Genesis 11

The Book of Genesis
Chapter 11

Chapter Overview:

The distinction between the sons of God and the sons of men, now appeared again, when men began to multiply. According to this distinction, we have in this chapter,
  1. The dispersion of the sons of men at Babel, ver. 1 - 9.
    where we have
    1. Their presumptuous design, to build a city and a tower, ver. 1 - 4.
    2. The righteous judgment of God upon them in disappointing the design, by confounding their language, and so scattering them, ver. 5 - 9.
  2. The pedigree of the sons of God down to Abraham, ver. 10 - 26.
    with a general account of his family, and remove out of his native country, ver. 27 - 32.
11:1And the whole earth was of one language - Now while they all understood one another, they would be the more capable of helping one another, and the less inclinable to separate.
11:2And they found a plain in the land of Shinar - A spacious plain, able to contain them all.
11:3Go to, let us make brick, let us build us a city - The country being a plain, yielded neither stone nor morter, yet that did not discourage them, but they made brick to serve instead of stone, and slime, or pitch, instead of morter.

Some think they intended hereby to secure themselves against the waters ofanother flood, but if they had, they would have chosen to build upon a mountain rather than upon a plain. But two things it seems they aimed at in building.

  1. To make them a name: they would do something to be talked of byposterity. But they could not gain this point; for we do not find in any history the name of so much as one of these Babel - builders.Philo Judeus saith they engraved every one his name upon a brick; yet neither did that serve their purpose.
11:5And the Lord came down to see the city - 'Tis an expression after the manner of men, he knew it as clearly as men know that which they come upon the place to view. And the tower which the children of men builded - Which speaks,
  1. Their weakness and frailty, it was a foolish thing for the childrenof men, worms of the earth, to defy heaven.
  2. Their sinfulness, they were the sons of Adam, so it is in theHebrew; nay, of that Adam, that sinful disobedient Adam, whose children are by nature children of disobedience.
  3. Their distinction from the children of God, from whom those daringbuilders had separated themselves, and built this tower to support and perpetuate the separation.
11:6And the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language - And if they continue one, much of the earth will be left uninhabited, and these children of men, if thus incorporated, will swallow up the little remnant of God's children, therefore it is decreed they must not be one. And now nothing will be restrained from them - And this is a reason why they must be crossed, in their design.
11:7Go 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. That they may not understand one another's speech - Nor could they well join hands when their tongues were divided: so that this was a proper means, both to take them off from their building, for if they could not understand one another, they could not help one another; and to dispose them to scatter, for when they could not understand one another, they could not enjoy one another. Accordingly three things were done,
  2. Their building was stopped, they left off to build the city - This wasthe effect of the confusion of their tongue's; for it not only disabled them from helping one another, but probably struck a damp upon their spirits, since they saw the hand of the Lord gone out against them.
  3. The builders were scattered abroad from thence upon the face of thewhole earth - They departed in companies after their families and after their tongues, Genesis 10:5 ,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 they were forced to it. Observe
11:10Observe here,
  1. That nothing is left upon record concerning those of this line, but theirnames and ages; the Holy Ghost seeming to hasten thro' them to the story of Abraham. How little do we know of those that are gone before us in this world, even those that lived in the same places where we live! Or indeed of those who are our contemporaries, but in distant places.
  2. That there was an observable gradual decrease in the years of theirlives. Shem reached to 600 years, which yet fell short of the age of the patriarchs before the flood; the three next came short of 500, the three next did not reach to 300, and after them we read not of any that attained to 200 but Terah; and not many ages after this, Moses reckoned 70 or 80 to be the utmost men ordinarily arrive at. When the earth began to bereplenished, mens 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.
  3. That Eber, from whom the Hebrews were denominated, was thelongest lived of any that were born after the flood; which perhaps was the reward of his strict adherence to the ways of God.
11:27Here begins the story of Abram.We have here,
    2. Some account of his brethren
      1. Nahor, out of whole family both Isaac and Jacob had their wives.