The Sons of Noah

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth.^(A) (Ham was the father of Canaan.)^{(B) 19} These were the three sons of Noah,^(C) and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.^(D)

²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded^[a] to plant a vineyard. ²¹ When he drank some of its wine,^(E) he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked^(F) and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

²⁶ He also said,

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹ Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.^(N)

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. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel^[c](P)—because there the Lord confused the language^(Q) of the whole world.^(R) From there the Lord scattered^(S) them over the face of the whole earth.