The account of Shem, and the ages

11:10 opens the account (toledot) of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, two years after the flood, he fathered Arphaxad; the Hebrew places “two years after the flood” at the end of the verse, and the BSB moves it forward. Each following generation gives the age at the birth of the named son, the years lived afterward, and “other sons and daughters.” Unlike Genesis 5, the Masoretic list has no life-total and no “and he died.” Ten names run from Shem to Abram, as ten run from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5; the list is selective and is arranged to lead to Abram. 11:26 names Abram, Nahor, and Haran after one age, seventy; the verse does not by itself fix three sons born when Terah was seventy. The Masoretic, Samaritan, and Greek figures differ, often by a century at the begetting ages; the Greek adds Kainan between Arphaxad and Shelah in 11:12–13, and Luke 3:36 has “the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad.” The Samaritan text, like the Hebrew, has no Kainan. The printed text follows the Masoretic ages, with medium confidence; no view is adopted as to which list is original, or whether Kainan stood in the first text. See the textual note on the ages and Kainan, the Greek note on Shem’s ages, and the notes on Kainan at 10:22–24 and on the chronology of Genesis 5. The persons are real.