Chapter Summary 10 - 11

The “table of nations” (Gen. 10) traces the relationships between the peoples known to ancient Israel, and explains their link to the sons of Noah. The peoples are classified by language, land, and treaty links as well as ethnically. But how did the race of man, springing afresh from a single family, become so divided? The story of the Tower of Babel explains (11:1-9). God introduced the languages that divide our race as an act of judgment when the early descendants of Noah refused to spread out and populate the earth but rather stayed together and colonized worshiping other gods and arrogantly attempted to “reach the heavens.” With this explanation offered, the chapter gives an account of the descendants of Shem, the line from which Abram, and ultimately Christ, sprang (vv. 10-32). With the end of this chapter we reach one of Scripture’s great turning points. God is about to choose a single family, through whom the fallen race of man will ultimately be redeemed.

Key Verse 11:7:

Judgment may take many different forms.

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

Personal Application:

International and interpersonal divisions too are a consequence of sin.

Tower of Babel.

Step-like tower mounds, called ziggurats, are associated with worship in South America as well as in the ancient Middle East. The phrase “with a tower that reaches to the heavens” (11:4) may refer to the shrine usually placed atop ziggurats.

 

IDENTITY OF PEOPLES

OF JAPHETH:

1. Gomer = Cimmerians

2. Madai = Medes       

3. Javan = Greeks

4. Ashkenaz = Scythians

5. Elishah = Crete

6. Tarshish = W. Spain

7. Kittim = Cyprus

 

OF HAM:

1. Cush = Ethiopia

2. Mizraim = Egypt

3. Lehabites = Lybians

4. Caphtorim = Cretans

5. Hittites, etc. = Pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan

 

OF SHEM (SEMITES):

1. Eber = Hebrews

2. Aram = Syrians (in the third millennium, north: in the second, next to Canaan)

3. Arphaxad = Northern Iraq?