Bereisheet (Genesis): Noah > Ch 11

Tower of Babel

  • The descendents of Noah remained a single people, with a single language and culture, for ten generations. They traveled from the east to the valley of Shinar and built a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. To make a name for themselves and not be scattered upon the face of the entire earth.
  • G-d descended to see the city and the tower. And the Lord said, "Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion." And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth.


Details about the descendants of Shem

  • Shem lived 100 years, had a son Arpachad, lived another 500 and had sons and daughters
  • Arpachshad lived 35 years, had a son Shelah, lived another 403 and had sons and daughters
  • Shelah lived 30 years, had a son Eber, lived another 403 and had sons and daughters
  • Eber lived 34 years, had a son Peleg, lived another 430 and had sons and daughters
  • Peleg lived 30 years, had a son Reu, lived another 209 and had sons and daughters
  • Reu lived 32 years, had a son Serug, lived another 207 and had sons and daughters
  • Serug lived 30 years, had a son Nahor, lived another 200 and had sons and daughters
  • Nahor lived 29 years, had a son Terah, lived another 119 and had sons and daughters
  • Terah lived 70 years, had sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran

Abram was born in 1948
  • 1656(flood begins) + 2(until Shem begot Arpachad)+35+30+34+30+32+30+29+70 = 1948

G-d destroyed the tower of Babel in 1996 (Peleg died in that year)
  • 1656(flood begins) + 2(until Shem begot Arpachad)+35+30+34+(30 +209)=1996

  • Shem begot Arpachad 2 years after the flood.
  • Haran had a son Lot. He also had daughters: Milcah and Iscah. Haran died during his father’s lifetime, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.
  • Abram and Nahor took themselves wives:
    • The name of Abram's wife was Sarai
    • The name of Nahor's wife was Milcah (daughter of Haran).
  • Sarai was barren; she had no child.
  • Terah took Abram (his son) and Lot (his nephew), and Sarai (the wife of Abram), and they went from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Haran and settled there. And the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.



Rashi Commentary

  • when they traveled from the east where they had settled, as is written above (10:30):“And their dwelling place was, etc., the mountain of the east.” And they traveled from there to seek out a place that would accommodate them all, and they found Shinar.
  • bricks Because there are no stones in Babylon, which is a valley. — [from Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer ch. 24]
  • And the Lord scattered them from there That which they said, “lest we be scattered” was fulfilled upon them. This is what Solomon said, (Prov. 10:24): “The dread of a wicked man-that will befall him.” - [from Tan. Buber, Noach 28]