Genesis Chapter 11 Bible Study

by Alan Yusko

This is a study of Chapters 11 of the book of Genesis. Feel free to use this in your church Bible study or for sermon material

Gen 11

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

- At this point in human history, everyone spoke one language (possible Hebrew)

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

• Shinar was a fertile valley watered by the Euphrates and Tigris

• Mankind was united and spoke the same language and lived in the same area

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

• Mankind had a plan and they made very durable bricks

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.

• This tower was to be a way to worship the hosts of heaven instead of God

• They knew they could not make the tower so high that it could reach into space etc.. The plan was for worship

• Here we are seeing man's sinful, rebellious nature come forth.

• Again the devil is trying to corrupt humanity before the Lord

• lest we be scattered – could this be a reference to a resistance to scattering and building cities and towns?

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

• God is aware of what is happening on earth. He sees the actions and the motives of mankind

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

• The Lord is talking within the Trinity. He is not talking to men or angels

• God restates that the people are as one with one language and live in the same place

• If they continue this evil project, they will continue onto more wickedness

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

• Here is the cure for the problem

• God decides to create many different languages all at once.

• This way people would be divided into groups speaking a unique language

• It is also protection for the human race

• If one group perverts themselves and is judged and destroyed as a result, there are many others who would not be influenced

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

• So the Lord confounds the languages and as a result people grouped into same-language groups and each group scattered away from each other.

• Also the wicked plan to build a tower to worship the hosts of heaven was trashed

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

• The city they were in the process of building was called Babel

• It was at Babel where the Lord confounded the languages

10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

…. skip the next verses (genealogy) – resume at verse 24 – we are heading into the life of Abraham

24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

• Who was 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.

• Here we see Abram, son of Terah

27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

• Here we see Lot

• Lot was the son of Haran who was a brother of Abram

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.

• Abram got married to Sarai

30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

• Sarai had no children

31 And Terah took 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.

- Terah, Abraham's dad, moved to

32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

• Here we see the life spans are beginning to shorten. Terah lived 205 years

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