Genesis 11

Gen 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

the whole earth was of one language - The descendants of Noah, united by the strong bond of a common language, had not separated, and notwithstanding the divine command to replenish the earth, were unwilling to separate.

one language - all mankind was of one language, in all likelihood the Hebrew; It is generally supposed, that after the confusion mentioned in this chapter, the Hebrew language remained in the family of Heber. The proper names, and their significations given in the Scripture, seem incontestable evidences that the Hebrew language was the original language of the earth - the language in which God spake to man, and in which he gave the revelation of his will to Moses and the prophets. After this, it was used among the Hebrews or Jews, called therefore the Jews’ language, Isaiah 36:11 And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the chief of the cupbearers, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. But do not speak to us in Jewish in the ears of the people on the wall, until they were carried captive into Babylon, where the holy tongue ceased from being commonly used, and the mixed Hebrew (or Chaldee) came in its place.”

Gen 11:2 And it happened, as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they lived there.

as they journeyed from the east - That is, the inhabitants of the whole earth.

from the east - Assyria, Mesopotamia, and the country on the borders and beyond the Euphrates, are called the east in the sacred writings. Balaam said that the king of Moab had brought him from the mountains of the east, Numbers 23:7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying , Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, defy Israel. Now it appears, from Numbers 22:5 He sent messengers therefore to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, by the river of the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying, Behold! A people come out from Egypt. Behold! They cover the face of the earth, and they are staying across from me that Balaam dwelt at Pethor, on the river Euphrates. And it is very probable that it was from this country that the wise men came to adore Christ; for it is said they came from the east to Jerusalem, Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, Abraham is said to have come from the east to Canaan, Isa_41:2; but it is well known that he came from Mesopotamia and Chaldea. Isaiah 46:11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken, I will also cause it to come; I have formed; yes, I will do it represents Cyrus as coming from the east against Babylon. Daniel 11:44 But news out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Then he will go out with great fury to destroy, and to devote many to destruction represents Antiochus as troubled at news received from the east; i.e. of a revolt in the eastern provinces, beyond the Euphrates.

Gen 11:3 And they said to one another, Come, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

Gen 11:4 And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower, and its top in the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth.

whose top may reach unto heaven - a common figurative expression for great height, that it should be raised exceeding high, like the cities in Canaan, said to be walled up to heaven, Deuteronomy 1:28 Where shall we go up? Our brothers have broken our heart, saying, We have seen there a people greater and taller than we are . The cities are great and walled up to the heavens, also the sons of the giants hyperbolically speaking.

and let us make us a name –they proposed by erecting such an edifice to spread their fame, and perpetuate their name to the latest posterity, that hereby it might be known, that at such a time, and in such a place, were such a body of people, even all the inhabitants of the world; and all of them the sons of one man. A monument to the glory of man, not God. This is the language of pride in man, who wishes to know nothing above himself, and to rise beyond the reach of an over-ruling Providence.

lest we be scattered abroad – directly in opposition to the will of the Lord, who told them to spread out on the face of the earth. Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons. And He said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. To build a city and a town was no crime; but to do this to defeat the counsels of heaven by attempting to prevent emigration was foolish, wicked, and justly offensive to God.

Let us build us a city and a tower – One commentator supposes that the purpose in building the tower was to erect a temple to the host of heaven - the sun, moon, planets.

The Targums assert that the tower was for idolatrous worship; and that they intended to place an image on the top of the tower with a sword in its hand, probably to act as a talisman against their enemies. Whatever their design might have been, it is certain that this temple or tower was afterwards devoted to idolatrous purposes. Nebuchadnezzar repaired and beautified this tower, and it was dedicated to Bel, or the sun. An account of this tower, and of the confusion of tongues, is given by several ancient authors. Herodotus saw the tower and described it.

Gen 11:5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam had built.

And the Lord came down to see - Not locally or visibly, being immense, omnipresent, and invisible; nor in order to see and take notice of what he otherwise could not see from heaven, for he is omniscient; but this is spoken after the manner of men, and is to be understood of some effects and displays of his power, which were manifest, and showed him to be present:

which the children of men had built - or were building, for they had not finished their building, at least not the city, as appears from Genesis 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of all the earth. And they quit building the city.

