Genesis 11
The Tower of Babylon
1The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.23As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.45They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.)67And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”89Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building.1011The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.1213Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”1415So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city.1617Therefore it is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.18
From Shem to Abram
19These are the family records of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.2021After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters.2223Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah.2425After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters.2627Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber.2829After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters.3031Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg.3233After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters.3435Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.3637After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters.3839Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug.4041After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters.4243Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor.4445After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters.4647Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.4849After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters.5051Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.5253These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.5455Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime.5657Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.5859Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.60
61Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.6263Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.64