Son of Aram, Shem's son (Genesis 10:28). Josephus (Ant. 1:6) says, "Mash founded the Mesanaeans," i.e. the inhabitants of Mesene near Bassera where the Tigris and Euphrates fall into the Persian gulf; this however seems too far from the other Aramaic settlements. Gesenius identifies the descendants of Mash with the inhabitants of Mount Masius, a range N. of Mesopotamia, above Nisibis. Knobel reconciles this with Josephus by supposing a migration from northern to southern Babylonia, which however is the reverse of the direction which the population usually took, namely from S. to N. In 1 Chronicles 1:17 the reading is Meshech, which the Septuagint reads perhaps correctly; also in Genesis 10:23. Meshech occurred in Genesis 10:2, among the sons of Japheth; but here (Genesis 10:23) among Shem's descendants. Cappadocia was the original home of the Moschi (Meshech); its population was a mixed one, and a portion connected with Aram (Syria). Thus the name occurring in Japheth's line and also in Shem's line points to the mixture of Aramaic Moschi with Japhetic Moschi in Cappadocia (G. Rawlinson).