The primitive language is extinct, buried in the materials of the languages of the nations, to rise again one day to eternal life in the glorified form intelligible to all the redeemed, when sin with its consequences is overcome and extinguished by the power of grace. A type of pledge of this hope was given in the gift of tongues on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church on the first Christian day of Pentecost, when the apostles, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke with other or new tongues of “the wonderful works of God,” so that the people of every nation under heaven understood in their own language (Act_2:1-11).

Gen 11:6 And Jehovah said, Behold! The people is one and they all have one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing which they have imagined to do will be restrained from them.

the people is one, and they have all one language - which some think is spoken ironically; but may be understood seriously, that the people who were concerned in this building were unanimous, not only in their religious principles, such as they were, but in their counsel, purpose, and design in building; they went on with great concord, harmony, and vigour, and being of one language, they understood one another, and so could carry on their work with the greater expedition:

and now nothing will be restrained from them - they were not to be prevailed upon to desist from their work, by any advice that the sons of God could give them; they were obstinate and self-willed, and not to be argued with and persuaded to leave off; and there was no power on earth superior to them, to oblige them to it; they could only be restrained from their enterprise, and hindered from executing it, by divine power; and which was judged necessary to exert, as appears by what follows: and the words may be rendered, "shall they not be restrained? &c." they shall.

Gen 11:7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another's speech.

confound their language--literally, "their lip"; From this and the previous verse Genesis 11:1 And the whole earth was of one lip and of one speech (LITV) we learn that the lip, and not the stock of words, is the part of language which is to be affected, and hence, perceive the propriety of distinguishing these two in the introductory statement.

Go to - A form of speech which, whatever it might have signified formerly, now means nothing. The Hebrew habah signifies come, make preparation, as it were for a journey, the execution of a purpose, etc. Almost all the versions understand the word in this way; the Septuagint and the Vulgate signify come, or come ye. This makes a very good sense, Come, let its go down, etc.

As the confounding of tongues divided the children of men, and scattered them abroad, so the gift of tongues bestowed upon the Apostles, Act_2:4-11, contributed greatly to the gathering together of the children of God, which were scattered abroad, and the uniting of them in Christ, that with one mind and mouth they might glorify God, Romans 15:6 so that with one mind and one mouth you may glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gen 11:8 So Jehovah scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of all the earth. And they quit building the city.

This passage, then, explains the table of nations, in which they are said to be distinguished, not merely by birth and land, but “every one after his tongue.” It is therefore attached to the table as a needful appendix, and thus completes the history of the nations so far as it is carried on by the Bible. At this point the line of history leaves the universal, and by a rapid contraction narrows itself into the individual, in the person of him who is to be ultimately the parent of a chosen seed, in which the knowledge of God and of his truth is to be preserved, amidst the degeneracy of the nations into the ignorance and error which are the natural offspring of sin.

And they quit building the city - and they left off to build the city; it seems they had finished the tower, but not the city, and therefore are only said to leave off building that; though the Septuagint versions adds, "and the tower"; Genesis 11:8 And the Lord scattered them thence over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower. (Septuagint).

Gen 11:9 Therefore the name of it is called Babel; because Jehovah confused the language of all the earth there. And from there Jehovah scattered them abroad on the face of all the earth.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel - The name of the city mentioned, and the tower also, which signifies "confusion," as the Septuagint version renders it; and so Josephus says the Hebrews call confusion "Babel": perhaps this name was given it by the sons of Eber, or it might be a common name preserved in all languages, as some are; and though the first builders desisted from going on with building it, yet it seems that afterwards Nimrod went on with it, and completed it, and made it the beginning of his kingdom, or his capital city; and perhaps he and his family might continue after the confusion and dispersion somewhere near unto it, see Genesis 10:10.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel - babel, from bal, to mingle, confound, destroy; hence Babel, from the mingling together and confounding of the projects and language of these descendants of Noah.

