G
E N E S I S
CHAP. XI.
The old distinction between the sons of God and the sons of men
(professors and profane) survived the flood, and now appeared again, when men
began to multiply: according to this distinction we have, in this chapter,
I.
The
dispersion of the sons of men at
Babel
(ver.
1-9), where we have, 1. Their presumptuous provoking design, which was to
build a city and a tower, ver. 1-4. 2. The righteous judgment of God upon them
in disappointing their design, by confounding their language, and so
scattering them, ver. 5-9. II. The pedigree of the sons of God down to Abraham
(ver. 10-26), with a general account of his family, and removal out of his
native country, ver. 27, &c.
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The
Confusion of Tongues.
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B. C. 2247.
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1 And the whole earth was of one
language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they
journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the
land
of
Shinar
; and
they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us
make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime
had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let 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.
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 into several tribes or colonies; and, the places
having grown too strait for them, it was either appointed by Noah, or agreed
upon among his sons, which way each several tribe or colony should steer its
course, beginning with the countries that were next them, and designing to
proceed further and further, and to remove to a greater distance from each
other, as the increase of their several companies should require. Thus was the
matter well settled, one hundred years after the flood, about the time of
Peleg's birth; but the sons of men, it should seem, were loth to disperse into
distant places; they thought the more the merrier and the safer, and therefore
they contrived to keep together, and were slack to go to possess the land
which the Lord God of their fathers had given them (Josh. xviii. 3),
thinking themselves wiser than either God or Noah. Now here we have,
I. The advantages
which befriended their design of keeping together, 1. They were all of one
language, v. 1. If there were any different languages before the
flood, yet Noah's only, which it is likely was the same with Adam's, was
preserved through the flood, and continued after it. Now, while they all
understood one another, they would be the more likely to love one another, and
the more capable of helping one another, and the less inclinable to separate
one from another. 2. They found a very convenient commodious place to settle
in (v. 2), a plain in the land of Shinar, a spacious plain, able
to contain them all, and a fruitful plain, able, according as
their present numbers were, to support them all, though perhaps they had not
considered what room there would be for them when their numbers should be
increased. Note, Inviting accommodations, for the present, often prove too
strong temptations to the neglect of both duty and interest, as it respects
futurity.
II. The method
they took to bind themselves to one another, and to settle together in one
body. Instead of coveting to enlarge their borders by a peaceful departure
under the divine protection, they contrived to fortify them, and, as those
that were resolved to wage war with Heaven, they put themselves into a posture
of defence. Their unanimous resolution is, Let us build ourselves a city and
a tower. It is observable that the first builders of cities, both in the
old world (ch. iv. 17), and in the new world here, were not men of the
best character and reputation: tents served God's subjects to dwell in; cities
were first built by those that were rebels against him and revolters from him.
Observe here,
1. How they
excited and encouraged one another to set about this work. They said, Go
to, let us make brick (v. 3), and again, (v. 4), Go to,
let us build ourselves a city; by mutual excitements they made one another
more daring and resolute. Note, Great things may be brought to pass when the
undertakers are numerous and unanimous, and stir up one another. Let us learn
to provoke one another to love and to good works, as sinners stir up and
encourage one another to wicked works. See Ps. cxxii. 1; Isa. ii. 3, 5; Jer.
l. 5.
2. What materials
they used in their building. The country, being plain, yielded neither stone
nor mortar, yet this did not discourage them from their undertaking, but they
made brick to serve instead of stone, and slime or pitch instead of mortar.
See here, (1.) What shift those will make that are resolute in their purposes:
were we but zealously affected in a good thing, we should not stop our work so
often as we do, under pretence that we want conveniences for carrying it on.
(2.) What a difference there is between men's building and God's; when men
build their Babel, brick and slime are their best materials; but, when God
builds his Jerusalem, he lays even the foundations of it with sapphires,
and all its borders with pleasant stones, Isa. liv. 11, 12; Rev. xxi. 19.
3. For what ends
they built. Some think they intended hereby to secure themselves against the
waters of another flood. God had told them indeed that he would not again
drown the world; but they would trust to a tower of their own making, rather
than to a promise of God's making or an ark of his appointing. If, however,
they had had this in their eye, they would have chosen to build their tower
upon a mountain rather than upon a plain, but three things, it seems, they
aimed at in building this tower:--
(1.) It seems
designed for an affront to God himself; for they would build a tower whose
top might reach to heaven, which bespeaks a defiance of God, or at least a
rivalship with him. They would be like the Most High, or would come as
near him as they could, not in holiness but in height. They forgot their
place, and, scorning to creep on the earth, resolved to climb to heaven, not
by the door or ladder, but some other way.
(2.) They hoped
hereby to make themselves a name; they would do something to be talked of now,
and to give posterity to know that there had been such men as they in the
world. Rather than die and leave no memorandum behind them, they would leave
this monument of their pride, and ambition, and folly. Note, [1.] Affectation
of honour and a name among men commonly inspires with a strange ardour for
great and difficult undertakings, and often betrays to that which is evil and
offensive to God. [2.] It is just with God to bury those names in the dust
which are raised by sin. These Babel-builders put themselves to a great deal
of foolish expense to make themselves a name; but they could not gain even
this point, for we do not find in any history the name of so much as one of
these Babel-builders. Philo Judæus says, They engraved every one his name
upon a brick, in perpetuam rei memoriam--as a perpetual memorial; yet
neither did this serve their purpose.
(3.) They did it
to prevent their dispersion: Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of
the earth. "It was done" (says Josephus) "in disobedience
to that command (ch. ix. 1), Replenish the earth." God
orders them to disperse. "No," say they, "we will not, we will
live and die together." In order hereunto, they engage themselves and one
another in this vast undertaking. That they might unite in one glorious
empire, they resolve to build this city and tower, to be the metropolis of
their kingdom and the centre of their unity. It is probable that the band of
ambitious Nimrod was in all this. He could not content himself with the
command of a particular colony, but aimed at universal monarchy, in order to
which, under pretence of uniting for their common safety, he contrives to keep
them in one body, that, having them all under his eye, he might not fail to
have them under his power. See the daring presumption of these sinners. Here
is, [1.] A bold opposition to God: "You shall be scattered," says
God. "But we will not," say they. Woe unto him that thus strives
with his Maker. [2.] A bold competition with God. It is God's prerogative
to be universal monarch, Lord of all, and King of kings; the man that aims at
it offers to step into the throne of God, who will not give his glory to
another.
5
And the LORD
came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men
builded. 6 And the LORD
said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and
this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which
they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech. 8 So the LORD
scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they
left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called
Babel; 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.
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 design that was on foot: The Lord came down to see the
city, v. 5. It is an expression after the manner of men; he knew it
as clearly and fully as men know that which they come to the place to view.
Observe, 1. Before he gave judgment upon their cause, he enquired into it; for
God is incontestably just and fair in all his proceedings against sin and
sinners, and condemns none unheard. 2. It is spoken of as an act of
condescension in God to take notice even of this building, which the
undertakers were so proud of; for he humbles himself to behold the
transactions, even the most considerable ones, of this lower world, Ps. cxiii.
6.. 3. It is said to be the tower which the children of men built,
which intimates, (1.) Their weakness and frailty as men. It was a very foolish
thing for the children of men, worms of the earth, to defy Heaven, and to
provoke the Lord to jealousy. Are they stronger than he? (2.) Their
sinfulness and obnoxiousness. They were the sons of Adam, so it is in
the Hebrew; nay, of that Adam, that sinful disobedient Adam, whose children
are by nature children of disobedience, children that are corrupters. (3.)
Their distinction from the children of God, the professors of religion, from
whom these daring builders had separated themselves, and built this tower to
support and perpetuate the separation. Pious Eber is not found among this
ungodly crew; for he and his are called the children of God, and therefore
their souls come not into the secret, nor unite themselves to the assembly, of
these children of men.
II. The counsels
and resolves of the Eternal God concerning this matter; he did not come down
merely as a spectator, but as a judge, as a prince, to look upon these
proud men, and abase them, Job xl. 11-14. Observe,
1. He suffered
them to proceed a good way in their enterprise before he put a stop to it,
that they might have space to repent, and, if they had so much consideration
left, might be ashamed of it and weary of it themselves; and if not that their
disappointment might be the more shameful, and every one that passed by might
laugh at them, saying, These men began to build, and were not able to
finish, that so the works of their hands, from which they promised
themselves immortal honour, might turn to their perpetual reproach. Note, God
has wise and holy ends in permitting the enemies of his glory to carry on
their impious projects a great way, and to prosper long in their enterprises.
