Genesis 11:5-15

5 And ¹the 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, ²let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech."

8 So ³the 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 ⁴Babel, 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 ⁵These 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.

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Genesis 11:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 11

This chapter gives an account of the inhabitants of the earth before the confusion of tongues at Babel, of their speech and language, which was one and the same, and of the place where they dwelt, Ge 11:1,2 and of their design to build a city and tower, to make them a name and keep them together, which they put in execution, Ge 11:3,4 of the notice the Lord took of this affair, and of the method he took to put a stop to their designs, by confounding their speech, and dispersing them abroad upon the face of the earth, Ge 11:5-9 then follows a genealogy of Shem's posterity down to Abraham, Ge 11:10-26 and a particular relation is given of Terah, the father of Abraham, and his family, and of his going forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, in order to go into the land of Canaan, and of his death at Haran by the way, Ge 11:27-32.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 5

1. Genesis 18:21
2. Genesis 1:26; [Psalms 2:4]
3. Genesis 10:25, 32; Luke 1:51
4. Genesis 10:10
5. [Genesis 10:22]; For ver. 10-26, see 1 Chronicles 1:17-27

Footnotes 1

[a]. Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.