Genesis
Chapter 11
1- And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2- And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that hey found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
From the east means they were heading east.
Shinar is Babylonia.
3- And they said to one another, “Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
They did not wait for the sun to cure the bricks but burned them in fire to speed up the process.
This slime was bitumen. It is very strong; almost impossible to break apart.
4- And they said, ” Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
Nimrod being the rebellious one, is leading his people and trying to create their own salvation here without God. As ridiculous as it sounds they thought they could build their own tower to the heavens so that they wouldn’t have to rely on God. This is known as the tower of Babel, or the tower of confusion. No doubt they also believed it would save them from another flood or a similar catastrophe as well.
5- And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
This kind of disobedience will bring the Lord down.
6- And the LORD said, “Behold, the people is one, and they all have one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7- Go to, let Us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Languages are created.
8- So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9- Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did therefore confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Babel = confusion.
10- These are THE GENERATIONS OF SHEM: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
11- And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12- And Arphaxad lived five hundred and thirty years, and begat Salah:
13- And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
14- And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
15- And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
16- And Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
17- And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
18- And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
19- And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
20- And Reu lived two hundred and thirty years, and begat Serug:
21- And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
22- And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
23- And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
24- And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
25- And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26- And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27- Now these are THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
Abram will later become Abraham.
Lot is Abram’s nephew.
28- And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29- 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.
Sarai will become Sarah.
30- But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31- And Terah to 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 with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
The place Haran is not the same as Lot’s father Haran.
32- And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.