Genesis 11:10
אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת שֵׁם שֵׁם בֶּן־מְאַת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד אֶת־אַרְפַּכְשָׁד שְׁנָתַיִם אַחַר הַמַּבּֽוּל׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת שֵׁ֔ם שֵׁ֚ם בֶּן־מְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֔ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־אַרְפַּכְשָׁ֑ד שְׁנָתַ֖יִם אַחַ֥ר הַמַּבּֽוּל׃
Καὶ αὗται οἱ γενέσεις Σῆμ’. Σῆμ’ υἱὸς ἐτῶν ἑκατὸν τὸν Ἀρφαξάδ, δευτέρου ἔτους μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμόν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Hæ sunt generationes Sem: Sem erat centum annorum quando genuit Arphaxad, biennio post diluvium.
Ésta es la historia de los descendientes de Sem. Dos años después del diluvio, cuando Sem tenía cien años, fue padre de Arfaxad.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Estas son las generaciones de Sem: Sem, de edad de cien años, engendró á Arphaxad, dos años después del diluvio.
This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse opens the genealogical account of Shem with the formula 'Eleh tolDot ("these are the accounts/generations of"), then gives Shem's age (100 years) at the birth of his son Arphaxad, dating this birth two years after the flood.
Key words
- tolDot ("accounts of", H8435) — feminine plural construct noun, the standard heading marking the start of a genealogical/narrative section; grammatically bound to Shem that follows.
- ben ("son of", H1121L) — masculine singular construct, used idiomatically with a number of years to express age ("a son of 100 years" = "100 years old").
- me'At shanah ("one hundred years", H3967/H8141) — construct cardinal number + singular noun, forming the age expression governed by ben.
- vayYoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — Hiphil (causative) verb with narrative vav, indicating a completed sequential action ("and then he caused to be born," i.e., "fathered") within the chain of the genealogy.
- shenaTayim ("two years", H8141) — dual form of the noun "year," marking exactly two units rather than a general plural, used here to date the birth relative to the flood.
What the text says
The sentence is built in two syntactic blocks. The first, 'Eleh tolDot Shem ("These are the accounts of Shem"), is a nominal clause functioning as a heading, typical of the tolDot formula that structures Genesis' genealogies. The second block restates the name Shem as subject of a new clause: Shem ben-me'At shanah ("Shem [was] a son of a hundred years"), an idiomatic age construction where ben + number + shanah conveys "was X years old," with no explicit verb "to be" — the copula is implied, as is common in Hebrew nominal clauses.
The narrative continues with vayYoled 'et-Arpakhshad ("and he fathered Arphaxad"), using the Hiphil form of the root behind H3205, which frames the birth as a causative act ("caused to be born") rather than a simple stative verb, and the narrative vav links this action sequentially to what precedes. The final phrase, shenaTayim achar hamMabul ("two years after the flood"), uses the dual form shenaTayim to specify precisely two years, anchoring the birth of Arphaxad chronologically to hamMabul ("the flood," with definite article H9009 + noun H3999), a fixed reference point already established earlier in Genesis.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew shenaTayim achar hamMabul ("two years after the flood") is rendered in the LXX as δευτέρου ἔτους μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμόν ("in the second year after the flood"), an ordinal construction rather than the Hebrew's dual cardinal "two years." The Vulgate's biennio post diluvium ("in a two-year period after the flood") matches the Hebrew's sense of a duration of two years rather than a single "second year," aligning more closely with the Hebrew dual than the LXX's ordinal phrasing.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.