5.  The account of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, 10:1-11:9

Main Points

1. The table provides evidence for the fruitfulness of mankind.  This is not a genealogical chart.  Why not?  A.  no ages mentioned.  B. Some names are personal, some are place names (Sidon, Sheba), some are peoples (Ludim, Caphtorim) or gentilic (Amorites).  C.  Headings are more flexible than in genealogies.  D.  "Sonship" and "brotherhood" could be used to denote treaty relationship as well as blood-based relationships.  Son of, fathered, might imply political or geographical relationship.

2. It sets the context for the choosing of the line from which the Savior shall come.  The listing of seventy descendants from Noah is not exhaustive but rather mentions major people groups and their relation to each other and to Egypt.  For other examples of 70 descendants, see Jacob (Genesis 46:27; Deuteronomy 10:22); Gideon (Judges 8:30) and Ahab (2 Kings 10:1).  The non-elect lines are dealt with first, as Cainites before Sethites (Genesis 4-5) ; Esau before Jacob (Genesis 37-50).

3. This section concludes the narratives of the spread of sin and disorder.  As listed in the table, mankind possesses a broad set of unities (language, ethnic framework, social basis).  They congregate in the plain of Shinar to preserve these unities.

Theological Themes

1. To meet the evil in society, God breaks apart man from unity in society.  Since the end of the primeval time, mankind has lived in a broken society and world, alienated and separated from God and from one another in sin and death.  Individual against individual, social elements against social element nation against nation (Matthew 24).  Man must learn his limits;  that the unchecked expression of the drive for life is ultimately counterproductive and results in death, destruction and isolation.  Whereas God had wanted man to fill the earth, man wants to settle in one place.

2. Where is the grace at the end of this story as in the others?  Will God now reject man forever to live in his sinful state?  Is God breaking off a connection to the nations?  Is God's plan at an end?  Only now when those questions are asked is the reader prepared for the next section.  The genealogy of Shem is a break.  The grace comes in a whole new section of the revelation from God:  the man named Abram.  And then in the final consummation in Christ.  The confusion created at Babel is reversed in Zephaniah 3:9 and Acts 2:8-21.

3. Unlike the age of Noah, there is no godly remnant out of which God saves.  He must choose the next man to declare righteous.