10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech,

g Mic. 5. 6.

and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Jo

the inhabitants of Sodom are said to be wicked and 'sinners before the Lord,' or in an aggravated degree.- -T Wherefore it is said, &c. Nimrod's fame was so great that his name became proverbial. In after times any one who was a daring plunderer in defiance of heaven was likened to him, just as the wicked kings of Israel were likened to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He became the type, pattern, or father of usurpers and martial marauders, and just one of those kind of men whom history and poetry are prone to celebrate as 'a hero;' their admirers little thinking that things which are highly esteemed among men are held in abomination with God.

ship of his patriarchal ancestors. sephus says of him that 'he was a bold man, and of great strength of hand; and that he gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them to a constant dependance on his own power.' The Targum of Onkelos on 1 Chron. 1. 10, informs us, that he began to be a mighty man in sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord.' In the Jerusalem Targum it is written; 'He was a hunter of the children of men in their languages, and he said unto them, Depart from the religion of Shem and cleave unto the in stitutes of Nimrod.' It was doubtless the original design of the Most High that the earth should be settled in small colonies, tribes or communities, under the patriarchal form of government, Deut. 32. 8, and Nimrod's sin consisted in boldly contravening the divine counsel in this respect, and in laying the foundation, by means of rapine, violence, and usurpation, of that species of dominion ever since distinguished by the name of kingdoms, empires, monarchies, &c., by which the great mass of mankind have been in fact doomed to ignorance, and held in degrading servitude. It is proper then that every mention of Babylon in the sacred writings, should recall to righteous re-ing the primitive seat of despotical emproach the memory of Nimrod.

Before the Lord. That is, highhandedly, presumptuously; an expression which would scarcely have been used, had nothing more been intended than that he was a courageous hunter of wild beasts. The phrase denotes his daring spirit, that he did what he did in the face of heaven, in defiance of the divine authority. Thus ch. 13. 13,

10. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, &c. The original word for kingdom ( mamlekah) signifies more properly the act of ruling than the territorial limits over which a gov erned country extends; and here the idea is, that the beginning, i. e. first theatre, of his active ruling or sovereignty was the cities or towns here mentioned, which in that age could have been but inconsiderable places, to whatever pitch of power or population they may afterwards have attained. Babel (i. e. confusion) is but another name for Babylon which, from its be

pire, and probably of idolatrous worship, has come to be employed in the Scriptures, particularly in the Apocalypse, as a typical or symbolical designation of oppressive governments both civil and ecclesiastical. When we learn, therefore, from the prophetic oracles, that 'Babylon the great' is to be destroyed before the complete establishment of the kingdom of Christ

11 Out of that land went veh, and the city Rehoboth, and forth Asshur, and builded Nine- Calah,

on earth, we are virtually taught that the entire fabric of civil and spiritual oppression is to be demolished, that all vestiges of the organized despotic rule which commenced under Nimrod on the plains of Shinar are to be for ever done away. - In the land of Shinar. There are no data to enable us to fix the limits of this land with precision. By some it is confined to lower Mesopotamia, or Babylonia, including both banks of the Euphrates and Tigris; while others make it extend through the whole region included between these two rivers, into Mesopotamia Proper, beyond Nisibis, and the similarity of Bound between Shinar and the city and mountain of Sinjara, is enlisted in the argument. That the former territory, which nearly corresponds to the modern Irak Arabi, is part of what was the land of Shinar, is admitted on all hands; the only question is, now far it extended northward in Mesopotamia Proper; and this question we must be content for the present to leave unresolved.

or nominative to the verb. As to the objection urged by Bochart, that there would be an impropriety in introducing Asshur, the son of Shem, in the midst of the genealogy of Ham; it may be answered, that as Moses is here relating the history of the rebel Nimrod with his Cushite followers, who had invaded the territories already oc cupied by the descendants of Shem, it was very natural that he should allude to one of the principal results of that invasion, viz. the expulsion of Asshur from his former possessions and his seeking a country for himself elsewhere. Indeed the fortunes of Asshur are so intimately connected with the history of Nimrod, that the impropriety would have been in disjoining them, particularly in this place, where the writer is describing the first great cities after the flood. We infer therefore that it was Asshur, and not Nimrod, who went forth out of the land of Shinar, especially as otherwise we should be required to read the original

