Wesley Corpus

He had mentioned it as Shem's honour, that he was the father of the Hebrews; but lest Japheth's seed should therefore be looked upon as shut out from the church, he here minds us, that he was the brother of Japheth, not in birth only, but in blessing, for Japheth was to dwell in the tents of Shem. The reason of the name of Peleg, Ge 10:25, because, in his days, (that is, about the time of his birth) was the earth divided among the children of men that were to inhabit it; either when Noah divided it, by an orderly distribution of it, as Joshua divided the land of Canaan by lot, or when, upon their refusal to comply with that division, God, in justice, divided them by the confusion of tongues. Chapter XI The distinction between the sons of God and the sons of men, now appeared again, when men began to multiply. According to this distinction, we have in this chapter, The dispersion of the sons of men at Babel, ver. 1 - 9. where we have Their presumptuous design, to build a city and a tower, ver. 1 - 4. The righteous judgment of God upon them in disappointing the design, by confounding their language, and so scattering them, ver. 5 - 9. The pedigree of the sons of God down to Abraham, ver. 10 - 26. with a general account of his family, and remove out of his native country, ver. 27 - 32. And the whole earth was of one language - Now while they all understood one another, they would be the more capable of helping one another, and the less inclinable to separate. And they found a plain in the land of Shinar - A spacious plain, able to contain them all. Go to, let us make brick, let us build us a city - The country being a plain, yielded neither stone nor morter, yet that did not discourage them, but they made brick to serve instead of stone, and slime, or pitch, instead of morter.