Genesis 11

¹The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

²As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.

³They said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

⁴They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

⁶Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

⁷Come, let Us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

⁸So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

¹⁰These are the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.

¹¹Shem lived five hundred years after he begot Arphaxad, and begot sons and daughters.

¹²Arphaxad lived thirty-five years and begot Shelah.

¹³Arphaxad lived four hundred three years after he begot Shelah, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁴Shelah lived thirty years, and begot Eber.

¹⁵Shelah lived four hundred three years after he begot Eber, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁶Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg.

¹⁷Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he begot Peleg, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁸Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu.

¹⁹Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he begot Reu, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁰Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug.

²¹Reu lived two hundred seven years after he begot Serug, and begot sons and daughters.

²²Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor.

²³Serug lived two hundred years after he begot Nahor, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁴Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah.

²⁵Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he begot Terah, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁶Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot.

²⁸Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

²⁹Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

³⁰Sarai was barren. She had no child.

³¹Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.

³²The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.