And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Parallel translations
- WEB As they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV 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.
- NASB And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
- NLT As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Migrating eastward, people settled on a plain in Shinar. They gather in the place associated with Babel and human pride.
Overview
Humanity moves east and settles in the plain of Shinar, the same region linked to Nimrod's kingdom and Babel. Movement eastward in Genesis often signals drifting away from God's presence. This settling sets the stage for the prideful building project that provokes God's intervention and the scattering of the nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Gen 10:10His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Dan 1:2And 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.
- Gen 14:1In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim
- Zech 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.”
- Isa 11:11On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
- Gen 13:11So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.
- Gen 11:9That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 11:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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