Gen 11:10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

These are the generations of Shem - Or a genealogy of the posterity of Shem; only of those of the line which led to Abraham, by which might appear the true line in which the Messiah from Adam through Abraham sprung: Shem was one hundred years old, and begat Arphexad two years after the flood; by which it is pretty plain that he was younger than Japheth;

Genesis 11. and 12. mark an important turning point in the divine dealing. Heretofore the history has been that of the whole Adamic race. There has been neither Jew nor Gentile; all have been one in "the first man Adam." Henceforth, in the Scripture record, humanity must be thought of as a vast stream from which God, in the call of Abram and the creation of the nation of Israel, has but drawn off a slender rill, through which He may at last purify the great river itself. Israel was called to be a witness to the unity of God in the midst of universal idolatry Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O, Israel. Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. Isaiah 43:10-12 You are My witnesses, says Jehovah, and My servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me no God was formed, nor shall there be after Me. I, I am Jehovah; and there is none to save besides Me. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shown, when there was no strange god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says Jehovah, that I am God to illustrate the blessedness of serving the true God Deuteronomy 33:26-29 There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heaven to your help, and in His majesty on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And He shall throw the enemy out from before you, and shall say, Destroy! And Israel shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob in a land of grain and wine; and his heavens shall drop down dew. Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, O people saved by Jehovah, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! And your enemies shall be found liars to you, and you shall tread on their high places to receive and preserve the divine revelations; Romans 3:1-2 Then what is the superiority of the Jew? Or what is the profit of circumcision? Much, by every way! Chiefly, indeed, because they were entrusted with the oracles of God. Deuteronomy 4:5-8 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Jehovah my God commanded me, so that you should do so in the land where you go to possess it. And you shall keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For who is a great nation whose God is coming near to them, as Jehovah our God is, in all our calling on Him? And who is a great nation whose statutes and judgments are so righteous as all this Law which I set before you today? and to produce the messiah; Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 21:12 And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the boy and because of your slave woman. In all that Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice. For in Isaac your Seed shall be called. Genesis 28:14 And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in you and in your Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. And the obedience of the peoples to him. 2Samuel 7:16-17 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever. According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. Isaiah 4:3-4 And it shall be, he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. Matthew 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

After describing the division of the one family which sprang from the three sons of Noah, into many nations scattered over the earth and speaking different languages, the narrative returns to Shem, and traces his descendants in a direct line to Terah the father of Abraham. The first five members of this pedigree have already been given in the genealogy of the Shemites; and in that case the object was to point out the connection in which all the descendants of Eber stood to one another. They are repeated here to show the direct descent of the Terahites through Peleg from Shem, but more especially to follow the chronological thread of the family line. By the statement in Gen_11:10, that “Shem, a hundred years old, begat Arphaxad two years after the flood,” the chronological date already given of Noah's age at the birth of his sons (Gen_5:32) and at the commencement of the flood (Gen_7:11) are made still more definite.

Gen 11:11 And after he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

And Shem lived, after he begat Arphaxad, five hundred years - So that his whole age was six hundred years, and therefore must live to the times of Abraham, and even throughout the life of that patriarch, or near the end of it; and if he was the same with Melchizedek, as is the general opinion of the Jews, and is embraced by many Christians, they had an interview with each other:

Gen 11:12 And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and fathered Salah.

Arphaxad lived thirty five years - Arphaxad is the first on record that had a son born to him so early

Gen 11:13 And after he fathered Salah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gen 11:14 And Salah lived thirty years and fathered Eber.

Salah lived thirty years - He had a son born to him five years sooner than his father had;

Gen 11:15 And after he fathered Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gen 11:16 And Eber lived thirty-four years and fathered Peleg.

Gen 11:17 And after he fathered Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

and he begat sons and daughters - one of which is elsewhere mentioned, whose name is Joktan, Genesis 10:25

Gen 11:18 And Peleg lived thirty years and fathered Reu.

and begat Reu - Or Ragau, as he is called in the Septuagint version: he is supposed to give name to a large plain called Ragau, near Assyria, about Tigris and Euphrates.

Gen 11:19 After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gen 11:20 And Reu lived thirty-two years and fathered Serug.

and begat Serug - He is thought to give name to a city called Sarug.

Gen 11:21 And after he fathered Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gen 11:22 And Serug lived thirty years and fathered Nahor.

and begat Nahor - The grandfather of Abraham, one of the same name was Abraham's brother, Genesis 11:26.

