Genesis 11

The whole earth had one language and one way of speaking.

1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

NoteThe Hebrew literally reads "one lip and one set of words", "lip" being the ordinary Hebrew word for a language or dialect. The doubled phrase means everyone spoke the same tongue and used it the same way.

2As they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.

2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

NoteShinar is the Hebrew name for southern Mesopotamia, the flat river plain of the Tigris and Euphrates in what is now southern Iraq, the region later known as Babylonia. The Hebrew of the opening phrase can mean "from the east," "in the east," or "eastward"; translators differ.

3They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them hard." They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

NoteIn the KJV, "Go to" is a sixteenth-century way of saying "Come on" or "Let's get to it," not an instruction to go anywhere. The detail about materials would have struck an early reader as foreign: in the hill country of Canaan people built with quarried stone and lime mortar, but the Mesopotamian plain has no stone, so builders there used sun-dried or kiln-fired mud brick set in bitumen, the natural tar that seeps to the surface in that region, which the KJV calls "slime." Fired brick and bitumen made unusually durable, waterproof structures.

4And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top reaching to the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of the whole earth."

4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

NoteA tower "whose top may reach unto heaven" was a stock phrase in Mesopotamian building inscriptions for a very high tower; it need not mean the builders literally expected to arrive in the sky. The structures it evokes are ziggurats, stepped brick temple-towers that stood at the center of Mesopotamian cities. "Make us a name" means to win lasting fame or leave a permanent memorial.

5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that human beings were building.

5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6And the LORD said, "Look, the people are one, and they all have one language, and this is what they are beginning to do. Now nothing they plan to do will be held back from them.

6And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Note"Nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" uses "imagined" in its older sense of "planned" or "devised," not "fantasized." The sentence is about capability, not daydreaming.

7Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Note"Let us go down" uses a plural for the speaker, as in Genesis 1:26 ("let us make man"). Interpreters have long disagreed about what the plural indicates (a heavenly court being addressed, a formal or deliberative way of speaking about oneself, or something else) and the Hebrew itself does not settle it.

8So the LORD scattered them from that place over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

8So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9That is why its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

NoteThe point is a play on words. "Babel" is simply the Hebrew name for the city of Babylon; in Babylonian its own name was understood as "gate of the god." The Hebrew verb here for "confuse" is *balal*, which sounds like Babel, so the verse reads the great city's name as "Confusion."

10This is the family line of Shem. Shem was 100 years old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.

10These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

Note"These are the generations of" translates a formula (Hebrew *toledoth*) used throughout Genesis to open a new section, roughly "this is the account of what came from." This list runs from Shem, one of Noah's sons, down to Abram, narrowing the story from all humanity to one family. Note that the ancient manuscript traditions do not agree on these figures: the Greek and Samaritan versions give different numbers, and the Greek adds an extra generation (Cainan) between Arphaxad and Salah.

11After Arphaxad was born, Shem lived 500 years, and he had sons and daughters.

11And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

12Arphaxad lived 35 years, and then he became the father of Salah.

12And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:

13After Salah was born, Arphaxad lived 403 years, and he had sons and daughters.

13And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

14Salah lived 30 years, and then he became the father of Eber.

14And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

15After Eber was born, Salah lived 403 years, and he had sons and daughters.

15And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

16Eber lived 34 years, and then he became the father of Peleg.

16And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:

NoteEber's name is built from the same consonants as the word "Hebrew," and ancient readers connected the two; the root carries the sense of crossing over or passing through.

17After Peleg was born, Eber lived 430 years, and he had sons and daughters.

17And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

18Peleg lived 30 years, and then he became the father of Reu.

18And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:

NotePeleg's name resembles the Hebrew word for "division" or "split," and Genesis 10:25 says that in his days "the earth was divided." Whether that refers to the scattering of peoples described earlier in this chapter, or to something else such as the splitting of water channels, is not stated.

19After Reu was born, Peleg lived 209 years, and he had sons and daughters.

19And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

20Reu lived 32 years, and then he became the father of Serug.

20And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:

21After Serug was born, Reu lived 207 years, and he had sons and daughters.

21And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

22Serug lived 30 years, and then he became the father of Nahor.

22And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

23After Nahor was born, Serug lived 200 years, and he had sons and daughters.

23And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

24Nahor lived 29 years, and then he became the father of Terah.

24And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

25After Terah was born, Nahor lived 119 years, and he had sons and daughters.

25And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

26Terah lived 70 years, and then he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

26And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

NoteThis does not mean the three sons were triplets born in Terah's seventieth year. The formula means Terah was seventy when he began fathering these sons; the eldest is not necessarily the one named first.

27Now this is the family line of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot.

27Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

28Haran died while his father Terah was still living, in the land where he was born, in Ur of the Chaldees.

28And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

NoteUr was a major city in southern Mesopotamia. "Of the Chaldees" identifies it for later readers: the Chaldeans were a people who dominated that region many centuries after Abram's time, so the phrase is like saying "Ur, in what is now Chaldean territory." "Died before his father" means he died during Terah's lifetime, not in his presence. "The land of his nativity" is the land of his birth.

29Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

29And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

NoteMilcah was Nahor's niece, the daughter of his brother Haran. Marriage between close kin within the extended family is normal in these narratives and is not presented as remarkable. Iscah is named here and never mentioned again.

30But Sarai could not have children; she had no child.

30But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Note"Barren" states a fact about Sarai, not a judgment. In a world where a household's survival, property and name passed through sons, a couple without children faced the end of the family line, and the note is placed here because it defines the problem the following chapters turn on.

31Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram. They went out with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran and settled there.

31And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

NoteThe Haran they settle in is a different name in Hebrew from Haran the brother who died, the two only look alike in English spelling. The city of Haran lay far to the northwest, in what is now southern Turkey, on the main trade route between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean; it was a well-known caravan town. Canaan is the land along the eastern Mediterranean coast, roughly modern Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and southwestern Syria.

32Terah lived 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

32And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

NoteThe numbers here do not fit together neatly. If Terah was 70 when Abram was born (verse 26) and Abram left Haran at 75 (Genesis 12:4), Terah would have been 145 at that point, yet he lives to 205. The Samaritan version of the text reads 145 here; the Hebrew reads 205, and the tension is left standing.