that the Flood survivors had migrated from someplace farther east before entering the land of Babylon. (Many Bible versions have poor translations of KÈDEM.)

The earliest sojourn of the Flood survivors was eastwards of Babylon, across the Iranian plateau, requiring more than a century according to Gen. 11:10-16. It could even have taken well beyond a century before Peleg entered Babylon. We know that Peleg migrated to Babylon because his descendants dwelt there (including Abraham, Gen. 11); but Joktan did not go with Peleg into Babylon.

This pre-Babylonian sojourn is an important factor for it helps us to know the location of Joktan’s migration route. He must have separated from the caravan before they came to Babylon because he chose to go east.
Gen. 10:30,
The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha
in the direction of Sephar, the hill country of the east.

The caravan migrating westward towards Babylon was already in the east, so Joktan’s decision to go eastward means that he separated from the caravan and turned towards the orient; (we have our own translation of Gen. 10:30 later on).

Some Bible scholars have offered an opinion that Joktan migrated into Arabia because two of his sons, Sheba and Havilah, have the same names as two tribes in Arabia, but those Arabian tribes are of Cushite descent in the lineage of Ham, not in Shem's lineage at all (Gen. 10:6-7). Arabia is the migration route to Africa—the land of Cush; therefore the first peoples in Arabia were Cushite. Many Bible names appear multiple times in various genealogies but that does not imply genealogical kinship, only the context can indicate that.

The separation of Peleg’s clan and Joktan’s clan made two Hebrew peoples, the Western Hebrews of western Asia and the Eastern Hebrews of eastern Asia. The nations of eastern Asia apparently have Hebrew ancestry.

Noah’s Flood erased pre-Flood place names but new names were given after the Flood. Biblical name meaning is important. In Genesis 10:30, Mesha means ‘departure,’ indicating Joktan’s place of departure from the caravan. His group took their departure from someplace on the Iranian plateau or central Asia and that place of departure (MÈSHA) was the starting point of Joktanite settlement.

Joktan’s clan must have been the first to scout the ancient Silk Road that later became the main road of migration into east Asia. Mesha (the departure point) was the start of the ancient Silk Road. The Silk Road had its start near the city of Mashhad, in north-eastern Iran. This name Mashhad may have originated from the ancient Hebrew name Mesha.

The phrase “in the direction of Sephar” is the word SEPHARÀH, and literally means ‘towards a numerous population.’ Instead of a name, if we take word meaning, this word is prophetic of a numerous population throughout China and the orient.

The phrase “the hill country of the east” is HAR HA-KÈDEM in Hebrew. My translation is ‘the mountain of the orient.’ This then is my own literal translation of
Genesis 10:30,
And their dwelling place shall be from the departure point,
as you go towards a numerous population,
the mountain of the orient.

“The mountain of the orient” could be just a symbolic term for the numerous East Asian populations, or it may be a special mountain marking the far-eastern extent of the Joktanite populace; but either way it certainly means that Orientals are Joktan’s descendants (indicated from the context of Gen. 10:30).

Chinese history says that the first migrations came into China’s eastern plains from the west, along the Silk Road. This verifies the accepted dating of the first settlements in China’s Yellow River valley. Hebrew Text Bible chronology puts this migration about 2200 BCE. Tribal diversity in the orient began with Joktan’s thirteen sons and their families. It may also come from the Patriarchal families. East Asia was gradually populated by descendants of these Semitic settlers. We conclude that East Asian mainland peoples are entirely Semitic and may be identified in Bible terms as Eastern Hebrews. Other west Asian tribes came to China later—such as Assyrians, the ten northern Israeli tribes and Persian Jews. These were Semitic and eventually assimilated into China.

East Asian languages are evidently unrelated to the languages of the Levant, such as Aramaic and Canaanite Hebrew. This obvious non-relationship has led many to conclude that the Orientals are not Semitic. But East Asian languages are also unrelated to Hamitic languages and Japhetic Indo-European languages. This means that East Asian languages might not necessarily identify ancestry in easily recognisable ways. The Bible nowhere says that all Semitic peoples have related languages. That idea may need to be reviewed in light of continuing discovery.

The language that Noah brought over from the pre-Flood world evidently continued in this world for over two centuries and was a unifying influence, until the speech of the Babylonians became confused (Gen. 11:1). The Bible does not say what happened to the original language. The only reason given us for the speech confusion is that God wanted the Babylonian people to disperse abroad (Gen. 11:8-9). Therefore God did not change the language of people that were not in Babylon because they were not part of the problem! The people that had earlier removed from the Babylon crowd and had chosen their migration routes would have continued speaking the language brought over by Noah.

