The First Book of Moses, called Genesis
Genesis 11
Chapter XI · Vol. I, pp. 228–230
1 One language in the world. 3 The building of Babel. 5 The confusion of tongues. 10 The generations of Shem. 27 The generations of Terah the father of Abram. 31 Terah goeth from Ur to Haran.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,8 that they found a plain in the land of Shinar;9 and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, aGo to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had bbrick for stone, and slime1 had they for mortar.
a Pr. 1.11. Ps. xi.; 64.5. Is. 41.6,7, not as He. 10.24; 3.13.
b Ex. 1.14; 5.7-18. 2 Sa. 12.31. Na. 3.14. The buildings of the East are generally brick or clay.
1 There are various kinds of bitumen, but all, more or less, akin to the mineral tar contained in several kinds of pit-coal. One of these bitumens, the slime used in the building of Babel, is believed to have been the asphaltum found in great abundance around the Dead Sea (see Ge. 14.10), and in Albania, the island of Trinidad, &c.—C.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach cunto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.2
c Very high, De. 1.28; 9.1. Da. 4.11.
2 God's blessing and direction to man was to replenish the earth, here is a resolution to prevent the fulfilment; an unnatural resolution, that must soon have led to unnatural restraints upon the growth of population, and the exercise of personal freedom, and which therefore God in great mercy interposes to prevent.—C.
6 And the LORD said, Behold,3 the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will4 be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
3 In derision, as Ju. 10.14. 1 Ki. 18.27. Ec. 11.9.
4 May not the sentence be taken interrogatively, thus: Will nothing be restrained from them?—C.
7 Go to, let eus go down, and there fconfound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.5
e ch. 1.26; 3.22. Is. 6.8.
f Job 12.20; 5.12,13. Ps. 33.10.
A.M. 1758. B.C. 2246.
5 It would seem from the real signification of the original words in this and the preceding verse, that the confusion was caused by creating a variety in the forms, inflections, and pronunciation of words, and not by introducing an entirely new set of root-words. The language in fact remained radically the same. The most advanced researches in philology tend to confirm this opinion.—P.
8 So the LORD gscattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
g ver. 4,9. De. 32.8.
9 Therefore is the name of it called 6Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
10 Theseh are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood.
13 And Arphaxad lived, after he begat Salah, four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
15 And Salah lived, after he begat Eber, four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
17 And Eber lived, after he begat Peleg, four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
19 And Peleg lived, after he begat Reu, two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
21 And Reu lived, after he begat Serug, two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
23 And Serug lived, after he begat Nahor, two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
25 And Nahor lived, after he begat Terah, an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26 And Terah lived seventy years,8 and obegat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
8 2056.
o Jos. 24.2. 1 Ch. 1.26. ch. 12.4,5; 22.20-24; 29.4,5.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives:9 the name of Abram's wife was qSarai; and the name of Nahor's wife rMilcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.s
31 And Terah1 took Abram2 his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; uand they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto vHaran,3 and dwelt there.
1 cir. 1926.
2 We learn from Ac. 7. 2, that God's first appearance and direction to Abram, was before he dwelt in Charran. We learn from Jos. 24. 2, that Terah and his progenitors were all idolaters previous to this call; and from this verse, 31, we find that Terah took Abram his son, &c., from Ur, to go into the land of Canaan. Is it not therefore reasonable to conclude that Terah had been converted by the testimony of Abram his son, when he not merely accompanied, but took him forth to the promised land?—C.
u He.11. 8. Ne. 9. 7. Ac.7.2-4. ch.12.1. Jos. 24.2,3.
v ch.24.10,15; 27. 43; 29.4, 5. Ac. 7. 2. The death of these ten patriarchs is not mentioned, as their lives were much shorter than in ch.5.
3 Haran, or Charran, situate in the north-west of Mesopotamia, has retained its name with little variation in all ages. The Greeks and Romans called it Carræ. It is mentioned in Eze.27.23, as a place that traded with Tyre. Benjamin of Tudela (12th cent.) found it altogether decayed; in 1766 it was reported to Niebuhr as a small place much frequented by Jews.—C.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Notes
[Ver. 2. Shinar embraced the great plain on both sides of the Euphrates, which was afterwards called Babylonia. Bitumen (or 'slime') wells are still found in it. Some of the most ancient bricks in the desolate mounds of Babylonia and Chaldea are 'thoroughly burned,' and are usually inscribed with the name of the reigning monarch. P.]
Ver. 5. God's coming down to see their work denotes his manifesting his notice of it in his deliberate and just judgments upon them for it, ch. 18. 20, 21.
Ver. 28. [The Hebrew word is Kasdim, but our translators have adopted the name Chaldea from the Greek. As a geographical term it has a wide signification, embracing the whole country of Mesopotamia, with the region extending southward to the Persian Gulf. Chaldea proper was confined to the plain on both banks of the Euphrates from Babylon southward to the Tigris. The city of Ur has been recently identified with the vast mounds of Mugheir or Mugayer, about 90 miles S.E. of Babylon, on the west bank of the Euphrates. On bricks dug up from the mounds of Mugheir the name Ur has been discovered by Loftus. It is worthy of note that Mugheir signifies 'Mother of Bitumen.' P.]
Ver. 31. [Terah, instead of striking right across the Arabian desert to Palestine, went north-west along the banks of the Euphrates. It is the route an Arab tribe would still follow; because in the desert there is little pasture for flocks, and no water. Haran still retains its ancient name, and some relics of former greatness. It is now a small and poor village standing on the bank of a small river called Belik, which flows into the Euphrates about 50 miles to the southward. P.]
Reflections.—How awful the presumption of sinners, who dare attempt to withstand the known command and purpose of the Almighty! Deeply should it affect us that we find the serpent's seed so harmonious and active in wickedness, while the children of promise are so divided and inactive in holiness. But with equity and ease the Lord frustrates the devices of the crafty, and turneth the counsel of the froward headlong, while he causes men's sinful attempts towards fame and power effectually to issue in their infamy and weakness. What a mercy that, as the confusion of tongues effected the dispersion of mankind, the miraculous gift of tongues contributed to spread the gospel, to gather sinners to Jesus, and to build up his church throughout the earth! Behold how the blessing of Noah begins to operate in the family of Shem, and will do till after the ascension of Christ! How proper to remark the providences of God in the names of our children, or otherwise! How precious are the saints, the church, in God's sight! They are allowed far more room in his inspired registers than all the world besides. If Terah, who set out for Canaan, died by the way, let me tremble, lest, a promise being left me of entering into God's rest, I should seem to come short of it!—tremble lest I should be almost, but never altogether, a Christian, not far from the kingdom of God, but never a true member thereof here, or partaker of it hereafter!