Bible School · Old Testament survey · Class 4 of 68
Babel and the call of Abram: scattered nations and a promised blessing
Genesis 11–12 · about 21 minutes · Babel and the call of Abram
By the end of this class you should be able to
- Explain the sin of Babel and the shape of God's response in Genesis 11:1-9.
- Trace the line from Shem to Abram and say why Genesis narrows to one family.
- Identify the elements of the promise in 12:1-3 and how they answer the story of Babel.
- Describe the stages of Abram's journey and the failure in Egypt in 12:10-20.
- Show how Paul and Acts read the promise to Abram in relation to Christ and the nations.
Read the passage
11Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech. 2And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar. 4“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.” 5Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. 6And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. 7Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth. 10This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. 12When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. 13And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. 14When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. 15And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. 16When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. 17And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters. 18When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. 19And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters. 20When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. 21And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters. 22When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. 23And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters. 24When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. 25And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters. 26When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30But Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there. 32Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Open Genesis 11 in the reader (BSB)12Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. 2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” 4So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD. 9And Abram journeyed on toward the Negev. 10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman, 12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.” 14So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh. 16He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. 17The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions.
Open Genesis 12 in the reader (BSB)01Background
and 12 stand at the hinge of the book. to 11 tell of the world's beginnings, with the fall, the flood and Babel. to 50 tell of one family, from Abram to Joseph. Tradition ascribes the book to Moses, writing for Israel as it came out of Egypt toward the land that these chapters promise. Critical scholars assign the Babel story and the call of Abram to the early J source and the genealogy to the priestly source, and date the book's final form to the monarchy or the exile. On either view, the first readers received these chapters as an account of how Israel's God, the Creator of all nations, chose one man for the sake of all.
The setting is Mesopotamia. Shinar is the region of Babylonia, where brick, not stone, was the building material and where the stepped temple-towers known as ziggurats rose over the cities. 'Babel' is the Hebrew name for Babylon, and in Babylonian its name meant 'gate of God'; Genesis plays on the Hebrew verb balal, 'to confuse'. Abram's own origin is in 'Ur of the Chaldeans' (), generally identified with the city in southern Mesopotamia, though a few scholars have argued for a northern location. Haran, where the family settled, lay far to the north-west on a major trade route. The patriarchal period is usually placed in the early second millennium BC, though scholars disagree on the exact date, and nothing outside the Bible names Abraham.
The chapters answer a question left open by the flood: after judgment, how will God deal with a humanity that remains proud? Genesis answers with scattering at Babel and then with a calling at Haran.
02Outline
- One people, one language, and a plan to make a name
- The LORD comes down, confuses their speech and scatters them
- From Shem to Terah; Abram and Sarai, childless, stop at Haran
- The call and promise: go, and all families will be blessed
- Abram goes: Shechem, Bethel and altars
- Famine, Egypt and Abram's lie; God rescues Sarai
03How to read it
These chapters are narrative built on contrast. The people of Babel say, 'Let us make bricks', 'let us build', 'let us make a name for ourselves', and the LORD answers, 'let Us go down'. Their plan is to avoid being scattered; the result is scattering. They want a name; God promises Abram, 'I will make your name great' (). The story sets human effort to reach heaven beside God's initiative to come down. The repeated sounds and words carry the point, which is the basic rule of reading Hebrew narrative.
Two literary clues matter.
- First, the Babel story comes after the Table of Nations in , which already describes the nations as spread 'by their languages'. So is not strictly the next event but a look back at why the nations were scattered.
- Second, the genealogy of and the call of form a deliberate bridge. The genealogy narrows from all humanity to a single man, and the promise then broadens again to 'all the families of the earth'.
The rule for the promises in is to read them as the opening move in a covenant that Genesis will develop in , 17 and 22. They are not a summary of the whole plan but its first statement. The text is also frank about the patriarch's faults, and an honest reading will not turn Abram into a flawless hero, since the account of Egypt shows that the promise is carried by God, not by Abram's character.
04What the text says
Chapter 11:1–4
The whole earth had one language. As people moved east they found a plain in Shinar and decided to build a city and a tower reaching to the heavens. The aim, 'make a name for ourselves', is the opposite of the worship of God. They also fear being scattered, though God had told Noah's family to fill the earth (). Their building is a refusal of that command.
Chapter 11:5–9
The LORD comes down to see the city. The irony is plain: the tower meant to reach the heavens is so small that God must descend to see it. He confuses their language, and they stop building. Babel is a name of judgment, but the scattering also restrains a unified pride. Neither the people nor the tower is the object of God's anger as such. It is the project of self-made greatness.
Chapter 11:10–32
The genealogy runs from Shem to Abram in ten generations, matching the ten from Adam to Noah. Terah has three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran dies, and Terah takes the family from Ur toward Canaan, but they settle in Haran. says Sarai was barren. The family that will carry the promise cannot have children. A small difficulty: Terah is said to have died at 205 in Haran (), yet Abram left at 75 (), which on the numbers in Genesis would put Terah at 145. Stephen's speech () says Abraham left after his father died. Interpreters have suggested that Genesis names Abram first because of his importance and not his age, or follow the Samaritan Pentateuch, which gives Terah's age at death as 145.
Chapter 12:1–3
God says to Abram: leave your country, your people and your father's house, for the land I will show you. It is a command that cuts him from every source of security. Then follow seven promises: I will make you a great nation, bless you, make your name great, you will be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you, curse those who treat you lightly, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. The last promise is the goal. Translators differ on the verb, which can be passive ('will be blessed') or reflexive ('will bless themselves by you'). Paul takes it as passive (), and this class follows him.
Chapter 12:4–9
Abram, seventy-five, goes with Sarai, Lot and their household. At Shechem, at the oak of Moreh, the LORD appears and promises the land to his offspring, though the Canaanites were then in the land. Abram builds an altar. He moves to a hill between Bethel and Ai and builds another, and calls on the name of the LORD. In a land of other gods he sets up a place of worship.
Chapter 12:10–20
A famine drives him to Egypt. Afraid for his life, Abram asks Sarai to say she is his sister, and Pharaoh takes her. The LORD afflicts Pharaoh's house with great plagues, and Pharaoh sends Abram away with his wife and wealth. Sarai was in fact his half-sister (), so the claim was technically true, but it was meant to deceive, and Genesis does not praise it. Pharaoh's rebuke is sharper than anything Abram says. The chapter shows the promise at risk by Abram's own lie and God keeping it anyway. It also foreshadows Israel's story: famine, a descent to Egypt, plagues, and a departure with possessions ().
05Key terms
- name shem
- Fame or reputation. Babel's builders want a name; God gives Abram one.
- confuse balal
- To mix or mingle. The city is called Babel because the LORD confused (balal) the language of the earth.
- bless barak
- To give favor and life. It occurs five times in , the key word of the promise.
- families mishpachot
- Clans or peoples. The word links the promise to the nations listed in .
- altar mizbeach
- A place of sacrifice, from a verb meaning to slaughter. Abram's altars claim the land for the worship of the LORD.
06In the whole Bible
The passage joins two doctrines that belong together: God's rule over all nations, and his choice of one. At Babel he judges human pride, and the nations are scattered under his authority (). With Abram he begins the work of redemption, which does not abandon the nations but aims at them. The promise of blessing to 'all the families of the earth' sets the direction of the whole Old Testament: Israel is chosen to be the means by which God blesses everyone.
The call of Abram also establishes the pattern of faith. Abram goes without knowing where, trusting God's word. reads this as faith that looks for a city with foundations, and Paul reads it as the beginning of the righteousness of faith (). The promise of a land, a nation and a blessing becomes the substance of later covenants.
Christians differ on how the land promise is fulfilled. Some, especially in the dispensational tradition, hold that the land promise to ethnic Israel remains in force. Covenant theology generally holds that it was fulfilled in Joshua's day () and widened in Christ, so that Abraham's heirs inherit the world (). Jewish tradition holds the land as central to God's covenant with Israel. The class notes these readings and does not require a choice. All agree that the final goal is the blessing of the nations.
07Where Christ is
The clearest link is fulfillment. Paul says that Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, 'foretold the gospel to Abraham', in the words 'all nations will be blessed through you' (). He reads the promise to Abram's 'offspring' as pointing to Christ (), and says that the blessing of Abraham comes to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus (). Peter says the same to his Jewish hearers: you are the heirs of the covenant, and to you first God sent his servant to bless you (). Luke's genealogy traces Jesus back through Terah and Shem to Adam (), and Matthew opens by calling Jesus the son of Abraham ().
The reversal of Babel is an echo. At Pentecost people from many nations each heard the apostles in their own language (). Acts does not say it is the undoing of Babel, so this is a tentative echo, but the pattern is clear: Babel scatters by language, and the Spirit gathers people across languages in Christ. The vision of , a great crowd from every nation, tribe, people and language, completes the promise of .
Abram's descent to Egypt and return with wealth is a pattern repeated in Israel's Exodus, so the episode is a quiet type of that later rescue. Matthew sees the same pattern again in Jesus, taken to Egypt as a child and called out, and cites (). Abram's failure in Egypt shows by contrast why a better offspring is needed.
08Review questions
- What do the builders of Babel want, and how does the LORD's response in answer each part of their plan?
- Why does Genesis narrow from the nations of to the single family of Terah in ?
- What are the seven elements of the promise in , and which is the goal?
- What do the altars at Shechem and Bethel show about Abram's response to the promise?
- How does and read the promise to Abram, and what is the echo at Pentecost?
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