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John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 11:27

Now these are the generations of Terah ,.... Or the genealogy of his posterity, which is a very short one; for it only gives an account of his three sons as before: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran : and of three grand children, Lot, Milcah, and Iscah, the children of Haran; and chiefly for the sake of Abram it is given, and indeed the above genealogy of Shem, which ends with him; and of whom and whose posterity the remaining part of this book of Genesis treats: and Haran begat Lot... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 11:28

And Haran died before his father Terah ,.... In his father's presence, before his face, in his life time, as Jarchi; he seeing him, as Aben Ezra: it does not so much respect the time of his death, that it was before his father, though that is true, as the place where he died, his father being present there at the time this was: in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees ; Ur, which Ben Melech renders a valley, was the place of his birth, as it was of Abram's; it was in... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 11:29

And Abram and Nahor took them wives ,.... Very probably after the death of their elder brother Haran, whose daughters they married, at least one of them did, and some think both: 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 of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 11:30

But Sarai was barren; she had no child. Aben Ezra observes, there are some that say that Abraham was impotent, and not Sarai barren; the very reverse of the Scriptures; but as he rightly adds, his son Ishmael and his sons by Keturah show the contrary, see Genesis 15:2 . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 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 ,.... Many words are made use of in describing Lot and Sarai, and yet still we are left pretty much in the dark who Sarai was; for, as Aben Ezra observes, if she was the sister of Abram and daughter of Terah, the Scripture would have said, Terah took Abram his son and Sarai his daughter, and wife of Abram; and if she was the sister of Lot, it would have said, and Sarai... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 11:32

And the days of Terah were two hundred years ,.... His days are summed up as none of the rest are in this genealogy, that it might be observed; 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; see Acts 7:4 . and Terah died in Haran : the Arabic historian F19 Elmaaciuns, ut supra. (p. 31. apud Hottinger. p. 282.) says, he died in Haran in the month Elul, in the year of his age two hundred and... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 11:1

The whole earth was of one language - The whole earth - all mankind was of one language, in all likelihood the Hebrew; and of one speech - articulating the same words in the same way. 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... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 11:2

As they journeyed 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 . Now it appears, from Numbers 22:5 , 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, ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 11:3

Let us make brick - It appears they were obliged to make use of brick, as there was an utter scarcity of stones in that district; and on the same account they were obliged to use slime, that is, bitumen, (Vulg). ασφαλτος , (Septuagint) for mortar: so it appears they had neither common stone nor lime-stone; hence they had brick for stone, and asphaltus or bitumen instead of mortar. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 11:4

Let us build us a city and a tower - On this subject there have been various conjectures. Mr. Hutchinson supposed that the design of the builders was to erect a temple to the host of heaven - the sun, moon, planets, etc.; and, to support this interpretation, he says בשמים וראשו verosho bashshamayim should be translated, not, whose top may reach unto heaven, for there is nothing for may reach in the Hebrew, but its head or summit to the heavens, i.e. to the heavenly bodies: and, to make... read more

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