CPCC Bible Study: Genesis 10 and 11

      For chapter ten we have this quote from the end of the chapter ten:
"These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood." (NKJV)

Chapter Ten, Verse 1
      these are the "toledoth" (generations) the "ben" (sons) of Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth. and "yalad" (born / begot) "ben" (sons) after "mabbul" (flood).

2 - 4
      and the sons of Japheth....

      Most of these are never heard from again as an individual but instead become the names of various gentile nations. One of those being "Magog" (?'of the' land 'of' Gog?) which is also seen in Ezekiel 38 : 2 and 39 :6, and we'll give you a hint, it is no more pleasant of a reference than it is in Revelation 20. Note: in the Ezekiel reference, Gog is a man, Magog is the region.
      Others of these that become recognized nations, such as "madai" which is later rendered as "Medes" in 2 Kings 17.
      .... and so on.

SPECIAL LOOK: verses 5, 20, 30, and partially 31
      from these "parad" (separated / divided) the ((verse 5) "'i" (coastal)) ((30 "har" (mountains) "qedem" (east))... "goy" (nations / peoples) 'to their' "erets" (lands) - "'is" (men (people)) "lashon" (language) "mishpachah" (families), into "goy" (nations).
      While the four verses are slightly different, they are more similar than not. It clearly states that the generations of Noah's three sons spread out across the region, including people of the seashore and the mountains. The plains in between were implied and not specified.

      The name Mitsrayim comes up a couple of times here. Remember it.

      One note of interest amongst the almost endless names of towns is "Sedom" and "Amorah" in verse 19. These two will take center stage later.

A look at verses 8 - 11 in Ham's section:
      Cush begat Nimrod - he "chalal" ('began') 'to come to be' "gibbor" (warrior / mighty) "erets" (earth / land). He was a "gibbor" (warrior / mighty) "tsayid" (hunting / game) "panim" (before / in the face of) YHWH. ....

Remember before we said that nothing good usually comes after the word "chalal", stay tuned,

      .... And was "reshith" (the beginning (same word as 1 : 1)) "mamlakah" (kingdom / etc (the first time this word, and the next word, is used in OT)) "Babel" (same as Babylon), the next three names are cities in Babylon. From that land he went to "'Assur" (Assyria (first time...)) and "banah" (build / built) "Nineveh"....

      It is interesting that it does not say that Nimrod built the cities in the Babylonian Empire, but that he did build Nineveh.
      And just an observation about the wording of verses 8 and 9. Just as with that phrase in 4 : 26 that translators have since put a positive spin on when in context it could be taken as anything but, here it makes more sense to read it that Nimrod was a strongman (but NOT a Giant!) who was something of a bully that took power, and, as was the king, so goes the kingdom.

A look at verse 25 in Shem's section:
      And to Eber were born two sons... "Peleg" for 'in his days' "palag" (divided) were the "Erets" (earth / lands)...

      It doesn't say the people or nations were divided as it does in the verses above. It says the land itself was divided. Which may well be an ancient poetic Hebrew way of saying Continental Drift.
      Of course there are all sorts of ideas about what this verse means. From the plausible to the totally must be nice here Non-plausible. And some of them are not mutually exclusive. Such as combining the ideas that while the people were being scattered across the land, the land was being scattered across the globe.

Chapter Eleven, Verse 1
      'and had' "kal" (all / whole) "erets" (earth / land) "saphah" (lips / speech) "echad" (one), "dabar" (words / annals 'implies history' (the root is seen later in the term "Chronicles")) "echad" (one).

2
      "hayah" (came to pass) 'they' "nasa" (journeyed) from the east, they found "biqah" (plain / valley) of Shinar (also called Bab), and they "yashab" (settled)."echad"

3 and 4 Verses then observation:

"they said:
Let's build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We'll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We'll become famous, and we won't be scattered all over the world.'"
(CEV - link below)

Notes:
      The infamous tower is constructed somewhere on the plain of Shinar, also called "Bab" which is an ancient region along the lower course of the Euphrates.

