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.
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Genesis 11
11
The Tower of Babel
1At first everyone spoke the same language, 2but after some of them moved from the east#11.2 from the east: Or “to the east.” and settled in Babylonia,#11.2 Babylonia: See the note at 10.6-20. 3-4they said:
Let's build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We'll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We'll become famous, and we won't be scattered all over the world.
5But when the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower, 6he said:
These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. 7Let's go down and confuse them! We'll make them speak different languages, and they won't be able to understand each other.
8-9So the people had to stop building the city, because the Lord confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That's how the city of Babel#11.8,9 Babel: In Hebrew “Babel” sounds like “confused.” got its name.
The Descendants of Shem
10-11Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100, he had a son named Arpachshad. He had more children and died at the age of 600. This is a list of his descendants:
12When Arpachshad was 35, he had a son named Shelah. 13Arpachshad had more children and died at the age of 438.
14When Shelah was 30, he had a son named Eber. 15Shelah had more children and died at the age of 433.
16When Eber was 34, he had a son named Peleg. 17Eber had more children and died at the age of 464.
18When Peleg was 30, he had a son named Reu. 19Peleg had more children and died at the age of 239.
20When Reu was 32 he had a son named Serug. 21Reu had more children and died at the age of 239.
22When Serug was 30, he had a son named Nahor. 23Serug had more children and died at the age of 230.
24When Nahor was 29, he had a son named Terah. 25Nahor had more children and died at the age of 148.
The Descendants of Terah
26-28After Terah was 70 years old, he had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran, who became the father of Lot. Terah's sons were born in the city of Ur in Chaldea,#11.26-28 Ur in Chaldea: Chaldea was a region at the head of the Persian Gulf. Ur was on the main trade routes from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea. and Haran died there before the death of his father. The following is the story of Terah's descendants.
29-30Abram married Sarai, but she was not able to have children. And Nahor married Milcah, who was the daughter of Haran and the sister of Iscah.
31Terah decided to move from Ur to the land of Canaan. He took along Abram and Sarai and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran. But when they came to the city of Haran,#11.31 Haran: About 885 kilometers northwest of Ur. they settled there instead. 32Terah lived to be 205 years old and died in Haran.
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