And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
2. as they journeyed ] We are not told who are here spoken of, nor whence they come. This is an indication that this passage (1 9) is derived from an independent tradition distinct from the thread of the foregoing narrative. Like Gen 4:17-24, and Gen 6:1-4, it is probably a fragment of tradition which had no knowledge of the story of the Flood, or of the dispersion of the peoples through the sons of Noah.
journeyed ] A word denoting the progress of nomads from one place of encampment to another.
east ] Better, as marg., in the east. The Hebrew word means literally “from the east,” as also LXX , and Lat. de oriente, and here probably signifies “in the east,” i.e. on the east side from the writer’s point of view. Some translate “eastward,” as in Gen 13:11, where Lot, on leaving Abram, is described as journeying “eastward.” But, as we do not know who are referred to, or where they started from, the uncertainty as to the rendering remains.
a plain in the land of Shinar ] For Shinar, probably denoting the ancient Babylonia, “Sumer and Akkad,” see Gen 10:10. The word “plain” ( bi‘ah) means the wide open expanse of a river valley. Here it is used of the Euphrates Valley. The expression, “found a plain in the land of Shinar,” does not suggest close knowledge of Babylonia; but rather the general terms of popular and defective information respecting a distant country. Babylonia is one vast plain.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 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, Nu 23:7.
Now it appears, from Nu 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, Mt 2:1. Abraham is said to have come from the east to Canaan, Isa 41:2; but it is well known that he came from Mesopotamia and Chaldea. Isa 46:11, represents Cyrus as coming from the east against Babylon. And the same prophet represents the Syrians as dwelling eastward of Jerusalem, Isa 9:12: The Syrians before, mikkedem, from the east,the same word which Moses uses here. Daniel Da 11:44, represents Antiochus as troubled at news received from the east; i.e. of a revolt in the eastern provinces, beyond the Euphrates.
Noah and his family, landing after the flood on one of the mountains of Armenia, would doubtless descend and cultivate the valleys: as they increased, they appear to have passed along the banks of the Euphrates, till, at the time specified here, they came to the plains of Shinar, allowed to be the most fertile country in the east. See Calmet. That Babel was built in the land of Shinar we have the authority of the sacred text to prove; and that Babylon was built in the same country we have the testimony of Eusebius, Praep. Evang., lib. ix., c. 15; and Josephus, Antiq., lib. i., c. 5.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As they journeyed from the east, i.e. Nimrod and the rest of his confederates of Ham’s posterity; not from Armenia, where the ark rested, which was north from Babel, and is called north in Scripture, as Jer 25:9; 26, &c.; but from Assyria, into which they had before come from the mountains of Ararat for more convenient habitation. It may be rendered to the east; but that manner of translation is neither usual nor necessary here.
The land of Shinar, where Babel was, Gen 10:10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. land of ShinarThe fertilevalley watered by the Euphrates and Tigris was chosen as the centerof their union and the seat of their power.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,…. That is, the inhabitants of the whole earth; not Ham and his posterity only, or Nimrod and his company; but as all the sons of Noah and his posterity for a while dwelt together, or at least very near each other, and finding the place where they were too scanty for them, as their several families increased, they set out in a body from the place where they were, to seek for a more convenient one: it seems a little difficult how to interpret this phrase, “from the east”, since if they came from Ararat in Armenia, where the ark rested, as that lay north of Shinar or Babylon, they might rather be said to come from the north than from the east, and rather came to it than from it: so some think the phrase should be rendered, “to the east” b, or eastward, as in
Ge 13:11. Jarchi thinks this refers to Ge 10:30 “and their dwelling was”, c. at “the mountain of the east” from whence he supposes they journeyed, to find out a place that would hold them all, but could find none but Shinar; but then this restrains it to Joktan’s sons, and besides, their dwelling there was not until after the confusion and dispersion. But it is very probable the case was this, that when Noah and his sons came out of the ark, in a little time they betook themselves to their former habitation, from whence they had entered into the ark, namely, to the east of the garden of Eden, where was the appearance of the divine Presence, or Shechinah; and from hence it was that these now journeyed: and so it was as they were passing on,
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; which the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the land of Babylon; and Hestiaeus c, a Phoenician historian, calls it Sennaar of Babylon; there are plain traces of this name in the Singara of Ptolemy d and Pliny e, the Hebrew letter being sometimes pronounced as “G”, as in Gaza and Gomorrah; the first of these place a city of this name in Mesopotamia, near the Tigris, and that of the other is reckoned a capital of the Rhetavi, a tribe of the Arabs, near Mesopotamia. This plain was very large, fruitful, and delightful, and therefore judged a fit place for a settlement, where they might have room enough, and which promised them a sufficient sustenance:
and they dwelt there; and provided for their continuance, quickly beginning to build a city and tower, afterwards called Babylon: and that Babylon was built in a large plain is not only here asserted, but is confirmed by Herodotus f, who says of it, that it lay
, in a vast plain, and so Strabo g; which was no other than the plain of Shinar.
