Genesis 11

Genesis 11

Genesis 11:1 Now the whole land had one language and used the same words.

Genesis 11:2 And as people set out from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Genesis 11:3 And they said every man to his friend, “Come, let us make bricks, and bake them completely.” So, they had brick for stone, and asphalt for mortar.

Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let us make a name for ourselves, or else we will be scattered over the face of the whole land.”

Genesis 11:5 And Yahveh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam had built.

Genesis 11:6 And Yahveh said, “Notice, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Genesis 11:8 So Yahveh scattered them from there over the face of all the land, and they stopped building the city.

Genesis 11:9 That is why its name was called Babel, because there Yahveh confused the language of all the land. And from there Yahveh scattered them over the face of all the land.

Genesis 11:10 These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old (two years after the flood) he fathered Arpachshad.

Genesis 11:11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.

Genesis 11:13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:14 After Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber.

Genesis 11:15 then Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:16 After Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg.

Genesis 11:17 then Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:18 After Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.

Genesis 11:19 then Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:20 After Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.

Genesis 11:21 then Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:22 After Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor.

Genesis 11:23 then Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:24 After Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah.

Genesis 11:25 Then Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 11:26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Genesis 11:27 Here are the generations from Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.

Genesis 11:28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Genesis 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.

Genesis 11:30 But Sarai was without offspring; she had no child.

Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans purposing to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 11:32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 11 quotes:

“There are, of course, various lines of evidence in the Bible itself which militate against the strict-chronology interpretation of the genealogy of Genesis 11:10-26.’ But although the Biblical text does not appear to speak unequivocally as to the date of the Flood, it does give strong witness that this date is on the order of magnitude of only some several thousands of years ago.”

Whitcomb, John C. The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. Presbyterian and Reformed Pub, 1964. p. 391.

“They had a particular goal in mind. “Come, let’s build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves so that we won’t be dispersed over all the earth” (Genesis 11:4). A fascinating kind of isolationism was at work. They had no way of knowing if there were other humans in other places, and they didn’t want to know. They saw themselves as the earth’s only occupants. They had no idea what lay beyond the farther reach of hills, and they didn’t care to find out. Perhaps they were haunted by the memory of a tradition, that their human assignment was to “fill the earth and master it” (1:28), and they really didn’t care to get involved with all of the earth. Or, on the other hand, perhaps they had a mythic memory of an Eden from which their ancestors had been expelled, and they didn’t intend to suffer that kind of fate again.”

Kalas, J. Ellsworth. Genesis. Abingdon Press, 2011. p. 42.

“The uniqueness of the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 lies in the fact that they include a complete list of each person’s birth, age at procreation, and life span even though they lived four thousand to six thousand years ago. The completeness of the genealogies affirms that God’s redemptive work did not cease in any generation, but continued throughout history.”

Park, Abraham. Genesis Genealogies: God’s Administration in the History of Redemption (Book 1). Periplus Editions, 2016. p. 38.