Genesis 10:11

Summary

The verse states that from "that land" (Shinar, referenced in the preceding verses) someone "went forth" and subsequently built four cities: Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah. The grammatical subject of both verbs is not named explicitly in this verse — it is either Ashur itself or an implied prior subject (Nimrod, mentioned in Genesis 10:8-10).

Key words

• yatza' ("he went forth", H3318G) — qal perfect, 3rd person singular. The subject is grammatically unmarked beyond the verb ending; it can attach either to 'Ashur as agent or to an unstated antecedent.
• 'Ashur ("Assyria", H0804G) — a proper noun with no preposition or object marker attached, leaving it syntactically open to function as subject of yatza' or as the destination/territory into which someone went.
• yiven ("he built", H1129) — qal narrative (vav-consecutive) form, 3rd person singular, continuing the same unnamed subject from the previous clause into a new action.
• 'et (H0853) — the direct object marker, repeated three times (before Nineveh, Rehoboth, and Calah), marking each city name as an object of yiven, confirming these are the places built, not additional subjects.
• re.cho.Vot ("Rehoboth-", H7344I) paired with 'ir ("Ir", H5893H) — two elements that in the data are tagged as a place name and a separate proper-name element; how they combine (as one compound name "Rehoboth-Ir" or as "Rehoboth" plus a separate word) depends on translation choice.

What the text says

The clause opens with min-ha'aretz hahi' ("from that land"), anchoring the action to the location established in the prior verses. The verb yatza' ("he went forth", H3318G) follows, and only after it does the proper name 'Ashur (H0804G) appear. Because Hebrew word order permits either verb-subject or verb-object readings here, and 'Ashur lacks any preposition indicating direction ("to/into"), the clause is structurally ambiguous: it can be read as "Asshur went forth from that land" (subject) or as "[someone] went forth from that land to Assyria" (destination), with the subject carried over from the earlier narrative about Nimrod.

The second clause uses the narrative vav-consecutive form yiven ("he built", H1129), which continues whatever subject was established by yatza'. Three direct objects follow, each introduced by the object marker 'et (H0853): Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir (or "Rehoboth" and "Ir" as separate items), and Calah. The repetition of 'et before each name signals that all three (or four, depending on how rechovot 'ir is divided) are objects of the building activity, not additional subjects or locations.

Differences between versions

The LXX (ἐξῆλθεν Ἀσσούρ, "Asshur went forth") and the Vulgate (egressus est Assur, "Assur went forth") both treat 'Ashur as the subject of "went forth." The BSB ("he went forth into Assyria") and SBLIBRE ("pasó a Asiria") instead supply an unstated subject and render 'Ashur as a destination. Additionally, the LXX and Vulgate render rechovot 'ir as a single city with "city" as a descriptor (Ῥοωβὼς πόλιν; plateas civitatis), while BSB treats it as a compound proper name "Rehoboth-Ir," and RV1909 renders only "Rehoboth" without the second element.