Genesis 11:2
New International Version
As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

New Living Translation
As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.

English Standard Version
And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Berean Standard Bible
And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

King James Bible
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

New King James Version
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

New American Standard Bible
And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

NASB 1995
It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

NASB 1977
And it came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Legacy Standard Bible
And it happened as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Amplified Bible
And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.

Christian Standard Bible
As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

American Standard Version
And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And it was that when they picked up from the East, they found a valley in the land of Senar and they dwelt there.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And it came to pass as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Senaar, and they dwelt there.

Contemporary English Version
but after some of them moved from the east and settled in Babylonia,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.

English Revised Version
And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
As people moved toward the east, they found a plain in Shinar [Babylonia] and settled there.

Good News Translation
As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there.

International Standard Version
As people migrated westward, they came across a plain in the region of Shinar and settled there.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

Literal Standard Version
and it comes to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar and dwell there;

Majority Standard Bible
And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

New American Bible
When they were migrating from the east, they came to a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

NET Bible
When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

New Revised Standard Version
And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

New Heart English Bible
It happened, as they traveled from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.

Webster's Bible Translation
And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

World English Bible
As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.

Young's Literal Translation
and it cometh to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar, and dwell there;

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. 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.…

Cross References
Genesis 10:10
His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Genesis 11:1
Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

Genesis 14:1
In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim

Daniel 1:2
And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god.

Zechariah 5:11
"To build a house for it in the land of Shinar," he told me. "And when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its pedestal."


Treasury of Scripture

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelled there.

from the east.

Genesis 13:11
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

Shinar.

Genesis 11:9
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Genesis 10:10
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Genesis 14:1
And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;

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Country Dwell Dwelt East Eastward Find Flat Found Journeyed Journeying Living-Place Moved Plain Settled Shinar Stretch Traveled Valley Wandering
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Country Dwell Dwelt East Eastward Find Flat Found Journeyed Journeying Living-Place Moved Plain Settled Shinar Stretch Traveled Valley Wandering
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.














(2) As they journeyed.--The word literally refers to the pulling up of the tent-pegs, and sets the human family before us as a band of nomads, wandering from place to place, and shifting their tents as their cattle needed fresh pasture.

From the east.--So all the versions. Mount Ararat was to the north-west of Shinar, and while so lofty a mountain could not have been the spot where the ark rested, yet neither could any portion of Armenia or of the Carduchian mountains be described as to the east of Babylonia. The Chaldean legends make the ark rest on Mount Nizir, or Elwend, on the east of Assyria; and though Ararat may possibly signify Aryaverta, "Holy Land," yet the transference of the name from Elwend to Armenia is not easily explicable. Moreover, the Bible elsewhere seems to point to Armenia as the cradle of the human race. Most modern commentators, therefore, translate eastward, and such certainly is the meaning of the word in Genesis 13:11, where also the versions, excepting our own, render from the east.

Land of Shinar.--See on Genesis 10:10. The whole of Chaldea is a level plain, and the soil immensely rich, as it is an alluvial deposit, which still goes on forming at the head of the Persian Gulf, at the rate of a mile in a period estimated at from seventy to thirty years (Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., i. 4). A strip of land 130 miles in breadth has been added to the country, by the deposit of the earth washed down by the Tigris and Euphrates, since the time when Ur of the Chaldees was a great port.

Verse 2. - And it came to pass, as they journeyed. Literally, in their journeyings. The root (גָקַע, to pull up, as, e.g., the stakes of a tent when a camp moves, Isaiah 33:20) suggests the idea of the migration of nomadic hordes (cf. Genesis 12:9; Genesis 33:17). From the east. Ab oriente (Ancient Versions, Calvin, et alii), meaning either that they started from Armenia, which was in the east respectu terrae Canaan (Luther), or from that portion of the Assyrian empire which was east of the Tigris, and called Orientalis, as distinguished from the Occidentalis on the west (Bochart); or that they first traveled westwards, following the direction of the Euphrates in one of its upper branches (Bush); or that, having roamed to the east of Shinar, they ultimately returned occidentem versus (Junius). The phrase, however, is admitted to be more correctly rendered ad orientem (Drusius, Lange, Keil, Murphy), as in Genesis 13:11. Kalisch interprets generally in oriente, agreeing with Luther that the migrations are viewed by the writer as taking place in the east; while T. Lewis prefers to read from one front part (the original meaning of kedem) to another - onwards. That they found a plain בִּקְעָה; not a valley between mountain ranges, as in Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 11:11; Psalm 104:8, but a widely-extended plain (πεδίον, LXX.), like that in which Babylon was situated (Herod., lib. 1:178, κέεται ἐν πεδιῳ μεγάλῳ; cf. Strabo, lib. 2:109). In the land of Shinar. Babylonia (cf. Genesis 10:10). The derivation of the term is unknown (Gesenius), though it probably meant the land of the two rivers (Alford). Its absence from ancient monuments (Rawlinson) suggests that it was the Jewish name for Chaldaea. And they dwelt there.

Parallel Commentaries ...


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

as people journeyed
בְּנָסְעָ֣ם (bə·nā·sə·‘ām)
Preposition-b | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 5265: To pull up, the tent-pins, start on a, journey

eastward,
מִקֶּ֑דֶם (miq·qe·ḏem)
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6924: The front, of place, time

they found
וַֽיִּמְצְא֥וּ (way·yim·ṣə·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 4672: To come forth to, appear, exist, to attain, find, acquire, to occur, meet, be present

a plain
בִקְעָ֛ה (ḇiq·‘āh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1237: A split, a wide level valley between mountains

in the land
בְּאֶ֥רֶץ (bə·’e·reṣ)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 776: Earth, land

of Shinar
שִׁנְעָ֖ר (šin·‘ār)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 8152: Shinar -- another name for Babylon

and settled
וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ (way·yê·šə·ḇū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 3427: To sit down, to dwell, to remain, to settle, to marry

there.
שָֽׁם׃ (šām)
Adverb
Strong's 8033: There, then, thither


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OT Law: Genesis 11:2 It happened as they traveled east that (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 11:1
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