Matthew Henry

Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth.

“Note, Great conquerors are but great hunters. Alexander and Cesar would not make such a figure in scripture-history as they do in common history; the former is represented in prophecy but as a he-goat pushing, Dan. viii.”

Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

“If there were any different languages before the flood, yet Noah's only, which it is likely was the same with Adam's, was preserved through the flood, and continued after it.”

“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered…

“"No," say they, "we will not, we will live and die together." In order hereunto, they engage themselves and one another in this vast undertaking.”

Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

“Are they stronger than he? (2.) Their sinfulness and obnoxiousness. They were the sons of Adam, so it is in the Hebrew; nay, of that Adam, that sinful disobedient Adam, whose children are by nature children of disobedience, children that are corrupters.”

And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them.

“God had tried, by his commands and admonitions, to bring them off from this project, but in vain; therefore he must take another course with them.”

So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

“(5.) We may here lament the loss of the universal use of the Hebrew tongue, which from this time was the vulgar language of the Hebrews only, and continued so till the captivity in Babylon, where, even among them, it was exchanged for the Syriac.”

During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

“It is likewise said that he died in Ur of the Chaldees, before the happy removal of the family out of that idolatrous country. Note, It concerns us to hasten out of our natural state, lest death surprise us in it.”

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

“Get out for thyself (so some read it), that is, for thy own good. Note, Those who leave their sins, and turn to God, will themselves be unspeakable gainers by the change, Prov. ix.”

Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

“We often fear where no fear is. We fear the fury of the oppressor, as though he were ready to destroy, when really there is no danger, Isa. li.”

So Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev—he and his wife and all his possessions—and Lot was with him.

“He came himself and brought all his with him back again to Canaan. Note, Though there may be occasion to go sometimes into places of temptation, yet we must hasten out of them as soon as possible.”

And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

“There is a burden of care in getting them, fear in keeping them, temptation in using them, guilt in abusing them, sorrow in losing them, and a burden of account, at last, to be given up concerning them.”

to the site where he had built the altar. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

“His altar was gone, so that he could not offer sacrifice; but he called on the name of the Lord, as he had done, ch. xii. All God's people are praying people.”

And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.

“It is a very wicked thing for servants to do ill offices between relations and neighbours, and to sow discord; those that do so are the devil's agents and their masters' worst enemies.”

So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are brothers.

“There was all the reason in the world that Abram should choose first; yet he recedes from his right.”

Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me.

“As if he had said, "Why should we quarrel for room, while there is room enough for us both?" (1.) He concludes that they must part, and is very desirous that they should part friends: Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me.”

And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land…

“While he lived among them, he vexed his righteous soul with their conversation, and never had a good day with them, till, at last, God fired the town over his head, and forced him to the mountain for safety who chose the plain for wealth…”

But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.

“Though all are sinners, yet some are greater sinners than others. The men of Sodom were sinners of the first magnitude, sinners before the Lord, that is, impudent daring sinners; they were so to a proverb.”

After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and…

“The prospects of an eye of faith are much more rich and beautiful than those of an eye of sense. Those for whom the heavenly Canaan is designed in the other world have sometimes, by faith, a comfortable prospect of it in their present state…”

I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.

“Note, The same God that provides the inheritance provides the heirs. He that has prepared the holy land prepares the holy seed; he that gives glory gives grace to make meet for glory.”

Get up and walk around the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.”

“God bade him walk through the land, that is, "Do not think of fixing in it, but expect to be always unsettled, and walking through it to a better Canaan:" in compliance with God's will herein, he removes his tent, confirming himself to the condition…”

The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and they went on their way.

“All the goods of Sodom, and particularly their stores and provisions of victuals, were carried off by the conquerors.”

Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of…

“Providence so ordered it that he now sojourned not far off, that he might be a very present help.”

During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.

“Again, It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few, 1 Sam. xiv. He rescued his kinsman; twice here he is called his brother Lot.”

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—

“This he did as a king, teaching us to do good and to communicate, and to be given to hospitality, according to our ability; and representing the spiritual provisions of strength and comfort which Christ has laid up for us in the covenant of grace…”

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—

“And how came he to settle in Canaan? Many Christian writers have thought that this was an appearance of the Son of God himself, our Lord Jesus, known to Abram, at this time, by this name, as, afterwards, Hagar called him by another name, ch.”