Genesis 11:2

_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._ 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 Mesopotamia. Knobel renders it 'the countries that are in the East.' We prefer the rendering of the King James Version as the most literal and correct. Hitherto the whole human family had continued in their earliest postdiluvian settlement on the mountainous range of Armenia. But a detachment, perhaps the young and adventurous portion of them, gradually moved away from the primeval residence, and proceeded along the hilly country on the east of the Tigris, in a southward direction, until they had reached the province called by the geographers and historians of later times Susia

2._They found a plain in the land of Shinar_. It may be conjectured from these words, that Moses speaks of Nimrod and of the people whom he had collected around him. If, however, we grant that Nimrod was the chief leader in the construction of so great a pile, for the purpose of erecting a formidable monument of his tyranny: yet Moses expressly relates, that the work was undertaken not by the counsel or the will of one man only, but that all conspired together, so that the blame cannot be cast exclusively upon one, nor even upon a few....

1-4 How soon men forget the most tremendous judgments, and go back to their former crimes! Though the desolations of the deluge were before their eyes, though they sprang from the stock of righteous Noah, yet even during his life-time, wickedness increases exceedingly. Nothing but the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit can remove the sinful lusts of the human will, and the depravity of the human heart. God's purpose was, that mankind should form many nations, and people all lands. In contempt of the Divine will, and against the counsel of Noah, the bulk of mankind united to build a city and a tower to prevent their separating. Idolatry was begun, and Babel became one of its chief seats. They made one another more daring and resolute. Let us learn to provoke one another to love and to good works, as sinners stir up and encourage one another to wicked works....

Verse Genesis 11:2. _AS THEY JOURNEYED FROM THE EAST_] Assyria, Mesopotamia, and the country on the borders and beyond the Euphrates, are called the _east_ in the sacred writings. Balaam said that the king of Moab had brought him _from the mountains of the east_, Numbers 23:7. Now it appears, from Numbers 22:5, that Balaam dwelt at Pethor, on the river Euphrates. And it is very probable that it was from this country that the wise men came to adore Christ; for it is said they came _from the east_ to Jerusalem, Matthew 2:1. Abraham is said to have come _from the east_ to Canaan,...

- The Confusion of Tongues 1. נסע _nāsa‛_ “pluck out, break up, journey.” מקדם _mı̂qedem_ “eastward, or on the east side” as in Genesis 2:14; Genesis 13:11; Isaiah 9:11 (12). 6. החלם _hachı̂lām_ “their beginning”, for החלם _hăchı̂lām_, the regular form of this infinitive with a suffix. יזמוּ _yāzmû_ as if from יזם _yāzam_ =...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 11:1 AND THE WHOLE EARTH. I_.e._ the entire population of the globe, and not simply the inhabitants of the land of Shinar (Ingiis; cf. Genesis 9:29). WAS. Prior to the dispersion spoken of in the preceding chapter, though obviously it may have been subsequent to that event, if, as the above-named author believes, the present paragraph refers to the Shemites alone. OF ONE LANGUAGE. Literally, _of one lip, i.e._ one articulation, or one way of pronouncing their vocables. AND OF ONE SPEECH. Literally, _one_ (kind of) _words_, _i.e._ the matter as well as the form of human speech was the same. The primitive language was bel

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 families increased, they set out in a body from the place where they were, to seek for a more convenient one: it seems a little difficult how to interpret this phrase, "from the east", since if they came from Ararat in Armenia, where the ark rested, as that lay north of Shinar or Babylon, they might rather be said to come from the north than from the east, and rather came to it than from it: so some think the phrase should be rendered, "to the east" b, or eastward, as in Genesis 13:11. Jarchi thinks this refers to...

CHAPTER 11:1-9 THE TOWER OF BABEL AND THE SCATTERING OF THE NATIONS _ 1. The unity of the nations in Shinar (Genesis 11:1)_ 2. Their attempt: “Let us make” (Genesis 11:3) 3. The divine answer: “Let us go down” (Genesis 11:5) 4. The Result (Genesis 11:8) All the earth had one language. This is also proven by philological research. The whole human family journeyed together. They left the mountainous regions and went down to the plain. This expresses their descent morally; they turned away from God, though they had the knowledge of God ...

THE CITY, THE TOWER, AND THE CONFUSION OF SPEECH. The section plainly belongs to J but not to the same stratum as the story of the Flood, nor is it consistent with the origin assigned to the various nations in Genesis 11:10. It is an æ tiological story (p. 134), naturally not historical, answering the question, Why is it that though the races of mankind have sprung from a common ancestry they speak so many different languages? The Divine jealousy, which fears what a united humanity may achieve, whose first enterprise is planned on a scale so colossal, is like that shown in the prohibition of the tree of knowledge, the guarding of the tree of life, and the displeasure excited in Yahweh's mind by the angel marriages. The narrative presumably originated in Babylon, though no cuneiform parallel has been discovered, and it may have expressed the attitude of the nomads towards the buildings of...

FROM THE EAST. eastward. SHINAR. Babylonia....