Gênesis 11

BLIVRE · Chapter 11/50

¹Era, então, toda a terra de uma língua e umas mesmas palavras.

²E aconteceu que, quando se partiram do oriente, acharam um vale na terra de Sinear; e ali passaram a habitar.

³E disseram uns aos outros: Vinde, façamos tijolos e o cozamos com fogo. E foi-lhes os tijolos em lugar de pedra, e o betume em lugar de argamassa.

⁴E disseram: Vamos, edifiquemo-nos uma cidade e uma torre, cuja ponta chegue ao céu; e façamo-nos um nome, para que não sejamos espalhados sobre a face de toda a terra.

⁵E desceu o SENHOR para ver a cidade e a torre que edificavam os filhos dos homens.

⁶E disse o SENHOR: Eis que o povo é um, e todos estes têm uma língua; e começaram a agir, e nada lhes restringirá agora do que pensaram fazer.

⁷Agora, pois, desçamos, e confundamos ali suas línguas, para que ninguém entenda a fala de seu companheiro.

⁸Assim os espalhou o SENHOR desde ali sobre a face de toda a terra, e deixaram de edificar a cidade.

⁹Por isto foi chamado o nome dela Babel, porque ali confundiu o SENHOR a língua de toda a terra, e desde ali os espalhou sobre a face de toda a terra.

¹⁰Estas são as gerações de Sem: Sem, de idade de cem anos, gerou a Arfaxade, dois anos depois do dilúvio.

¹¹E viveu Sem, depois que gerou a Arfaxade quinhentos anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

¹²E Arfaxade viveu trinta e cinco anos, e gerou a Salá.

¹³E viveu Arfaxade, depois que gerou a Salá, quatrocentos e três anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

¹⁴E viveu Salá trinta anos, e gerou a Héber.

¹⁵E viveu Salá, depois que gerou a Héber, quatrocentos e três anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

¹⁶E viveu Héber trinta e quatro anos, e gerou a Pelegue.

¹⁷E viveu Héber, depois que gerou a Pelegue, quatrocentos e trinta anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

¹⁸E viveu Pelegue, trinta anos, e gerou a Reú.

¹⁹E viveu Pelegue, depois que gerou a Reú, duzentos e nove anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

²⁰E Reú viveu trinta e dois anos, e gerou a Serugue.

²¹E viveu Reú, depois que gerou a Serugue, duzentos e sete anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

²²E viveu Serugue trinta anos, e gerou a Naor.

²³E viveu Serugue, depois que gerou a Naor, duzentos anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

²⁴E viveu Naor vinte e nove anos, e gerou a Terá.

²⁵E viveu Naor, depois que gerou a Terá, cento e dezenove anos, e gerou filhos e filhas.

²⁶E viveu Terá setenta anos, e gerou a Abrão, e a Naor, e a Harã.

²⁷Estas são as gerações de Terá: Terá gerou a Abrão, e a Naor, e a Harã; e Harã gerou a Ló.

²⁸E morreu Harã antes que seu pai Terá na terra de seu nascimento, em Ur dos caldeus.

²⁹E tomaram Abrão e Naor para si mulheres: o nome da mulher de Abrão foi Sarai, e o nome da mulher de Naor, Milca, filha de Harã, pai de Milca e de Iscá.

³⁰Mas Sarai era estéril, e não tinha filho.

³¹E tomou Terá a Abrão seu filho, e a Ló filho de Harã, filho de seu filho, e a Sarai sua nora, mulher de Abrão seu filho: e saiu com eles de Ur dos caldeus, para ir à terra de Canaã: e vieram até Harã, e assentaram ali.

³²E foram os dias de Terá duzentos e cinco anos; e morreu Terá em Harã.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Humanity, united by a single language, tries to build a tower reaching to heaven at Babel; God confuses their languages and scatters the people over the earth; the genealogy from Shem to Abram follows.

Explanation

The Tower of Babel is the portrait of a humanity that, instead of 'replenishing the earth' as God had commanded (Genesis 9:1), unites to make a name for itself and resist being scattered — an act of collective pride. God intervenes by confusing their languages, not as a cruel punishment, but as a way to keep that unchecked ambition from deepening even further. The result, the diversity of languages and peoples, is symbolically reversed centuries later at Pentecost (Acts 2), when people of various languages understand one another through the Holy Spirit. The second half of the chapter, with the genealogy from Shem to Abram, quietly prepares the most important turning point of the book: out of a scattered and confused humanity, God will choose a single family to bless the whole world.

