Genesis 11:1-32

Now everyone at that time spoke a single language with one vocabulary. As people migrated eastward, they found a large plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let’s unite together and make bricks of clay and burn them until they become hard.” So, they piled up the bricks they made to serve as stones and collected tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let’s begin work to build ourselves a city with a lofty tower that rises into the heavens. We’ll make a name for ourselves, a monument to us, instead of being scattered all over the earth.” But when YAHWEH came down to see the city and the tower which mortals had started building, he said, “If they have begun this as one people sharing a common language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language and prevent them from understanding each other.” So YAHWEH scattered them over the entire earth, and they stopped building their city. That is why the city was called Babel—because it was there that YAHWEH confused the language of the whole world and from there the people were scattered over the face of the earth. These are the descendants of Shem. Two years after the flood, at the age of one hundred, Shem had a son named Arphaxad. And after Arphaxad was born, Shem lived another five hundred years and had other sons and daughters. When Arphaxad was thirty-five, he had a son named Shelah. And after Shelah was born Arphaxad lived another four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters. When Shelah was thirty, he had a son named Eber. And after Eber was born, Shelah lived another four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber was thirty-four, he had a son named Peleg. And after Peleg was born, Eber lived another four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters. When Peleg was thirty, he had a son named Reu. And after Reu was born, Peleg lived another two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters. When Reu was thirty-two, he had a son named Serug. And after Serug was born, Reu lived another two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters. When Serug was thirty, he had a son named Nahor. And after Nahor was born, Serug lived another two hundred years and had other sons and daughters. When Nahor was twenty-nine, he had a son named Terah. And after Terah was born, Nahor lived another one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters. When Terah was seventy, he had sons named Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Here are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran was the father of Lot. Haran preceded his father, Terah, in death in the land of his birth, in the Chaldean city of Ur. The brothers, Abram and Nahor, were both married. Abram’s wife was Sarai. Nahor married the daughter of his deceased brother Haran; her name was Milcah, and her sister was Iscah. Now Sarai was barren and childless. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they all departed together from the Chaldean city of Ur to go into the land of Canaan. But when they journeyed as far as Haran, they settled there. Terah lived two hundred and five years and died in Haran.