1The whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary.

2When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.)

4Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.”

5But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building.

6And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.

7Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”

8So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city.

9That is why its name was called Babel – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

The Genealogy of Shem

10This is the account of Shem. Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.

11And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.

13And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.

15And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.

17And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.

19And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.

21And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.

23And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.

25And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Record of Terah

27This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

28Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, while his father Terah was still alive.

29And Abram 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, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

30But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

32The lifetime of Terah was 205 years, and he died in Haran.