Genesis 11:1
New International Version
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

New Living Translation
At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words.

English Standard Version
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

Berean Standard Bible
Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

King James Bible
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

New King James Version
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.

New American Standard Bible
Now all the earth used the same language and the same words.

NASB 1995
Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.

NASB 1977
Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now the whole earth had the same language and the same words.

Amplified Bible
Now the whole earth spoke one language and used the same words (vocabulary).

Christian Standard Bible
The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.

American Standard Version
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And the whole Earth was one language and one speech.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And all the earth was one lip, and there was one language to all.

Contemporary English Version
At first everyone spoke the same language,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.

English Revised Version
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The whole world had one language with a common vocabulary.

Good News Translation
At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words.

International Standard Version
There was a time when the entire earth spoke a common language with an identical vocabulary.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

Literal Standard Version
And the whole earth is of one language, and of the same words,

Majority Standard Bible
Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

New American Bible
The whole world had the same language and the same words.

NET Bible
The whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary.

New Revised Standard Version
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

New Heart English Bible
The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

World English Bible
The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

Young's Literal Translation
And the whole earth is of one pronunciation, and of the same words,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Tower of Babel
1Now 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.…

Cross References
Genesis 10:32
All these are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.

Genesis 11:2
And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Genesis 11:6
And 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.


Treasury of Scripture

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

A.

Isaiah 19:18
In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.

Zephaniah 3:9
For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.

Acts 2:6
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

language.

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Common Earth Few Language Pronunciation Speech Tongue Used Whole Words World
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Common Earth Few Language Pronunciation Speech Tongue Used Whole Words World
Genesis 11
1. One language in the world.
2. The building of Babel.
5. It is interrupted by the confusion of tongues, and the builders dispersed.
10. The generations of Shem.
27. The generations of Terah, the father of Abram.
31. Terah, with Abram and Lot, move from Ur to Haran.














XI.

(1) The whole earth.--That is, all mankind. After giving the connection of the various races of the then known world, consisting of Armenia, the regions watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, the Arabian peninsula, the Nile valley, with the districts closely bordering on the Delta, Palestine, the Levant, and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete; with Lud on his journey to Asia Minor, and the Japhethites breaking their way into Europe through the country between the Caspian and the Black Sea: after this, we go back to the reason of this dispersion, which is found in the confusion of tongues.

Of one language, and of one speech.--Literally, of one lip, and of words one: that is, both the pronunciation and the vocabulary were identical. As regards this primitive language, whereas but a few years ago the differences between the Sanscrit and the Semitic tongues were regarded as irreconcilable, recent inquiries tend to show that both have a common basis.

Verse 1. - And the whole earth. I.e. the entire population of the globe, and not simply the inhabitants of the land of Shinar (Ingiis; cf. Genesis 9:29). Was. Prior to the dispersion spoken of in the preceding chapter, though obviously it may have been subsequent to that event, if, as the above-named author believes, the present paragraph refers to the Shemites alone. Of one language. Literally, of one lip, i.e. one articulation, or one way of pronouncing their vocables. And of one speech. Literally, one (kind of) words, i.e. the matter as well as the form of human speech was the same. The primitive language was believed by the Rabbins, the Fathers, and the older theologians to be Hebrew; but Keil declares this view to be utterly untenable. Bleek shows that the family of Abraham spoke in Aramaic (cf. Jegar-sahadutha, Genesis 31:47), and that the patriarch himself acquired Hebrew from the Canaanites, who may themselves have adopted it from the early Semites whom they displace& While regarding neither the Aramaic, Hebrew, nor Arabic as the original tongue of mankind, he thinks the Hebrew approaches nearest the primitive Semite language out of which all three were developed.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Now the whole
כָל־ (ḵāl)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

world
הָאָ֖רֶץ (hā·’ā·reṣ)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

had
וַֽיְהִ֥י (way·hî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

one
אֶחָ֑ת (’e·ḥāṯ)
Number - feminine singular
Strong's 259: United, one, first

language
שָׂפָ֣ה (śā·p̄āh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 8193: The lip, language, a margin

and a common
אֲחָדִֽים׃ (’ă·ḥā·ḏîm)
Number - masculine plural
Strong's 259: United, one, first

form of speech.
וּדְבָרִ֖ים (ū·ḏə·ḇā·rîm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause


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OT Law: Genesis 11:1 The whole earth was of one language (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 10:32
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