And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
6. And the Lord said ] The account, in this and the following verse, is evidently condensed. In Gen 11:5 Jehovah is represented as coming down on earth, in order to see more closely, and on the spot to form a better judgement. This He has done; He has returned to heaven, and now, in Gen 11:6, announces what He has seen. In Gen 11:7 He proposes to descend a second time and inflict punishment.
one people one language ] This is evidently contrary to the intention of the Deity who desires the whole earth to be populated.
nothing will be withholden from them ] i.e. they will be baulked in no enterprise. If they mount up to heaven, their arrogance will make them endeavour to rival God Himself. It is the same kind of apprehension as in Gen 3:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 6. The people is one, c.] From this, as before observed, we may infer, that as the people had the same language, so they had a unity of design and sentiment. It is very likely that the original language was composed of monosyllables, that each had a distinct ideal meaning, and only one meaning as different acceptations of the same word would undoubtedly arise, either from compounding terms, or, when there were but few words in a language, using them by a different mode of pronunciation to express a variety of things. Where this simple monosyllabic language prevailed (and it must have prevailed in the first ages of the world) men would necessarily have simple ideas, and a corresponding simplicity of manners. The Chinese language is exactly such as this; and the Hebrew, if stripped of its vowel points, and its prefixes, suffixes, and postfixes separated from their combinations, so that they might stand by themselves, it would nearly answer to this character even in its present state. In order therefore to remove this unity of sentiment and design, which I suppose to be the necessary consequence of such a language, God confounded their language-caused them to articulate the same word differently, to affix different ideas to the same term, and perhaps, by transposing syllables and interchanging letters, form new terms and compounds, so that the mind of the speaker was apprehended by the hearer in a contrary sense to what was intended. This idea is not iii expressed by an ancient French poet, Du Bartas; and not badly, though rather quaintly, metaphrased by our countryman, Mr. Sylvester.
Some speak between the teeth, some in the nose, Some in the throat their words do ill dispose –
“Bring me,” quoth one, “a trowel, quickly, quick!”
One brings him up a hammer. “Hew this brick,”
Another bids; and then they cleave a tree;
“Make fast this rope,” and then they let it flee.
One calls for planks, another mortar lacks;
They bear the first a stone, the last an axe.
One would have spikes, and him a spade they give;
Another asks a saw, and gets a sieve.
Thus crossly crost, they prate and point in vain:
What one hath made another mars again.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
These masons then, seeing the storm arrived
Of God’s just wrath, all weak and heart-deprived,
Forsake their purpose, and, like frantic fools,
Scatter their stuff and tumble down their tools.
DU BARTAS. – Babylon.
I shall not examine how the different languages of the earth were formed. It certainly was not the work of a moment; different climates must have a considerable share in the formation of tongues, by their influence on the organs of speech. The invention of new arts and trades must give birth to a variety of terms and expressions. Merchandise, commerce, and the cultivation of the sciences, would produce their share; and different forms of government, modes of life, and means of instruction, also contribute their quota. The Arabic, Chaldee, Syriac, and AEthiopic, still bear the most striking resemblance to their parent, the Hebrew. Many others might be reduced to a common source, yet everywhere there is sufficient evidence of this confusion. The anomalies even in the most regular languages sufficiently prove this. Every language is confounded less or more but that of eternal truth. This is ever the same; in all countries, climates, and ages, the language of truth, like that God from whom it sprang, is unchangeable. It speaks in all tongues, to all nations, and in all hearts: “There is one GOD, the fountain of goodness, justice, and truth. MAN, thou art his creature, ignorant, weak, and dependent; but he is all – sufficient – hates nothing that he has made – loves thee – is able and willing to save thee; return to and depend on him, take his revealed will for thy law, submit to his authority, and accept eternal life on the terms proposed in his word, and thou shalt never perish nor be wretched.” This language of truth all the ancient and modern Babel builders have not been able to confound, notwithstanding their repeated attempts. How have men toiled to make this language clothe their own ideas; and thus cause God to speak according to the pride, prejudice and worst passions of men! But through a just judgment of God, the language of all those who have attempted to do this has been confounded, and the word of the Lord abideth for ever.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord said this in way of holy scorn and derision. Compare Gen 3:22.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. and now nothing will berestrained from theman apparent admission that the design waspracticable, and would have been executed but for the divineinterposition.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord said,…. Not to the angels, as Aben Ezra, but rather to the Son and Spirit, or within himself:
behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; which some think is spoken ironically; but I see no reason why it may not be understood seriously, that the people who were concerned in this building were unanimous, not only in their religious principles, such as they were, as Aben Ezra, but in their counsel, purpose, and design in building; they went on with great concord, harmony, and vigour, and being of one language, they understood one another, and so could carry on their work with the greater expedition:
and this they begin to do; to build the city and the tower, and had made considerable progress in it:
and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do; they had prepared bricks, and slime or bitumen, a sufficient quantity for their use, or could easily come at more if they wanted; and they were not to be prevailed upon to desist from their work, by any advice that the sons of God could give them; they were obstinate and self-willed, and not to be argued with and persuaded to leave off; and there was no power on earth superior to them, to oblige them to it; they could only be restrained from their enterprise, and hindered from executing it, by divine power; and which was judged necessary to exert, as appears by what follows: and the words may be rendered, “shall they not be restrained? &c.” they shall.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6. Behold, the people is one. Some thus expound the words, that God complains of a wickedness in men so refractory, that he excites himself by righteous grief to execute vengeance; not that he is swayed by any passions, (329) but to teach us that he is not negligent of human affairs, and that, as he watches for the salvation of the faithful, so he is intent on observing the wickedness of the ungodly; as it is said in Psa 34:16,
“
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”
Others think there is a comparison between the less and the greater, no if it had been said, ‘They are hitherto few and only use one language; what will they not dare, if, on account of their multitude, they should become separated into various nations?’ But there rather seems to me to be a suppressed irony, as if God would propose to himself a difficult work in subduing their audacity: so that the sense may be, ‘This people is compacted together in a firm conspiracy, they communicate with each other in the same language, by what method therefore can they be broken?’ Nevertheless, he ironically smiles at their foolish and hasty confidence; because, while men are calculating upon their own strength, there is nothing which they do not arrogate to themselves.
This they begin to do. In saying that they begin, he intimates that they make a diligent attempts accompanied with violent fervor, in carrying on the work. Thus in the way of concession, God declares, that supposing matters to be so arranged, there would be no interruption of the building.
(329) “ Non quod in ipsum cadant ulli affectua.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
6. This they begin to do This is only the beginning of their deeds, and if this daring act of impiety be not rebuked, and their far-reaching plans of centralized human power be not frustrated, nothing will be restrained from them, (Hebrews, cut off from them;) that is, there will be no bound or limit to their purposes .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 11:6. The people is one One in sentiment and design, and one in language also: this seems to confirm the opinion advanced in note on Gen 11:1.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Ver. 6. Behold the people is one, &c. ] This benefit they abused to their pride and ambition, which they should have used to the help of the humane society, and common intercourse. They built, and God bare with them for a time, that he might make fools of them in the end. And this he doth daily.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold: Gen 3:22, Jdg 10:14, 1Ki 18:27, Ecc 11:9
the people: Gen 11:1, Gen 9:19, Act 17:26
imagined: Gen 6:5, Gen 8:21, Psa 2:1-4, Luk 1:51
Reciprocal: Gen 19:9 – pressed Dan 4:9 – no secret Hab 2:13 – is it Joh 1:10 – was in Act 2:3 – cloven Act 14:18 – scarce
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
11:6 And the LORD said, {g} Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
(g) God speaks this in derision, because of their foolish persuasion and enterprise.