2. When they had,
with much care and toil, made some considerable progress in their building,
then God determined to break their measures and disperse them. Observe,
(1.) The
righteousness of God, which appears in the considerations upon which he
proceeded in this resolution, v. 6. Two things he considered:-- [1.]
Their oneness, as a reason why they must be scattered: "Behold, the
people are one, and they have all one language. If they continue one, much
of the earth will be left uninhabited; the power of their prince will soon be
exorbitant; wickedness and profaneness will be insufferably rampant, for they
will strengthen one another's hands in it; and, which is worst of all, there
will be an overbalance to the church, and these children of men, if thus
incorporated, will swallow up the little remnant of God's children."
Therefore it is decreed that they must not be one. Note, Unity is a policy,
but it is not the infallible mark of a true church; yet, while the builders of
Babel, though of different families, dispositions, and interests, were thus
unanimous in opposing God, what a pity is it, and what a shame, that the
builders of Sion, though united in one common head and Spirit, should be
divided, as they are, in serving God! But marvel not at the matter. Christ
came not to send peace. [2.] Their obstinacy: Now nothing will be
restrained from them; and this is a reason why they must be crossed and
thwarted in their design. God had tried, by his commands and admonitions, to
bring them off from this project, but in vain; therefore he must take another
course with them. See here, First, The sinfulness of sin, and the
wilfulness of sinners; ever since Adam would not be restrained from the
forbidden tree, his unsanctified seed have been impatient of restraint and
ready to rebel against it. Secondly, See the necessity of God's
judgments upon earth, to keep the world in some order and to tie the hands of
those that will not be checked by law.
(2.) The wisdom
and mercy of God in the methods that were taken for the defeating of this
enterprise (v. 7): Go to, let us go down, and there confound their
language. This was not spoken to the angels, as if God needed either their
advice or their assistance, but God speaks it to himself, or the Father to the
Son and Holy Ghost. They said, Go to, let us make brick, and Go to,
let us build a tower, animating one another to the attempt; and now God
says, Go to, let us confound their language; for, if men stir up
themselves to sin, God will stir up himself to take vengeance, Isa. lix. 17,
18. Now observe here, [1.] The mercy of God, in moderating the penalty, and
not making it proportionable to the offence; for he deals not with us
according to our sins. He does not say, "Let us go down now in
thunder and lightning, and consume those rebels in a moment;" or,
"Let the earth open, and swallow up them and their
building, and let those go down quickly into hell who are climbing to heaven
the wrong way." No; only, "Let us go down, and scatter
them." They deserved death, but are only banished or transported; for the
patience of God is very great towards a provoking world. Punishments are
chiefly reserved for the future state. God's judgments on sinners in this
life, compared with those which are reserved, are little more than restraints.
[2.] The wisdom of God, in pitching upon an effectual expedient to stay
proceedings, which was the confounding of their language, that they might not
understand one another's speech, nor could they well join hands when their
tongues were divided; so that this would be a very proper method both for
taking them off from their building (for, if they could not understand one
another, they could not help one another) and also for disposing them to
scatter; for, when they could not understand one another, they could not take
pleasure in one another. Note, God has various means, and effectual ones, to
baffle and defeat the projects of proud men that set themselves against him,
and particularly to divide them among themselves, either by dividing their
spirits (Judg. ix. 23), or by dividing their tongues, as David prays, Ps. lv.
9.
III. The
execution of these counsels of God, to the blasting and defeating of the
counsels of men, v. 8, 9. God made them know whose word should
stand, his or theirs, as the expression is, Jer. xliv. 28. Notwithstanding
their oneness and obstinacy, God was too hard for them, and wherein they dealt
proudly he was above them; for who ever hardened his heart against him and
prospered? Three things were done:--
1. Their language
was confounded. God, who, when he made man, taught him to speak, and put words
into his mouth fit to express the conceptions of his mind by, now caused these
builders to forget their former language, and to speak and understand a new
one, which yet was common to those of the same tribe or family, but not to
others: those of one colony could converse together, but not with those of
another. Now, (1.) This was a great miracle, and a proof of the power which
God has upon the minds and tongues of men, which he turns as the rivers of
water. (2.) This was a great judgment upon these builders; for, being thus
deprived of the knowledge of the ancient and holy tongue, they had become
incapable of communicating with the true church, in which it was retained, and
probably it contributed much to their loss of the knowledge of the true God.
