The Tower of Babel

11 There was a time when the whole world spoke one language. Everyone used the same words. ² Then people began to move from the East. They found a plain in the land of Babylonia and stayed there to live. ³ Then they said to each other, “Let’s make some bricks of clay and bake them in the fire.” Then they used these bricks as stones, and they used tar as mortar.

⁴ Then the people said, “Let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth.”

⁵ Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. ⁶ The Lord said, “These people all speak the same language. And I see that they are joined together to do this work. This is only the beginning of what they can do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. ⁷ Let’s go down and confuse their language. Then they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So people stopped building the city, and the Lord scattered them all over the earth. ⁹ That is the place where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. That is why it is called Babel.^[a] And it was from there that the Lord caused the people to spread out to all the other places on earth.

The History of Shem’s Family

¹⁰ This is the history of Shem’s family. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, his son Arphaxad was born. ¹¹ After that Shem lived 500 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arphaxad was 35 years old, his son Shelah was born. ¹³ After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived 403 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ After Shelah was 30 years old, his son Eber was born. ¹⁵ After Eber was born, Shelah lived 403 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ After Eber was 34 years old, his son Peleg was born. ¹⁷ After Peleg was born, Eber lived another 430 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ After Peleg was 30 years old, his son Reu was born. ¹⁹ After Reu was born, Peleg lived another 209 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ After Reu was 32 years old, his son Serug was born. ²¹ After Serug was born, Reu lived another 207 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

²² After Serug was 30 years old, his son Nahor was born. ²³ After Nahor was born, Serug lived another 200 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ After Nahor was 29 years old, his son Terah was born. ²⁵ After Terah was born, Nahor lived another 119 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran were born.

The History of Terah’s Family

²⁷ This is the history of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. ²⁸ Haran died in his hometown, Ur of Babylonia,^[b] while his father Terah was still alive. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai. Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. Milcah was the daughter of Haran. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai did not have any children because she was not able to have children.

³¹ Terah took his family and left Ur of Babylonia. They planned to travel to Canaan. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram’s wife). They traveled to the city of Haran and decided to stay there. ³² Terah lived to be 205 years old. He died in Haran.

God Calls Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country and your people. Leave your father’s family and go to the country that I will show you.

Abram Goes to Canaan

⁴ So Abram left Haran just like the Lord said, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the slaves, and all the other things he had gotten in Haran. Then he and his group moved to the land of Canaan. ⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the town of Shechem and then to the big tree at Moreh. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time.

⁷ The Lord appeared^[c] to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.”

Abram built an altar to honor the Lord who appeared to him there. ⁸ Then he left that place and traveled to the mountains east of Bethel. He set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai^[d] was to the east. Abram built another altar at that place to honor the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. ⁹ Then he moved on toward the Negev, stopping for a time at several places on the way.

Abram in Egypt

¹⁰ During this time there was not enough food in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live. ¹¹ Just before they arrived in Egypt, Abram told Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptian men see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife.’ Then they will kill me and keep you alive because they want you. ¹³ So tell them that you are my sister. Then they will be good to me because of you. In this way you will save my life.”

¹⁴ So when Abram went into Egypt, the Egyptian men saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ Even some of Pharaoh’s officials noticed her and told Pharaoh how beautiful she was. So they took her to Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶ Pharaoh was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was Sarai’s brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and men and women servants.

¹⁷ Pharaoh took Abram’s wife, so the Lord caused Pharaoh and all the people in his house to have very bad diseases. ¹⁸ Pharaoh called Abram and said to him, “You have done a very bad thing to me! Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife? ¹⁹ You said, ‘She is my sister.’ Why did you say that? I took her so that she could be my wife, but now I give your wife back to you. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh commanded his men to lead Abram out of Egypt. So Abram and his wife left that place and took everything they had with them.