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Genesis 11:7
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5 aBut the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.  
6 And the Lord said, “Indeed athe people are one and they all have bone language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they cpropose to do will be withheld from them.  
7 Come, alet Us go down and there bconfuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”  
8 So athe Lord scattered them abroad from there bover the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.  
9 Therefore its name is called1 Babel, abecause there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.  

Shem’s Descendants

10 aThis is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.  
Commentaries:
Forerunner Commentary
What is the Forerunner Commentary?
<< Genesis 11:6   Genesis 11:8 >>

What Does Genesis 11:7 Mean?



Genesis 11:6-9

The people were uniting themselves in disagreement against God, led by the arch-criminal and mastermind of this project, Nimrod. This time, instead of wiping them out in death as He had done through the Flood, God permitted them to live, but He segregated them by confusing their means of communication. In the end, they are separated from one another. All their glorious plans of building a great city and tower had to be abandoned because they could not communicate with each other.

Another tragic resulted from what happened in Genesis 11. All of these people who were scattered over the face of the earth were also separated from the holy line—a family through which God almost exclusively worked, that began with Shem. Actually, the line began after the death of Abel with Seth, the son of Adam, and came down through Enoch to Noah and from Noah to Shem. From Shem the descent finally produced Abraham. After Babel, the scattered people were, in fact, not only separated from that holy line, but also from God's Word, which this family preserved and passed down. This was another tragic result of their sin!

John W. Ritenbaugh
Division, Satan, Humility

Related Topics: Babel | Babel, Tower of | Confusion | Confusion of Language | Division | Nimrod | Separation | Separation from God | Separation from God's Word | Sin, Consequences of | Tower of Babel




Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Genesis 11:7:

Acts 2:6-11
Hebrews 1:3


 
<< Genesis 11:6   Genesis 11:8 >>

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