(3.) We all suffer by it, to this day. In all the inconveniences we sustain by
the diversity of languages, and all the pains and trouble we are at to learn
the languages we have occasion for, we smart for the rebellion of our
ancestors at Babel. Nay, and those unhappy controversies which are strifes of
words, and arise from our misunderstanding one another's language, for aught I
know are owing to this confusion of tongues. (4.) The project of some to frame
a universal character, in order to a universal language, how desirable soever
it may seem, is yet, I think, but a vain thing to attempt; for it is to strive
against a divine sentence, by which the languages of the nations will be
divided while the world stands. (5.) We may here lament the loss of the
universal use of the Hebrew tongue, which from this time was the vulgar
language of the Hebrews only, and continued so till the captivity in Babylon,
where, even among them, it was exchanged for the Syriac. (6.) As the
confounding of tongues divided the children of men and scattered them abroad,
so the gift of tongues, bestowed upon the apostles (Acts ii.), contributed
greatly to the gathering together of the children of God, who were scattered
abroad, and the uniting of them in Christ, that with one mind and one mouth
they might glorify God, Rom. xv. 6.
2. Their building
was stopped: They left off to build the city. This was the effect of
the confusion of their tongues; for it not only incapacitated them for helping
one another, but probably struck such a damp upon their spirits that they
could not proceed, since they saw, in this, the hand of the Lord gone out
against them. Note, (1.) It is wisdom to leave off that which we see God
fights against. (2.) God is ale to blast and bring to nought all the devices
and designs of Babel-builders. He sits in heaven, and laughs at the counsels
of the kings of the earth against him and his anointed; and will force them to
confess that there is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord, Prov. xxi. 30;
Isa. viii. 9, 10.
3. The builders
were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, v. 8, 9. They
departed in companies, after their families, and after their tongues (ch.
x. 5, 20, 31), to the several countries and places allotted to them in the
division that had been made, which they knew before, but would not go to take
possession of till now that they were forced to it. Observe here, (1.) The
very thing which they feared came upon them. That dispersion which sought to
evade by an act of rebellion they by this act brought upon themselves; for we
are most likely to fall into that trouble which we seek to evade by indirect
and sinful methods. (2.) It was God's work: The Lord scattered them.
God's hand is to be acknowledged in all scattering providences; if the family
be scattered, relations scattered, churches scattered, it is the Lord's doing.
(3.) Though they were as firmly in league with one another as could be, yet
the Lord scattered them; for no man can keep together what God will put
asunder. (4.) Thus God justly took vengeance on them for their oneness in that
presumptuous attempt to build their tower. Shameful dispersions are the just
punishment of sinful unions. Simeon and Levi, who had
been brethren in iniquity, were divided in Jacob, ch. xlix. 5, 7; Ps.
lxxxiii. 3-13. (5.) They left behind them a perpetual memorandum of their
reproach, in the name given to the place. It was called Babel, confusion.
Those that aim at a great name commonly come off with a bad name. (6.)
The children of men were now finally scattered, and never did, nor ever will,
come all together again, till the great day, when the Son of man shall sit
upon the throne of his glory, and all nations shall be gathered before him,
Matt. xxv. 31, 32.
