Genesis 11
11
“God Turned Their Language into ‘Babble’”
1-2At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.
3They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.
4Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t be scattered here and there across the Earth.”
5 God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.
6-9 God took one look and said, “One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they’ll come up with next—they’ll stop at nothing! Come, we’ll go down and garble their speech so they won’t understand each other.” Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That’s how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into “babble.” From there God scattered them all over the world.
* * *
10-11This is the story of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he had Arphaxad. It was two years after the flood. After he had Arphaxad, he lived 500 more years and had other sons and daughters.
12-13When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.
14-15When Shelah was thirty years old, he had Eber. After Shelah had Eber, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.
16-17When Eber was thirty-four years old, he had Peleg. After Eber had Peleg, he lived 430 more years and had other sons and daughters.
18-19When Peleg was thirty years old, he had Reu. After he had Reu, he lived 209 more years and had other sons and daughters.
20-21When Reu was thirty-two years old, he had Serug. After Reu had Serug, he lived 207 more years and had other sons and daughters.
22-23When Serug was thirty years old, he had Nahor. After Serug had Nahor, he lived 200 more years and had other sons and daughters.
24-25When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he had Terah. After Nahor had Terah, he lived 119 more years and had other sons and daughters.
26When Terah was seventy years old, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Family Tree of Terah
27-28This is the story of Terah. Terah had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Haran had Lot. Haran died before his father, Terah, in the country of his family, Ur of the Chaldees.
29Abram and Nahor each got married. Abram’s wife was Sarai; Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of his brother Haran. Haran had two daughters, Milcah and Iscah.
30Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and Sarai his daughter-in-law (his son Abram’s wife) and set out with them from Ur of the Chaldees for the land of Canaan. But when they got as far as Haran, they settled down there.
32Terah lived 205 years. He died in Haran.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 11
11
1At that time the whole world spoke just one language and used words with the same meaning. 2As they moved east they discovered a plain in the land of Shinar so they settled there.
3They said to one another, “Come on, let's make some bricks and bake them with fire.” (They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of cement).#11:3. This was because in the Babylonian plain there was no stone to use for buildings. 4Then they said, “Now let's build a city for ourselves with a tower whose top reaches the heavens. That way we'll gain a great reputation and we won't end up being scattered all over the world.”
5But the Lord came down to take a look at the city and the tower that the people were building. 6The Lord said, “Look! These people are united and they all speak one language. If this is what they can do now when they're just getting started, nothing will be impossible for them when they all put their minds to it! 7We need to go down and mix up their language and make it confused so they won't be able to understand what they're saying to one other.”
8The Lord sent them away from there and scattered them all over the world, and they gave up building the city. 9That's why it was called Babel,#11:9. Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for “confuse.” because the Lord made the language of the world confused.
10The following is the genealogy of Shem. When Shem was 100, he had Arphaxad. This was two years after the flood. 11Shem lived another 500 years after Arphaxad was born and had other sons and daughters.
12When Arphaxad was 35, he had Shelah. 13Arphaxad lived another 403 years after Shelah was born and had other sons and daughters.
14When Shelah was 30, he had Eber. 15Shelah lived another 403 years after Eber was born and had other sons and daughters.
16When Eber was 34, he had Peleg. 17Eber lived another 430 years after Peleg was born and had other sons and daughters.
18When Peleg was 30, he had Reu. 19Peleg lived another 209 years after Reu was born and had other sons and daughters.
20When Reu was 32, he had Serug. 21Reu lived another 207 years after Serug was born and had other sons and daughters.
22When Serug was 30, he had Nahor. 23Serug lived another 200 years after Nahor was born and had other sons and daughters.
24When Nahor was 29, he had Terah. 25Nahor lived another 119 years after Terah was born and had other sons and daughters.
26When Terah was 70, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.#11:26. Once again (see note on 5:32) these sons are not listed in birth order. Abram is listed first because of his importance.
27The following is the genealogy of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. 28However, Haran died while his father, Terah, was still alive, in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth. 29Abram and Nahor both got married. Abram's wife was named Sarai, and Nahor's wife was named Milcah. (She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah). 30Sarai wasn't able to become pregnant and so had no children.
31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (who was the son of Haran), his daughter-in-law Sarai (the wife of his son Abram), and left Ur of the Chaldeans to move to the land of Canaan. They got as far as Haran and settled there. 32Terah lived for 205 years and died in Haran.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com