Genesis 11:1-9 ESV

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:1

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, the Levant, and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete; with Lud on his journey to Asia Minor, and the Japhethites breaking their way into Europe through the country between the Caspian and the Black... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:2

(2) 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 north-west of Shinar, and while so lofty a mountain could not have been the spot where the ark rested, yet neither could any portion of Armenia or of the Carduchian mountains be described as to the east... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:3

(3) 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 insoluble; and their buildings with “slime,” or native pitch, for cement would be virtually indestructible. In fact, Mr. Layard says that at Birs-Nimroud it was scarcely possible to detach the bricks... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:4

(4) 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 guide them in their return from their wanderings; and secondly, they had a distinctly ambitious object, for by remaining as one nation they would be able to reduce to obedience all the tribes now... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:5-7

(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 upper and heavenly dwelling of man’s ambitious purpose, determines to go and inspect the work in person, that having seen, he may deal with the offenders justly. He views, therefore, “the city and the... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:8

(8) 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 Divine purpose of occupying the world was carried into effect, while the project of this ambitious knot of men to hold mankind together was frustrated, and the building of their tower ceased. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:9

(9) 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 for Baal; and though we Westerns omit the strong guttural, because we cannot pronounce it, the Orientals would preserve it. El is the regular Semitic word for God—in Assyrian, Ili; in Arabic, Ilah; in... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Genesis 11:1-32

Youth and After Genesis 11:32 'And Terah died in Haran.' What of that? It was not until they came to Haran that they touched, as it were, their first footprints and found the old religion. There had been little temptation to pause before on the score of a people's worship, but when, worn out in body and mind, Abram suddenly came upon the old religion, his journeyings after another faith and form of worship were at an end. It was Abram the younger man who withstood the temptations of Haran. I.... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Genesis 11:1-32

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 ) 2. Their attempt: “Let us make” (Genesis 11:3-4 ) 3. The divine answer: “Let us go down” (Genesis 11:5-7 ) 4. The Result (Genesis 11:8-9 ) 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... read more

John Calvin

Geneva Study Bible - Genesis 11:2

11:2 And it came to pass, {a} as {b} they journeyed from the {c} east, that they found a plain in the land of {d} Shinar; and they dwelt there.(a) One hundred and thirty years after the flood.(b) That is, Nimrod and his company.(c) That is, from Armenia where the ark stayed.(d) Which was afterward called Chaldea. read more

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:1

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:2

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:3

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:4

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:5-7

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:8

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 11:9

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Genesis 11:1-32

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Genesis 11:1-32

Geneva Study Bible - Genesis 11:2

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