Genesis 10-13: Babylon and On
Genesis 10
Genesis 10 is a continuation of the book of generations. Whoever the author of this part of the Bible escapes without much scrutiny as these are just names and have no real bearing on anything. Some will argue that this is a list of our ancestors! That some could even suggest such a preposterous idea is amazing if not laughable. Without going into any more detail, I pass on to chapter 11.
Genesis 11
The brief tale of Babylon, and then back to the book of generations. We learn of Abram (later Abraham), and Sarai (later Sarah).We see our first glimpse at the land of Canaan. Let's get started.
The chapter begins with a huge assumption on the author's part. "The whole earth was of one language." Apparently the author had full confidence that Noah's was the only ark called by God to survive. Apparently this meant that the entire population of the world was in one place, which is in line with the story, but is also fairly easy to disprove if we look at histories of other areas like China or South America.
So, all of the people went westward and dwelled in the land of Shinar. There they decided to build a city and a tower which would reach all of the way up to heaven. They also felt that it was important to make a name for themselves, lest they be scattered across the earth. That they felt they could do this is amazing enough, but what the story goes on to say is astounding. That people can believe it is laughable.
Not wanting the people to accomplish this, God came down and scattered them over the face of the earth and made them all speak different languages. God said, "Let US go down, and there confound their language that they may not understand each other."
Maybe I am not getting this, but the people already had the knowledge to make the bricks and mix the slime for mortar. They already knew how to put them together, and they knew that they were building upwards. I guess God had to get tricky and scatter them across the face of the earth so they would forget about the tower.
Did God think that the humans had the ability to reach up to heaven with a tower? And if so, why would God stop them from doing so? And why not just destroy the tower? Instead God spread the people over the face of the earth. Why the story continues on in the exact same area is odd, though.
Verse 10 of this chapter jumps the story right back into the book of generations. We can see that the people started living shorter lives, but we do not know why. Instead of living 900 or so years, men only lived 200-400 years. Maybe the author wanted his tale to be more believable.
Verse 27 introduces us to our latest hero, Abraham. Of course, he was known only as Abram for the first part of his life, but we will get to this. Abram was born to Terah, as were Abram's brothers Nahor and Haran. But Haran died a premature death apparently, before his father. Before Haran died, though, he was able to have children, among them, a future hero, Lot.
The story goes on to say that the surviving brothers took wives, with Abram's being Sarai (Sarah), and Nahor's being his neice, Milcah, the daughter of his dead brother Haran.
Before Terah died, he took part of his family, Lot, Abram and Sarai, and moved to the land of Canaan, to a place oddly named after Terah's dead son, Haran. He lived 205 years and died in this place.
This concludes chapter 11.
Conclusion
Well, thanks to the insertion of the book of generations, we have a somewhat easier chapter to disect. We don't find too many points of contention in this chapter either. Let's see what we have.
The whole earth being of one language certainly fits in with the storyline of the race of humans descending from Noah and his family. That they all stayed in one place is a little odd, but certainly not impossible.
Now, these people felt that they could build a tower and reach up into heaven. How they came across this idea is perplexing. Why did they think that God and heaven were up? God had walked among their ancestors and surely these people must have known this, or we would not have this as record.
How did these people know that they were in danger of being scattered across the earth? Were they told that this was a risk?
In any case, they began to construct this tower, and seeing what they were doing God decided to step in and do something about it. Again we see the usage of the plural tense when God speaks. "Let US go down....." Who was God referring to? Christians will say that this is in reference to a trinity of God, but surely they can not make this leap, as no mention is made of such until much later in the Bible. I ask again. Was the author a monotheist, or did the people of his time believe in more than one God?
So God(s) decided to scatter the people over the earth, though no evidence is given of this in the story that follows. He also decides to confound the language, though we shall see if there is ever a communication problem mentioned within these tales.
We have a little matter of incest that gets little attention in verse 29. Nahor taking his brother's daughter to wife would seem to me to be wrong, but there must have been a lot of that going on if the lineage of man is traced back to 4 couples, and ultimately to one couple.
The chapter concludes with the introduction of two heroes and a hero's wife. Lot, Abram and Sarai. Abram plays a monumental role in the creation of three major religions. And we are introduced to the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12
So we have come to the land of Canaan. Or have we? Immediately in the beginning of chapter 12, God tells Abram to get out of Abram's country, and away from Abram's kindred, and away from Abram's father's house, and to go to a land which God will show him.
God tells Abram that he will make of Abram a great nation, and make his name great. God said that Abrram would be blessed and all that would curse Abram would be cursed, and all that bless him shall be blessed. God says that all of the families of the eartth would be blessed in Abram's name.
So Abram took Sarai and Lot and everything that they had gathered in Haran, and they left. Verse 5 says, "and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." Apparently, Haran is not in Canaan. But Haran is an important area for the acquisition of souls.
Verse 6 lists a couple of landmarks that Abram and his group passed on their way, and ends up saying that "the Canaanite was in the land." Apparently there were people here already.
Now, once in Canaan, the Lord said to Abram, "Unto thy seed will I give this land:" Depending on your view point, this verse (7) has major implications. If Abram bequeaths everything to one son than Canaan belongs to the Jews. If it is to another son, Canaan belongs to the Muslims. But, I am jumping ahead of myself, and this is not an issue for this work.
So Abram built an altar to the Lord that appeared to him. This altar was built to the east of Beth-El (or house of God, in Hebrew), and to the west of a place called Hai (or life, in Hebrew). Do these names have any significance? I think it is open to speculation.
For some reason, Abram continued southward after building the altar. And he came to a land that knew famine. This fits in with what we know of Israel today, geographically. To the south of Beth-El is the Negev Desert, one of the most arid areas on the face of the earth. Because of this famine, Abram continued on to the south into the land of Egypt for a short stay.
Now, Abram knew that his wife was beautiful to the eye, and this was cause for some concern to him for he told Sarai that they would lie to the Egyptians and tell them that Sarai was Abram's sister, so they would not kill Abram for jealousy.
The Egyptians did see that Sarai was fair and they brought her to the Pharaoh who had plans to make Sarai his wife. Because of this, Abram was given sheep, oxen, asses, and slaves. And Sarai was given camels and asses.
Apparently this displeased God, because he brought plagues onto Pharaoh and his house.
Somehow, the Pharaoh knew that these plagues were a result of Abram lying to him. The Pharaoh asked Abram why he had done this. Insteaed of punishing Abram, which seems to me a logical action, the Pharaoh told Abram to get out of his land and to take his wife and all of his belongings.
So they sent Abram and Sarai away with all of the animals and slaves that were given to him by the Pharaoh.
This concludes chapter 12.
Conclusion
An interesting chapter. We see God selecting a man, for whatever reason, who will be the father of the "chosen ones". We see an altar built in the wilderness by Abram. We see a short jaunt into Egypt by Abram, Sarai and Lot. We see a lie that goes, not just unpunished, but actually rewarded.
Why did God choose Abram over everyone else? Did Abram exhibit some quality that other people did not have, or was this just a random selection? As we see later in this chapter, Abram is far from perfect, as he not only showed cowardice but also dishonesty.
Well, God did choose Abram in this story, and Abram was blessed over all of the rest of the people on the earth. Apparently the author felt that God was incapable of focusing on more than one person at a time to make them also righteous.
Before leaving Haran, Abram, Sarai and Lot gathered their belongings and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.... What does this mean exactly? I would have thought that it meant that the people that they had met who decided to become part of their group, but this doesn't really make sense. When you make a friend do you say that you have gotten his soul? Would you gather it? So the point that the author is after in this verse escapes me.
Before long the Lord appeared to Abram and gave Abram's seed the land of Canaan. So, Abram built an altar east of Beth-El to the Lord that raised him to this elevated status. It says that Abram called the name of the Lord, but that is all. Assuming that this was a form of worship of prayer, we are given no information on how it was done.
Now, Abram was given this land and had built this altar, but the story goes on to say that Abram continued his journey southward. Why would he make a decision to do this? As it turns out it was a wise decision, as we shall see.
Here we come to the lie. Abram had a fear for his life. This assumes a couple of things. The first, that Abram knew that they would encounter people when they got to wherever they were headed. The second, that these people would be jealous of Abram for his beautiful wife and kill him to have her.
So, Abram devised a plan to "trick" the Egyptians into thinking that Sarai was his sister. How well this worked was amazing, for the Egyptians believed the deception, and attempted to win Sarai's heart through gifts to her and to her "brother", Abram.
This displeased God greatly for some reason for he brought plagues onto the Pharaoh and the Pharaoh's house. Why was the Pharaoh punished? Certainly the Pharaoh acted as a result of the lie that he believed from Abram. This man who was blessed by God said something, the Pharaoh believed it, and got punished for it. It would seem to me that the one deserving the punishment was Abram, the liar.
Was there any punishment for Abram's lie? Apparently not. He was given livestock and slaves before the discovery of the lie, and later told to leave Egypt with all of his belongings.
Did God punish Abram in some way? Not in this chapter. From what we see here, God punished the innocent and rewarded the guilty. This is a theme that we shall see repeated throughout these first five books.
Genesis 13
Back into Canaan we go! After Abram and his group had been expelled from Egypt, they returned to where they had come from. Almost seems like the whole purpose of their little trip to Egypt was to gain some treasure, but this relies on speculation, and that is not my intent here.
In this chapter we experience something of a minor civil war between Abram and his constituents, and his nephew Lot, and his constituents. We see a peaceful resolution to this and a parting between the two groups.
We have a renewing or restating of a covenant between God and Abram's seed in regards to the land, and then a new altar. Let's take a look.
Verse 1 of this chapter can possibly confuse the Geographically handicapped. It says that Abram went up out of Egypt with his wife and Lot and into the south. Generally speaking the term up would refer to travelling north. The verse almost makes it seem that they travelled south from Egypt, but if you imagine this author being to the north of southern Israel it straightens itself out. They travelled from Egypt up into the southern part of Canaan.
Verse 2 is almost like bragging for Abram in his ability to become a rich man from his iniquity in Egypt. Here it says that he was rich in cattle among other things. Cattle, by definition, is domesticated bovine such as cows, bulls or calves. Now there is no mention of Abram being given this species of animal in Egypt but he could have had them before he went there.
Now this group returned to the altar that Abram had built to the Lord between Beth-El and Hai. For some reason this land was not able to bear this many people and conflicts arose between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen.
This displeased Abram for he called Lot to him and begged him that there should be no disagreement between them or between there men for they were brethren. Abram suggested that Lot seperate himself and his followers from Abram's group and there would once again be peace.
Abram gave the choice to Lot of where to go, though the Lord had already promised this land to Abram's offspring. Wasn't this going against the lord's wishes in a way? Fortunately for Abram, this didn't become a problem for Lot saw the plains of Jordan and decided that this was the place for him and his group.
Verse 10 is an interesting one. It says that the land here was well watered before the Lord destroyed Soddom ang Gomorrah. This is interesting in that we have not heard of a place called Soddom or Gomorrah, and know not why they had been destroyed. The significance of this is simply that it shows that this was not a story written down as the events happened, but a rememberance of earlier events.
Per Lot's decision Abram dwelled in Canaan and Lot went to dwell towards Sodom. The story continues by saying that the men of Sodom were wicked and sinned before the Lord greatly. We will definitely see more of this.
Verses 14 through 17 is the restating of the covenant between the Lord and Abram. The Lord tells Abram to look in every direction and all that he sees belongs to his seed forever. The Lord says that he will multiply Abram's seed to match the particles of dust on the earth in number. The Lord tells Abram to walk this land and to know it.
The chapter concludes by saying that Abram went to the plain of Mamre which is in Hebron, and built another altar to the Lord.
Conclusion
Not much to ponder in this chapter really. We have a conflict of groups for the first time, and amazingly enough a peaceful resolution. The source of the conflict raises a question, though. How could the land not bear the two groups? Did they multiply in such a short time?
There is the matter of Abram offering Lot the land already promised to him by the Lord. What would the result have been if Lot had gone the other way and taken the land promised to the offspring of Abram? Would this not have upset the Lord? We have already seen instances where the Lord was angered for less.
Sodom and Gomorrah is mentioned here as is their imminent destruction. We can see that this was written at least later than this event. How much later is unknown.
The conclusion is the covenant which brings up an interesting point. The Lord tells Abram that he will multiply his seed to a number so great that counting them would be no easier than numbering the particles of dust. Apparently this is yet to happen for any offspring of Abraham, be they Jew or Arab, is definitely not beyond our means to measure. Maybe we will see an incredible population explosion of the semitic peoples.
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