Parallelism in Genesis 12:11-17

• V11 – When Abram was about to enter Egypt
• He said, “You are a beautiful woman.”
• V12 – Egyptians will say, “This is his wife.”
• They will kill me and let you live
• V13 – Say you’re my sister so it will go well
• I will be spared for your sake
• V14 – Abram entered Egypt
• Egyptians saw she was beautiful
• V15 – They praised her to Pharaoh
• Sarai taken into Pharaoh’s house
• V16 – For her sake, Pharaoh dealt well with Abram
• V17 – Pharaoh was not spared for her sake, but Abram was

Chiasm in Genesis 12:6-13:18

I had originally mapped this chiasm from 12:14 to 13:4, but it's much larger. The most interesting thing about this is how it covers much of the same text as a parallelism in chapters 12-14. (See here.)

• 12:6 – Abram stopped at the Oak of Moreh
• 12:7 – God promised to give Canaan to Abram
• 12:8 – Abram moved to Bethel
• 12:14 - Abram traveled from Egypt to Bethel
• 12:16 - Pharaoh gave livestock & servants to Abram
• 12:20 - Pharaoh sent Abram away with his wife & all he had
• 13:1 - Abram left Egypt with his wife & all he had
• 13:2 - Abram rich in livestock, silver, & gold
• 13:3-4 - Abram traveled from Egypt to Bethel
• 13:11-12 – Abram moved from Bethel
• 13:14-17 – God promised to make Abram a great nation & to give him Canaan
• 13:18 – Abram stopped at the Oaks of Mamre

Abraham's faith was strengthened by every test. The continual growth of his material wealth was only a mundane reflection of his spiritual development.

Chiasm in the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

• 10:22-32 - Descendants of Shem
• 11:1 – One language and the people migrated together
• 11:3-4 – Let us make bricks (laban, which is lamed-bet-nun) and build a city so we won’t be dispersed
• 11:5 – God came down.
• 11:6 – God saw their pride and how it would progress
• 11:7a – God came down.
• 11:7b-8 – Let us confuse (v’nablah, which contains the root nun-bet-lamed) their language so they will be dispersed and stop building the city.
• 11:9 – Many languages and the people scattered
• 11:10-26 - Descendants of Shem

An alternative arrangement of this chiasm, which I kind of like better:

• 10:22-32 - Descendants of Shem
• 11:1-2 - One language and the people migrated together
• 11:3 - The people determined to build
• 11:4 - Then they said, "Come, let us..."
• 11:4 - Build a city, become great, remain united
• 11:5 - YHVH came down to witness their city and tower
• 11:6 - People united, will become great, do anything
• 11:7 - "Come, let us..."
• 11:7-8 - Stop the people from building
• 11:9 - Confuse the language and scatter the people
• 11:10-26 - Descendants of Shem

Common worship, language, and culture can be great unifying forces. Nimrod and the Babylonians were aware of this and tried to leverage it, but they aren't enough. The Tower of Babel was a pre-figured counterfeit of the Temple of Jerusalem. The only truly worthy and enduring unifying force is the true worship of the only true God.

Update 2023-10-20. The chiasm extends earlier into chapter 10 and to the end of chapter 11, encompassing the genealogy of Shem, at the very least. I've updated the diagrams above to show this.

HT: Tim Hegg at TorahResource.

Parallelism in Genesis 12-14

• 12:1-2 – Promise of land and descendants
• 12:4 – Abram commanded to move
• 12:6 – Abram went to the oak of Moreh at Shechem
• 12:7 – Built an altar
• 12:11-20 – Conflict with a king, Sarai taken and returned, wealth obtained
• 13:14-16 – Promise of land and descendants
• 13:17 – Abram commanded to move
• 13:18 – Abram went to the oaks of Mamre at Hebron
• 13:18 – Built an altar
• 14:1-24 – Conflict with kings, Lot taken and returned, wealth refused

Interestingly, this parallelism overlaps a chiasm in Genesis 12:6-13:18. See here.