only remained alive, and they that were with him in the Ark (n)." After "the waters had prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days (o)," they began to abate; the Ark rested upon the mountain of Arrarat in Armenia, and Noah and his family and every one of the living creatures, having been in the Ark one year and seventeen days, came out of it upon dry ground. Noah immediately offered sacrifices unto God as a thanksgiving for his preservation; and God was pleased to enter into a covenant with him, that there should not any more be a flood to destroy the earth;" and God set his bow in the clouds as a token of this covenant (p)."

The descendants of Noah and his sons multiplied greatly, and they were all "of one language and of one speech (q)."-After a certain time, the whole race (r) of men moved

(n). Gen. c. 7. v. 23.

(p) Gen. c. 9. v. 13.

from

(0) Gen. c. 8. v. 3.

(q) Gen. c. II. v. I.

(r) In the first two editions of this Work, I stated that a part only of the inhabitants of the earth "journeyed from the East," and settled in the plains of Shinar; but from a more attentive consideration of the subject, to which I have been led by the learned and ingenious "Remarks on the Eastern Origination of Mankind,” by Mr. Granville Penn, published in the second volume of the Eastern Collections, I have been induced to change my opinion. I think the whole of Mr. Penn's account extremely probable, and recommend it to those who are disposed to attend to disquisitions of this kind.

from their original habitations in Armenia, and· settled in the plains of Shinar, near the Euphrates, in Assyria or Chaldæa.-Here they determined to establish themselves, and began to build a city and "tower, whose top might reach to heaven (r)." God was displeased with this work, which seems to have been undertaken from a distrust in his word, and in defiance of his power, and probably in contradiction to some command they had received to spread themselves over the earth to repeople it. "And God confounded the language of those who were engaged in it, so that they did not understand one another's speech; and the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city (s). Therefore is the name of it called Babel (t), because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth."

From this confusion of the original language of mankind at Babel, and the dispersion which 2247. immediately took place, new languages were

formed, and the different parts of the world became inhabited. The late excellent Sir William Jones has very satisfactorily traced the origin of all the people of the earth to the three roots, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, according to the account

(s) Gen. c. 11. v. 7, 8, & q.

(r) Gen. c. 11. v. 4.
(t) Babel signifies confusion.

account given in the tenth chapter of Genesis. The learned are not agreed whether we have any remains of the primitive language of men (u); and as the Scriptures are silent upon the subject, we must be content to leave it in uncertainty. Perhaps it is most probable, that the old Hebrew or Syriac is the most antient language which has descended to us; and, in support of this opinion, the Jewish historians assert, that the sons of Eber or Heber did not concur with the rest in the attempt to build the tower, and therefore retained the primitive language. Abraham, the sixth from Heber, is called in Genesis "Abraham the Hebrew (a)," and his posterity were called Hebrews by the Egyptians. The general custom of naming the people after the head of the family, and "the division of the earth," which is expressly mentioned to have taken

place

(u) Sir William Jones is of opinion, that the primary language is entirely lost. He says, "it appears that the only human family, after the flood, established themselves in the northern parts of Iran (that is, Persia); that as they multiplied, they were divided into three distinct branches, the Indian, the Arabian, and the Tartarian, each retaining little at first, and losing the whole by degrees, of their common primary language ;" and to these three roots, namely, the Hindoo, the Syriac, and the Tartarian, he traces all the languages in the world.

(x) Gen. c. 14. v. 13.

place in the days of Heber's two sons, Peleg and Joktan(y), seem to render it more probable that the name of Hebrew was derived from the patriarch Heber, than from the circumstance of Abraham's passing over the river Euphrates (2).

Terah, the father of Abraham, was the ninth in descent from Shem, the son of Noah. He 1921. removed with his family from Ur in Chaldæa (a) to Haran in Mesopotamia, and there died. "Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed (b)." This is the second promise of a future Saviour of the world, in which it was declared that he should be a descendant of Abraham. Abraham departed, and went by divine direction into the land of Canaan, with Sarah his wife, Lot his brother's son, and all their substance. After the removal of Abraham into Canaan, which is generally denominated the Call of Abraham, God gave him this farther pro

mise,

(y) Gen. c. 10. v. 25. (z) Heber, in the Hebrew language, signifies beyond, or on the other side.

(a) This Chaldæa was in or near Armenia, and must not be confounded with the country afterwards called Chaldæa, the capital of which was Babylon.-Maurice. (b) Gen. c. 12. v. 1, 2, and 3.

mise, "Unto thy seed will I give this land (c)." In consequence of a famine which arose in Canaan, Abraham went and resided in Egypt; but it is not recorded how long he remained in that country. At length Pharaoh (d), the king, commanded him to leave it, and he returned to his former habitation in Canaan, where he became very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And God said to Abraham, "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 (e)."-And again, God said, "Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be (f)." These promises of numerous descendants were made to Abraham at the time he had no children, but "he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righte

(c) Gen. c. 12. v. 7.

ousness.

99

(d) It is certain that the name of Pharaoh was common to all the kings of Egypt from this time till the Babylonian captivity; but how much longer it continued, or when the first Pharaoh reigned, is not known. Pharaoh, in the Ethiopic language, signifies Father of the Country.

(e) Gen. c. 13. v. 15 and 16. (ƒ) Gen. c. 15. v. 5.