Genesis 11

The whole earth had one language and the same words.

As people moved east, they came across a plain in Shinar and settled there.

And they said to each other, “Come on, let's make bricks and fire them properly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

And they said, “Come on, let's build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches the sky, and make a name for ourselves — otherwise we'll be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

And the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building.

And the Lord said, “Look at this. One people, all speaking the one language, and this is what they've started. Nothing they set their minds on will be beyond them now.

Come on — let's go down and mix up their language, so they can't understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.

That's why it's called Babel — because there the Lord mixed up the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

This is the record of Shem's line. Two years after the flood, when Shem was a hundred, he had Arphaxad.

And after Arphaxad was born, Shem lived another five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Arphaxad was thirty-five, he had Shelah.

And after Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived another four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Shelah was thirty, he had Eber.

And after Eber was born, Shelah lived another four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Eber was thirty-four, he had Peleg.

And after Peleg was born, Eber lived another four hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Peleg was thirty, he had Reu.

And after Reu was born, Peleg lived another two hundred and nine years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Reu was thirty-two, he had Serug.

And after Serug was born, Reu lived another two hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Serug was thirty, he had Nahor.

And after Nahor was born, Serug lived another two hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Nahor was twenty-nine, he had Terah.

And after Terah was born, Nahor lived another hundred and nineteen years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Terah was seventy, he had Abram, Nahor and Haran.

This is the story of Terah. Terah had Abram, Nahor and Haran, and Haran had Lot.

Haran died before his father Terah, in the land he was born in, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Abram and Nahor both married. Abram's wife was called Sarai, and Nahor's wife was called Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and Iscah.

Sarai couldn't have children. She had none.

And Terah took his son Abram, and his grandson Lot, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, Abram's wife, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they got as far as Haran, they settled there.

Terah lived two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran.