Genesis 11

1The whole earth had one language and the same words.

2And as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3And each man said to his neighbor, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And the brick served them for stone, and the bitumen served them for mortar.

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

5Then Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built.

6And Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have begun to do. And now nothing that they plan to do will be withheld from them."

7Come, let us go down there and confuse their language, so that one man will not understand the language of his neighbor.

8So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

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

10These are the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

11And Shem lived five hundred years after he fathered Arpachshad, and he fathered sons and daughters.

12And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and fathered Shelah.

13Arpachshad lived 403 years after he fathered Shelah, and he fathered sons and daughters.

14Shelah lived thirty years and fathered Eber.

15And Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber, and he fathered sons and daughters.

16Eber lived thirty-four years and fathered Peleg.

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

18Peleg lived thirty years and fathered Reu.

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

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

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

22Serug lived thirty years and fathered Nahor.

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

24Nahor lived twenty-nine years and fathered Terah.

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

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

27These are the generations of Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.

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

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

30Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came as far as Haran, they settled there.

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