Gen 11:23 And after he fathered Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gen 11:24 And Nahor lived twenty-nine years and fathered Terah.

and begat Terah - The father of Abraham and possibly the first of the patriarchs of this line of Shem that fell off from the true religion to idolatry Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, So says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived Beyond the River in times past, Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Gen 11:25 And after he fathered Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteen years. And he fathered sons and daughters.

Gen 11:26 And Terah lived seventy years and fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran.

and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran - Abram, though named first, does not appear to be the eldest, but rather Haran; it seems pretty plain that Abram was not born until the one hundred and thirtieth year of his father's life, for Terah was two hundred and five years old when he died, Genesis 11:32 and Abram was but seventy five years of age when he went out of Haran to Canaan, Genesis 12:4 and that was as soon as his father died there; and so that if seventy five are taken out two hundred and five, there will remain one hundred and thirty, in which year and not before Abram must be born.

and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran - Haran was certainly the eldest son of Terah, and Abram his youngest son. Many have been greatly puzzled with the account here, supposing because Abram is mentioned first, that therefore he was the eldest son of Terah: but he is only put first by way of dignity. An in stance of this we have already seen, Gen_5:32, where Noah is represented as having Shem, Ham, and Japheth in this order of succession; whereas it is evident from other scriptures that Shem was the youngest son, who for dignity is named first, as Abram is here; and Japheth the eldest, named last, as Haran is here.

When any case of dignity or pre-eminence is to be marked, then even the youngest son is set before all the rest, though contrary to the usage of the Scriptures in other cases. Hence we find Shem, the youngest son of Noah, always mentioned first; Moses is mentioned before his elder brother Aaron; and Abram before his two elder brethren Haran and Nahor.

Gen 11:27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran fathered Lot.

Now these are the generations of Terah - Or the genealogy of his descendents, which is a very short one; for it only gives an account of his three sons as before.

and Haran begat Lot - of whom we have some further account in Genesis 13:1.

The history here given of the postdiluvians has a striking resemblance in structure to that of the antediluvians. The preservation of Noah from the waters of the flood, is the counterpart of the creation of Adam after the land had risen out of the roaring deep. The intoxication of Noah by the fruit of a tree corresponds with the fall of Adam by eating the fruit of a forbidden tree. The worldly policy of Nimrod and his builders is parallel with the city-building and many inventions of the Cainites. The pedigree of Abram the tenth from Shem, stands over against the pedigree of Noah the tenth from Adam; and the paragraph now before us bears some resemblance to what precedes the personal history of Noah.

Gen 11:28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Before his father - lit., upon the face of his father, so that he saw and survived his death.

Ur--now Orfa; that is, "light, or "fire." Its name possibly derived from its being devoted to the rites of fire-worship. Terah and his family were equally infected with that idolatry as the rest of the inhabitants Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve Jehovah, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served Beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.

In the land of his birth. - The migration of Terah, therefore, did not take place until after the death of Haran.

In Ur of the Kasdim. - The Kasdim, Cardi, Kurds, or Chaldees are not to be found in the table of nations. They have been generally supposed to be Shemites. This is favored by the residence of Abram among them, by the name Kesed, being a family name among his kindred Gen_22:22, and by the language commonly called Chaldee, which is a species of Aramaic. But among the settlers of the country, the descendants of Ham probably prevailed in early times. The Chaldees were spread over a great extent of surface; but their most celebrated seat was Chaldaea proper, or the land of Shinar. The inhabitants of this country seem to have been of mixed descent, being bound together by political rather than family ties. The tongue of the Kaldees, whether pure or mixed, and whether Shemitic or not, is possibly distinct from the Aramaic, in which they addressed Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Daniel Dan_1:4; Dan_2:4. The Kaldin at length lost their nationality, and merged into the caste or class of learned men or astrologers, into which a man might be admitted, not merely by being a Kaldai by birth, but by acquiring the language and learning of the Kasdim Dan_1:4; Dan_5:11. The seats of Chaldee learning were Borsippa (Birs Nimrud), Ur, Babylon, and Sepharvaim (Sippara, Mosaib).