or

2 to Assyria. Asshur, being ei11. Out of that land went forth ther unable to resist the progress of Asshur, &c. This is a much disputed Nimrod's arms, or unwilling to tolerate passage. As the Heb. will admit of his idolatrous practices, probably rebeing rendered, 'Out of that land he tired before him, and following the up(Nimrod) went forth to Assyria,' many ward course of the Tigris fixed himself distinguished commentators are dison the site of Nineveh, which he built, posed to adopt this as the true sense, and which subsequently became the principally for the reason, that Moses seat of the Assyrian empire. Accordis here speaking, not of the posterity of ing to this, which we regard as the Shem, to which Asshur belonged, but true intrepretation, we recognise in of that of Ham; and it perfectly ac- Nimrod and Asshur the respective cords, they say, with Nimrod's charac-founders of the Babylonian and Assyr ter to represent him as hunting from ian monarchies.land to land for the purpose of extending his dominion. But the more obvious grammatical construction is that given in the text, the word 'Asshur,' whether meaning the son of Shem or his descendants, being the tru subject

-T Builded Nineveh. Heb. 1 Nineveh; supposed to be compounded of Nin and Naver i. e. habitation of Nin or Ninus; but who he was, or for what reason the city was called after him, the sca: ty records of those remote agus leave us

12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

14 And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.

15 ¶ And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth,

16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

h 1 Chron. 1. 12.

17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

19 And the border of the Ca naanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest unto Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim even unto Lasha.

i ch. 13. 12, 14, 15, 17. & 15. 18-21. Numb. 34. 2-12. Josh. 12. 7, 8.

both by the river mentioned Gen. 36. 37. The point is of too little importance to warrant particular investigation, and we leave it, with many other similar questions, inveloped in the darkness of remote antiquity.

altogether in doubt. Though some uncertainty rests upon its site, yet it is believed to have lain opposite the modern town of Mosul, on the east bank of the Tigris where the villages of Nunia (also called Nebbi Yunes, i. e. the prophet Jonah), Nimrood, and Kalla 12. The same is a great city. Heb. Nunia (the castle of Nineveh) preserve this is the great city; to the present day the remembrance of which would seem to determine the the most ancient capital of the world. reference to Nineveh instead of Resen. For an account of its primitive great-Precisely the same language is used of ness and its present state, and the re- Nineveh, Jon. 3.2, 'Arise, go unto Nin markable manner in which the divine eveh, that great city (1977),' predictions concerning it have been fulfiled, see Newton and Keith on the and we learn from v. 3, that it was a city of three days' journey, that is, of prophecies. The city Rehoboth. sixty miles in circuit; and it is not unHeb. Rehoboth Ir, which likely that the whole four cities here some following the Lat. Vulg. are dis- mentioned were situated near together posed to render, 'The streets of the and united under one social polity so as city,' i. e. the city of Nineveh. But to in some sense to be denominated one this it is, we think, validly objected, (1.) city. That the proper Heb. expression for 'streets of the city' is not 13177 but . (2.) That it would be wholly superfluous to speak of building the streets cf a city, apart from the building of the city itself. (3.) That the term 'building,' though very properly spoken of a city, is not applicable to the construction of streets. Michaelis very plausibly suggests that

ir is a part of the name of the city, and that it is called Rehoboth Ir to disunguish it from a Rcho

14. Out of whom came Philistim. From Mizraim, the father of the Egyptians, descended also the Philistines. Their situation was near to that of the Canaanites; but not being of them, their country was not given to Israel. This accounts for their not attempting to take it, though in after times there were frequent wars between them.

15, 16. Canaan begat-Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, &c. The relation in which the chosen people were destined to stand in after ages to

20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

21 Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.

