Kejadian 11:1-32
Konteks11:1 The whole earth 1 had a common language and a common vocabulary. 2 11:2 When the people 3 moved eastward, 4 they found a plain in Shinar 5 and settled there. 11:3 Then they said to one another, 6 “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” 7 (They had brick instead of stone and tar 8 instead of mortar.) 9 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens 10 so that 11 we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise 12 we will be scattered 13 across the face of the entire earth.”
11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people 14 had started 15 building. 11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language 16 they have begun to do this, then 17 nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. 18 11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse 19 their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” 20
11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building 21 the city. 11:9 That is why its name was called 22 Babel 23 – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
11:10 This is the account of Shem.
Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood. 11:11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other 24 sons and daughters.
11:12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 11:13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other 25 sons and daughters. 26
11:14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 11:15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other 27 sons and daughters.
11:16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 11:17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 11:19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 11:21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 11:23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 11:25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
11:27 This is the account of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, 28 while his father Terah was still alive. 29 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, 30 and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; 31 she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there. 11:32 The lifetime 32 of Terah was 205 years, and he 33 died in Haran.
Kejadian 37:35
Konteks37:35 All his sons and daughters stood by 34 him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” 35 So Joseph’s 36 father wept for him.
Kejadian 43:25
Konteks43:25 They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival 37 at noon, for they had heard 38 that they were to have a meal 39 there.
Yosua 7:9
Konteks7:9 When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will turn against us and destroy the very memory of us 40 from the earth. What will you do to protect your great reputation?” 41
Yosua 7:1
Konteks7:1 But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. 42 Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, 43 son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches. 44 The Lord was furious with the Israelites. 45
1 Samuel 12:22
Konteks12:22 The Lord will not abandon his people because he wants to uphold his great reputation. 46 The Lord was pleased to make you his own people.
Mazmur 25:11
Konteks25:11 For the sake of your reputation, 47 O Lord,
forgive my sin, because it is great. 48
Mazmur 79:9
Konteks79:9 Help us, O God, our deliverer!
For the sake of your glorious reputation, 49 rescue us!
Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation! 50
Mazmur 106:8
Konteks106:8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation, 51
that he might reveal his power.
Mazmur 143:11
Konteks143:11 O Lord, for the sake of your reputation, 52 revive me! 53
Because of your justice, rescue me from trouble! 54
Yeremia 14:7
Konteks“O Lord, intervene for the honor of your name 56
even though our sins speak out against us. 57
Indeed, 58 we have turned away from you many times.
We have sinned against you.
Yehezkiel 20:9
Konteks20:9 I acted for the sake of my reputation, 59 so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, 60 before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. 61
Yehezkiel 20:14
Konteks20:14 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
Yehezkiel 20:22
Konteks20:22 But I refrained from doing so, 62 and acted instead for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
Yehezkiel 20:44
Konteks20:44 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for the sake of my reputation and not according to your wicked conduct and corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord.’”
Daniel 9:17-19
Konteks9:17 “So now, our God, accept 63 the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to 64 your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. 65 9:18 Listen attentively, 66 my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins 67 and the city called by your name. 68 For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, 69 but because your compassion is abundant. 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.” 70
[11:1] 1 sn The whole earth. Here “earth” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the people who lived in the earth. Genesis 11 begins with everyone speaking a common language, but chap. 10 has the nations arranged by languages. It is part of the narrative art of Genesis to give the explanation of the event after the narration of the event. On this passage see A. P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9,” BSac 138 (1981): 119-38.
[11:1] 2 tn Heb “one lip and one [set of] words.” The term “lip” is a metonymy of cause, putting the instrument for the intended effect. They had one language. The term “words” refers to the content of their speech. They had the same vocabulary.
[11:2] 3 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[11:2] 4 tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”
[11:2] 5 tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”
[11:2] sn Shinar is the region of Babylonia.
[11:3] 6 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
[11:3] 7 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).
[11:3] 8 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
[11:3] 9 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
[11:4] 10 tn A translation of “heavens” for שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) fits this context because the Babylonian ziggurats had temples at the top, suggesting they reached to the heavens, the dwelling place of the gods.
[11:4] 11 tn The form וְנַעֲשֶׂה (vÿna’aseh, from the verb עשׂה, “do, make”) could be either the imperfect or the cohortative with a vav (ו) conjunction (“and let us make…”). Coming after the previous cohortative, this form expresses purpose.
[11:4] 12 tn The Hebrew particle פֶּן (pen) expresses a negative purpose; it means “that we be not scattered.”
[11:4] 13 sn The Hebrew verb פָּוָץ (pavats, translated “scatter”) is a key term in this passage. The focal point of the account is the dispersion (“scattering”) of the nations rather than the Tower of Babel. But the passage also forms a polemic against Babylon, the pride of the east and a cosmopolitan center with a huge ziggurat. To the Hebrews it was a monument to the judgment of God on pride.
