Genesis 11:7-9

7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel[a] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11:7-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 11

This chapter gives an account of the inhabitants of the earth before the confusion of tongues at Babel, of their speech and language, which was one and the same, and of the place where they dwelt, Ge 11:1,2 and of their design to build a city and tower, to make them a name and keep them together, which they put in execution, Ge 11:3,4 of the notice the Lord took of this affair, and of the method he took to put a stop to their designs, by confounding their speech, and dispersing them abroad upon the face of the earth, Ge 11:5-9 then follows a genealogy of Shem's posterity down to Abraham, Ge 11:10-26 and a particular relation is given of Terah, the father of Abraham, and his family, and of his going forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, in order to go into the land of Canaan, and of his death at Haran by the way, Ge 11:27-32.

Cross References 8

  • 1. S Genesis 1:26
  • 2. S ver 5
  • 3. Genesis 42:23; Deuteronomy 28:49; Isaiah 28:11; Isaiah 33:19; Jeremiah 5:15; 1 Corinthians 14:2,11
  • 4. S Genesis 9:19; Deuteronomy 32:8; S Luke 1:51
  • 5. S Genesis 10:10
  • 6. Psalms 55:9
  • 7. Acts 2:5-11
  • 8. Isaiah 2:10,21; Isaiah 13:14; Isaiah 24:1

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. That is, Babylon; "Babel" sounds like the Hebrew for "confused" .
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