22 The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Áram.

23 And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.

24 And Arphaxad begat 1 Sa lah; and Salah begat Eber

k1 Chron. 1. 17. 1ch. 11. 12.

great.

ous.

brother of Japheth the The sense is in itself ambigu The epithet elder (Heb. great) may be grammatically constructed either with Shem or Japheth. The Septuagint version adopts the latter, which is followed in the English; the Latin It will we think, Vulgate the former. be found as a general rule, that where an adjective follows two substantives in a state of construction, it agrees with the former, as in Deut. 11. 7,

these nations made it proper for the historian to be more particular in describing them and their boundaries. 21. Shem-the father of all the children of Eber. The account of the posterity of this patriarch is introduced in somewhat of a singular manner. It is mentioned as an appendage to his name, a kind of title of honour that was to go along with it, that he was 'father of all the children of Eber.' But this is doubtless inserted with an eye to the prediction of Noah which we have al-'Your eyes have seen all the great acts ready considered in the notes on the of the Lord (Heb. 373 17 % preceding chapter. When the sacred the work or doing of Jehovah the great).' writer would describe the line of the But a still more certain guide is afford curse, he calls Ham the father of Ca-ed in other passages exhibiting the naan; and when the line of promise, same form of expression, and pointing he calls Shem the father of all the chil-out degrees of relationship. Thus Judg. dren of Eber, or in other words, of the 1. 13, The son of Kenaz, the brother of Hebrews. In both cases the fathers Caleb, the younger (Heb. had other sons besides those mention-3),' which comp. with Josh ed, but the historian following the en- 15. 13, and Num. 13. 2-6, seems plaintail of the blessing and the curse, gives ly intended to imply, that it was not a special prominence to the two oppo- Caleb, but Kenaz, who is designated by sing lines to which they respectively the term 'the younger.' Still more pertained. Some indeed prefer to un- conclusive is the following; Judg. 9. 5, derstand 'Eber' here, not as a proper Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubname, but as an appellative applied to baal (Heb. 3the Hebrew nation, from the root Jotham, the son of Jerubbual, the abar, to pass over, to cross, as if the young);' where, although the English Hebrews were so denominated from translation varies, the construction in their passing over the Euphrates in the original is precisely the same as in coming from the East to the land of the present passage. Had a uniform Canaan. But in our note on Gen. 14. mode of rendering been pursued, the 13, we shall endeavour to show that words before us would no doubt have the other by far the most probable been translated, 'Shem, the elder broderivation of the term.- - The brother of Japhet.' At the same time, er of Japheth the elder. Hcb. though we consider the epither elder

or 'great' as referring properly to Shem, fields. The implication here is that of yet we regard it as pointing not to sen- a division or dispersion of nations, like iority of age, but to priority in honour; that of streams of water from one for the evidence of Japheth's being the source, and that as this occurred about eldest of the three sons of Noah is too the period of Peleg's birth, he was nastrong to be set aside. Yet if it be ad-med from the event. Thus Josephus ; mitted, as intimated above, that Shem,He was called Phaleg, because he was the younger, obtained the birthright, born at the dispersion of the nations to this will account for his being almost their several countries; for Phaleg invariably placed first when the broth- among the Hebrews signifies division.' ers are mentioned together. In the It is at the same time worthy of notice present catalogue, it is true, this order that the original term, or the root from is reversed, the reason of which is not which it comes, is applied Ps. 55. 9(10), entirely obvious, unless it be that in renot to a physical but to a moral divisciting the posterity of each, the last ion, and one singularly analogous to place is assigned to Shem as the most that which gave occasion to Phaleg's honourable, whereas in the mention of name; 'Destroy, O Lord, and divide the individuals, as in v. 1, the contrary (35 pallag) their tongues;' i. e. conorder is assumed. After all, if any one found their counsels, destroy their una- . prefers the view given in our transla-nimity, and break them into contendtion, he is perhaps occupying grounding factions; the very effect which was quite as strong as that which we have produced at Babel, and to which the taken. The point is one of little mo

ment.

25. Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided. The Heb. Peleg comes from the root palag, to divide, and properly signifies division. It is applied for the most part to the artificial trenches, channels or canals which were common in the East for the purpose of dividing or distributing the water employed in irrigating the

dispersion was owing. 'It is good to write the remembrance of God's worthy works, whether of mercy or jus tice, upon the names of our children.' Trapp. As it cannot well be doubt. ed that Peleg was named from this incident, though the incident itself is not expressly related till we come to the eleventh chapter, we are thus enabled to fix the date of the remarkable epoch of the confusion of tongues; for as