Fun facts

'Babel' has a sound connection to the Hebrew verb 'balal' (to confuse), an intentional wordplay in the text; the historical city of Babylon did in fact have large temple towers called ziggurats, monumental structures that archaeologists have identified in the ruins of the region.
The chapter's final genealogy (Shem to Abram) is the literary bridge that links the 'universal' history of chapters 1-11 to the 'particular' history of the people of Israel, which begins in chapter 12 — a fundamental structural turning point in the book.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Gênesis 11:1Before recounting the building of the tower, the text sets the scene: all of humanity still spoke a single language, which explains how they were able to organize together for the project described next.
Gênesis 11:2People migrate from the east and find a plain in the land of Shinar—the same region as Babylon, where the city of Babel will be built.
Gênesis 11:3Describes the technology used in the building: baked brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar—materials typical of Mesopotamia, where natural stone was scarce.
Gênesis 11:4Building a city and a very tall tower was, above all, a way to become a strong, well-known people before humanity spread across the whole earth. Their fear was disappearing into the crowd without a trace, which is why they wanted to “make us a name” and stay concentrated in one place. This goes directly against what God had asked back in Genesis 1—to fill the whole earth, not cluster in a single spot.
Gênesis 11:5Saying that the LORD “came down to see” is an ironic way of describing the scene: however tall the tower looked to its builders, it was still too small for Him to need to stoop down to see it.
Gênesis 11:6God acknowledges the power of a people united by a single language—not as something bad in itself, but recognizing that this unity was being used for a project contrary to what He had asked, which was to spread out over the earth.
Gênesis 11:7Confusing the language here doesn’t mean making everyone speak gibberish—it means suddenly creating different languages, so that groups who once understood each other stop understanding one another. Unable to coordinate anything among themselves, the people stop building and scatter into groups by language—which is exactly what the text is trying to explain: why there are peoples with such different languages.
Gênesis 11:8With the languages confused, the group can no longer understand each other or continue the project, and the people scatter across the earth—exactly what they feared and had tried to avoid by building the tower.
Gênesis 11:9The name “Babel” sounds similar, in Hebrew, to the word for “confuse,” and it’s this similar sound that the text uses to explain the origin of the city’s name. Outside the Bible, we know that in other ancient languages of the region “Babel” meant something like “gate of the god”—so it’s quite possible the author is playing on the sound of the words to tell this story, rather than recording the name’s real origin.
Gênesis 11:10Another genealogy begins, this time from Shem down to Abram at the end of the chapter—a shorter list than the one in chapter 5, but following the same pattern of ages and sons.
Gênesis 11:11After fathering Arphaxad, Shem still lived 500 more years, having other sons and daughters—following the same pattern used in the earlier genealogies.
Gênesis 11:12Arphaxad fathers Salah at age 35, continuing the line that connects Shem to Abram.
Gênesis 11:13After fathering Salah, Arphaxad lived 403 more years, with other sons and daughters.
Gênesis 11:14Salah fathers Eber at age 30—the name that, a few generations earlier in chapter 10, had already been linked to the origin of the word “Hebrew.”
Gênesis 11:15After fathering Eber, Salah lived 403 more years, having other sons and daughters.
Gênesis 11:16Eber fathers Peleg at age 34—the same Peleg whose name, in chapter 10, was explained as tied to the division of the peoples after Babel.
Gênesis 11:17After fathering Peleg, Eber lived 430 more years, with other sons and daughters.
Gênesis 11:18Peleg fathers Reu at age 30, continuing the line that draws ever closer to Abram.
Gênesis 11:19After fathering Reu, Peleg lived 209 more years, having other sons and daughters—a lifespan already much shorter than that of the ancestors before the flood.
Gênesis 11:20Serug is Terah’s grandfather and Abram’s great-grandfather—another link in the line that connects the flood, through Shem, directly to the patriarch God would choose.
Gênesis 11:21After fathering Serug, Reu lived 207 more years, with other sons and daughters.
Gênesis 11:22Serug fathers Nahor at age 30, bringing the list even closer to Abram’s birth.
Gênesis 11:23After fathering Nahor, Serug lived 200 more years, having other sons and daughters.
Gênesis 11:24Nahor fathers Terah at age 29—the father of Abram, who will close out this genealogy in the next verse.
Gênesis 11:25After fathering Terah, Nahor lived 119 more years, with other sons and daughters, closing the second-to-last link before reaching Abram.
Gênesis 11:26At age 70, Terah fathers three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran—the first of them, Abram, will be the protagonist of the rest of the book of Genesis.
Gênesis 11:27Repeats Terah’s three sons and introduces Lot, son of Haran—the nephew who will accompany Abram through much of the journey told in the coming chapters.
Gênesis 11:28Haran dies while his father is still alive, in the family’s hometown, Ur of the Chaldees—which is why Lot, his son, grows up under the care of his grandfather and later his uncle Abram.
Gênesis 11:29Introduces the wives of Abram and Nahor: Sarai, who will be central to the story from here on, and Milcah, daughter of the now-deceased Haran.
Gênesis 11:30A detail that will weigh on the whole story that follows: Sarai could not have children—this lack of offspring is the backdrop for the promise God makes to Abram in the next chapter.
Gênesis 11:31Ur of the Chaldees was one of the great cities of Mesopotamia, quite far from Canaan—Terah’s family leaving from there was a long migration, not a quick trip. They stopped partway, in the city of Haran, and settled there for a while before the journey continued with Abram in the following chapters.
Gênesis 11:32Closes the genealogy with Terah’s death, at 205 years old, in Haran—the city where the family had stopped on the way to Canaan, and from which Abram will set out alone with his household.