Tanach Highlights Tour at the Boston MFA

(16) Cain left the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (17) Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded a city, and named the city after his son Enoch. (18) To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech. (19) Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. (20) Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and amidst herds. (21) And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe. (22) As for Zillah, she bore Tubal-cain, who forged all implements of copper and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

And to Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. It was then that men began to invoke the Lord by name.

(1) אז הוחל THEN IT WAS BEGUN [TO CALL etc.] — The word הוחל must be connected in meaning with חולין “profane matters “) viz, calling the names of men and the names of idols after the name of the Holy One, blessed be He — making them the objects of idolatrous worship and calling them Deities (Genesis Rabbah 23:7).

(1) These are the lines of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah: sons were born to them after the Flood. (2) The descendants of Yapheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Yavan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. (3) The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. (4) The descendants of Yavan: Elishah and Tarshish, the Kittim and the Dodanim. (5) From these the maritime nations branched out. [These are the descendants of Japheth] by their lands—each with its language—their clans and their nations.

(6) The descendants of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. (7) The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. (8) Cush also begot Nimrod, who was the first man of might on earth. (9) He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD; hence the saying, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD.” (10) The mainstays of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. (11) From that land Asshur went forth and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, (12) and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that is the great city.

(13) And Mizraim begot the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, (14) the Pathrusim, the Casluhim, and the Caphtorim, whence the Philistines came forth. (15) Canaan begot Sidon, his first-born, and Heth; (16) and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, (17) the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, (18) the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites spread out. (19) The [original] Canaanite territory extended from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha. (20) These are the descendants of Ham, according to their clans and languages, by their lands and nations.

(21) Sons were also born to Shem, ancestor of all the descendants of Eber and older brother of Japheth. (22) The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram...

(31) These are the descendants of Shem according to their clans and languages, by their lands, according to their nations. (32) These are the groupings of Noah’s descendants, according to their origins, by their nations; and from these the nations branched out over the earth after the Flood.

A. Tower of Babel

(1) Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. (2) And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. (3) They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— (4) And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.” (5) And G-d came down to look at the city and tower that man had built, (6) and G-d said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. (7) Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” (8) Thus G-d scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why it was called Babel, because there the G-d confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there the G-d scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

B. Abraham / Avraham Avinu

(24) When Nahor had lived 29 years, he begot Terah.(25) After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters. (26) When Terah had lived 70 years, he begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran...

(28) Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans...(31) Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there. (32) The days of Terah came to 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.

Let me be a seal upon your heart, Like the seal upon your hand...

Abraham accepted Ephron’s terms. Abraham paid out to Ephron the money that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites—four hundred shekels of silver at the going merchants’ rate.

(1) Now, when King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tid'al of Goiim (2) made war on King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar, (3) all the latter joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, now the Dead Sea.

(7) I will delude him; he will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.” (8) The Rabshakeh, meanwhile, heard that [the king] had left Lachish; he turned back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah. (9) But [the king of Assyria] learned that King Tirhakah of Nubia had come out to fight him; so he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying...

Topaz from Nubia cannot match its value; Pure gold cannot be weighed against it.

(1) The “Egypt” Pronouncement. Mounted on a swift cloud, G-d will come to Egypt; Egypt’s idols shall tremble before Him, and the heart of the Egyptians shall sink within them. (2) “I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian: They shall war with each other, every man with his fellow, city with city and kingdom with kingdom. (3) Egypt shall be drained of spirit, and I will confound its plans; So they will consult the idols and the shades and the ghosts and the familiar spirits. (4) And I will place the Egyptians at the mercy of a harsh master, And a ruthless king shall rule them” —declares the Sovereign, the Lord of Hosts.

(1) In the twelfth year of King Ahaz of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria—for nine years. (2) He did what was displeasing to the LORD, though not as much as the kings of Israel who preceded him. (3) King Shalmaneser marched against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.

(4) But the king of Assyria caught Hoshea in an act of treachery: he had sent envoys to King So (Seis) of Egypt, and he had not paid the tribute to the king of Assyria, as in previous years. And the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison. (5) Then the king of Assyria marched against the whole land; he came to Samaria and besieged it for three years. (6) In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the [River] Habor, at the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media.

It was the year that the Tartan came to Ashdod—being sent by King Sargon of Assyria—and attacked Ashdod and took it.

(12) But when my Lord has carried out all his purpose on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, He will punish the majestic pride and overbearing arrogance of the king of Assyria. (13) For he thought, “By the might of my hand have I wrought it, by my skill, for I am clever: I have erased the borders of peoples; I have plundered their treasures, and exiled their vast populations.

The Gemara explains its objection: But Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had already come, and through his policy of forced population transfer he had scrambled all the nations of the lands, as it is stated in reference to Sennacherib: “And I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures” (Isaiah 10:13)...

(9) Nineveh has been like a [placid] pool of water From earliest times; Now they flee. “Stop! Stop!”— But none can turn them back. (10) “Plunder silver! Plunder gold!” There is no limit to the treasure; It is a hoard of all precious objects. (11) Desolation, devastation, and destruction! Spirits sink, Knees buckle, All loins tremble, All faces turn ashen. (12) What has become of that lions’ den, That pasture of great beasts, Where lion and lion’s breed walked, And lion’s cub—with none to disturb them?

After all this furbishing of the Temple by Josiah, King Necho of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living serenely in my house, flourishing in my palace.

(1) It happened in the days of Ahasuerus—that Ahasuerus who reigned over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Kush.

Judah is opposed to the Kingdom of Babylon. Both are compared to a lion: This (Judah) is compared to a lion, as stated (genesis 49, 9) “Judah is a lion’s whelp”, and the other (Babylon) is compared to a lion, as is stated (Daniel 7, 4): “The first was like a lion”. And by whose hand does the Kingdom of Babylon fall? In the hands of Daniel, who comes from Judah.

(1) In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, when the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah was fulfilled, the LORD roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his realm by word of mouth and in writing as follows: (2) “Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me with building Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (3) Anyone of you of all His people—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem that is in Judah and build the House of the LORD God of Israel, the God that is in Jerusalem;

And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia...