Genesis 11
New English Translation
The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel
11 The whole earth[a] had a common language and a common vocabulary.[b] 2 When the people[c] moved eastward,[d] they found a plain in Shinar[e] and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another,[f] “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”[g] (They had brick instead of stone and tar[h] instead of mortar.)[i] 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens[j] so that[k] we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise[l] we will be scattered[m] across the face of the entire earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people[n] had started[o] building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language[p] they have begun to do this, then[q] nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.[r] 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse[s] their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”[t]
8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building[u] the city. 9 That is why its name was called[v] Babel[w]—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 years 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[x] 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[y] sons and daughters.[z]
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 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,[aa] while his father Terah was still alive.[ab] 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai.[ac] And the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah;[ad] she was the daughter of Haran, who was 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[ae] of Terah was 205 years, and he[af] died in Haran.
Footnotes
- Genesis 11:1 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.
- Genesis 11:1 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.
- Genesis 11:2 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Genesis 11:2 tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”
- Genesis 11:2 tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”sn Shinar is the region of Babylonia.
- Genesis 11:3 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
- Genesis 11:3 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbenah levenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrefah 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).
- Genesis 11:3 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
- Genesis 11:3 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
- Genesis 11:4 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.
- Genesis 11:4 tn The form וְנַעֲשֶׂה (venaʿaseh, from the verb עָשָׁה [ʿasah], “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.
- Genesis 11:4 tn The Hebrew particle פֶּן (pen) expresses a negative purpose; it means “that we be not scattered.”
- Genesis 11:4 sn The Hebrew verb פּוּץ (puts, “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.
- Genesis 11:5 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.
- Genesis 11:5 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.
- Genesis 11:6 tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”
- Genesis 11:6 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.”
- Genesis 11:6 tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”
- Genesis 11:7 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.
- Genesis 11:7 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
- Genesis 11:8 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.
- Genesis 11:9 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.
- Genesis 11:9 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).
- Genesis 11:11 tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.
- Genesis 11:13 tn Here and in vv. 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25 the word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.
- Genesis 11:13 tc The reading of the MT is followed in vv. 11-12; the LXX reads, “And [= when] Arphaxad had lived 35 years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan, Arphaxad lived 430 years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died. And [= when] Cainan had lived 130 years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah]. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah], Cainan lived 330 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.
- Genesis 11:28 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.
- Genesis 11:28 tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.”
- Genesis 11:29 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.
- Genesis 11:29 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.
- Genesis 11:32 tn Heb “And the days of Terah were.”
- Genesis 11:32 tn Heb “Terah”; the pronoun has been substituted for the proper name in the translation for stylistic reasons.
Genesis 11
English Standard Version
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in (A)the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, (B)and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower (C)with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And (D)the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, (E)let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So (F)the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called (G)Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Shem's Descendants
10 (H)These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. 13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When (I)Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 When (J)Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah's Descendants
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was (K)Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, (L)Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah (M)took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together (N)from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Footnotes
- Genesis 11:9 Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused
Genesis 11
New King James Version
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and one [a]speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land (A)of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and [b]bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower (B)whose top is in the heavens; let us make a (C)name for ourselves, lest we (D)be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 (E)But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed (F)the people are one and they all have (G)one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they (H)propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, (I)let Us go down and there (J)confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So (K)the Lord scattered them abroad from there (L)over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called [c]Babel, (M)because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Shem’s Descendants(N)
10 (O)This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. 11 After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, (P)and begot Salah. 13 After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.
14 Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. 15 After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.
16 (Q)Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot (R)Peleg. 17 After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. 19 After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot (S)Serug. 21 After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. 23 After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot (T)Terah. 25 After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.
26 Now Terah lived seventy years, and (U)begot [d]Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah’s Descendants
27 This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot (V)Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. 28 And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was (W)Sarai,[e] and the name of Nahor’s wife, (X)Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. 30 But (Y)Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 And Terah (Z)took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from (AA)Ur of the Chaldeans to go to (AB)the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32 So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
Footnotes
- Genesis 11:1 Lit. lip
- Genesis 11:3 Lit. burn
- Genesis 11:9 Lit. Confusion, Babylon
- Genesis 11:26 Abraham, Gen. 17:5
- Genesis 11:29 Sarah, Gen. 17:15
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