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of mankind, and from there God scattered them throughout the earth.3

      10 This is the family history of Shem: Shem was 100 years old when he fathered Arpakshad, two years after the great flood.

      11 Shem lived another 500 years after he fathered Arpakshad, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      12 Arpakshad was 35 years old when he fathered Shelach.

      13 Arpakshad lived another 403 years after he fathered Shelach, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      14 Shelach was 30 years old when he fathered Ever.

      15 Shelach lived another 403 years after he fathered Ever, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      16 Ever was 34 years old when he fathered Peleg.

      17 Ever lived another 430 years after he fathered Peleg, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      18 Peleg was 30 years old when he fathered Re’u.

      19 Peleg lived another 290 years after he fathered Re’u, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      20 Re’u was 32 years old when he fathered Serug.

      21 Re’u lived another 207 years after he fathered Serug, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      22 Serug was 30 years old when he fathered Nachor.

      23 Serug lived another 200 years after he fathered Nachor, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      24 Nachor was 29 years old when he fathered Terach.

      25 Nachor lived another 119 years after he fathered Terach, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

      26 Terach was 70 years old when he fathered Avram, then Nachor and then Haran.

      27 This is Terach’s family history: Terach fathered Avram, Nachor, and Haran. Haran fathered Lot.

28 Haran died in Ur, his hometown in the Kasdim region, during the lifetime of Terach, his father.4

      29 Avram and Nachor both married. Avram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nachor’s wife was Milkah, who along with her sister Yiskah were Haran’s daughters.

      30 Sarai was infertile, and could not have children.

      31 Terach then took his son Avram along with his daughter-in-law Sarai, who was Avram’s wife, as well as Lot his grandson, who was born to his son Haran. They arrived at Charan and settled there.

      32 Terach lived to be 205 years old, and finally he died at Charan.

1. 1v. 1: Although it is impossible to determine what language this may have been, the development of human language groups from one older, single language is a known feature of human history. Proto-Semitic is an example of this phenomenon. Scholars have identified this language as the possible single source tongue for all Semitic languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian, etc.). I refer the reader to a short, descriptive article on Proto-Semitic, entitled “Proto-Semitic Language and Culture” (www.bartleby.com/61/10.html), as well as the scholarly reference work, A Proto-Semitic Grammar and Textbook by H. J. Shem, Winged Bull Press, 2006, for more intense study. Additionally, the idea of uniting mankind as one and then trying to build a utopian world is a theme that occurs throughout Jewish history (with Jewish civilization, usually, the victim of such a plot). This is the first historic recollection of such a plan. The book of Maccabees from the 1st century BC records another one (when the Seleucid Empire attempted to unite the Levant as “one people,” including trying to subdue Israel and incorporate it into a Seleucid-Hellenist utopian empire). In the 1st and 2nd centuries, the Roman Empire attempted to do the same by subduing Israel during the Pax Romana, while making Jerusalem judenrein. In recent history, the Nazis did the same, trying to unify Europe in an Aryan-led racist “utopian” society, while attempting genocide against European Jewry. The theme of international, unifying plots has a negative connotation to it in Jewish history. I interpret the description of this one in chapter 11 in the same manner.

2. v. 4: Ziggurats are ancient buildings that are similar to this description. The remains of thirty-two ziggurats have been found in modern day Iraq and Iran, some dating from the 4th millennium BC. It was believed that deities inhabited them. Made of baked bricks, they had a pyramidal structure.

3. v. 9: “Bavel” is a play on the world balal, which is an ancient Hebrew onomatopoeia for the sound of unintelligible babble. In later Semitic linguistics, bab is a gate (as it is in modern Arabic) and el refers to a deity; thus the name may be a later Hebrew designation for the “entryway” or “gate” to heaven (or God), which fits the context well. Some scholars believe that this particular tower was a seven-floor high ziggurat with a temple dedicated to the idol Marduk sitting at the very top.

4. vv. 28 and 31: The name Haran (Avraham’s brother) has a soft ‘h’ pronounced as the first sound of the name, as it begins with the Hebrew letter “he” (equivalent to an English letter h). The site Charan has a harder “ch” sound at its beginning, as it begins with the Hebrew letter “chet.” Thus, Terach did not name this site after his deceased son.

      Chapter 12

1 God spoke to Avram and said, “‘Go already, leave your land, your homeland, and your father’s household, and go to the Land that I will show you. 1

      2 I am going to make you into a great nation. I am going to give you reason to bow your knees in thanksgiving (to God). I will make your reputation well known. You will give reason for people to bow their knees in thanksgiving (to God).2

      3 I will give people who help you a reason to bow their knees in thanksgiving; however, those who oppose you, I will utterly curse. Through your life all peoples of the world will have reason to bow their knees in thanksgiving (to God).”

      4 Avram went just as God instructed him, and Lot went with him. Avram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Charan.

      5 Avram took his wife Sarai, Lot his nephew and all of their goods and servants that they had acquired in Charan. They left for the land of Canaan, and they eventually arrived in the land of Canaan.

      6 Then Avram traveled in the Land until he arrived at Shechem, to the place of the oak trees of Moreh. Canaanites were then numerous in the Land.3

      7 God appeared to Avram and said, “I give this Land to your descendants.” So he built an altar to worship God, Who appeared to him.

      8 He went on from there in the direction of the hilly land to the east of BethEl. He pitched his tent where BethEl was to the west, and Ai was to the east. Then he built an altar to God, and called on God’s name.

      9 Avram then traveled onward, into the Negev Desert.

      10 There was a famine in the Land, so Avram went down to Egypt to live there, because this famine in the Land was quite severe.

      11 When Avram approached the Egyptian border, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, you’re really a beautiful woman.4

      12 When the Egyptians see you and tell each other that you are my wife, they will kill me but spare you.

      13 So say that you are my sister. That way you will insure that things will go well for me, and that I’ll stay alive.”

      14 When Avram reached the Egyptian frontier, the Egyptians thought that Sarai was quite stunning.

      15 Officials of the pharaoh of Egypt saw Sarai, and they spoke highly of her to the pharaoh. She was

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