complete verse (Genesis 11:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 11:8:

  • Kankanaey: “And-so that is what God did, and afterwards the collective-people separated-from-each-other on the surface of the earth and they didn’t continue to make that city.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “In this way the LORD scattered them all over the earth. And the work of building the city was also stopped.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So the LORD caused- them -to-be-scattered over the whole world because they did- not now -understand-each-other, and their building/erecting of the city stopped.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So Yahweh did that. As a result, the people stopped building the city, and Yahweh caused them to disperse all over the earth.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 11:8

Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and many others begin verse 8 with So, to introduce a consequence of the LORD’s thoughts in Gen 11.7.

The LORD scattered them abroad from there: scattered is the same as in Gen 11.4. Now the LORD does to the people what they aimed to avoid. From there means from the place on the plain of Babylonia where they were living and building their city. Over the face of all the earth means “throughout the world,” “all over the earth” (Good News Translation, New English Bible). One translation renders this part of the verse as “The LORD … chased them away from that place, then they went to stay all around in every place in the world.” In some languages it is necessary to make clear how the LORD achieved his purpose; for example, “… mixed up the language of those people in order to scatter them all over.”

The consequence of being scattered is they left off building the city. The Hebrew text says only “city” and omits “and the tower,” which is added in verses 4 and 5. Some ancient versions add “and the tower” here, but it is best for translators to follow the Hebrew, as in Revised Standard Version. This clause may have to be introduced by a marker such as “therefore,” “because of that,” or “as a result.” In some languages it is necessary to say something like “Because they were scattered everywhere they could not go on building the city, and so they had to give up their work.”

Left off translates a verb meaning to stop, discontinue, give up an activity. Other ways of expressing this are, for example, “they didn’t build that town any more” and “they didn’t finish that town they were building.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .