The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 240

the migrittions Pre yfowcd by the writer as Pliny, lib. xxxv. c. 15 ; Yitruvius, lib, viii. c. tnking rlnce in the east; while T. Lewis 3, are unanimous in declnring thnt the brick prefers to rend from one front part (the walls of l3abylun were cemouted with bitu- originnl meaning of kedent) to another- men. Laynrd testifies that so firmly have omrnrds. That they found a plain. i"l~Jt~; the bricks been united thnt it is almost not n •~_l_lcf be!ween mom~tain ranges, as· in impossible to detach one from tho mnss Deut. nu. , ; Ju.. 11; rs. c1v. 8, bnt a widely- (' Nineveh and Bnbylon,' p. 499). Had extended plain (,r,viov, LXX. ), like tlrnt in they. Literally, was to thein. For mortar. 'l'l'hich Babylon was situated (Herod., lib. i. Chom.e1·. The third instance of alliteration 178, .,,,,a, EV ... ,oiq, µ•ytiXq,; cf. Strnbo, in the _present verse ; possibly designed by lib. ii. 109). In the land of Shinar. Baby- the wnter to represent the enthusiasm ot lonia (cf. eh. x. 10). The derivation of the the builders. term is unl"T!own (Gesenius), though it pro- Ver•. 4.-Alld ~hey sa~d- B~ing impelled bably meant the land of the two rivers (Al- by theu- success m making bricks for their ford). Its absence from ancient monuments dwellings (Lange), though the 1·esolution (Rawlinson) suggests that it was the Jewish to bo mentioned may have been the cause name for Chaldrea.. And they dwelt there. of their brick-making (Bush). Go to, let Yer. 3.-And they s&id one to another. us build us a city. Cf. eh. iv. 17, which Literally, a num to his neighbour; a,,0pw7roc represents Cain ns the first city builder. ,rp .,,.X,1crio1, a&rov (LXX. ). Go to. A horta- And a tower. Not as a distinct erection, tory expletirn= come on (Anglice). Let us but ns forming a part, ns it were the Acro- make brick Nilbenah lebenim; literally, polis, of the city (Bochart). Whose tOJI let us brick bricks; r.X,v0tvuwµtv ,rXiv0ovc may reach unto heaven. Literally, and his (LXX.) ; la:terifecimus la:teres (Calvin) ; head in the heavens, a hyperbolical expres- lehenah (from laban, to be white), being so sion for a tower of great height, as in Dent. called from the white and chalky clay of i. 28 ; ix. 1 (cf. Homer, 'Odys.,' v. 239, which bricks were made. And burn them iXar71 r' ,iv ovpavoµ~~11c), This tower is thoroughly. Literally, burn them to a commonly identified with the temple of burning; venisrephah lisrephah, a second Belus, which Herodotus desc1ibes (i. 181) as alliteration, which, however, the LXX. fails being quadrangular (two stadia each way), to reproduce. Bricks were usually sun-dried ; e.nd having gates of brass, with a solid tower these, being designed to be more durable, in the middle, consisting of eight sections, were to be calcined through the agency of each a stadium in height, placed one abovo fire, a proof that the tower-builders were another, ascended by a spiral staircase, and acquainted with the art of brick-making. having in the top section e. spacious temple And they had-literally, and there was to with a golden table and e. well-furnished bed. tlwm--brick for stone. Chiefly because of Partially destroyed by Xerxes (D. o. 490), it the necessities of the place, the alluvial plain was attempted unsuccessfully to be rebuilt of Babylon being void of stones and full of by Alexander the Great ; but the remaining clay ; a proof of the greatness of their crime, portion of the edifice was known to be in seeing they were induced to undertake the existence five centuries later, and wns suffi- work non facilitate operis, nee aliis commo- ciently imposing to bo recognised as the dis, q= se ad manum o.fferrent (Calvin) ; temple of Belus (Pliny, vi. 30). The site of scarcely because bricks would better endure this ancient tower is supposed by George fire than would stones, the second destruction Smith to be covered by the ruin "Babil," a of the world by fire rather than water being square mound about 200 yards each way, in by this time a common expectation (Com. the north of the city ; and that of the tower a Lapidc). Josephus, • Ant.,' lib. i. cp. 4; of Babel to be occupied by the ruin Birs- Heroci, lib. i. cp. 179; Justin, lib. i. cp. Nimrud (situated six miles south-west of 2 ; Ovid, • Metam.,' iv. 4 ; and Aristoph. m Hillah, which is about forty miles west of Avibus (1r,p1rwxil;,uv p,yci),ai!: 1rXiv0o,i; lm- Bagdad), a tower consisting of seven stages, rai,, wu7rEp Ba/3vXwva), e.ll attest that the said by inscriptions on cylinders extracted walls of Babylon were built of brick. The from the ruin to have been "the Temple of mention of the circumstance that brick was the Seven Planets, which had been partially used instead of stone "indicates a writer built by e. former king of Babylon, e.nd, belonging to a country o.nd an age in which haYing fallen into decay, was restored and stone buildings were familiar, and therefore completed by Nebuchadnezzar" (' Assyrian not to Babylonia" (Murphy). Al!d slime. Discoveries,' xii p. 59 ; 'Chaldrean Genesis,' (J/wmer, from cha1nar, to boil up; aurpaXroc p.163; cf. Layard's 'Nineveh and Babylon,' (LX.X..); the bitumen which boils up from chap. x:x.ii. p. 496). It is, however, primd, subterranean fountains like oil or hot pitch facie, unlikely that either Be.bil or Birs- in the vicinity of Babylon, and also near N imrod is the exact site of Be.be!. The the Dead Bee. (lacu, (Ulphal/,ite,s). Tacitus, original building was never finished, and • Hist. , ' v. 5 ; Strabo, xvi. p. 743 ; Herod., may not have attnfoed e.ny great dimensions, lib. i. c. 179 ; Josephus, 'Antiq.,' lib. i. c. 4; Perhaps the most that can be said is that Oil, xr. 1-9.J TtIE BOOK OF GENES!$. i65