The Tower of Babylon

1The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. 2As people migrated from the east,A they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.a 3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalta for mortar.) 4And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.a Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

5Then the Lord came downa to look over the city and the tower that the humansA were building. 6The 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. 7Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,a and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore it is called Babylon,a B a for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

From Shem to Abram

10These are the family recordsa of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 12Arpachshad lived 35 yearsA and fathered Shelah. 13After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 14Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. 15After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 16Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. 17After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 18Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. 19After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 20Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. 21After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 22Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. 23After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 24Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.a 25After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 26Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai,a and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah.b She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30Sarai was unable to conceive;a she did not have a child.

31Terah 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 Chaldeansa to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.