1 And the whole earth had one language, and the same words. 2 And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Come on, let us make bricks, and burn [them] thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, Come on, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, the top of which [may reach] to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth. 5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men built. 6 And Jehovah said, Behold, the people is one, and have all one language; and this have they begun to do. And now will they be hindered in nothing that they meditate doing. 7 Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth. And they left off building the city. 9 Therefore was its name called Babel; because Jehovah there confounded the language of the whole earth. And Jehovah scattered them thence over the face of the whole earth. 10◆ These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. 11◆ And Shem lived after he had begotten Arphaxad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 12◆ And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Shelah. 13◆ And Arphaxad lived after he had begotten Shelah four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. 14◆ And Shelah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. 15◆ And Shelah lived after he had begotten Eber four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. 16◆ And Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. 17◆ And Eber lived after he had begotten Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. 18◆ And Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. 19◆ And Peleg lived after he had begotten Reu two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. 20◆ And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. 21◆ And Reu lived after he had begotten Serug two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. 22◆ And Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. 23◆ And Serug lived after he had begotten Nahor two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 24◆ And Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. 25◆ And Nahor lived after he had begotten Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters. 26◆ And Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27 And these are the generations of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. 28 And Haran died before the face of his father Terah in the land of his nativity at Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, a daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. 30 And Sarai was barren: she had no child. 31 And 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 together out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan, and came as far as Haran, and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
Genesis 11 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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
Haran
Abraham's brother who died young in Ur, leaving his son Lot.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:26–31
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
Milcah
Haran's daughter and the sister of Iscah, who became the wife of Nahor.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:29; Genesis 22:20; Genesis 22:23
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
Shelah
A quiet link in the line from Shem to Eber and Abraham.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:24; 11:12–15
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
Terah
He left Ur with his family and journeyed toward Canaan, settling in Haran.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:24–32
Places
Haran
A caravan city in Upper Mesopotamia and the family's waypoint between Ur and Canaan. Abraham departed from here for Canaan; Jacob later sojourned with Laban nearby.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 28:10
Ur
Traditionally the southern Sumerian city (Tell el-Muqayyar) with its famous ziggurat, though some scholars argue for a northern Ur (location debated). Abraham set out from here.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:31; Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7
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)