Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 11

1. AND the whole Earth was of one Language, and of one speech .

Earth is oft put for its inhabitants, as Gen. 6. 21. 1 Chron. 16. 23. Psal. 33. 8.

Which even Heathen Writers acknowledge: And that probably was the Hebrew Tongue.

Marginal references: Heb. Lip.; Heb. Words.

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.

(i. e.) Nimr[illegible: 1+ letters]d and the rest of his Confederates and of Hams Posterity.

Not from Arn[illegible: 1+ letters]ia, where the Ark rested, which was North from Babel, and is called North in Scripture, as Ier. 25. 9, 26. &c. But from Assyria, into which they had before come from the Mountains of Ararat for more convenient habitation. It may be rendred to the East: But that manner of Translation, is neither usual, nor necessary here.

Where Babel was▪ Gen. 10. 10.

3. And they said one to another, go to, let us make brick , and burn them throughly. And they had brick for Stone, and slime had they for Morter.

For in that low and fat soil they had no quarries of Stones. The Heathen Writers agree that Babylons Walls were made of Brick.

A kind of Clay called Bitumen, which, as Pliny testifieth, is liquid and glutinous, and fit to be used in Brick-buildings, as Strabo, Dion, and others note. And that Babylon was built with this, as is here said, we have the joynt and express Testimony of Berosus, Ct[illegible: 1+ letters]sias, Dion, Curtius, and many others.

Marginal references: Heb. a man said to his Neighbour.; Heb▪ burn them to a burning.

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.

(i. e.) A very high Tower. An usual Hyperbole both in Scripture, as Deut. 1. 28. and 9. 1. and in other Authours. This Tower and its vast height is noted by Herodotus, Diodorus, and others.

(i. e.) A great Name, as the phrase is elsewhere used. Compare also 2 Sam. 7. 9. with 1 Chron. 17. 8. See also Isa. 63. 12, 14. Dan. 9 15. They take no care for Gods Name, and the defence and propagation of the true Religion, as duty bound them, but meerly out of Pride and Vain-glory labour to erect an everlasting Monument of their Wit and Wealth, and Magnificence to all Posterity.

Their design was not to secure themselves against a Flood, which they well knew Brick-buildings were no sence against, nor would they then have built this Tower in a plain, but upon some high Mountain; but rather to prevent a total and irrecoverable dispersion. They sought therefore to bind themselves together in one glorious Empire, and to make this glorious City the Capital Seat of it, and the place of refuge and resort upon any considerable occasion.

5. And the LORD came down to see the City, and the Tower which the Children of men built.

Not by local descent▪ for he is every where, but by the manifestation of his presence and the effects of his power in that place.

(i. e.) To know the Truth of the fact, thereby setting a pattern for Judges to examine causes before they pass sentence: Otherwise God saw this in Heaven, but in these expressions he condescends to the capacity of men.

So called emphatically, 1. For distinction of them from the Sons of God, or the race of Shem, who were not guilty of the sin, and therefore did not partake in the curse, the confusion of their Languages, but retained their antient Tongue uncorrupted for a good while. 2. To note their rashness and folly, who being but weak and silly men, durst oppose themselves to the infinitely Wise and Powerful God, who did (as they might easily gather both from his Words and Works) intend to disperse and separate them, that so by degrees they might possess the whole Earth, which God had made for that purpose.

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.

In way of holy scorn and derision. Compare Gen. 3. 22.

7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their Language, that they may not understand one anothers speech.

(i. e.) The blessed Trinity. See Gen. 1. 26.

By making them forget their former Language, and by putting into their minds several Languages, not a distinct Language into each person, but into each Family or rather into each Nation.

And thereby be disenabled from that mutual commerce which was altogether necessary for the carrying on of that work.

Marginal references: Heb. hear.

8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the Earth: And they left off to build the City.

Thus they brought upon themselves the very thing they seared, and that more speedily and more mischievously to themselves: For now they were not only divided in place but in Language too, and so were unfitted for those Consederacies and Correspondencies which they mainly designed, and for the mutual Comfort and Help of one another which otherwise they might in good measure have enjoyed.

10. These are the Generations of Shem, Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the Flood.

Not all of them, as appears both from the next verse, and from the former Chapter, but of those who were the seminary of the Church, and the Progenitors of Christ.

Marginal references: Chap. 10. 32. 1 Chron. 1. 17.

11. And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat Sons and Daughters.

So that he lived almost all the time of Abraham; which was a singular blessing both to himself who hereby saw his Children of the tenth Generation; and to the Church of God, which by this means enjoyed the Counsel and Conduct of so great a Patriarch.

17. And Eber lived after he begat Peleg, four hundred and thirty years, and begat Sons and Daughters.

So that he was the longest liv'd of all the Patriarchs which were born after the Flood.

24. And Nahor lived nine and twenty years and begat Terah.

The first Patriarch who fell to Idolatry.

Marginal references: Luk. 3. 34. Thara.

26. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

(i. e.) Began to beget, as Gen. 5. 32,

Who is first named in order of Dignity, for which cause Shem is put before Ham and Iapheth, and Moses before Aaron, not in order of time, which seems to be this, Haran probably was the eldest, because Nahor married his Daughters; Nahor the second; and Abram certainly was the youngest, because Terah, Abrams Father lived two hundred and five years, ver. 32. and Abram after his Fathers Death, Acts 7. 4. went out of Haran, when he was seventy five years old, Gen. 12. 4, 5. therefore he was not begotten in Terahs seventieth year, when Terah began to beget his Sons, as here is said, but in his one hundred and thirtieth year, and so there remains seventy five years precisely to Abrams departure. And Sarai, Harans Daughter was but ten years younger than Abram, Gen. 17. 17. and therefore Haran was Abrams Elder Brother.

Marginal references: Josh. 24. 2. 1 Chro. 1. 26.

28. And Haran died before his Father Terah in the Land of his Nativity, in Ur of the Caldees.

(i. e.) In the presence and during the Life of his Father.

29. And Abram and Nahor took them Wives: The Name of Abrams Wife was Sarai, and the Name of Nahors Wife, Milcah, the Daughter of Haran, the Father of Milcah, and the Father of Iscah.

Such Marriages of Uncles and Nieces being permitted then, Exod. 6. 20. (as in the beginning of the World, the Marriages of Brethren and Sisters were) though afterwards, the Church being very much enlarged, they were severely forbidden, Levit. 18. 12, 14.

Who is either Sarai, as the Jews and many others think, or rather, another person. For 1. Why should Moses express Sarai thus darkly and doubtfully? Had he meant her, he would have added after Iscah, this is Sarai, according to his manner in like cases, Gen. 14. 2, 7. and 35. 6. He elsewhere calleth her, the Daughter, not of his Brother, as he should have done, had she been Iscah, but of his Father by another Mother.

30. But Sarai was barren, she had no child.

See Gen. 16. 1, 2. and 18. 11, 12.

31. And Terah took Abram his Son, and Lot the Son of Haran, his sons son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his Son Abrams wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Caldees, to go into the Land of Canaan: and they came unto Haran , and dwelt there.

See Ios. 24. 2. Nehem. 9. 7. 1 Chron. 1. 26. Being informed by his Son of the command of God, he did not despise it, because it came to him by the hands of his inferiour, but chearfully obeyeth it; and therefore he is so honourably mentioned as the▪ Head and Governour of the Action.

(i. e.) Terab and Abram went with Lot and Sar[illegible: 1+ letters]i, as their Heads and Guides.

Called Charran, Act. 7. 4. and by the Romans Carrae, a place in Mesopotamia, strictly so called in the way to Canaan, and near to it, well known by Crassus his defeat there. See Gen. 24. 10. and 28. 10. and 29. 4.

Or, rested or abode, being detained there for a season; peradventure by Terab's disease, which begun there, for the next verse tells us of his death.

Marginal references: Neh. 9. 7. Act. 7. 4.