Genesis 11
11
The Tower of Babylon
1The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. 2As people migrated from the east,#11:2 Or migrated eastward they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.#Gn 10:10; 14:1; Dn 1:2 3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt#Gn 14:10; Ex 2:3 for mortar.) 4And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.#Dt 1:28; 9:1; Ps 107:26 Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”
5Then the Lord came down#Gn 18:21; Ex 3:8; 19:11,18,20 to look over the city and the tower that the humans#11:5 Or the descendants of Adam were building. 6The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,#Gn 11:4; Ps 92:9; Lk 1:51 and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore it is called Babylon,#11:9 Hb Babel#11:9 In Hb, the name for “Babylon,” babel sounds like the word for “confuse,” balal.#Gn 10:10 for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.
From Shem to Abram
10These are the family records#Gn 2:4; 11:27 of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 12Arpachshad lived 35 years#11:12–13 LXX reads years and fathered Cainan. 13 After he fathered Cainan, Arpachshad lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters, and he died. Cainan lived 130 years and fathered Shelah. After he fathered Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and fathered other sons and daughters, and he died; Gn 10:24; Lk 3:35–36 and fathered Shelah. 13After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 14Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. 15After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 16Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. 17After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 18Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. 19After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 20Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. 21After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 22Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. 23After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 24Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.#Jos 24:2 25After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 26Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai,#Gn 17:15; 20:12 and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah.#Gn 22:20,23; 24:15 She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30Sarai was unable to conceive;#Gn 25:21; 29:31; Ex 23:26; Jdg 13:2–3; 1Sm 2:5; Jb 24:21; Is 54:1; Lk 1:36; 23:29; Gl 4:27; Heb 11:11 she did not have a child.
31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans#Gn 15:7; Neh 9:7; Ac 7:4 to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.
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Genesis 11: CSB
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Berĕshith (Genesis) 11
11
1And all the earth had one language#Hebrew lip. and one speech.
2And it came to be, as they set out from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shin‛ar,#Earlier name for Baḇel. and they dwelt there.
3And they said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over all the face of the earth.”
5Then יהוה came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6And יהוה said, “Look, they are one people and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do! And now, they are not going to be withheld from doing whatever they plan to do.
7“Come, let Us go there and confuse their language, so that they do not understand one another’s speech.”
8And יהוה scattered them from there, over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9That is why its name was called Baḇel,#Baḇel is derived from a verb which means “to confuse.” because there יהוה confused the language of all the earth, and from there יהוה scattered them over the face of all the earth.
10This is the genealogy of Shĕm: Shĕm was a hundred years old and brought forth Arpaḵshaḏ, two years after the flood.
11And after he brought forth Arpaḵshaḏ, Shĕm lived five hundred years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
12And Arpaḵshaḏ lived thirty-five years, and brought forth Shelaḥ.
13And after he brought forth Shelaḥ, Arpaḵshaḏ lived four hundred and three years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
14And Shelaḥ lived thirty years, and brought forth Ěḇer.
15And after he brought forth Ěḇer, Shelaḥ lived four hundred and three years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
16And Ěḇer lived thirty-four years, and brought forth Peleḡ.
17And after he brought forth Peleḡ, Ěḇer lived four hundred and thirty years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
18And Peleḡ lived thirty years, and brought forth Re‛u.
19And after he brought forth Re‛u, Peleḡ lived two hundred and nine years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
20And Re‛u lived thirty-two years, and brought forth Seruḡ.
21And after he brought forth Seruḡ, Re‛u lived two hundred and seven years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
22And Seruḡ lived thirty years, and brought forth Naḥor.
23And after he brought forth Naḥor, Seruḡ lived two hundred years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
24And Naḥor lived twenty-nine years, and brought forth Teraḥ.
25And after he brought forth Teraḥ, Naḥor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
26And Teraḥ lived seventy years, and brought forth Aḇram, Naḥor, and Haran.
27And this is the genealogy of Teraḥ: Teraḥ brought forth Aḇram, Naḥor, and Haran. And Haran brought forth Lot.
28And Haran died before his father Teraḥ in the land of his birth, in Ur-kasdim.
29And Aḇram and Naḥor took wives: the name of Aḇram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Naḥor’s wife, Milkah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milkah and the father of Yiskah.
30And Sarai was barren, she had no child.
31And Teraḥ took his son Aḇram and his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Aḇram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur-kasdim to go to the land of Kena‛an. And they came to Ḥaran and dwelt there.
32And the days of Teraḥ came to be two hundred and five years, and Teraḥ died in Ḥaran.
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