Genesis 11
11
CHAPTER 11
1Forsooth the land was of one language, and of the same speech [or the same words].
2And when they went forth from the east, they found a field in the land of Shinar, and they dwelled therein.
3And one said to his neighbour, Come ye, and make we tilestones, and bake we those [or them] with fire; and they had tile for stones, and pitch, either strong glue, for mortar;
4and they said, Come ye, and make we to us a city and a tower, whose highness stretch till to heaven; and make we solemn our name, before that we be parted into all lands.
5Forsooth the Lord came down to see the city, and the tower, which the sons of Adam builded.
6And he said, Lo! the people is one, and one language is to all, and they have begun to make this; neither they shall cease of their thoughts, till they [ful] fill those [or them] in work;
7therefore come ye, go we down, and shame [or confound] we there the tongue of them, that each man hear not the voice of his neighbour.
8And so the Lord separated them from that place into all lands; and they ceased to build the city.
9And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, for the language of all [the] earth was confounded there; and from thence the Lord scattered them on the face of all countries.
10These be the generations of Shem. Shem was an hundred years when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the great flood.
11And Shem lived after that he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12Forsooth Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah;
13and Arphaxad lived after that he begat Salah three hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
14And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber;
15and Salah lived after that he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
16Soothly Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg;
17and Eber lived after that he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
18Also Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu;
19and Peleg lived after that he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
20And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug;
21and Reu lived after that he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
22Soothly Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor;
23and Serug lived after that he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
24Forsooth Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah;
25and Nahor lived after that he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram#11:26 God would later change Abram’s name to Abraham., Nahor, and Haran.
27Soothly these be the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Forsooth Haran begat Lot;
28and Haran died before Terah, his father, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of Chaldees.
29Forsooth Abram and Nahor wedded wives; the name of the wife of Abram was Sarai, and the name of the wife of Nahor was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, father of Milcah, and father of Iscah.
30Soothly Sarai was barren, and had no children.
31And so Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram, his son, and led them out of Ur of Chaldees, that they should go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelled there.
32And the days of Terah were made two hundred years and five, and he was dead in Haran.
Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
Wycliffe’s Apocrypha ©2013, 2015
Wycliffe’s Bible © 2012, 2015
Wycliffe’s New Testament ©2001, 2011
Wycliffe’s Old Testament ©2001, 2010
Genesis 11
11
The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel
1 The whole earth#sn The whole earth. Here “earth” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the people who lived in the earth. Genesis 11 begins with everyone speaking a common language, but chap. 10 has the nations arranged by languages. It is part of the narrative art of Genesis to give the explanation of the event after the narration of the event. On this passage see A. P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9,” BSac 138 (1981): 119-38. had a common language and a common vocabulary.#tn Heb “one lip and one [set of] words.” The term “lip” is a metonymy of cause, putting the instrument for the intended effect. They had one language. The term “words” refers to the content of their speech. They had the same vocabulary. 2 When the people#tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity. moved eastward,#tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.” they found a plain in Shinar#tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”sn Shinar is the region of Babylonia. and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another,#tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.” “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”#tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76). (They had brick instead of stone and tar#tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV). instead of mortar.)#tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative. 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens#tn A translation of “heavens” for שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) fits this context because the Babylonian ziggurats had temples at the top, suggesting they reached to the heavens, the dwelling place of the gods. so that#tn The form וְנַעֲשֶׂה (vÿna’aseh, from the verb עשׂה, “do, make”) could be either the imperfect or the cohortative with a vav (ו) conjunction (“and let us make…”). Coming after the previous cohortative, this form expresses purpose. we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise#tn The Hebrew particle פֶּן (pen) expresses a negative purpose; it means “that we be not scattered.” we will be scattered#sn The Hebrew verb פָּוָץ (pavats, translated “scatter”) is a key term in this passage. The focal point of the account is the dispersion (“scattering”) of the nations rather than the Tower of Babel. But the passage also forms a polemic against Babylon, the pride of the east and a cosmopolitan center with a huge ziggurat. To the Hebrews it was a monument to the judgment of God on pride. across the face of the entire earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people#tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city. had started#tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here. building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language#tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.” they have begun to do this, then#tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.” nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.#tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.” 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse#tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the Lord our God said to us…. And the Lord went down and we went down with him. And we saw the city and the tower which the sons of men built.” On the chiastic structure of the story, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:235. their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”#tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building#tn The infinitive construct לִבְנֹת (livnot, “building”) here serves as the object of the verb “they ceased, stopped,” answering the question of what they stopped doing. the city. 9 That is why its name was called#tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation. Babel#sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN). – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
The Genealogy of Shem
10 This is the account of Shem.
Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood. 11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other#tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons. sons and daughters.
12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other#tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons. sons and daughters.#tc The reading of the MT is followed in vv. 11-12; the LXX reads, “And [= when] Arphaxad had lived thirty-five years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan, Arphaxad lived four hundred and thirty years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died. And [= when] Cainan had lived one hundred and thirty years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah]. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah], Cainan lived three hundred and thirty years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died.” See also the note on “Shelah” in Gen 10:24; the LXX reading also appears to lie behind Luke 3:35-36.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other#tn Here and in vv. 16, 19, 21, 23, 25 the word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons. sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Record of Terah
27 This is the account of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans,#sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c. while his father Terah was still alive.#tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.” 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,#sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia. and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah;#sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves. she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The lifetime#tn Heb “And the days of Terah were.” of Terah was 205 years, and he#tn Heb “Terah”; the pronoun has been substituted for the proper name in the translation for stylistic reasons. died in Haran.
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