This means that Joktan’s clan remained unaffected by the Babylon chaos, and kept the ancient original language brought over by Noah. Joktan went to China, which explains why Chinese is not related to languages that began in Babylon. This also explains why China ’s language does not identify ancestry in an easily recognisable way. Chinese legends indicate a great antiquity for the language and the findings of archaeology support this conclusion.

Various non-Chinese people of east Asia have national languages that seem unrelated to Chinese, and unrelated to all other Babylon-originated languages. God may have done a miracle in China, as in Babylon, to get people moving to other lands. The miracle of languages may have happened again, which could explain how the non-Chinese languages of east Asia came to be.

Bible readers may be interested to read Zephaniah 3:9. It says that God will restore a pure language for people when He establishes His kingdom on earth. The language from Eden probably continued until Noah, with no large changes. It was brought to China by Joktan and has remained China’s spoken language. It has gone through changes in the passing of time but much honour surrounds the Chinese language because of its ancient origin.
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AN EXPLANATION OF THE WORD ARMAGEDDON

The Greek word Armageddon in Rev. 16:16 has a basis in Hebrew grammar that is not often explained and the prophetic significance is affected. As a place name Megiddo is the Jezreel valley fortress in northern Israel, but the name has no final ‘n’ letter. Megiddon with a final ‘n’ is only found in the Zech. 12:11 text. This spelling distinction is erased in many Bible versions but King James has it:
In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,
as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

Root ideas are ‘gather,’ ‘to cut’ (GADÀD) and ‘troops’ (GADÙD). Megiddo is ‘gathering of troops,’ and final ‘n’ infers ‘place of...’ So Megiddon may not be a name but rather a generic term for a battlefield, ‘place of gathering of troops.’ It is not credible that Arm– is transliterated from ‘har’ (mountain). No mountain (har) is mentioned in Megiddo texts, and the valley beside Megiddo is always called Jezreel. A likely explanation has been overlooked although the clue is in the Zechariah text. Hadad and Rimmon are two gods of ancient Syria, which were not known in Israel at any time. The mourning of Hadad-Rimmon must be in Syria. In Hebrew, Syria is Aram. It becomes Arm– if joined in compound to another word. So the Greek word Armageddon (Rev. 16:16) is a transliteration of Aram + megiddon, and means ‘the place in Syria of the gathering of troops.’

Zechariah 12:11 mentions a ‘valley’ or ‘plain’: this might be the north-eastern Syrian plain facing the Euphrates River. Prophetically this is where the Eastern troops cross the Euphrates River (Rev. 16:12). This interpretation removes the Armageddon scenario from Israel and puts it in Syria. The mourning of Hadad-Rimmon (Zech. 12:11) could be the mourning for the dead after Armageddon. This battle must be near the Euphrates for that is where the antichrist will try to stop the Eastern army from reaching Jerusalem or other nearby areas.

Armageddon might not involve Israel for Israel is nowhere mentioned. It has rather to do with the last-day war between the more westerly antichrist empire and the Eastern kingdoms. Regarding antichrist it is confirmed in Daniel 11:44,
But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore
he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.

But this war results in the annihilation of the antichrist army in Syria, battling the Eastern forces (northeast of Jerusalem, v 45). The armies then called by the ‘three frogs’ (evil spirits, Rev. 16:13-14) are a last effort by antichrist to stop the Eastern forces at the Euphrates River. Hence the Eastern forces are not coming against Israel but against antichrist armies based in west Asia. That can be the reason God opens the river before them because they are serving His purpose. God's act of opening the Euphrates River giving entry to these kings of the East might relate to Isaiah 11:11,15b-16; 41:2-3,8-9,25; 46:11; 51:10-11; and Joel 2:11. No Bible text predicts that the kingdoms of the East will ever attack Jerusalem.

Armageddon is not the final war but a war to destroy antichrist’s main army. The final war is Israel’s ‘Battle of Jerusalem,’ an aftermath war fought by Israelis against forces occupying Jerusalem. Then is the time that antichrist is defeated finally. In this scenario there is no need to assume the Eastern army attacks Jerusalem. The defeat of antichrist’s main army is their appointed goal.
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Blessings,
Paul Phelps
ei_files@yahoo.com  http://www.eifiles.cn