far from the scene of the first transgression, for the renewal of that hostility with heaven which had cost their fathers so dear. They commenced their operations in the very place, or at least, in its immediate neighbourhood, where rose in future ages, the imperial city of Babylon, and by consequence, upon the original and natural stream of the Euphrates, at some distance from its confluence with the Tigris. The time when the city and tower were built, may be inferred with sufficient certainty from these words of Moses: And unto Eber were born two sons, the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided."" The meaning of the historian must be, that the earth was divided at the time Peleg was born; for the name was given at his birth, in allusion to the signal occurrence which had then recently happened. But the inspired writer informs us in another passage, that Peleg was born an hundred years after the flood ;† therefore, in the same year, the building of the tower was interrupted, and the sons of Noah were scattered over the face of the earth. The dispersion, however, affected only the irreligious part of Noah's family; for, as has been already remarked, it is not to be supposed that the patriarch himself, or Shem and others to whom the covenant was given, would engage in so wicked a scheme, or give it the sanction of their approbation. This idea receives great confirmation from the words of Moses, in which he characterizes the builders the children of men ;'§ for in the sixth chapter, the sons of God are opposed to the daughters of men, as believers in God to unbelievers. Moses, therefore, in using the term Adam, insinuates, that only the unbelieving part of Noah's * Peleg in the original signifies division. + Genesis xi. 10-16. [Arphaxad was born 2 years after the flood; from the birth of Arphaxad to that of Salah there was a period of 35 years; from the birth of Salah to that of Eber, 30; from the birth of Eber to that of Peleg, 34; making in all 101 years.]-Editor. Bochart. Phal. lib. i. c. 9, p. 36. § Gen. xi. 5. family were engaged in that act of rebellion. But, if the venerable patriarch and his religious offspring took no part in the crime, they suffered no part of the punishment in which their impious relations were involved. While the speech of the latter was confounded, the former retained their native language in all its purity, and transmitted it by Shem, Arphaxad, and Salah, to Heber the ancestor of Abraham, the renowned founder of the Hebrew nation. This was no other than the language which the descendants of Heber, in the line of Abraham, continued to speak for many generations, and in which the sacred books of the Old Testament were written. While the presumptuous builders of the city and tower of Babel were, in the righteous displeasure of God, scattered over the face of the earth, the patriarch and his adherents remained undisturbed in their original settlements; for Ur of the Chaldees, where the ancestors of Abram resided, was not far distant from the Gordiæan mountains on which the ark rested. Ammianus mentions a city of this name, situated in the eastern parts of Mesopotamia, between the river Tigris and the city of Nisibis, about an hundred miles from those stupendous mountains, where, as shall afterwards be shown, the ancestors of Abraham certainly lived. To this may be added, the settlement of the sons of Shem, when the earth was divided, in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, of which the two first were the very countries where the ark rested, and Noah spent the remainder of his days. His descendants, therefore, in the line of Shem, were not, like the builders of Babel, compelled to leave their dwellings in search of new settlements, but spread over the countries which they previously occupied; which was not a punishment inflicted upon them for a crime in which they had no share, but the natural result, under the secret direction of providence, of an increasing population.* *Bochart. Phaleg. lib. i. cap. 14, p. 47. The design of the tower with which the founders of Babylon proposed to adorn their infant city, was not, as some writers have strangely imagined, to open a way for themselves into the mansions of eternal felicity; for it can scarcely be supposed, that so extravagant an idea could enter their minds, depraved and presumptuous as they were, much less that it could ripen into a regular plan of operation. The words in which they couched their daring resolution, ‘Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven,' mean no more than a tower of extraordinary height.* Such phrases may be found in every language; and their meaning can scarcely be misunderstood. When the messengers whom Moses employed to examine the land of Canaan, returned and made their report, they described the cities which they had visited, as great and walled up to heaven; and Moses himself, in his farewell address to the congregation, repeats it :- Hear, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven.'+ The meaning of the phrase plainly is, that the walls of those cities were uncommonly strong and lofty. That the builders of Babel meant no more, is farther evident from the words of Jehovah, recorded by Moses :- Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.' It is here plainly admitted, that the design was practicable, and would have been accomplished, if God had not thought proper to interrupt their operations. But to build a tower, the top of which should actually reach unto heaven, is beyond the power of mortals. The opinion of Josephus is not much more reasonable; that their design was to raise a tower higher far than the summits of the highest mountains, to defend them from the waters of a second flood, of which they were afraid. Had this been their design, * Genesis xi. 4; Bochart. Phaleg. lib. i. cap. 14, p. 48. + Deuteronomy i. 28, and ix. 1. Genesis xi. 6. they would not have commenced their operations on the level plain, but on the top of Ararat, where the ark rested. They had the solemn promise of Jehovah, that he would no more destroy the earth by water; and beheld the ratification of it in the radiant bow of heaven, placed in the cloud to quiet the fears of guilty mortals. If the Noachida had distrusted the promise and sign of heaven, they had not descended from the mountains, where only they could hope for safety from the strength and height of their tower, into the plains of Babylonia, and fixed their abode between two mighty rivers, to whose frequent inundations that province is exposed. Nor could they be so infatuated as to imagine, that a tower constructed of bricks, whether hardened in the sun, or burnt in the fire, could resist the waters of a general deluge, whose impetuous assault, as they must have well known, the strong barriers of nature could hardly endure. Equally inadmissible is the notion, that they constructed this tower to defend them from the general conflagration, of which they are supposed to have received some obscure and imperfect notices for in the destruction of the world, who could hope to find safety in the recesses of a tower, or on the summit of the mountains? they would rather seek for refuge from the devouring element, in the profound caverns of the earth. But it is vain to indulge in conjectures, when the true reason is clearly stated in the page of inspiration : - Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.** These words clearly show, that their object in building the tower was to transmit a name illustrious for sublime conception and bold undertaking, to succeeding generations. In this sense, the phrase, to make one's self a name, is used in other parts of Scripture. Thus, 'David got him a name when he returned *Genesis xi. 4. from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt ;'* and the prophet informs us, that the God of Israel 'led them by the right hand of Moses, with his glorious arm dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name.' + They seem also to have intended it as a beacon or rallying point, to their increasing and naturally diverging families, to prevent them from separating in the boundless wilderness into independent and hostile societies. This may be inferred from these words, in which they farther explain the motive of their undertaking:- Lest we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth.' They seem to have anticipated the necessity, and dreaded the consequences, of dispersion; and, like all who seek to avert evil by unlawful means, they hastened, by the rash and impious measure which they adopted, the very mischief they sought to avoid. To build a city and a tower was certainly no crime; but to do this with a view merely to transmit an illustrious name to posterity, or to thwart the counsels of heaven, by attempting to prevent emigration, was both foolish and wicked, and justly excited the displeasure of the supreme Judge, who requires his rational creatures to acknowledge and to glorify him in all their undertakings. It is by no means improbable, that this tower was also intended for idolatrous purposes. The worship of fire began in a very remote age, and most probably under the direction and among the rebellious followers of Nimrod. This idea receives no small confirmation from the numerous fire towers which in succeeding ages were built in Chaldea, where the sacred fire was kept, and the religious rites in honour of the sun were celebrated. If this conjecture be well founded, it * 2 Samuel viii. 13. Isaiah lxiii. 12. Bryant's Analysis, vol. i. p. 400. The city of Babylon,' says this learned writer, seems to have been a great seminary of idolatry; for it was devoted to the worship of the sun, and originally |
