Genesis 11
11
Chapter 11
The tower in Babel
1At this time, everyone who lived on the earth spoke one language. They used the same words. 2People moved to the east. They reached a large flat piece of land called Shinar. They stayed there to live. 3They said to each other, ‘We should make bricks and cook them until they are hard.’ These people used bricks instead of stones to build houses. They used tar to hold the bricks together, instead of cement. #11:3 Tar is black and sticky. It becomes soft when it is hot and hard when it is cold. Cement is a material that many people use today to fix stones and bricks together in buildings.
4They said, ‘Let us build a city to live in. We should also build a very tall tower. The tower will go up into the heavens. Then we will always be famous. If we do that, we will not have to separate and go to live in different places on the earth.’
5But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. He saw that the people had started to build them. 6The Lord said, ‘Because they all speak the same language, they are able to do this. If they can do this together, they may decide to do whatever they want. 7Now we must go down to them. We must make their language become confused. Then they will not be able to understand each other.’
8So the Lord separated the people from one another. They went to live in different lands all over the earth. They stopped building the city for themselves. 9That is why people called the city Babel. #11:9 ‘Babel’ is like the word for ‘confused’. It was because the Lord confused all the people of the world and he gave them different languages to speak. From that time, the Lord separated the people from each other so that they lived in different places all over the earth.
Shem's family
10This is the report about Shem and his family.
Two years after the deep water went away from the earth, Shem was 100 years old. He became the father of Arphaxad. 11After Arphaxad was born, Shem lived for 500 years. He had other sons and daughters.
12When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. 13After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived for 403 years. He had other sons and daughters.
14When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. 15After Eber was born, Shelah lived for 403 years. He had other sons and daughters.
16When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. 17After Peleg was born, Eber lived for 430 years. He had other sons and daughters.
18When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. 19After Reu was born, Peleg lived for 209 years. He had other sons and daughters.
20When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. 21After Serug was born, Reu lived for 207 years. He had other sons and daughters.
22When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. 23After Nahor was born, Serug lived for 200 years. He had other sons and daughters.
24When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. 25After Terah was born, Nahor lived for 119 years. He had other sons and daughters.
26After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Terah's family
27This is the report about Terah and his family.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. 28While Terah was still alive, his son, Haran, died. Haran died in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. That was where Haran had been born.
29Abram married Sarai. Nahor married Milcah. Milcah was Haran's daughter. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30Sarai could not give birth to children. She did not have any children.
31Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot. (Lot was Haran's son.) Terah also took Abram's wife Sarai. They all left Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. They began to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they stayed there. 32Terah lived for 205 years. Then he died in Haran.
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Genesis 11
11
1And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.
2And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.
3And each one said to his neighbour: Come, let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar.
4And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous, before we be scattered abroad into all lands.
5And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building.
6And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed.
7Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city.
9And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.
10These are the generations of Sem. Sem was a hundred years old when he begot Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
11And Sem lived after he begot Arphaxad, five hundred years; and begot sons and daughters.
12And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Sale.
13And Arphaxad lived after he begot Sale, three hundred and three years; and begot sons and daughters.
14Sale also lived thirty years, and begot Heber.
15And Sale lived after he begot Heber, four hundred and three years; and begot sons and daughters.
16And Heber lived thirty-four years, and begot Phaleg.
17And Heber lived after he begot Phaleg, four hundred and thirty years; and begot sons and daughters.
18Phaleg also lived thirty years, and begot Reu.
19And Phaleg lived after he begot Reu, two hundred and nine years; and begot sons and daughters.
20And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Sarug.
21And Reu lived after he begot Sarug, two hundred and seven years; and begot sons and daughters.
22And Sarug lived thirty years, and begot Nachor.
23And Sarug lived after he begot Nachor, two hundred years; and begot sons and daughters.
24And Nachor lived nine and twenty years, and begot Thare.
25And Nachor lived after he begot Thare, a hundred and nineteen years; and begot sons and daughters.
26And Thare lived seventy years, and begot Abra, and Nachor, and Aran.
27And these are the generations of Thare: Thare begot Abram, Nachor, and Aran. And Aran begot Lot.
28And Aran died before Thare his father, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees.
29And Abram and Nachor married wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai: and the name of Nachor's wife, Melcha, the daughter of Aran, father of Melcha, and father of Jescha.
30And Sarai was barren, and had no children.
31And Thare took Abram, his son, and Lot the son of Aran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son; and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Chanaan. And they came as far as Haran, and dwelt there.
32And the days of Thare were two hundred and five years: and he died in Haran.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.