      There is no direct archaeological evidence for a giant tower in the old city of Babylon. However, "Babel" was also a large area along the river, in addition to being a city. Over two dozen Man Made structures called a "ziggurat" (high place) some of which have had other structures built on top of them over the centuries, have been identified in the region, with the possibly of even more that have been lost to time. The one at Uruk, in today's Iraq has been reliably dated to around 3000 BC and did use burned brick and bitumen in its construction, see link below to more about those.
      This region is indisputably ancient. And is where history passes into legend, and myths turn out to be fact. We have an example. Uruk is perhaps most famous as the home of the legendary giant King Gilgamesh... who is known to have been a real king who ruled somewhere between 2900 -2400 BC. He is referenced by name in outside inscriptions and ancient texts besides being the subject of the later epic that bears his name, and is recorded in the Sumerian Kings List, which, oddly enough, mentions a great flood. See link below.
end note

5
      "yarad" (come down / descend) YHWH "raah" (to see) the city and the tower which "ben ha 'adam" (sons of men) had built.
!time out!
      Let's flip back to that odd passage in the beginning of chapter six. It specifies that the "sons of God" saw the "daughters of men" and so on into infamy. Now, we have the "sons of men" building a tower and a city, also to a well known not so good ending.
      It was just something that seemed worth noting as we passed through.
time in

6
      "way yomer" (and said) YHWH "hen" (behold) the people are one, and one "saphah" (speech)... "zeh" (this) "chalal" (begin (same root word as in 4:26)) "asah" (do / make), "attah" (now) "lo" (not / nothing) "batsar" (impossible / inaccessible / etc) from them, "kol" (all) that they "zamam" (propose / consider / etc) "asah" (do / make).

7
      "yahab" (come (same word again)) "ne redah" (let Us descend) and "balal" (confound / mix / confuse) there "se patam" (their speech) that not "shama" (hear with understanding) the "sepat" (speech) of another.

8 and 9
      'they stopped building'.... So "puwts" (spread / scattered) YHWH them.....
      that's why it is called Babel... scattered across the face of the earth.

      Apparently the word was not used for the region before this, being, instead, the Plain of Sinar, as in verse 2.

10 - 24
      The Toledoth of Shem. It includes some that were previously mentioned, and then continues to another individual of note.
      .... and lived Nahor 29 years and he begat Terah.

25 - 26
      .... Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 - 28
      Toledot of Terah begins.

      It explains who Lot is. Haran dies with Terah present.....
      .... In "Uwr" (Ur) of the "Kasdi / Kasdimah" (Chaldea (which is 'South' Sinar / Babel))

      This is the first time we see either of these words. They have not been used in the descriptions of the lands of the other sons of Noah, or anywhere else to this point.

29
      Observation and comment.
      A rundown of who married who. Sarai is described in Genesis 20 as Abram's half-sister, his father's daughter by another wife. Some of the other's wives listed may be cousins, or 'half-cousins', and from here on in Genesis the relationships get even murkier.
      One needs to keep in mind that in some instances in the Old Testament, family relationships aren't overly clear, and what we refer to in the modern sense of "first cousin" and so on may not be exactly what is meant in the genealogies of the OT and especially Books of Moses.

30
      But Sarai "aqar" (barren (is exclusively used to mean 'childless')) - "ayin" (no / nothing / etc) 'she had' "valad" (child).
      This short verse is one of the most important in the OT!

31 - 32
      Terah and company move....
      from Ur to 'go to' Canaan and came to Haran, and stayed there.
      Terah dies, aged 205.

      It doesn't directly say why Terah decided to move about six hundred miles up the Euphrates. From Ur well downstream of Babylon to Haran a long way north of it. But he did. And so set the stage for Abram's own move. Stay tuned.

References and links: Outside links will open in new tab/window.
The Interlinear: Hebrew - English https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/10.htm

the New King James Version https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2010&version=NKJV

Contemporary English Version: the CEV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2011&version=CEV

"Is There Archaeological Evidence for the Tower of Babel?" https://biblearchaeology.org/research/patriarchal-era/2695-is-there-archaeological-evidence-for-the-tower-of-babel

The White Temple at Uruk:
"The flat top of the ziggurat was coated with bitumen (asphalt-a tar or pitch-like material similar to what is used for road paving) and overlaid with brick, for a firm and waterproof foundation for the White temple..."
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/ancient-mediterranean-ap/ancient-near-east-a/a/white-temple-and-ziggurat-uruk

A look at Gilgamesh https://www.worldhistory.org/gilgamesh/

The Sumerian king list: A Translation. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr211.htm

Genesis Study Index Page

NOTE: The Bible Study Lesson presented above is posted as a reference document to begin a conversation of the topic. And that's it. Please accept it at such.

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