2
他们往东边迁移的时候，在示拿地遇见一片平原，就住在那里。
3
他们彼此商量说：来罢！我们要作砖，把砖烧透了。他们就拿砖当石头，又拿石漆当灰泥。
4
他们说：来罢！我们要建造一座城和一座塔，塔顶通天，为要传扬我们的名，免得我们分散在全地上。
6
耶和华说：看哪，他们成为一样的人民，都是一样的言语，如今既作起这事来，以後他们所要作的事就没有不成就的了。
8
於是耶和华使他们从那里分散在全地上；他们就停工，不造那城了。
9
因为耶和华在那里变乱天下人的言语，使众人分散在全地上，所以那城名叫巴别(就是变乱的意思)。
27
他拉的後代记在下面。他拉生亚伯兰、拿鹤、哈兰；哈兰生罗得。
29
亚伯兰、拿鹤各娶了妻：亚伯兰的妻子名叫撒莱；拿鹤的妻子名叫密迦，是哈兰的女儿；哈兰是密迦和亦迦的父亲。
30
撒莱不生育，没有孩子。
31
他拉带着他儿子亚伯兰和他孙子哈兰的儿子罗得，并他儿妇亚伯兰的妻子撒莱，出了迦勒底的吾珥，要往迦南地去；他们走到哈兰，就住在那里。
1328. 'And from there Jehovah scattered them over the face 1 of the whole Earth' means that internal worship ceased to exist. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'scattering' as being dispersed. In the proximate sense those who wanted to build the city of Babel are meant by 'being scattered over the face 1 of the whole earth'. But because they are people who deprive others of all knowledge of truth, as has been stated, these words at the same time mean the loss of internal worship; for one is the consequence of the other. Here the consequence is meant because this is the third time that this statement is made. That the first Ancient Church had been deprived of cognitions of truth and good is clear from the consideration that the nations which constituted that Ancient Church became for the most part idolatrous, though they still possessed some form of external worship. The lot of idolaters outside the Church is far better than that of idolaters inside it. The former are external idolaters, but the latter are internal. The fact that the lot of the former is better is clear from what the Lord says in Luke 13:23, 28-30; Matthew 8:11-12. This then is the reason why the state of this Ancient Church was altered.
脚注:
1. literally, the faces
