Bible Commentaries
Genesis 11

Verse 2

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.

Verse 4

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.

Verse 5

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.

Verse 6

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.

Verse 7

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.

Verse 10

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.

Verse 27

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.

Verse 29

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.

Verse 31

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.