Bible Strands
Genesis 11:2
And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes a post-Flood population migrating eastward, marking the transition from the universal linguistic unity of Genesis 11:1 to a specific geographic location before introducing their brick-making project in Genesis 11:3.
The words — מִקֶּ֑דֶם (mi./Ke.dem) literally means "from the east," and בִקְעָ֛ה (vik.'Ah) denotes "a plain," both anchoring the narrative to a concrete topographical reality rather than a mythic landscape.
The thread — The land of Shinar appears again as the starting point of Nimrod’s kingdom in Genesis 10:10, the realm of King Amraphel in Genesis 14:1, and the historical backdrop for Judah’s exile in Daniel 1:2.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to track how a dispersed group consolidates in a single region, establishing the geographic and political stage for the subsequent conflict over human autonomy and divine judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 10:10 His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- 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.
- Genesis 14:1 In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim
- Isaiah 11:11 On 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.
- 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.”
- Genesis 13:11 So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.
- Genesis 11:9 That 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.