b “ad Orientem, sive Orientem versus”; so some in Schmidt. Vid. Drusium in loc. & Fuller. Miscell. Sacr. l. 1. c. 4. c Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 4. sect. 3. d Geograph. l. 5. c. 18. e Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 24. f Clio sive, l. 1. c. 178. g Geograph. l. 16. p. 508.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As men multiplied they moved from the land of Ararat “ eastward,” or more strictly to the south-east, and settled in a plain. does not denote a valley between mountain ranges, but a broad plain, , as Herodotus calls the neighbourhood of Babylon. There they resolved to build an immense tower; and for this purpose they made bricks and burned them thoroughly ( “to burning” serves to intensify the verb like the inf. absol.), so that they became stone; whereas in the East ordinary buildings are constructed of bricks of clay, simply dried in the sun. For mortar they used asphalt, in which the neighbourhood of Babylon abounds. From this material, which may still be seen in the ruins of Babylon, they intended to build a city and a tower, whose top should be in heaven, i.e., reach to the sky, to make to themselves a name, that they might not be scattered over the whole earth. denotes, here and everywhere else, to establish a name, or reputation, to set up a memorial (Isa 63:12, Isa 63:14; Jer 32:20, etc.). The real motive therefore was the desire for renown, and the object was to establish a noted central point, which might serve to maintain their unity. The one was just as ungodly as the other. For, according to the divine purpose, men were to fill the earth, i.e., to spread over the whole earth, not indeed to separate, but to maintain their inward unity notwithstanding their dispersion. But the fact that they were afraid of dispersion is a proof that the inward spiritual bond of unity and fellowship, not only “the oneness of their God and their worship,” but also the unity of brotherly love, was already broken by sin. Consequently the undertaking, dictated by pride, to preserve and consolidate by outward means the unity which was inwardly lost, could not be successful, but could only bring down the judgment of dispersion.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
2. They found a plain in the land of Shinar. It may be conjectured from these words, that Moses speaks of Nimrod and of the people whom he had collected around him. If, however, we grant that Nimrod was the chief leader in the construction of so great a pile, for the purpose of erecting a formidable monument of his tyranny: yet Moses expressly relates, that the work was undertaken not by the counsel or the will of one man only, but that all conspired together, so that the blame cannot be cast exclusively upon one, nor even upon a few.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) As they journeyed.The word literally refers to the pulling up of the tent-pegs, and sets the human family before us as a band of nomads, wandering from place to place, and shifting their tents as their cattle needed fresh pasture.
From the east.So all the versions. Mount Ararat was to the north-west of Shinar, and while so lofty a mountain could not have been the spot where the ark rested, yet neither could any portion of Armenia or of the Carduchian mountains be described as to the east of Babylonia. The Chaldean legends make the ark rest on Mount Nizir, or Elwend, on the east of Assyria; and though Ararat may possibly signify Aryaverta, Holy Land, yet the transference of the name from Elwend to Armenia is not easily explicable. Moreover, the Bible elsewhere seems to point to Armenia as the cradle of the human race. Most modern commentators, therefore, translate eastward, and such certainly is the meaning of the word in Gen. 13:11, where also the versions, excepting our own, render from the east.
Land of Shinar.See on Gen. 10:10. The whole of Chaldea is a level plain, and the soil immensely rich, as it is an alluvial deposit, which still goes on forming at the head of the Persian Gulf, at the rate of a mile in a period estimated at from seventy to thirty years (Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., i. 4). A strip of land 130 miles in breadth has been added to the country, by the deposit of the earth washed down by the Tigris and Euphrates, since the time when Ur of the Chaldees was a great port.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. As they journeyed Literally, in their breaking up (their encampments;) as they struck their tents and slowly moved with flocks and herds from day to day. The word sets forth the leisurely movements of a nomadic company. It is not necessary to suppose that the whole human race were in this movement. Noah and Shem, who were probably living at the time, would hardly sympathize in the godless enterprise about to be described.
From the east Or better, as the margin, eastward. Comp. Jos 7:2; Jdg 8:11. They slowly moved from the table-land of Armenia, eastwardly and southerly, along the Euphrates valley to the rich alluvial plain of Shinar, the region afterwards known as Chaldea and Babylonia. Here was a fertile country in a genial climate, offering a delightful place for permanent residence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 11:2. As they journeyed from the earth Hence it seems to follow, that the whole posterity of Noah continued together, till now, united under one common head, most probably living in tents, and, according to the most early custom, removing from place to place, for the better convenience of pasturage and the like. And it came to pass, as they journeyed thus eastward, (for so it should be rendered,) more and more towards the east, they arrived at a plain in the land of Shinar, where they pitched their tents, being delighted with it, and continued. By the land of Shinar is meant the pleasant valley, along which the river Tigris runs, comprehending the country of Eden, the happy seat of Adam in his state of innocence; near which, it is probable, his righteous descendants dwelt before the flood; and consequently Noah, as the guide of his family, may well be supposed desirous of returning thither, and so of directing his course that way, or towards the east. It is plain, from scripture, that Babel was the same with the city of Babylon; and Moses expressly says, that Babel lay in the land of Shinar, ch. Gen 10:10. as well as three other cities which are there mentioned, and found to be situated on the banks of the Tigris; and many footsteps of the name of Shinar in these parts are to be met with, both in ancient and modern authors.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Or journeyed eastward, as Gen 13:11 . Shinar or Senaar was afterwards called Chaldea or Babylonia.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Ver. 2. In the land of Shinar. ] Which was a part of the garden of Eden, as most geographers think, fat and fruitful still above belief (Herodot. lib. i. cap. 93; Plin. lib. vi. cap. 26).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
from the east = eastward.
Shinar = Babylonia.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
from the east: or, eastward, Gen 13:11
Shinar: Gen 11:9, Gen 10:10, Gen 14:1, Isa 11:11, Dan 1:2, Zec 5:11
Reciprocal: Dan 4:30 – great
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
11:2 And it came to pass, {a} as {b} they journeyed from the {c} east, that they found a plain in the land of {d} Shinar; and they dwelt there.
(a) One hundred and thirty years after the flood.
(b) That is, Nimrod and his company.
(c) That is, from Armenia where the ark stayed.
(d) Which was afterward called Chaldea.