Genesis 11

2 from the east. Or, “in the east.” Probably descending the Eastern mountains to “Shinar,” Babylonia.

3 brick. There is no stone in this district; and the ancient bricks and pottery found here are fine and well burned.

slime. Bitumen, or asphalt; a natural production of the district, of a peculiarly adhesive nature.

4 heaven. An idiomatic expression, meaning a very great height. See Deut. i. 28; Dan. iv. 11.

5 came down. See note on vi. 6.

9. Babel. The name, probably, conferred by the builders. The word in Hebrew means confusion. The miracle of Pentecost reverses that of Babel, and suggests the gathering together in Christ of those whom the dispersion scattered abroad. See John xi. 52.

12. Salah. The genealogy given by St. Luke introduces “Cainan” between Arphaxad and Salah; and the present readings of the Septuagint agree with it.

26 seventy. As in ch. v. 32, this is the date of the birth of the eldest. Comparing xi. 32 with xii. 4, we infer that Terah was one hundred and thirty years old at the birth of Abram. Probably, then, Haran, although mentioned last (cp. v. 32), was the eldest; and if, as the Jews affirm, Sarai was the same as Iscah, his daughter (ver. 29), it will follow, from xx. 12, that Haran and Abraham were sons of two different wives of Terah.—Haran. The preceding verses (10-26), with ch. v. and Matt. i. 1-16, form together a complete genealogy of Christ.

28. Ur. The Babylonian Uru, now Mugheir or Mukkeyah on the W. bank of the Euphrates. Since the Great War (1914-1918), the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania have had a Joint Expedition excavating in Mesopotamia. In 1922 its workers commenced at Ur. Here and there on the burnt bricks, the newest of which date from 550 B.C. and the oldest of which have outlived 4000 years, “one can read the names of Nebuchadnezzar or of that King Ur-Engur whose buildings were of a respectable antiquity when Abraham was born” (Mr. C. L. Woolley in The Times, Nov. 24, 1924). In March 1925, the expedition found a limestone slab with the portrait of the builder, and his own record of its conception. Sir Frederic Kenyon of the British Museum said it was the most important early monument of Babylonia that has yet been found.—Chaldees. The Chaldees appear to have been originally a tribe of warriors from the north-east of Mesopotamia, probably the mountains of Kourdistan

(See Isa. xxiii. 13; Habak. i. 6-11.) They afterwards overran the south, which from them took the name of Chaldæa, and where they formed the caste of priests and soldiers.

31 went forth. See xv. 7; Acts vii. 3.

Haran. Properly “Charran,” as in Acts vii. 4; a different word from the name of Abram’s brother. It is generally identified with Charra, near Edessa. In Isa. xxxvii. 12, it appears as subject to the Assyrians, and in Ezek. xxvii. 23 as a Tyrian mart.