11:2 And it came to pass, a as b they journeyed from the c
east, that they found a plain in the land of d Shinar;
and they dwelt there.
(a) One hundred and thirty years after the flood.
(b) That is, Nimrod and his company.
(c) That is, from Armenia where the ark stayed.
(d) Which was afterward called Chaldea.
11:4 And they said, Go to, let us e 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.
(e) They were moved with pride and ambition, preferring
their own glory to God's honour.
11:5 And the LORD f came down to see the city and the tower,
which the children of men builded.
(f) Meaning, that he declared by effect, that he knew their
wicked enterprise; for God's power is everywhere, and
neither ascends nor descends.
11:6 And the LORD said, g 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.
(g) God speaks this in derision, because of their foolish
persuasion and enterprise.
11:7 Go to, h let us go down, and i there confound their
language, that they may not understand one another's
speech.
(h) He speaks as though he took counsel with his own wisdom
and power: that is, with the Son and holy Spirit:
signifying the greatness and certainty of the
punishment.
(i) By this great plague of the confusion of tongues
appears God's horrible judgment against man's pride and
vain glory.
11:10 These [are] the generations k of Shem: Shem [was] an
hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the
flood:
(k) He returns to the genealogy of Shem, to come to the
history of Abram, in which the Church of God is
described, which is Moses' principle purpose.
11:27 Now these [are] the generations of Terah: Terah begat 1
Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
(1) He makes mention first of Abram, not because he was the
first born, but for the history which properly belongs to
him. Also Abram at the confusion of tongues was 43 years
old, for in the destruction of Sodom he was 99 and it was
destroyed 52 years after the confusion of tongues.
11:29 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 m Iscah.
(m) Some think that this Iscah was Sarai.
11:31 And n 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 o Haran, and dwelt there.
(n) Though the oracle of God came to Abram, yet the honour
is given to Terah, because he was the father.
(o) Which was a city of Mesopotamia.
