Genesis 11

1. And the whole earth was of one language and one speech.

2. And it came to pass, as they were migrating toward the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they settled there.

3. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt raw bitumen used for making cementfor mortar.

4. And they said, “Come, let us build us a city and a tower, with its top reaching into the heavens. And let us establish a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth.”

5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built.

6. And the LORD said, “Behold, the people are one and they all have one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do—now nothing which they have imagined to do will be restrained from them.

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

8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of all the earth. And they quit building the city.

9. Therefore the name of it is called Babel, because the LORD confused the language of all the earth there. And from there the LORD scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

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

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

12. And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years and begat Salah.

13. And after he begat Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years. And he begat sons and daughters.

14. And Salah lived thirty years and begat Eber.

15. And after he begat Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years. And he begat sons and daughters.

16. And Eber lived thirty-four years and begat Peleg.

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

18. And Peleg lived thirty years and begat Reu.

19. After he begat Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years. And he begat sons and daughters.

20. And Reu lived thirty-two years and begat Serug.

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

22. And Serug lived thirty years and begat Nahor.

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

24. And Nahor lived twenty-nine years and begat Terah.

25. And after he begat Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteen years. And he begat sons and daughters.

26. And Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor and Haran.

27. Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran begat Lot.

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

29. And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. 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.

30. But Sarai was barren. She had no child.

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

32. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years. And Terah died in Haran.