The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole world had one language^(A) and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward,^[a] they found a plain in Shinar^[b](B) and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks^(C) and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone,^(D) and tar^(E) for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,^(F) so that we may make a name^(G) for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered^(H) over the face of the whole earth.”^(I)

⁵ But the Lord came down^(J) to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language^(K) they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us^(L) go down^(M) and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”^(N)

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,^(O) and they stopped building the city.

Abram’s Family

²⁷ This is the account^(A) of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor^(B) and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.^{(C) 28} While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans,^(D) in the land of his birth. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor^(E) both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,^(F) and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah;^(G) she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.^(H)

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot^(I) son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law^(J) Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans^(K) to go to Canaan.^(L) But when they came to Harran,^(M) they settled there.