[11:5] 14 tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.
[11:5] 15 tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.
[11:6] 16 tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”
[11:6] 17 tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.”
[11:6] 18 tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”
[11:7] 19 tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the
[11:7] 20 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
[11:8] 21 tn The infinitive construct לִבְנֹת (livnot, “building”) here serves as the object of the verb “they ceased, stopped,” answering the question of what they stopped doing.
[11:9] 22 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.
[11:9] 23 sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).
[11:11] 24 tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.
[11:13] 25 tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.
[11:13] 26 tc The reading of the MT is followed in vv. 11-12; the LXX reads, “And [= when] Arphaxad had lived thirty-five years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan, Arphaxad lived four hundred and thirty years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died. And [= when] Cainan had lived one hundred and thirty years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah]. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah], Cainan lived three hundred and thirty years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died.” See also the note on “Shelah” in Gen 10:24; the LXX reading also appears to lie behind Luke 3:35-36.
[11:15] 27 tn Here and in vv. 16, 19, 21, 23, 25 the word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.
[11:28] 28 sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium
[11:28] 29 tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.”
[11:29] 30 sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.
[11:29] 31 sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.
[11:32] 32 tn Heb “And the days of Terah were.”
[11:32] 33 tn Heb “Terah”; the pronoun has been substituted for the proper name in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[37:35] 34 tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.
[37:35] 35 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Indeed I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol.’” Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death.
[37:35] 36 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[43:25] 37 tn The construction uses the infinitive construct after the preposition, followed by the subjective genitive.
[43:25] 38 tn The action precedes the action of preparing the gift, and so must be translated as past perfect.
[43:25] 39 tn Heb “eat bread.” The imperfect verbal form is used here as a historic future (future from the perspective of the past).
[7:9] 40 tn Heb “and cut off our name.”
[7:9] 41 tn Heb “What will you do for your great name?”
[7:1] 42 tn Heb “But the sons of Israel were unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the
[7:1] 43 tn 1 Chr 2:6 lists a “Zimri” (but no Zabdi) as one of the five sons of Zerah (cf. also 1 Chr 7:17, 18).
[7:1] 44 tn Heb “took from what was set apart [to the
[7:1] 45 tn Heb “the anger of the
[7:1] sn This incident illustrates well the principle of corporate solidarity and corporate guilt. The sin of one man brought the
[12:22] 46 tn Heb “on account of his great name.”
[25:11] 47 tn Heb “name.” By forgiving the sinful psalmist, the
[25:11] 48 sn Forgive my sin, because it is great. The psalmist readily admits his desperate need for forgiveness.
[79:9] 49 tn Heb “the glory of your name.” Here and in the following line “name” stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
[106:8] 51 tn Heb “his name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
[143:11] 52 tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
[143:11] 53 tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 11-12a are understood as expressing the psalmist’s desire. Note the petitionary tone of vv. 7-10a.
[143:11] 54 tn Heb “by your justice bring out my life from trouble.”
[14:7] 55 tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. However, it cannot be a continuation of the
[14:7] 56 tn Heb “Act for the sake of your name.” The usage of “act” in this absolute, unqualified sense cf. BDB 794 s.v. עָוֹשָׂה Qal.I.r and compare the usage, e.g., in 1 Kgs 8:32 and 39. For the nuance of “for the sake of your name” compare the usage in Isa 48:9 and Ezek 20:9, 14.
[14:7] 57 tn Or “bear witness against us,” or “can be used as evidence against us,” to keep the legal metaphor. Heb “testify against.”
[14:7] 58 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can scarcely be causal here; it is either intensive (BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) or concessive (BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.c). The parallel usage in Gen 18:20 argues for the intensive force as does the fact that the concessive has already been expressed by אִם (’im).
[20:9] 59 tn Heb “for the sake of my name.”
[20:9] 60 tn Heb “before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were.”
[20:9] 61 tn Heb “to whom I made myself known before their eyes to bring them out from the land of Egypt.” The translation understands the infinitive construct (“to bring them out”) as indicating manner. God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt was an act of self-revelation in that it displayed his power and his commitment to his promises.
[20:22] 62 tn Heb “drew my hand back.” This idiom also occurs in Lam 2:8 and Ps 74:11.
[9:17] 63 tn Heb “hear.” Here the verb refers to hearing favorably, accepting the prayer and responding positively.
[9:17] 64 tn Heb “let your face shine.” This idiom pictures God smiling in favor. See Pss 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19.
[9:17] 65 tn Heb “for the sake of my Lord.” Theodotion has “for your sake.” Cf. v. 19.
[9:18] 66 tn Heb “turn your ear.”
[9:18] 67 tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.
[9:18] 68 tn Heb “over which your name is called.” Cf. v. 19. This expression implies that God is the owner of his city, Jerusalem. Note the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1; Amos 9:12.
[9:18] 69 tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”
[9:19] 70 tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.