Gen 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai. And the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

Abram and Nahor took wives - Abram married Sarai, his half-sister (Gen_20:12), of whom it is already related, in anticipation of what follows, that she was barren. Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran, who bore to him Bethuel, the father of Rebekah (Gen_22:22-23). The reason why Iscah is mentioned is doubtful. For the rabbinical notion, that Iscah is another name for Sarai, is irreconcilable with Gen_20:12, where Abram calls Sarai his sister, daughter of his father, though not of his mother; on the other hand, the circumstance that Sarai is introduced in Gen_11:31 merely as the daughter-in-law of Terah, may be explained on the ground that she left Ur, not as his daughter, but as the wife of his son Abram. Many suppose Sarai and Iscah are the same person under two different names; but this is improbable, as Iscah is expressly said to be the daughter of Haran, and Sarai was the daughter of Terah, and half sister of Abram.

the name of Abraham's wife was Sarai - it is not said whose daughter she was, unless she is the same with Iscah, the daughter of Haran, and so had two names, Iscah her name before marriage, Sarai after it, Abram calling her "my mistress," as "Sarai" signifies, as she called him my lord: so the Targum take them to be the same; but according to Genesis 20:12 Sarai should be the daughter of Terah, the father of Abraham, by another woman.

Iscah - Iscah is called the daughter-in-law of Terah (Gen_11:31), as being Abram’s wife; yet Abram afterwards said, “she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother” (Gen_20:12). Probably Haran was the eldest son of Terah, and Abram his youngest by another wife; and thus Sarai was the daughter, or grand-daughter of Terah, Abram’s father, but not of his mother.

Gen 11:30 But Sarai was barren. She had no child.

Gen 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. And he went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. And they came to Haran and lived there.

from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan - Terah and Abram went forth with Lot and Sarai, Haran was the city of Nahor, where his family in later times dwelt. One commentator says this was two days' journey south-southeast from Ur.

And Terah took Abram - Terah takes the lead in this emigration, as the patriarch of the family. In the Samaritan Pentateuch Milkah is mentioned among the emigrants; and it is not improbable that Nahor and his family accompanied Terah, as we find them afterward at Haran, or the city of Nahor Gen_24:10.

The Chaldees mentioned here had not this name in the time of which Moses speaks, but they were called so in the time in which Moses wrote. Chesed was the son of Nahor, the son of Terah, Genesis 22:22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. From Chesed descended the Chasdim, whose language was the same as that of the Amorites, Daniel 1:4 sons in whom was no blemish, but who were handsome and skillful in all wisdom; and who had knowledge and understanding, even those who were able to stand in the king's palace, and to whom they might teach the writing and the language of the Chaldeans. Daniel 2:4 And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will reveal the meaning. These Chasdim, the Chaldeans of the Septuagint, Vulgate, and all later versions, afterwards settled on the south of the Euphrates. Those who dwelt in Ur were either priests or astronomers, Daniel 2:10 The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man on the earth who can reveal the king's matter, because not any king, lord, nor ruler has asked such a thing from any horoscopist or conjurer or Chaldean and also idolaters, Joshua 24:2-3 And Joshua said to all the people, So says the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers lived Beyond the River in times past, Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from Beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. Jos_24:14-15 Now, then, fear the LORD, and serve Him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served Beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. And because they were much addicted to astronomy, and probably to judicial astrology, hence all astrologers were, in process of time, called Chaldeans, Daniel 2:2-5 And the king commanded to call to the horoscopists, and to the conjurers, and to the sorcerers, and to the Chaldeans, to tell to the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will reveal the meaning. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing has gone from me. If you will not make known to me the dream, with its meaning, you will be made into mere members, and your houses shall be made an outhouse.

The building of Babel, the confusion of tongues, and the first call of Abram, are three remarkable particulars in this chapter; and these led to the accomplishment of three grand and important designs:
1. The peopling of the whole earth;
2. The preservation of the true religion by the means of one family; and
3. The preservation of the line uncorrupted by which the Messiah should come.

Gen 11:32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years. And Terah died in Haran.

And the days of Terah were two hundred years - his death being the time of Abram's leaving Chaldea and coming into the land of Canaan, given to him and his seed for an inheritance; Acts 7:4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, he moved into this land in which you now dwell.