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Genesis · Free Bible Version

Genesis 11 Free Bible Version

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  • Individual translator
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Dynamic (thought for thought)
  • 2018
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Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 At that time the whole world spoke just one language and used words with the same meaning. 2 As they moved east they discovered a plain in the land of Shinar so they settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come on, let's make some bricks and bake them with fire.” (They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of cement). 4 Then they said, “Now let's build a city for ourselves with a tower whose top reaches the heavens. That way we'll gain a great reputation and we won't end up being scattered all over the world.” 5 But the Lord came down to take a look at the city and the tower that the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “Look! These people are united and they all speak one language. If this is what they can do now when they're just getting started, nothing will be impossible for them when they all put their minds to it! 7 We need to go down and mix up their language and make it confused so they won't be able to understand what they're saying to one other.” 8 The Lord sent them away from there and scattered them all over the world, and they gave up building the city. 9 That's why it was called Babel, because the Lord made the language of the world confused. 10◆ The following is the genealogy of Shem. When Shem was 100, he had Arphaxad. This was two years after the flood. 11◆ Shem lived another 500 years after Arphaxad was born and had other sons and daughters. 12◆ When Arphaxad was 35, he had Shelah. 13◆ Arphaxad lived another 403 years after Shelah was born and had other sons and daughters. 14◆ When Shelah was 30, he had Eber. 15◆ Shelah lived another 403 years after Eber was born and had other sons and daughters. 16◆ When Eber was 34, he had Peleg. 17◆ Eber lived another 430 years after Peleg was born and had other sons and daughters. 18◆ When Peleg was 30, he had Reu. 19◆ Peleg lived another 209 years after Reu was born and had other sons and daughters. 20◆ When Reu was 32, he had Serug. 21◆ Reu lived another 207 years after Serug was born and had other sons and daughters. 22◆ When Serug was 30, he had Nahor. 23◆ Serug lived another 200 years after Nahor was born and had other sons and daughters. 24◆ When Nahor was 29, he had Terah. 25◆ Nahor lived another 119 years after Terah was born and had other sons and daughters. 26◆ When Terah was 70, he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27 The following is the genealogy of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. 28 However, Haran died while his father, Terah, was still alive, in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both got married. Abram's wife was named Sarai, and Nahor's wife was named Milcah. (She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah). 30 Sarai wasn't able to become pregnant and so had no children. 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (who was the son of Haran), his daughter-in-law Sarai (the wife of his son Abram), and left Ur of the Chaldeans to move to the land of Canaan. They got as far as Haran and settled there. 32 Terah lived for 205 years and died in Haran.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Arphaxad

    Son of Shem

    Born two years after the flood, a link from Shem toward Abraham.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:22–24; 11:10–13

  • Eber

    Namesake of the Hebrews

    The name behind the word 'Hebrew,' father of Peleg.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:24–25; 11:14–17

  • Haran

    Father of Lot

    Abraham's brother who died young in Ur, leaving his son Lot.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:26–31

  • Iscah

    Daughter of Haran

    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

    Abraham's nephew who chose the plain of Jordan and settled near Sodom.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11–14; 19

  • Milcah

    Wife of Nahor, daughter of Haran

    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

    Abraham's grandfather

    The grandfather of Abraham, standing just before Terah in the line.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:22–25

  • Nahor

    Son of Terah, brother of Abram

    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

    Son of Eber

    In his days, Scripture says, the earth was divided.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:25; 11:16–19

  • Reu

    Son of Peleg

    A link in the generations descending toward Abraham.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:18–21

  • Serug

    Son of Reu

    Great-grandfather of Abraham in the line from Shem.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:20–23

  • Shelah

    Son of Arphaxad

    A quiet link in the line from Shem to Eber and Abraham.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 10:24; 11:12–15

  • Shem

    Ancestor of the Hebrews

    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

    Father of Abraham

    He left Ur with his family and journeyed toward Canaan, settling in Haran.

    Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:24–32

Places

  • Haran

    Today: Southern Turkey (Upper Mesopotamia)

    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

    Today: Southern Iraq (near the Euphrates)

    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. 1 Acts 2:6; Zephaniah 3:9; Isaiah 19:18
  2. 2 Daniel 1:2; Genesis 10:10; Genesis 14:1; Isaiah 11:11; Zechariah 5:11
  3. 3 Genesis 14:10; Exodus 1:14; Exodus 2:3; James 5:1; Hebrews 10:24
  4. 4 Deuteronomy 1:28; John 5:44; Luke 1:51; Deuteronomy 9:1; Daniel 4:30
  5. 5 Psalm 33:13–14; Genesis 18:21; John 3:13; Hebrews 4:13; Jeremiah 23:23–24
  6. 6 Psalm 2:1–4; Genesis 3:22; Genesis 11:1; Ecclesiastes 11:9; Luke 1:51
  7. 7 Psalm 33:10; Job 5:12–13; Genesis 1:26; Psalm 55:9; 1 Corinthians 14:2–11
  8. 8 Luke 1:51; Genesis 10:32; Genesis 10:25; Deuteronomy 32:8; Genesis 11:4
  9. 9 Genesis 10:10; Genesis 10:5; Acts 17:26; Genesis 10:20; 1 Corinthians 14:23
  10. 10 1 Chronicles 1:17–27; Luke 3:34–36; Genesis 11:27; Genesis 10:21–22
  11. 11 Genesis 9:7; Psalm 144:12; Genesis 1:28; Genesis 5:4–32; Psalm 127:3–4
  12. 12 Luke 3:36
  13. 16 Luke 3:35; Numbers 24:24; Genesis 10:21; 1 Chronicles 1:19; Genesis 10:25
  14. 18 Luke 3:35
  15. 20 Luke 3:35
  16. 22 Joshua 24:2
  17. 24 Luke 3:34; Joshua 24:2
  18. 26 Joshua 24:2; Genesis 12:4–5; 1 Chronicles 1:26–27; Genesis 22:20–24; Genesis 29:4–5
  19. 27 Genesis 14:12; Genesis 12:4; Genesis 11:31; 2 Peter 2:7; Genesis 13:1–11
  20. 28 Genesis 15:7; Genesis 11:31; Acts 7:2–4; Nehemiah 9:7
  21. 29 Genesis 17:15; Genesis 22:20; Genesis 24:15; Genesis 20:12
  22. 30 Judges 13:2; Genesis 25:21; 1 Samuel 1:2; Luke 1:7; Luke 1:36
  23. 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?

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).

  1. Quotes verse 11:1–9 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 3–4)

    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)

  2. Quotes verse 11:6 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 5–8)

    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)

  3. Quotes verse 11:27–29 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 12–15)

    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)