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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
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…
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 11:1-10
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
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 11:2
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 11:2
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 11:3
Ancient brick makers. I. IN SHINAR. Examples of II. IN EGYPT (Exodus 5:7). Illustrations of
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 11:4
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…
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 11:5
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 11:5
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 11:6
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…
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 11:7
Babel and Zion. 1. Confusion, division, dispersion. 2. Gathering the dispersed, uniting the divided, restoring order to the confused.—W. §6. THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM (Genesis 11:10-26).
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:7
Go to. An ironical contrast to the "Go to" of the builders (Lange). Let us (cf. Genesis 1:26) go down, and there confound their language (vide infra, Genesis 11:9), that they may not understand (literally, hear; so Gene…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:8
So (literally, and) the Lord scattered them abroad (as the result of the confusion of their speech) upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. I.e. as a united community, which does not preclud…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:9
Therefore is the name of it called Babel. For Balbel, confusion ( συì γχυσις, LXX; Josephus), from Balal, to confound; the derivation given by the sacred writer in the following clause (cf. for the elision of the letter…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 11:10-26
EXPOSITION