Genesis 11:5-15

5 ADONAI came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.

6 ADONAI said, "Look, the people are united, they all have a single language, and see what they're starting to do! At this rate, nothing they set out to accomplish will be impossible for them!

7 Come, let's go down and confuse their language, so that they won't understand each other's speech."

8 So from there ADONAI scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9 For this reason it is called Bavel [confusion] - because there ADONAI confused the language of the whole earth, and from there ADONAI scattered them all over the earth.

10 Here is the genealogy of Shem. Shem was 100 years old when he fathered Arpakhshad two years after the flood.

11 After Arpakhshad was born, Shem lived another 500 years and had sons and daughters.

12 Arpakhshad lived thirty-five years and fathered Shelach.

13 After Shelach was born, Arpakhshad lived another 403 years and had sons and daughters.

14 Shelach lived thirty years and fathered 'Ever.

15 After 'Ever was born, Shelach lived another 403 years and had sons and daughters.

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.