_AND THE WHOLE EARTH WAS OF ONE LANGUAGE, AND OF ONE SPEECH._ The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech - literally, of one lip, and of the same words. Vitringa ('De Confus. Linguarum') considers this statement to be a preface or introduction to the following narrative, designed to int... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ As they journeyed from the east. The margin has 'eastward' (cf. Genesis 13:11), as indicating, not the course of the travelers, but the position of the writer in reference to... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ Go to - an adverb, interjectionally used as a term of incitement or exhortation. It is equivalent to 'Come on.' In two other passages where the Hebrew and... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ Let us build us a city. The city was in the immediate neighbourhood, if not on the very site of Babylon-the nucleus a... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND THE LORD CAME DOWN TO SEE THE CITY AND THE TOWER, WHICH THE CHILDREN OF MEN BUILDED._ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower. Anthropomorphism is the characteristic style of this history, which frequently describes God as acting more humane. Thus, it speaks of Him as 'coming,' and 'c... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ The people is one, and they have all one language. The multitudes assembled in the plains of Shinar formed an orga... [ Continue Reading ]
_GO TO, LET US GO DOWN, AND THERE CONFOUND THEIR LANGUAGE, THAT THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER'S SPEECH._ Let us ... confound their language - Hebrew, lips; and the Hebrew verb "confound" means to mingle things together, so as to produce a new and composite substance (see the note on the use o... [ Continue Reading ]
_SO THE LORD SCATTERED THEM ABROAD FROM THENCE UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH: AND THEY LEFT OFF TO BUILD THE CITY._ So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence, ... Thus easily was their purpose defeated by God. Their crime was a premature attempt at centralization, rather, perhaps, than any vas... [ Continue Reading ]
_THEREFORE IS THE NAME OF IT CALLED BABEL; BECAUSE THE LORD DID THERE CONFOUND THE LANGUAGE OF ALL THE EARTH: AND FROM THENCE DID THE LORD SCATTER THEM ABROAD UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH._ Therefore is the name of it called Babel. Rationalist writers regard this Mosaic narrative as the embodimen... [ Continue Reading ]
_THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM: SHEM WAS AN HUNDRED YEARS OLD, AND BEGAT ARPHAXAD TWO YEARS AFTER THE FLOOD:_ These are the generations of Shem. The sacred historian here passes from the general to the particular, and, as introductory to the biography of Abraham, traces his lineal descent from... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND SHEM LIVED AFTER HE BEGAT ARPHAXAD FIVE HUNDRED YEARS, AND BEGAT SONS AND DAUGHTERS._ No JFB commentary on these verses.... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND TERAH LIVED SEVENTY YEARS, AND BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN._ Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. It appears that Terah did not acquire the paternal character until he had reached the age of seventy, and that although in the enumeration of his sons, Abram, like Shem... [ Continue Reading ]
_NOW THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH: TERAH BEGAT ABRAM NAHOR AND HARAN; AND HARAN BEGAT LOT_ _ NOW THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH: TERAH BEGAT ABRAM, NAHOR, AND HARAN; AND HARAN BEGAT LOT._ Now these are the generations of Terah - (see the note at Genesis 2:4; Genesis 5:1). This section of... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND HARAN DIED BEFORE HIS FATHER TERAH IN THE LAND OF HIS NATIVITY, IN UR OF THE CHALDEES._ Haran died ... in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. Josephus speaks of the sepulchre being still pointed out in his time at Ur. As to the locality of Ur, the name has been assigned to various... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 ISCAH._ Abram and Nahor took them wives. The consuetudinary law of marriage in nomadic tribes obliges a young man to choose... [ Continue Reading ]
_BUT SARAI WAS BARREN; SHE HAD NO CHILD._ No JFB commentary on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND 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 HARAN, AND DWELT THERE._ Terah took Abram ... to go into the land of C... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND THE DAYS OF TERAH WERE TWO HUNDRED AND FIVE YEARS: AND TERAH DIED IN HARAN._ And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years. This has long been regarded as a difficulty, for the solution of which various explanations have been offered; but all of them are unsatisfactory; and certainly i... [ Continue Reading ]