A half-built stepped ziggurat of brown brick rising from a flat plain at dawn, with pole scaffolds on its upper stages and reed marshes in front.

The Book of

Genesis 11

One language, one plain, one tower to reach the sky. Then God comes down, and a barren woman waits at the end of the line.

32 verses≈ 5 min5 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–11BeginningsCreation, fall, flood, BabelChapter 11
12–24AbrahamThe call and the promise
25–36Isaac and JacobThe promise passed on
37–50JosephGod meant it for good

The Tower of Babel

Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech. And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

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Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

The plain of Shinar

They found “a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there”: the flat river country between the Tigris and the Euphrates, later called Babylonia. Babel is Babylon.

The builders

that we may make a name for ourselves

Genesis 11:4

And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

Reflect

A name for ourselves

The builders said it out loud: they wanted a city and a tower “that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered.” They wanted to be great, and they wanted to be safe, on their own terms. God answered both. Where are you building something to make your own name, or to feel secure without Him? Write it down honestly.

Genealogy from Shem to Abram

This is the account of Shem.

Family line

Shem to Eber

Father of Arphaxad at 100 · lived 500 more
Two years after the flood
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
Arphaxad
Father of Shelah at 35 · lived 403 more
When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
Shelah
Father of Eber at 30 · lived 403 more
When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
Eber
Father of Peleg at 34 · lived 430 more
When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

Family line

Peleg to Terah

Peleg
Father of Reu at 30 · lived 209 more
When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
Reu
Father of Serug at 32 · lived 207 more
When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
Serug
Father of Nahor at 30 · lived 200 more
When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
Nahor
Father of Terah at 29 · lived 119 more
When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
Father at 70
- Abram
- Nahor
- Haran
When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Ten and ten

Whiteboard

Ten generations from Adam to Noah, then the flood. Ten more from Shem to Abram, and the line seems to stop: “Sarai was barren; she had no children.” Then God speaks.

Pray

The God who keeps the line

Nine fathers, nine sons, and almost nothing else is said about them. Yet God was carrying His purpose through every one of them, down to Terah and “Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” Thank God that He keeps His promises across long, quiet years, and ask Him to help you trust Him in the ordinary stretches of your own life.

Terah’s Descendants

This is the account of Terah.

A mud-brick city at dawn with its stepped ziggurat rising above the river marshes, reed houses and boats in the foreground, mist on the water.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. 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.

0:27

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Terah’s road

Terah’s family “set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan.” Their road probably followed the Euphrates north and west, about 600 miles, but at Haran they stopped: “they settled there.”

Question

Quick question

Terah’s family set out for one place and stopped at another.

Where did Terah’s family settle on the way to Canaan?

You’ve experienced

Genesis 11

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A verse to carry with you

Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

Genesis 11:5

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