34 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Genesis 11 This chapter gives an account of the inhabitants of the earth before the confusion of tongues at Babel, of their speech and language, which was one and the same, and of the place where they dwelt, Genesis 11:1 and of their design to build a city and tower, to make them a name and keep them together, which they put in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech,.... Or had been (w), before the flood, and from that time to this, and still was, until the confusion took place; the account of which, and the occasion of it, are given in this chapter: by the whole earth is meant the inhabitants of it, see Isaiah 37:18 and so the Jerusalem Targum...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The old distinction between the sons of God and the sons of men (professors and profane) survived the flood, and now appeared again, when men began to multiply: according to this distinction we have, in this chapter, I. The dispersion of the sons of men at Babel (ver. 1-9), where we have, 1. Their presumptuous provoking design, which was to build...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,.... That is, the inhabitants of the whole earth; not Ham and his posterity only, or Nimrod and his company; but as all the sons of Noah and his posterity for a while dwelt together, or at least very near each other, and finding the place where they were too scanty for them, as their several...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said one to another, go to,.... Advising, exhorting, stirring up, and encouraging one another to the work proposed, of building a city and tower for their habitation and protection; saying, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly; they knew the nature of bricks, and how to make them before: according to Sanchoniatho (h), the brothers...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower,.... Some Jewish writers (r) say, these are the words of Nimrod to his people; but it is a question whether he was now born, or if he was, must be too young to be at the head of such a body of people; but they are spoken to one another, or by the principal men among them to the common...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower,.... Not locally or visibly, being immense, omnipresent, and invisible; nor in order to see and take notice of what he otherwise could not see from heaven, for he is omniscient; but this is spoken after the manner of men, and is to be understood of some effects and displays of his power, which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord said,.... Not to the angels, as Aben Ezra, but rather to the Son and Spirit, or within himself: behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; which some think is spoken ironically; but I see no reason why it may not be understood seriously, that the people who were concerned in this building were unanimous, not only in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Go to, let us go down, [and] there confound their language,.... These words are not spoken to the angels, as the Targum and Aben Ezra; for, as Philo the Jew observes (h), they are said to some as co-workers with God, which angels could not be in this work of confounding the language of men; it being above the power of creatures so to work upon the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence, upon the face of all the earth,.... Hence that which they feared came upon them, and what they were so careful to guard against befell them, occasioned by those measures they took to secure themselves from it; for not being able to understand one another, they left off their design, and as many as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore is the name of it called Babel,.... The name of the city mentioned, and the tower also, which signifies "confusion", as the Septuagint version renders it; and so Josephus (w) says the Hebrews call confusion "Babel": perhaps this name was given it by the sons of Eber, or it might be a common name preserved in all languages, as some are;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
These are the generations of Shem,.... Or a genealogy of the posterity of Shem; not of all of them, only of those of the line which led to Abraham, by which might appear the true line in which the Messiah from Adam through Abraham sprung: Shem was one hundred years old, and begat Arphexad two years after the flood; by which it is pretty plain that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Shem lived, after he begat Arphaxad, five hundred years,.... So that his whole age was six hundred years, and therefore must live to the times of Abraham, and even throughout the life of that patriarch, or near the end of it; and if he was the same with Melchizedek, as is the general opinion of the Jews, and is embraced by many Christians,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Arphaxad lived thirty five years, and begat Salah. Arphaxad is the first on record that had a son born to him so early; of Salah, [See comments on Genesis 10:24].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Arphaxad lived, after he begat Salah, four hundred and three years,.... In all four hundred and thirty eight; the Vulgate Latin wrongly reads, three hundred and three: and begat sons and daughters; not mentioned by name: he died, as the above Arabic writer (z) says, in the month Nisan, A. M. 2696; and a Jewish writer (a) says he died in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber. He had a son born to him five years sooner than his father had; of Eber, [See comments on Genesis 10:25].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Salah lived, after he begat Eber, four hundred and three years,.... In all four hundred and thirty three: and begat sons and daughters; of whom also there is no other account: the same Arabic writer (c) says, he died in the month, Adar, which is called Barhamath, at the close of A. M. 2950; and the Jewish chronologer (d) says, he died in the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Eber lived thirty four years, and begat Peleg. Of Peleg, [See comments on Genesis 10:25].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Eber lived, after he begat Peleg, four hundred and thirty] years,.... All the years of his life were four hundred and sixty four: and he begat sons and daughters; one of which is elsewhere mentioned, whose name is Joktan, Genesis 10:25 according to the above Jewish writer (e), he died in the seventy ninth year of Jacob. (e) R. Gedaliah,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu. Or Ragau, as he is called in the Septuagint version, the letter ע being pronounced as a "G", as in Gaza and Gomorrah: he is supposed to give name to a large plain called Ragau, near Assyria, about Tigris and Euphrates, "Even in those days king Nabuchodonosor made war with king Arphaxad in the great...