Глава 11

After this, Moses says: “And the whole earth spoke with one voice, and everyone had one voice... And he said: Come, let us build ourselves a city and a pillar, whose top will reach even to heaven: and let us make for ourselves a name, so that we will not be scattered over the face of all the earth” (Gen. 11: 1, 4). Why do they build a fortified city when they had no one to fear? Why do they need a pillar ascending to heaven, when an immutable covenant was given to them that there would be no more flood? They say, “Let us not be scattered across the face of the whole earth.” Who should scatter them when there was no one else besides them? But from what they said: “Let us make a name for ourselves,” it is revealed that pride and arrogance prompted them to build the city and the pillar, and their construction was stopped by the division that arose between them. “And the Lord came down to see the city and the pillar,” that is, God saw the work of their madness. “And the word... this cup began to be done: and now all of them will not fail” (Gen. 11:5-6), - that is, the very thing that they expected will not fail: that they will not be delivered from the punishment that they were afraid of. They said: “Let us not be separated,” but this very thing will befall them. “Come, let us go down there and confound their tongues” (Gen. 11:7). These words were spoken to more than one person, for it would be unusual for one person to say: “Come... let’s mix.” God the Father says this to the Son and the Spirit, because in the first time, as in the last, the gift of tongues was not given without the Son and the Spirit. “Let us confuse their tongue there, lest they each hear the voice of his neighbor” (Gen. 11:7). It is likely that each tribe began to speak in a special language that was given to it. If they had not lost their original language, the work they started would not have stopped. With the loss of the original language by all the tribes, except for one tribe in which it remained, the structure they had begun ceased. New languages ​​alienated the tribes from one another so much that they could not understand each other; From the division caused by the difference of languages, wars arose among them. This was the reason for the fighting between those who, out of fear of attacks, built a fortified city - and therefore those who were afraid of this were scattered throughout the whole earth. Nevrod also took part in the dispersion of the tribes, who took possession of Babylon and was the first to reign there, for if he had not tried to scatter the tribes one by one, he would not have been able to take possession of the fatherland common to all. Then Moses again begins to count the generations from Noah to Abraham and says: Noah begat Shem and his brothers, Shem begat Arphaxad, Arphaxad begat Cainan, Cainan begat Shelah, Shelah begat Eber, Eber begat Peleg, Peleg begat Reu (Raghav), Reu (Raghav) begat Serukh, Seruch begat Nahor, Nahor begat Terah, Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Arran, Arran begat Lot, Melcha and Eshu, that is, Sarah, who was so named because of her beauty. Both of them later became the wives of their uncles. Terah brought his son Abram, and his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarah from Ur of the Chaldeans, came to Haran and settled there (Gen. 11:31). You might be interested in: