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And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded.

And the Lord said:-"Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do; go to, let Us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

2. i. e.

Ceased to build the city.

3. The word Babel means "confusion." See Outline Study, Note 7.

4. Throw into confusion.

III

ABRAHAM IN CANAAN

(Genesis xiii)

Introductory Note.—A clan of pastoral nomads, descendants of Shem, under the leadership of Terah, came up from the shores of the Persian Gulf into the region now known as Mesopotamia. Here Terah died, and the clan split into three,— one division remained in Mesopotamia, while the other two, led respectively by Abram (or Abraham) and Lot, crossed the Euphrates and came into the country which we know as Palestine, but which is called in Genesis, "The Land of Canaan." Abraham wandered on into Egypt with his flocks and herds; but, later, relying on a divine promise that his posterity should one day possess the land, he rejoined Lot in Canaan. Both clans were now very powerful, and enormously wealthy in sheep and cattle. The inhabitants of Canaan (descendants of Canaan, son of Ham) lived in walled cities on the hill-tops and had no objections to offer when Abraham and Lot fed their flocks in the vacant open country. In fact, they welcomed the powerful nomads as friends and allies.

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south; and Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el,' unto the place where his tent had

1. The word Bethel means "House of God." As used in the Book of Genesis, it doubtless refers to the region between Jerusalem and Shechem, well known to modern travellers; but the word was applied by the ancient inhabitants of Palestine and Arabia to certain consecrated spots, where, it was believed, worshippers could communicate with the Deity or his angels, in dreams.

been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Ai, unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents; and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together; and there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite3 dwelled then in the land.

And Abram said unto Lot:-"Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left."

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,* even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched

2. See Note 52, Outline Study.

3. Study Introductory Note.

4. The now desolate country about the Dead Sea.

5. Two cities at the south end of the Dead Sea.

his tent toward Sodom; but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.

And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him :—

"Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever; and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee." Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and build there an altar unto the Lord.'

6. A city in Palestine south of Jerusalem.

7. See Outline Study, Note 9.

IV

THE STORY OF THE WOOING OF REBECCA

(Genesis xxiv)

Introductory Note.-Lot, disregarding Abraham's warning, associated with the Canaanites of Sodom and was involved in the terrible fate of the "cities of the plain." Abraham continued to live in Southern Palestine, near Hebron, on amicable terms with his Canaanitish neighbors, but keeping aloof from them. Ishmael, the eldest son of Abraham, is, with his mother, driven into the wilderness, where he becomes the ancestor of the Arabs. Isaac is Abraham's favorite son, and, in his old age, Abraham turns to the kindred clan which he and Lot had left behind in Mesopotamia, for a suitable wife for Isaac, who will soon become the chief of the Semitic nomads in Canaan.

And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had: "Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh; and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac."

And the servant said unto him:-"Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from

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