Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Genesis 11

YHWH overturns Babel’s bid for a lasting name, while the genealogy traces humanity’s story toward Abram’s household.

People who share one language settle on a plain in Shinar and build a city with a tower. They want a name for themselves and a way to avoid being scattered. YHWH confuses their speech and scatters them across the earth. The account then traces Shem’s descendants to Terah’s family, naming Abram and Sarai, who has no child. Terah leads his household toward Canaan, but they settle in Haran, where he dies.

sermon or Bible study notes
Read
1The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
2As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.
3They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
4They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
5The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
6The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.
7Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.
9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. From there, the LORD scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.
10This is the history of the generations of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.
11Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
16Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg.
26Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.
28Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees, while his father Terah was still alive.
29Abram and Nahor married wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah.
30Sarai was barren. She had no child.
31Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Genesis 11:4The builders state their aims: making a name for themselves and preventing the scattering that YHWH will bring.
Genesis 11:7YHWH targets their shared speech, breaking the cooperation that makes their city project possible.
Genesis 11:31Terah’s departure brings Abram, Sarai, and Lot toward Canaan, though their movement stops short in Haran.
Where this chapter reaches

Luke’s genealogy of Jesus includes Terah and Shem’s line, sharing the ancestry recorded here. Acts recounts Abraham’s departure from Mesopotamia and later describes people of different languages hearing the apostles, connecting with this chapter through a shared migration account and the theme of language.

Genesis 11's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How do the builders’ stated aims help you understand YHWH’s response?

Write on this

What stands out as the account narrows from the whole earth to Terah’s household?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Genesis 11

Why did God confuse the languages at Babel?

The builders seek a name for themselves and want to avoid being scattered. YHWH identifies their shared language as enabling their united project, then confuses their speech and scatters them. His action halts the city’s construction and defeats the aims the builders stated in verse 4.

Why is Shem’s genealogy in Genesis 11?

The genealogy connects the world after the flood with Terah’s household, tracing the line from Shem to Abram. It narrows the account from the peoples scattered at Babel to one family. The closing verses introduce that family’s losses, marriages, and movement toward Canaan, including Sarai’s childlessness.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Genesis 11. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Genesis · 50 chapters
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).