1 And the whole earth is of one pronunciation, and of the same words,
2 and it cometh to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar, and dwell there;
3 and they say each one to his neighbour, `Give help, let us make bricks, and burn `them' thoroughly:' and the brick is to them for stone, and the bitumen hath been to them for mortar.
4 And they say, `Give help, let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head in the heavens, and make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.'
5 And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men have builded;
6 and Jehovah saith, `Lo, the people `is' one, and one pronunciation `is' to them all, and this it hath dreamed of doing; and now, nothing is restrained from them of that which they have purposed to do.
7 Give help, let us go down, and mingle there their pronunciation, so that a man doth not understand the pronunciation of his companion.'
8 And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, and they cease to build the city;
9 therefore hath `one' called its name Babel, for there hath Jehovah mingled the pronunciation of all the earth, and from thence hath Jehovah scattered them over the face of all the earth.
10 These `are' births of Shem: Shem `is' a son of an hundred years, and begetteth Arphaxad two years after the deluge.
11 And Shem liveth after his begetting Arphaxad five hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
12 And Arphaxad hath lived five and thirty years, and begetteth Salah.
13 And Arphaxad liveth after his begetting Salah four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
14 And Salah hath lived thirty years, and begetteth Eber.
15 And Salah liveth after his begetting Eber four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
16 And Eber liveth four and thirty years, and begetteth Peleg.
17 And Eber liveth after his begetting Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
18 And Peleg liveth thirty years, and begetteth Reu.
19 And Peleg liveth after his begetting Reu two hundred and nine years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
20 And Reu liveth two and thirty years, and begetteth Serug.
21 And Reu liveth after his begetting Serug two hundred and seven years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
22 And Serug liveth thirty years, and begetteth Nahor.
23 And Serug liveth after his begetting Nahor two hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
24 And Nahor liveth nine and twenty years, and begetteth Terah.
25 And Nahor liveth after his begetting Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
26 And Terah liveth seventy years, and begetteth Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 And these `are' births of Terah: Terah hath begotten Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran hath begotten Lot;
28 and Haran dieth in the presence of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29 And Abram and Nahor take to themselves wives; the name of Abram's wife `is' Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife `is' Milcah, daughter of Haran, father of Milcah, and father of Iscah.
30 And Sarai is barren -- she hath no child.
31 And Terah taketh Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and they go out with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go towards the land of Canaan; and they come unto Charan, and dwell there.
32 And the days of Terah are two hundred and five years, and Terah dieth in Charan.
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Commentary on Genesis 11 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 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.