And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.
Ver. 11. To build it an house in the land of Shinar] That is, of Babylon, Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:2, where various of the Jews still remained in wilful exile, as loth to leave their houses and gardens, which they had builded and planted there, Jeremiah 29:5, preferring captivity before liberty, see 1 Chronicles 4:22,23. Hence, upon their final dispersion by the Romans, various of them resorted there for entertainment. There Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, had collected an elected Church, 1 Peter 5:13, and thence he writeth his epistle to the sojourning Jews scattered through those eastern parts, 1 Peter 1:1, from whence also those kings of the east, Revelation 16:12, the converted Jews (as some expound it), are expected. And who can tell whether this land of Shinar be not the same with that land of Sinim? Isaiah 49:12; confer Isaiah 11:16 Zechariah 10:11. Or, by the land of Shinar here, may be meant exilium totius orbis, their general rejection by all nations; the whole world being to them Shinar, that is, a land of excussion.
And it shall be established, &c.] This denoteth the diuturnity or perpetuity of their punishment.