Genesis 11:10

Modern

This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.

Traditional

These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

Literal

These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a son of a hundred years, and he begat Arphaxad two years after the flood.

Latin

Hæ sunt generationes Sem: Sem erat centum annorum quando genuit Arphaxad, biennio post diluvium.

Hebrew

English

This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.

This account of Shem continues from 10:21–32, focusing on the family line leading to Abram. Only Abram and Israel inherit Shem’s God (see 9:26–27; Deuteronomy 32:8–9). The Babel story strongly rejects the culture that God called Abram to abandon (Genesis 12:1; 24:6–7). Together with the account of Terah’s descendants (11:27–32), this account of Shem’s line forms a bridge from the universal history of chapters 1–11 to Israel's national history that begins in chapter 12.
Abram was part of the small group that remained faithful after the confusion at Babel.
God chose Abram as an act of grace. Through Abram, God began a new plan. God’s purpose was to bless the whole world, even though the nations had been divided and scattered at Babel (12:3).
the father of (or the ancestor of): Hebrew family records (genealogies, or lists of ancestors) do not always include every generation.

Theme notes and profiles

1 Chronicles 1:17–27
The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.
Genesis 11:27
This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
Genesis 10:21–22
And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.
Luke 3:34–36
…the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

Arpachshad: Son of Shem, ancestor of Abraham Shem: Noah's son, ancestor of Semitic peoples