Genesis 11

Ge 11:1-32.

CONFUSION OF

TONGUES.

1. the whole earth was of one language. The descendants of Noah,

united by the strong bond of a common language, had not separated, and

notwithstanding the divine command to replenish the earth, were

unwilling to separate. The more pious and well-disposed would of course

obey the divine will; but a numerous body, seemingly the aggressive

horde mentioned

(Ge 10:10),

determined to please themselves by occupying the fairest region they

came to.

2. land of Shinar--The fertile valley watered by the Euphrates

and Tigris was chosen as the center of their union and the seat of

their power.

3. brick--There being no stone in that quarter, brick is, and

was, the only material used for building, as appears in the mass of

ruins which at the Birs Nimroud may have been the very town formed by

those ancient rebels. Some of these are sun-dried--others burnt in the

kiln and of different colors.

slime--bitumen, a mineral pitch, which, when hardened, forms a

strong cement, commonly used in Assyria to this day, and forming the

mortar found on the burnt brick remains of antiquity.

4. a tower whose top may reach unto heaven--a common figurative

expression for great height

(De 1:28; 9:1-6).

lest we be scattered--To build a city and a town was no crime;

but to do this to defeat the counsels of heaven by attempting to

prevent emigration was foolish, wicked, and justly offensive to

God.

6. and now nothing will be restrained from them--an apparent

admission that the design was practicable, and would have been executed

but for the divine interposition.

7. confound their language--literally, "their lip"; it was a

failure in utterance, occasioning a difference in dialect which was

intelligible only to those of the same tribe. Thus easily by God their

purpose was defeated, and they were compelled to the dispersion they

had combined to prevent. It is only from the Scriptures we learn the

true origin of the different nations and languages of the world. By one

miracle of tongues men were dispersed and gradually fell from true

religion. By another, national barriers were broken down--that all men

might be brought back to the family of God.

28. Ur--now Orfa; that is, "light," or "fire." Its name probably

derived from its being devoted to the rites of fire-worship. Terah and

his family were equally infected with that idolatry as the rest of the

inhabitants

(Jos 24:15).

31. Sarai his daughter-in-law--the same as Iscah

[Ge 11:29],

granddaughter of Terah, probably by a second wife, and by early usages

considered marriageable to her uncle, Abraham.

they came unto Haran--two days' journey south-southeast from Ur,

on the direct road to the ford of the Euphrates at Rakka, the nearest

and most convenient route to Palestine.