11 And Shem lived after he had begotten Arphaxad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moveth on the earth.
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Adam that he lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. And Seth lived after he had begotten Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. And Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. And Enosh lived after he had begotten Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died. And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalaleel. And Cainan lived after he had begotten Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died. And Mahalaleel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. And Mahalaleel lived after he had begotten Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died. And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. And Jared lived after he had begotten Enoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died. And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methushelah. And Enoch walked with God after he had begotten Methushelah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. And Methushelah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lemech. And Methushelah lived after he had begotten Lemech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Methushelah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. And Lemech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, This [one] shall comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed. And Lemech lived after he had begotten Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Lemech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Lo, children are an inheritance from Jehovah, [and] the fruit of the womb a reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine in the inner part of thy house; thy children like olive-plants round about thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth Jehovah.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 11
Commentary on Genesis 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
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,
Gen 11:1-4
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 (Jos. 18:3), thinking themselves wiser than either God or Noah. Now here we have,
Gen 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,
Gen 11:10-26
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 (Mt. 1:1, etc.); so that put ch. 5, ch. 11, and Mt. 1, 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,
Gen 11:27-32
Here begins the story of Abram, whose name is famous, henceforward, in both Testaments. We have here,