Genesis · WEB
Genesis
11
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Genesis is not in WEB-C, so this chapter is shown from WEB (World English Bible (Protestant canon)).
The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. See also: Acts 2:6Zephaniah 3:9Isaiah 19:18As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. See also: Genesis 10:10Daniel 1:2Genesis 14:1They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. See also: Genesis 14:10Exodus 1:14Exodus 2:3They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.” See also: Deuteronomy 1:28John 5:44Luke 1:51The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. See also: Psalms 33:13-14Genesis 18:21John 3:13The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. See also: Psalms 2:1-4Genesis 3:22Genesis 11:1Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” See also: Psalms 33:10Genesis 1:26Job 5:12-13So the LORD scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city. See also: Luke 1:51Genesis 10:32Genesis 10:25Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. From there, the LORD scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth. See also: Genesis 10:5Genesis 10:10Genesis 10:20This is the history of the generations of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood. See also: 1 Chronicles 1:17-27Luke 3:34-36Genesis 11:27Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of more sons and daughters. See also: Genesis 9:7Genesis 1:28Genesis 5:4-32Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah. See also: Luke 3:36Arpachshad lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Shelah, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber. Shelah lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Eber, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg. See also: Numbers 24:24Genesis 10:251 Chronicles 1:19Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu. See also: Luke 3:35Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug. See also: Luke 3:35Reu lived two hundred seven years after he became the father of Serug, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor. See also: Joshua 24:2Serug lived two hundred years after he became the father of Nahor, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah. See also: Luke 3:34Joshua 24:2Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and became the father of more sons and daughters. Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. See also: Joshua 24:21 Chronicles 1:26-27Genesis 12:4-5Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. See also: Genesis 14:12Genesis 11:31Genesis 12:4Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees, while his father Terah was still alive. See also: Genesis 15:7Acts 7:2-4Genesis 11:31Abram and Nahor married wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. See also: Genesis 17:15Genesis 22:20Genesis 20:12Sarai was barren. She had no child. See also: Judges 13:2Luke 1:7Genesis 21:1-2Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there. See also: Nehemiah 9:7Acts 7:2-4Genesis 12:4The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)11 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Genesis 11:1
Ver. 1. Speech. Probably Hebrew; in which language we have the most ancient book in the world, the work of Moses. This language has been preserved ever since, though with some alterations. Most of the oriental languages are but like dialects from it, as French, Italian, &c. are from Latin. The arguments which are brought to prove that other languages are more ancient, because the names of men, &c. have a proper significance in them as well as in Hebrew, do not invalidate the right of the latter. The most respectable authors have, therefore, always declared for it. H.
↑ 1Genesis 11:2
Ver. 2. The East: Armenia, which lies to the eastward of Babylonia, whither they directed their course in quest of provisions for themselves and cattle, being now grown pretty numerous. M.
↑ 2Genesis 11:3
Ver. 3. Each one: not that every individual joined in this undertaking, considered, at least, as a rash and presumptuous attempt to save themselves from a second deluge. Some might innocently give in to it, meaning only to leave a monument to their common origin and friendship, before they separated into distant countries. Slime: literally bitumen. H. ---
The Hebrew, chomer, means also slime, or mortar. Stone is very scarce in that country, but the earth is fat, and very proper to make brick; it also abounds in naphtha, bitumen, &c.: hence the ancients notice the brick walls of Babylon. C.
↑ 3Genesis 11:4
Ver. 4. Famous before; Heb. lest, &c.; as if they intended to prevent that event. H. --- Their motive appears to have been pride, which raised the indignation of God. Nemrod, the chief instigator, might have designed the tower for a retreat, whence he might sally out and maintain his tyranny. M.
↑ 4Genesis 11:6
Ver. 6. In deed. This seems to be spoken ironically; though the effects of weak mortals, the sons of Adam, when pursued with vigour and unanimity, will produce great effects. These builders had conceived an idea of raising the tower as high as possible, hyperbolically, to touch heaven. H.
↑ 6Genesis 11:7
Ver. 7. Come ye, &c. As men seemed bent on taking heaven by storm, like the ancient giants, God turns their expressions, as it were, against themselves, and shews them an example of humility, let us go down. He acts the part of a judge, and therefore will examine all with the utmost diligence, as he denotes by these expressions; being really incapable of moving from place to place, on account of his immensity. H. ---
He seems nearer to men, by the effects or punishments which he inflicted. The address which he here makes is directed, not to the angels, but to the other co-equal powers of the Blessed Trinity. M.
↑ 7Genesis 11:9
Ver. 9. Babel, that is, confusion. This is one of the greatest miracles recorded in the Old Testament; men forgot, in a moment, the language which they had hitherto spoken, and found themselves enabled to speak another, known only to a few of the same family (C.); for we must not suppose that there were as many new languages as there were men at Babel. M.
--- The precise number of languages which were then heard, cannot be determined. The learned commonly acknowledge the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Sclavonian, Tartarian, and Chinese languages, to be original. The rest are only dialects from these. English is chiefly taken from the Teutonic, (C.) with many words borrowed from the Greek and other languages. H.
↑ 9Genesis 11:12
Ver. 12. Sale, or Cainan. See C. x. 24. Chron. i. 18. in the Septuagint. The variation in the years of the Patriarchs, between this ancient version and the Hebrew, is here again very considerable, and perhaps inaccountable. H.
↑ 12Genesis 11:20
Ver. 20. Sarug: in whose days S. Epiphanius places the origin of idolatry; but Eusebius (Præp. i. v. & 9.) thinks it began in Egypt, among the posterity of Cham. C.
↑ 20Genesis 11:27
Ver. 27. Abram, the youngest of the three, being born only in the 130th year of Thare. v. 32, and G. xii. 4. He is placed first, on account of his superior dignity in the church of God, in like manner as Sem, Moses, &c. In his youth, he is supposed to have followed the idolatrous worship of his fathers. S. Aug. de C. D. x. c. ult. Genebrard, A.M. 1949. C. --- But being soon enlightened by God, he becomes a glorious witness of the truth, and, according to many, is preserved miraculously, when thrown into the fire by the Chaldees. v. 31. H.
↑ 27Genesis 11:29
Ver. 29. Jescha, whom many confound with Sarai, as if both Nacher and Abram had married the daughters of their brother Aran. But why then does Moses mention Sarai before, and then call her Jescha in the same verse? It seems as if he intended to designate two different women. H. --- In effect, Abram himself says, Sarai was truly his sister, born of the same father. G. xii. 13. See C. xx. 12, where we shall give the reasons that seem to prove that she was the daughter of Thare, and not Aran. C. --- Jescha does not accompany her grandfather, preferring, perhaps, to stay with Nachor, or to marry in her own country; if she were not already dead when Thare departed from Ur, a city of the Chaldees. H. --- This city is probably Ura, in Mesopotamia, not far from Nisibis, which the Scripture often mentions is a part of Chaldea. Acts. vii. 2.
&c. C. --- It is not, however certain that the rest of Thare's family remained behind; if they did, they removed soon after into the country about Haran, or Charræ, on the Charboras. C.
xxix. 4. Josep. Ant. 1. 6. H.
↑ 29License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses