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number, and the easier the means of communication, the greater the possibilities of evil.
The Lord does not destroy these men; no judgments fall. He simply confounds their
language. They were scattered abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and
they left off to build the city. Nimrod did not build Babel (the beginning of his kingdom
was Babel), he went back it would appear to that deserted city, finished it, and sought to
overthrow the purpose of God by becoming the first earthly king. From this, apparently,
small beginning has spread all the harlot abominations of the earth, and as we saw by
reading the Revelation, no millennium is possible until that city and its system is judged
before heaven and earth. Babylon is Satan's metropolis, even as Jerusalem is God's.
Babylon and Shinar are about to revive before our very eyes.
As we see these things, we know the hour of our glory and hope is near. Readers, lift
up your heads.
#23. The Generations of Shem and Terah. (Gen. 11: 10-32).
pp. 134 - 136
The generations of Shem lead us on to another phase in the unfolding of the Divine
plan. The way in which this new section is placed in juxtaposition with man's attempt at
Babylon is suggestive. In the order of occurrence Gen. 10: follows Gen. 11: 1-9. This is
easily seen when we note that in the period covered by Gen. 11: 1-9, "The whole earth
was of one lip and one in words", whereas in Gen. 10: 5, 20, and 31 the division of the
earth among the sons of Japheth, Ham, and Shem is among other classifications, "after
their tongues". We are not told when the tower of Babel was built, but we do know that
it was immediately after its erection that "the Lord scattered the builders abroad upon the
face of the whole earth". In Gen. 10: 25 a statement is made that in the days of Peleg
"the earth was divided". This word "divided" is not the same as that used in Gen. 10: 25
and 32, but it is nevertheless used with the same meaning. The Hebrew word is palag,
which comes in such passages as II Chron. 35: 5, "the division of the families of the
Levites"; Ezra 6: 18, "they set the priests in their divisions"; Dan. 2: 41, "the kingdom
shall be divided". We may take it that in the days this great division took place, and he
was so named in relation to the event. In Deut. 32: 8 there appears another reference,
as it seems, to this time:--
"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the
sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children
of Israel."
Here the word "divided" is nahal, and directs attention more to the "inheritance" than
to the manner of its division. Peleg's generation is not given in Gen. 10:, while that of
Joktan his brother is set out fully; the reason is clear. Joktan is numbered among the
nations, Peleg comes in the line of promise which involves the calling of the one nation
out of which was to come the Messiah. Peleg was born, according to the genealogy of