These were Shem’s sons, including their clans and languages, by their geographic areas.
32 This was the family tree of Noah’s sons according to their clans. From them the nations of the world were formed, after the great flood.
1. vv. 2–7: Later Jewish tradition identifies land areas with these clans. For example, Ashkenaz is the ancient Hebrew name for Germany, Tarshish for Iberia, Kittim for some of the Greek Isles, Cush for Ethiopia/Sudan, Mitzrayim for Egypt, and Put for Libya. These identifications may be more ethnically oriented than geographically accurate land areas. However, it is of note that these ancient Hebrew names took on understood areas, especially in Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, and the Greek Isles.
2. v.8: “Prominent man,” the Hebrew word gibbor, may also be translated as “warrior.” He was both a prominent military and political figure (see v. 10). Nimrod was identified in rabbinic thought as the leader of the rebellion that culminated in the building of the Tower of Babel (see text of Bereshit chapter 11). v. 10 identifies him as king of the area of Shinar, which is where the Tower was built. The Talmud informs us: “. . . why is his name called Nimrod? Because he led the entire world in rebellion, for the sake of him and his (own) kingdom. . . .” (Eruvin 53a, author’s translation; accessed from http://www.e-daf .com/index.asp). The root of Nimrod’s name in Hebrew (m-r-d; i.e. the letters mem, resh, and daled) is the verbal root “to rebel.” Thus, the linguistic connection to the point made in Eruvim 53a is strong).
3. vv. 10–11: In later Hebrew, the name Bavel became the name for Babylon and Ashur for Assyria; Nineveh was the name of the prominent city in this area.
4. v.15: Later, Sidon was the Hebrew name for the port city in Lebanon. Chet was later Hebrew for the patriarch of the Hittite nation.
5. v. 16: These three names may refer to later Canaanite kingdoms, specifically the Jebusites, Amorites and Girgasites. Thus, the text may be telling us that Canaan was the progenitor of these Canaanite nations. On the other hand, the text may be referring to specific persons who were fathered by Canaan, whose descendants named their nations after them. That is, they named their clans, settlements, or lands after their patriarchs, much as Washington, D.C., is named after America’s “founding father,” George Washington. Another possibility is that the Jewish people identified these nations with specific founders according to the Bereshit text, and so gave names to these nations. If that is the case, the scribes who wrote down the book of Bereshit were reporting Jewish oral tradition on the background of these clans.
6. v. 17: The Hivites may be descendants of Hachivi, their progenitor.
7. v. 21: I follow the Targum in my translation, which renders the Hebrew as telling us that Shem is the elder brother of Yafet. The NIV translation does the opposite. The Hebrew is a bit vague, but I believe is best understood as I have translated it.
8. v. 25: The word peleg in Hebrew means to “split off from” or to “separate.” It is interesting to speculate what it means to have the earth “split apart.” I surmise that either the physical earth was changed by geological phenomena (such as continental drift; i.e. the earth’s plates moving to split land off from continents) or that this denotes a political, “religious” and social upheaval among the emerging clans or nations. The meaning of the Hebrew word “ha’aretz” is crucial to a proper understanding of this verse. That being said, this word is hard to define, as it can mean either the physical planet, or specifically the Land of Israel, or mankind itself.
Chapter 11
1 All mankind spoke one language, and had the same vocabulary.1
2 In their travels from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar, and lived there.
3 People said to each other, “Let’s make bricks in a furnace.” So they used bricks instead of stone, and clay for mortar.
4 They further said, “Let’s build a city for ourselves, with a tower whose top reaches up to the sky. By doing this, we can become great and independent, so that we won’t be spread across the earth.”2
5 Then God came down to see the city and the tower that men had built.
6 And God said, “So, they are united and everyone has one common language. They have already begun to work together, and now they won’t hold themselves back from anything that they conceive of doing.
7 Let’s go down there and scramble their speech, so that no one will understand another’s language.”
8 Then God scattered them from there throughout the entire earth, and they abandoned their building of that city.
9 Because of this, the city’s name was called Bavel, since it was there that God scrambled the language of mankind, and from there God scattered them throughout the earth.3
10 This is the family history of Shem: Shem was 100 years old when he fathered Arpakshad, two years after the great flood.
11 Shem lived another 500 years after he fathered Arpakshad, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
12 Arpakshad was 35 years old when he fathered Shelach.
13 Arpakshad lived another 403 years after he fathered Shelach, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
14 Shelach was 30 years old when he fathered Ever.
15 Shelach lived another 403 years after he fathered Ever, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
16 Ever was 34 years old when he fathered Peleg.
17 Ever lived another 430 years after he fathered Peleg, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
18 Peleg was 30 years old when he fathered Re’u.
19 Peleg lived another 290 years after he fathered Re’u, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
20 Re’u was 32 years old when he fathered Serug.
21 Re’u lived another 207 years after he fathered Serug, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
22 Serug was 30 years old when he fathered Nachor.
23 Serug lived another 200 years after he fathered Nachor, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
24 Nachor was 29 years old when he fathered Terach.
25 Nachor lived another 119 years after he fathered Terach, and he fathered other sons and daughters.
26 Terach was 70 years old when he fathered Avram, then Nachor and then Haran.
27 This is Terach’s family history: Terach fathered Avram, Nachor, and
