XI. (1) THE WHOLE EARTH. — That is, _all mankind._ After giving the connection of the various races of the then known world, consisting of Armenia, the regions watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, the Arabian peninsula, the Nile valley, with the districts closely bordering on the Delta, Palestine,... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THEY JOURNEYED. — The word literally refers to the pulling up of the tent-pegs, and sets the human family before us as a band of nomads, wandering from place to place, and shifting their tents as their cattle needed fresh pasture. FROM THE EAST. — So all the versions. Mount Ararat was to the nort... [ Continue Reading ]
LET US MAKE BRICK, AND BURN THEM THROUGHLY. — Heb., _for a burning._ Bricks in the East usually are simply dried in the sun, and this produces a sufficiently durable building material. It marks a great progress in the arts of civilisation that these nomads had learned that clay when burnt becomes in... [ Continue Reading ]
A TOWER, WHOSE TOP MAY REACH UNTO HEAVEN. — The Hebrew is far less hyperbolical: namely, _whose head_ (or top) _is in the heavens,_ or skies, like the walls of the Canaanite cities (Deuteronomy 1:28). The object of the builders was twofold: first, they wished to have some central beacon which might... [ Continue Reading ]
(5-7) THE LORD CAME DOWN. — The narrative is given in that simple anthropological manner usual in the Book of Genesis, which so clearly sets before us God’s loving care of man, and here and in Genesis 18:21 the equity of Divine justice. For Jehovah is described as a mighty king, who, hearing in His... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD (JEHOVAH) SCATTERED THEM ABROAD FROM THENCE UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH: AND THEY LEFT OFF TO BUILD THE CITY. — The tendency of men, as the result of a growing diversity of language, was to separate, each tribe holding intercourse only with those who spake their own dialect; and so the D... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE IS THE NAME OF IT CALLED BABEL. — Babel is, in Aramaic, Bab-el, _the gate of God,_ and in Assyrian, Bab-ili (Genesis 10:10). It is strange that any one should have derived the word from Bab-Bel, _the gate of Bel,_ for there is no trace that the second _b_ was ever doubled; moreover, Bel is... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TÔLDÔTH SHEM. (10-26) THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM. — Here also, as in Genesis 5, there is a very considerable divergence between the statements of the Hebrew, the Samaritan, and the Septuagint texts. According to the Hebrew, the total number of years from Shem to the birth of Abram was 39... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TÔLDÔTH TERAH. (27) NOW THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS. — This _tôldôth,_ which extends to Genesis 25:11, is one of the most interesting in the Book of Genesis, as it gives us the history of the patriarch Abraham, in whom God was pleased to lay the foundation of the interme diate dispensation and of... [ Continue Reading ]
HARAN DIED BEFORE HIS FATHER. — Heb., _in the presence of his father._ This is the first recorded instance of a premature death caused by natural decay. IN UR OF THE CHALDEES. — _Ur_-_Casdim._ A flood of light has been thrown upon this town by the translation of the cuneiform inscriptions, and we ma... [ Continue Reading ]
ISCAH. — Not the same as Sarai, for we learn in Genesis 20:12 that she was Abraham’s half-sister — that is, a daughter of Terah by another wife. Nor was she Lot’s wife, as Ewald supposed, for she was his full sister. Marriages between near relatives seem to have been allowed at this time, and were p... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WENT FORTH WITH THEM. — This may possibly mean that they went forth in one body; but the phrase is strange, and the Samaritan, followed by the LXX. and Vulg.,by a slight transposition of the letters reads, “And he (Terah) brought them forth.” HARAN. — The Charran of Acts 7:4, that is, Carrhae... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DAYS OF TERAH. — See note on Genesis 11:26. According to the Samaritan text, Abram left Haran in the same year as that in which Terah died. Nahor had probably joined Terah about this time, as we find him subsequently settled in Haran (Genesis 24:10); and moreover, Abram is expressly commanded to... [ Continue Reading ]