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The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 10:25
Peleg, or the division of the people. I. WHEN IT TOOK PLACE. In the fourth generation after the Flood. II. How IT WAS EFFECTED. 1. By the Divine interposition. 2. By the confusion of tongues. III. FOR WHAT IT WAS DESIGN…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 10:26-30
And Joktan begat Almodad. Usually said to be Yemen. And Sheleph. The Salapenoi of Ptolemy, belonging to the interior of Arabia. And Hazarmaveth. Hadramaut, southeast of Arabia (Bochart, Michaelis). And Jerah. Contiguous…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 10:32
Nations. I. THEIR ROOTS. Individuals. II. THEIR RISE. 1. As to time, after the Flood. 2. As to cause, Divine impulse. 3. As to instrumentality, variation of speech. III. THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. 1. A common head. 2. A com…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 10:32
The ethnological register. I. PROCLAIMS THE UNITY OF THE RACE. 1. It declares all the successive families of mankind to have sprung from a common stock. Diverse as they flow are in their geographical situations, ethnic…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 11:1-4
How soon men forget the most tremendous judgments, and go back to their former crimes! Though the desolations of the deluge were before their eyes, though they sprang from the stock of righteous Noah, yet even during hi…
The Confusion of Tongues. (b. c. 2247.)
THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. (B. C. 2247.) The close of the foregoing chapter tells us that by the sons of Noah, or among the sons of Noah, the nations were divided in the earth after the flood, that is, were distinguished…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:1
Unity of language. 1. The original birthright of the human race. 2. The lost inheritance of sinful men. 3. The ultimate goal of the Christian dispensation. 4. The recovered heritage of redeemed humanity.—W.
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:1-10
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:1
And the whole earth. I.e. the entire population of the globe, and not simply the inhabitants of the land of Shinar (Ingiis; cf. Genesis 9:29). Was. Prior to the dispersion spoken of in the preceding chapter, though obvi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:1-9
Order brought forth. We are now to trace the rise of the kingdom of God among the nations. Already in the case of Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, that is, by permission of Divine providence, the antagonism be…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:2
And it came to pass, as they journeyed. Literally, in their journeyings. The root ( גָקַע, to pull up, as, e.g; the stakes of a tent when a camp moves, Isaiah 33:20) suggests the idea of the migration of nomadic hordes…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:2
Note— 1. The benefit of a wandering condition. It sometimes prevents the rise of sinful thoughts and wicked deeds. So long as the primitive nomads were travelling from station to station they did not think of either reb…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:3
And they said one to another. Literally, a man to his neighbor; ἀ ì νθρωπος τῷ πλησι ì ον αὐ τοῦ (LXX.). Go to. A hortatory expletive—come on (Anglice). Let us make brick. Nilbenah lebenim; literally, let us brick…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:3
Ancient brick makers. I. IN SHINAR. Examples of II. IN EGYPT (Exodus 5:7). Illustrations of
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:4
And they said. Being impelled by their success in making bricks for their dwellings (Lange), though the resolution to be mentioned may have been the cause of their brick-making (Bush). Go to, let us build us a city. Cf.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:4
The tower-builders of Babel. I. THE IMPIETY OF THEIR DESIGN. 1. Ambition. They were desirous of achieving fame, or "a name" for themselves. Whether in this there was a covert sneer at the exaltation promised to the Shem…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:4
The tower of Babel. I. A MONUMENT OF MAN'S— 1. Sinful ambition. 2. Laborious ingenuity. 3. Demonstrated feebleness. 4. Stupendous folly. II. A MEMORIAL OF GOD'S— 1. Overruling providence. 2. Resistless power. 3. Retribu…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:4
God's city or man's city. "And they said, Go to, lot us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." In the worl…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 11:5-9
Here is an expression after the manner of men; The Lord came down to see the city. God is just and fair in all he does against sin and sinners, and condemns none unheard. Pious Eber is not found among this ungodly crew;…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 11:5-9
We have here the quashing of the project of the Babel-builders, and the turning of the counsel of those froward men headlong, that God's counsel might stand in spite of them. Here is, I. The cognizance God took of the d…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:5
The cities of men and the city of God (Genesis 11:5; Hebrews 11:16). I. THEIR BUILDERS. Of the first, men—mostly wicked men; of the second, the Architect of the universe. II. THEIR ORIGIN. Of the first (Enoch, Genesis 4…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:5
And the Lord came down. Not in visible form, as in Exodus 19:20; Exodus 34:5 (Onkelos), but "effectu ostendens se propin quiorem quem absentem esse judicabant" (Poole), an anthropomorphism (cf. Genesis 18:21; Psalms 144…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:6
Vain imaginings 1. Commonly spring from misused blessings. A united people, with a common language, and enjoying a measure of 'success in their buildings, the Babelites became vain in their imaginings. So do wicked men…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:6
And the Lord said—within himself, and to himself (vide Genesis 11:8); expressive of the formation of a Divine resolution (cf. Genesis 6:7)—Behold, the people— עַס, from root signifying to bind together, expresses the id…