10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a
hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons
and daughters. 12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and
begat Salah: 13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four
hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14 And
Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 15 And Salah lived after
he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and
daughters. 16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat
Peleg: 17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and
thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 18 And Peleg lived
thirty years, and begat Reu: 19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu
two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. 20 And
Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: 21 And Reu lived
after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and
daughters. 22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and
daughters. 24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat
Terah: 25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah a hundred and
nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. 26 And Terah lived
seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
We have here a
genealogy, not an endless genealogy, for here it ends in Abram, the friend of
God, and leads further to Christ, the promised seed, who was the son of Abram,
and from Abram the genealogy of Christ is reckoned (Matt. i. 1, &c.); so
that put ch. v., ch. xi., and Matt. i, together, and you have
such an entire genealogy of Jesus Christ as cannot be produced, for aught I
know, concerning any person in the world, out of his line, and at such a
distance from the fountain-head. And, laying these three genealogies together,
we shall find that twice ten, and thrice fourteen, generations or descents,
passed between the first and second Adam, making it clear concerning Christ
that he was not only the Son of Abraham, but the Son of man, and the seed of
woman. Observe here, 1. Nothing is left upon record concerning those of this
line but their names and ages, the Holy Ghost seeming to hasten through them
to the story of Abram. How little do we know of those that have gone before us
in this world, even those that lived in the same places where we live, as we
likewise know little of those that are our contemporaries in distant places!
we have enough to do to mind the work of our own day, and let God alone to require
that which is past, Eccl. iii. 15. 2. There was an observable gradual
decrease in the years of their lives. Shem reached to 600 years, which yet
fell short of the age of the patriarchs before the flood; the next three came
short of 500; the next three did not reach to 300; after them we read not of
any that attained to 200, except Terah; and, not many ages after this, Moses
reckoned seventy, or eighty, to be the utmost men ordinarily arrive at. When
the earth began to be replenished, men's lives began to shorten; so that the
decrease is to be imputed to the wise disposal of Providence, rather than to
any decay of nature. For the elect's sake, men's days are shortened; and,
being evil, it is well they are few, and attain not to the years of the
lives of our fathers, ch. xlvii. 9. 3. Eber, from whom the Hebrews
were denominated, was the longest-lived of any that was born after the flood,
which perhaps was the reward of his singular piety and strict adherence to the
ways of God.
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The
Generations of Terah.
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B. C. 1921.
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27 Now these are the generations
of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur
of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name
of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the
daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 And Terah
took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his
daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur, of
the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and
dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five
years: and Terah died in Haran.
Here begins the
story of Abram, whose name is famous, henceforward, in both Testaments. We
have here,
I. His country: Ur
of the Chaldees. This was the land of his nativity, an idolatrous country,
where even the children of Eber themselves had degenerated. Note, Those who
are, through grace, heirs of the land of promise, ought to remember what was
the land of their nativity, what was their corrupt and sinful state by nature,
the rock out of which they were hewn.
II. His
relations, mentioned for his sake, and because of their interest in the
following story. 1. His father was Terah, of whom it is said (Josh.
xxiv. 2) that he served other gods, on the other side of the flood, so early
did idolatry gain footing in the world, and so hard is it even for those that
have some good principles to swim against the stream. Though it is said (v.
26) that when Terah was seventy years old he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran
(which seems to tell us that Abram was the eldest son of Terah, and was born
in his seventieth year), yet, by comparing v. 32, which makes Terah to
die in his 205th year, with Acts vii. 4 (where it is said that he was
but seventy-five years old when he removed from Haran), it appears that he was
born in the 130th year of Terah, and probably was his youngest son;
for, in God's choices, the last are often first and the first last. We have,
2. Some account of his brethren. (1.) Nahor, out of whose family both
Isaac and Jacob had their wives. (2.) Haran, the father of Lot, of whom
it is here said (v. 28) that he died before his father Terah.
Note, Children cannot be sure that they shall survive their parents; for death
does not go by seniority, taking the eldest first. The shadow of death is
without any order, Job x. 22. It is likewise said that he died in Ur of
the Chaldees, before the happy removal of the family out of that
idolatrous country. Note, It concerns us to hasten out of our natural state,
lest death surprise us in it. 3. His wife was Sarai, who some think,
was the same with Iscah, the daughter of Haran. Abram himself says of her that
she was the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his mother, ch.
xx. 12. She was ten years younger than Abram.
III. His
departure out of Ur of the Chaldees, with his father Terah, his nephew Lot,
and the rest of his family, in obedience to the call of God, of which we shall
read more, ch. xii. 1, &c. This chapter leaves them in Haran, or
Charran, a place about mid-way between Ur and Canaan, where they dwelt till
Terah's head was laid, probably because the old man was unable, through the
infirmities of age, to proceed in his journey. Many reach to Charran, and yet
fall short of Canaan; they are not far from the kingdom of God, and yet never
come thither.
Contents
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