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After the events of 6-10, which took a long time, I sort of miss the verse-by-verse we had done for Genesis 1 and 2; but at the same time I appreciate the larger context available to edit multiple chapters at once. It's a tradeoff. I think overall, there will be time to go back and do verse by verse with the proper tools later on. Yet at the same time, it is worth putting out a quality product – and the phase 1 version is going to be available for a long, long time while we work on various books of the bible. Then there is the app. The goal is to get a MVP out for Phase 1, which will almost certainly end with the giving of the torah at Mt. Sinai (as a MVP, anyway).

As usual, writing style changes will not be marked; modernization will not be marked; neither will punctuation and grammar. The comments will mainly be kept for justifying word choices and order of words, to mark which other translation they were pulled from. As always we will use the ASV as a base text.

“The Tower of Babel”

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

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

3 And they said one to another, “Come, let us make brick, and fire them thoroughly.”And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

• The word is fire; to burn is to overcook; 'to fire' is the correct verb for using a kiln.

4 And they said, “Come, 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.”

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

6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do: and now will it not be witholden from them, that which they purpose to do?”

7 “Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

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

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

10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begat Arpachshad two years after the flood:

11 and Shem lived after he begat Arpachshad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

12 And Arpachshad lived five and thirty years, and begat Shelah:

13 and Arpachshad lived after he begat Shelah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

14 And Shelah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

15 and Shelah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:

17 and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:

19 and Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:

21 and Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

23 and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

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

25 and Nahor lived after he begat Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

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

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.

30 And Sarai was barren; she had no child.

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.

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

[2] Who were they and why did they go into the east? “The whole world” refers to those who had accumulated power at the time; namely Nimrod, and they (his relatives Cush, Mizraim and Put, Canaan and so on) who had accumulated power in order to fight against God’s decree that they would become slaves to Shem and Japeth’s descendants. They went into the east because this was the land that would accommodate them; as Cain went into the east, away from the land where righteous people flourished, and in the same way Lot did not want to settle near Abraham. This does not refer to Abraham or other righteous people who did not follow Nimrod’s rebellious idolatry and go with him into Shinar. These are the people that swore they would accumulate power and revenge themselves upon God for the curses they had accumulated.

[3] ‘come’ — they were conspiring against God’s will and were preparing to counter against him.

[4] This being their sin, that they rebelled against Noah’s curse that they would be servants. They wanted wealth, power and control such that they would not be enslaved or become subservient to Shem and Japeth’s descendants. They also did not want to give honor to God but instead to take his honor for themselves, to rule the earth, and to become it’s gods.

“Lest we be scattered…” As we shall see the punishment is to fit the crime (as before with Adam, Cain, and Ham). In this case it is most reminiscient of Cain who received a stronger form of the curse given to Adam; in this case they will be to receive a stronger form of the curse given to Canaan and they would be scattered, to counter their particular impudence.

[5] “And the Lord descended to see”: He did not need to do this, except to teach judges not to condemn a defendant until they see [the case] and understand [it]. [This is] in the Midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma (Buber Noach 18).

“the sons of man”: But the sons of whom else [could they have been]? The sons of donkeys and camels? Rather, [this refers to] the sons of the first man, who was ungrateful and said (above 3:12):“The woman whom You gave [to be] with me.” These, too, were ungrateful in rebelling against the One Who lavished goodness upon them, and saved them from the Flood. — [from Gen. Rabbah 38:9]

[6] Similar to it (Ps. 76:13): “He will withhold the spirit of princes.” However, the idea is also that these people, having knowledge and power, and peace (working together i.e. “Behold, they are one people,” if they chose to rebel against God in this way, then to what depths may they fall in the future (even worse?) And thus, we see measures were taken ahead of time to prevent such a serious decline from occurring again.

[7] ‘come’ Even with evidence in hand, God shows his humility by consulting with his court, and merits balanced justice (measure for measure); ‘We shall descend,’ balancing their ‘a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven’ (11:4).

[9a] Hebrew balal, to confound. The city was named Babel because of what happened there (balal). ‘He’ — Nimrod named it. He named each of his four cities after what had happened there.

[28] during the lifetime of Terah his father: lit. on the face of Terah his father. During his father’s lifetime (Tan. Acharei 7). And the Midrash Aggadah (Gen. Rabbah 38:13) tells us that he died on account of his father. For Terah complained about Abram his son before Nimrod for crushing his idols; so he [Nimrod] cast him [Abram] into a fiery furnace, and Haran sat and thought, “If Abram is victorious, I am on his side, and if Nimrod is victorious, I am on his side.” When Abram was saved, they said to Haran, “Whose side are you on?” Haran said to them, “I am on Abram’s side!” They cast him into the fiery furnace and he was burned. This is the meaning of “אוּר כַּשְׂדִּים”, the fire of the Chaldees. Menachem (Machbereth, p. 32), however, explains “אוּר” as a valley, and so (Isa. 24:15): “in the crevices (בָּאוּרִים) honor the Lord,” and so, (ibid. 11:8): “over the hole of (מְאוּרַת) an old snake.” Any hole or deep crevice is called “אוּר”.

[32] “and Terah died in Haran:” [This happened] after Abram had left Haran and had come to the land of Canaan, and had been there for over sixty years, for it is written (below 12:4): “And Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran,” and Terah was seventy years old when Abram was born, making Terah one hundred and forty-five years old when Abram left Haran. Accordingly, many of his [Terah’s] years were left. Why then did Scripture relate Terah’s death before Abram’s departure? So that the matter should not be publicized to all, whereby they would say: “Abram did not fulfill [the commandment of] honoring his father, for he left him in his old age and went away.” Therefore, Scripture calls him dead, for the wicked, even in their lifetime, are called dead, whereas the righteous, even in their death, are called living, as it is said (II Sam. 23:20): “And Benayahu the son of Jehoiada, the son of a living man.” - [from Gen. Rabbah 39:7, Ber. 18b. Note that the keri is “בֶּן אִישׁ חַיִל”, a valiant man. The Rabbis here expound on the kethib: “בֶּן אִישׁ חַי”.]

“in Haran”: The “nun” of חָרָן is inverted, to tell you that until Abram [appeared], the wrath of the Omnipresent was kindled (חֲרוֹן). [The inverted “nun” symbolizes the change from Divine anger to Divine mercy.] — [based on Sifrei, Ha’azinu 311]