Genesis 11:4

_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 and origin of that famous capital. Arab tradition makes Calneh, the modern Niffer, the site of the primitive Babel; and in accordance with that tradition the Septuagint speaks of Calneh as the place where the tower was built. (chalanees ou ho purgos ookodomeethee, Isaiah 10:9.) AND A TOWER WHOSE TOP MAY REACH UNTO HEAVEN. It cannot be supposed that they entertained the insane project of raising it to the skies, as the fabled giants are said to have done. The phrase was a figurative mode of expressing great altitude (cf....

4._Whose top may reach unto heaven_. This is an hyperbolical form of speech, in which they boastingly extol the loftiness of the structure they are attempting to raise. And to the same point belongs what they immediately subjoin, Let us make us a name; for they intimate, that the work would be such as should not only be looked upon by the beholders as a kind of miracle, but should be celebrated everywhere to the utmost limits of the world. This is the perpetual infatuation of the world; to neglect heaven, and to seek immortality on earth, where every thing is fading and transient. Therefore, their cares and pursuits tend to no other end than that of acquiring for themselves a name on earth. David, in the forty ninth psalm, deservedly holds up to ridicule this blind cupidity; and the more, because experience (which is the teacher of the foolish) does not restore posterity to a sound mind,...

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 11:4. _LET US BUILD US A CITY AND A TOWER_] On this subject there have been various conjectures. Mr. Hutchinson supposed that the design of the builders was to erect a _temple to the host of_ _heaven_-the sun, moon, planets, c. and, to support this interpretation, he says וראשו בשמים _verosho bashshamayim_ should be translated, not, _whose top_ may reach _unto heaven_, for there is nothing for _may reach_ in the Hebrew, but _its head_ or summit _to the_ _heavens_, i.e. to the heavenly bodies: and, to make this interpretation the more probable, he says that previously to this time the descendants of Noah were all agreed in _one form of_ _religious worship_, (for so he understands ושפה אחת _vesaphah_ _achath, and of one lip_,) i.e. according to him, they had _one_ _litany_; and as God confounded their...

- 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 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 people, advising and encouraging to such an undertaking. It is generally thought what led them to it was to secure them from another flood, they might be in fear of; but this seems not likely, since they had the covenant and oath of God, that the earth should never be destroyed by water any more; and besides, had this been the thing in view, they would not have chosen a plain to build on, a plain that lay between two of the greatest rivers, Tigris, and Euphrates, but rather one of the highest mountains and hills they could have found: nor could a buildi...

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...

MAY REACH. No _Ellipsis_ here. Hebrew "and its top with the heavens", i.e. with the Zodiac depicted on it, as in ancient temples of Denderah and Esneh in Egypt. A NAME. Manifesting independence of God. Nimrod being the rebel leader. See Genesis 10:8, and Compare Genesis 12:2....