Genesis 11
11
The Tower of Babylon
1At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. # Lit one lip and the same words 2As people # Lit they migrated from the east, # 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 us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar. # Gn 14:10; Ex 2:3 4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. # Dt 1:28; 9:1; Ps 107:26 Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole 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 men 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 Us go down there and confuse # Or confound their language # Lit lip so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” # Lit understand each man the lip of his companion 8So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, # Gn 11:4; Ps 92:9; Lk 1:51 and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name is called Babylon, # In Hb, the name Babylon sounds like the word “confuse.” # Gn 10:10 for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole 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 # LXX reads years and fathered Cainan. 13 After he fathered Cainan, Arphachshad 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: HCSB
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Genesis 11
11
The Tower of Babel
1Now everyone at that time spoke a single language # 11:1 Or “one lip.” with one vocabulary. 2As people migrated eastward, # 11:2 Or “from the east.” The Hebrew is ambiguous. they found a large plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3They said to one another, “Come, let’s unite together and make bricks of clay # 11:3 God’s building never includes bricks, only stones. Man makes bricks; God is the Maker of stones. The New Jerusalem will not be made from bricks but from precious stones (see Rev. 21:18–20). Pharaoh made his treasure cities out of bricks; God raises up his temple using living stones (see 1 Peter 2:5). and burn them until they become hard.” So, they piled up the bricks they made to serve as stones and collected tar for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let’s begin work to build ourselves a city with a lofty tower that rises into the heavens. We’ll make a name for ourselves, a monument to us, # 11:4 An ancient historian, Philo Judaeus, says that each worker engraved their names on the bricks to memorialize themselves. Today their names are forgotten, and the Name of God stands as a High Tower. Seeking to make a name for ourselves is self-worship. We are to lay aside our reputations to make the Name of Jesus famous (see Phil. 2:3–11). Jesus emptied himself of his outward glory. instead of being scattered all over the earth.”
5But when Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which mortals had started building, 6he said, “If they have begun this as one people sharing a common language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let us # 11:7 In the plural pronoun many theologians see the three members of the Godhead. go down and confuse their language and prevent them from understanding each other.” # 11:7 Some linguists believe there are nearly seven thousand languages in the world. Although God confused the language of earth, he will one day purify (clarify) the language so that people will serve him in unity. See Zeph. 3:9. Acts 2 is the reversal of Babel, for God gave men unlearned languages as they spoke in tongues.
8So Yahweh scattered them over the entire earth, and they stopped building their city. # 11:8 The Bible ends with two figurative cities, Babylon and the New Jerusalem. Babylon-builders will always seek to make a name for themselves. Those who are a part of the New Jerusalem long to see only the name of Jesus exalted. The overcomer’s name will be engraved forever on a stone in the City of our God where he makes his dwelling with man (see Rev. 2:17). 9That is why the city was called Babel—because it was there that Yahweh confused # 11:9 Babel comes from the Hebrew word “to confuse.” However, in the Babylonian language, the city was called Bab-ilu, “the gate of God.” the language of the whole world and from there the people were scattered over the face of the earth.
Genealogy of Shem
10These are the descendants of Shem. # 11:10 See 1 Chron. 1:17–27; Luke 3:23–38.
Two years after the flood, at the age of one hundred, Shem had a son named Arphaxad. # 11:10 See Gen. 10:22. 11And after Arphaxad was born, Shem lived another five hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
12When Arphaxad was thirty-five, he had a son named Shelah. # 11:12 See Gen. 10:24. 13And after Shelah was born Arphaxad lived another four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.
14When Shelah was thirty, he had a son named Eber. # 11:14 See Gen. 10:24. 15And after Eber was born, Shelah lived another four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.
16When Eber was thirty-four, he had a son named Peleg. # 11:16 See Gen. 10:25. 17And after Peleg was born, Eber lived another four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.
18When Peleg was thirty, he had a son named Reu. 19And after Reu was born, Peleg lived another two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters.
20When Reu was thirty-two, # 11:20 Or “one hundred and thirty-two” (LXX, Sam. Pent.). It is Jewish tradition that Reu was born when the Tower of Babel had begun to be built. Reu means “friend” or “shepherd.” he had a son named Serug. 21And after Serug was born, Reu lived another two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters.
22When Serug was thirty, # 11:22 Or “one hundred and thirty” (LXX, Sam. Pent.). Serug means “interwoven” or “strength.” According to the Book of Jubilees, Serug was the first one of Shem’s descendants to turn from Yahweh to worship idols. It is said he taught sorcery to his son Nahor. he had a son named Nahor. 23And after Nahor was born, Serug lived another two hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
24When Nahor was twenty-nine, he had a son named Terah. # 11:24 Terah means “wild goat” or “wanderer.” 25And after Terah was born, Nahor # 11:25 Jewish tradition states that Nahor lived in Ur, on the Euphrates in lower Mesopotamia, the place where God appeared to Abram. Nahor means “angry,” “passionate.” lived another one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters.
26When Terah was seventy, he had sons named Abram, # 11:26 This was the Patriarch who would later have his name changed to Abraham. Abram means “exalted father.” Abraham means “father of a multitude.” There were ten generations from Adam to Noah and ten generations from Shem to Abram. Nahor, and Haran. # 11:26 Haran means “living in the high place” or “mountaineer.”
The Story of Terah
27Here are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran was the father of Lot. 28Haran preceded his father, Terah, in death in the land of his birth, in the Chaldean city of Ur. # 11:28 The word Chaldea means “demonic;” Ur means “flame.” Ur was an ancient city-state in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), which was approximately fifty miles south of Babylon. The ruins of Ur can still be seen at modern Tell el-Muqayyar. In 2000 BC, Ur was perhaps one of the largest cities of the world. It is clear that Abram and his father served foreign gods. Ur was named after the moon goddess and was her center of worship. The Chaldeans were astrologers, occultists, and idol worshipers. Ancient traditions state that Terah was an idol-maker until his death. The Jewish writers have a tradition that Abram and his father were cast into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship idols and were miraculously delivered. See Josh. 24:2. 29The brothers, Abram and Nahor, were both married. Abram’s wife was Sarai. # 11:29 Sarai means “ruler” or “my princess.” God would later change her name to “Sarah.” Nahor married the daughter of his deceased brother Haran; her name was Milcah, # 11:29 Nahor married his orphaned niece. Milcah means “queen.” and her sister was Iscah. # 11:29 Iscah means “discerner” or “one who scans abroad.” Iscah is Jessica in English. 30Now Sarai was barren and childless.
31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, # 11:31 Lot means “to wrap a covering” or “to envelop.” the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they all departed together from the Chaldean city of Ur to go into the land of Canaan. # 11:31 The land of Canaan takes its name from the son of Ham, Canaan. The land of Canaan is mentioned sixty-six times in the Old Testament but not found in the New Testament. But when they journeyed as far as Haran, # 11:31 Most scholars identify Haran with a city in Turkey, now in ruins, called Harran, which is approximately six hundred miles from Ur. It is the city that Jacob fled to (see Gen. 27:43; 28:10) and, later, that the Assyrians destroyed in the days of Hezekiah (see 2 Kings 19:12; Isa. 37:12). they settled there. 32Terah lived two hundred and five years and died in Haran.
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