The Tower in Babylon

1There was a time when the entire earth spoke a common language with an identical vocabulary. 2As peoplea migrated westward,b they came across a plain in the region of Shinarc and settled there. 3They told each other, “Come on! Let’s burn bricks thoroughly.” They used bricks for stone and tar for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come on! Let’s build ourselves a city and a tower, with its summit in the heavens, and let’s make a name for ourselvesd so we won’t be scattered over the surface of the whole earth.”

5However, the LORD descended to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. 6The LORD said, “Look! They are one people with the same language for all of them, and this is only the beginning of what they will do.e Nothing that they have a mind to do will be impossible for them! 7Come on! Let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they won’t understand each other’s speech.”

8So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the surface of the whole earth, so that they had to stop building the city. 9Therefore it was called Babylon,f because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them over the surface of the entire earth.

Descendants of Shem

10These are the family recordsg of Shem. When Shem had lived 100 years, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11Shem lived 500 years after he fathered Arpachshad and had otherh sons and daughters.

12When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Cainan. 13After he fathered Cainan, Arpachshad lived 430 years and had otheri sons and daughters, and then died.

Cainan lived 130 years and fathered Shelah. After he fathered Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and had otherj sons and daughters, and then died.k

14When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had otherl sons and daughters.

16When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had otherm sons and daughters.

18When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had othern sons and daughters.

20When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had othero sons and daughters.

22When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had otherp sons and daughters.

24When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had otherq sons and daughters.

26When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Descendants of Terah

27Now these are the family recordsr of Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28Haran died during his father’s lifetime in the land of his birth, that is, 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. She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30Sarai was barren, so she had not borne children.

31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they journeyed together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they had gone as far as Haran, they settled there, 32where Terah died at the age of 205 years.