1 And all the earth was one lip, and there was one language to all. 2 And it came to pass as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Senaar, and they dwelt there. 3 And a man said to his neighbour, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick was to them for stone, and their mortar was bitumen. 4 And they said, Come, let us build to ourselves a city and tower, whose top shall be to heaven, and let us make to ourselves a name, before we are scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men built. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, [there is] one race, and one lip of all, and they have begun to do this, and now nothing shall fail from them of all that they may have undertaken to do. 7 Come, and having gone down let us there confound their tongue, that they may not understand each the voice of his neighbour. 8 And the Lord scattered them thence over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower. 9 On this account its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confounded the languages of all the earth, and thence the Lord scattered them upon the face of all the earth. 10◆ And these [are] the generations of Sem: and Sem was a hundred years old when he begot Arphaxad, the second year after the flood. 11◆ And Sem lived, after he had begotten Arphaxad, five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 12◆ And Arphaxad lived a hundred and thirty-five years, and begot Cainan. 13◆ And Arphaxad lived after he had begotten Cainan, four hundred years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. And Cainan lived a hundred and thirty years and begot Sala; and Cainan lived after he had begotten Sala, three hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 14◆ And Sala lived an hundred and thirty years, and begot Heber. 15◆ And Sala lived after he had begotten Heber, three hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 16◆ And Heber lived an hundred and thirty-four years, and begot Phaleg. 17◆ And Heber lived after he had begotten Phaleg two hundred and seventy years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 18◆ And Phaleg lived an hundred and thirty years, and begot Ragau. 19◆ And Phaleg lived after he had begotten Ragau, two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 20◆ And Ragau lived an hundred thirty and two years, and begot Seruch. 21◆ And Ragau lived after he had begotten Seruch, two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 22◆ And Seruch lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot Nachor. 23◆ And Seruch lived after he had begotten Nachor, two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters, and died. 24◆ And Nachor lived a hundred and seventy-nine years, and begot Tharrha. 25◆ And Nachor lived after he had begotten Tharrha, an hundred and twenty-five years, and begot sons and daughters, and he died. 26◆ And Tharrha lived seventy years, and begot Abram, and Nachor, and Arrhan. 27 And these [are] the generations of Tharrha. Tharrha begot Abram and Nachor, and Arrhan; and Arrhan begot Lot. 28 And Arrhan died in the presence of Tharrha his father, in the land in which he was born, in the country of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nachor took to themselves wives, the name of the wife of Abram was Sara, and the name of the wife of Nachor, Malcha, daughter of Arrhan, and he was the father of Malcha, the father of Jescha. 30 And Sara was barren, and did not bear children. 31 And Tharrha took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Arrhan, the son of his son, and Sara his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and led them forth out of the land of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Chanaan, and they came as far as Charrhan, and he dwelt there. 32 And all the days of Tharrha in the land of Charrhan were two hundred and five years, and Tharrha died in Charrhan.
Genesis · Brenton's English Septuagint
Genesis 11 Brenton's English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (2)
- Square brackets mark words Brenton supplied for English sense.
- Old Testament only (no New Testament). First printed 1844; the 1851 edition added the deuterocanonical books.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Arphaxad
Born two years after the flood, a link from Shem toward Abraham.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:22–24; 11:10–13
Eber
The name behind the word 'Hebrew,' father of Peleg.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:24–25; 11:14–17
Iscah
A daughter of Haran and the sister of Milcah, named only in the account of Terah's family.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:29
Lot
Abraham's nephew who chose the plain of Jordan and settled near Sodom.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11–14; 19
Nahor
The grandfather of Abraham, standing just before Terah in the line.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:22–25
Nahor
Terah's son and the brother of Abram and Haran, who took Milcah, the daughter of Haran, as his wife.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:26; Genesis 11:27; Genesis 11:29
Peleg
In his days, Scripture says, the earth was divided.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:25; 11:16–19
Reu
A link in the generations descending toward Abraham.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:18–21
Serug
Great-grandfather of Abraham in the line from Shem.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:20–23
Shem
Noah's blessed son, ancestor of the Semitic peoples and of Abraham.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 9:18–10:31; 11:10–26
Cross references (23)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Acts 2:6; Zephaniah 3:9; Isaiah 19:18
- 2 Daniel 1:2; Genesis 10:10; Genesis 14:1; Isaiah 11:11; Zechariah 5:11
- 3 Genesis 14:10; Exodus 1:14; Exodus 2:3; James 5:1; Hebrews 10:24
- 4 Deuteronomy 1:28; John 5:44; Luke 1:51; Deuteronomy 9:1; Daniel 4:30
- 5 Psalm 33:13–14; Genesis 18:21; John 3:13; Hebrews 4:13; Jeremiah 23:23–24
- 6 Psalm 2:1–4; Genesis 3:22; Genesis 11:1; Ecclesiastes 11:9; Luke 1:51
- 7 Psalm 33:10; Job 5:12–13; Genesis 1:26; Psalm 55:9; 1 Corinthians 14:2–11
- 8 Luke 1:51; Genesis 10:32; Genesis 10:25; Deuteronomy 32:8; Genesis 11:4
- 9 Genesis 10:10; Genesis 10:5; Acts 17:26; Genesis 10:20; 1 Corinthians 14:23
- 10 1 Chronicles 1:17–27; Luke 3:34–36; Genesis 11:27; Genesis 10:21–22
- 11 Genesis 9:7; Psalm 144:12; Genesis 1:28; Genesis 5:4–32; Psalm 127:3–4
- 12 Luke 3:36
- 16 Luke 3:35; Numbers 24:24; Genesis 10:21; 1 Chronicles 1:19; Genesis 10:25
- 18 Luke 3:35
- 20 Luke 3:35
- 22 Joshua 24:2
- 24 Luke 3:34; Joshua 24:2
- 26 Joshua 24:2; Genesis 12:4–5; 1 Chronicles 1:26–27; Genesis 22:20–24; Genesis 29:4–5
- 27 Genesis 14:12; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 11:31; 2 Peter 2:7; Genesis 13:1–11
- 28 Genesis 15:7; Genesis 11:31; Acts 7:2–4; Nehemiah 9:7
- 29 Genesis 17:15; Genesis 22:20; Genesis 24:15; Genesis 20:12
- 30 Judges 13:2; Genesis 25:21; 1 Samuel 1:2; Luke 1:7; Luke 1:36
- 31 Nehemiah 9:7; Acts 7:2–4; Genesis 12:4; Joshua 24:2–3; Genesis 15:7
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
Why does my Bible say something different?
- Genesis 5 and 11: why the patriarchs’ ages differ
In the Greek Septuagint most patriarchs in Genesis 5 and 11 become fathers about 100 years later than in the Hebrew text, and Genesis 11 adds a second Cainan, whom St Luke also names (Luke 3:36). The result is a world history over a thousand years longer. The Byzantine calendar was built on the Greek numbers. No doctrine depends on either set.
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Therefore the name of it is called Confusion; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and the Lord God scattered them thence on the face of all the earth." This city, which was called Confusion, is the same as Babylon, whose wonderful construction Gentile history also notices.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
The words, "Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do," are assuredly not meant as an affirmation, but as an interrogation, such as is used by persons threatening, as e.g., when Dido exclaims, "They will not take arms and pursue?" We are to understand the words as if it had been said, Shall nothing be restrained …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
And 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." This Iscah is supposed to be the same as Sarah, Abraham's wife.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)