The Tower of Babel
1 At first everyone spoke the same language, 2 but after some of them moved from the east and settled in Babylonia, 3-4 they said:
Let's build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We'll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We'll become famous, and we won't be scattered all over the world.
5 But when the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower, 6 he said:
These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. 7 Let's go down and confuse them! We'll make them speak different languages, and they won't be able to understand each other.
8-9 So the people had to stop building the city, because the Lord confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That's how the city of Babel got its name.
The Descendants of Shem
10-11 Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100, he had a son named Arpachshad. He had more children and died at the age of 600. This is a list of his descendants:
12 When Arpachshad was 35, he had a son named Shelah. 13 Arpachshad had more children and died at the age of 438.
14 When Shelah was 30, he had a son named Eber. 15 Shelah had more children and died at the age of 433.
16 When Eber was 34, he had a son named Peleg. 17 Eber had more children and died at the age of 464.
18 When Peleg was 30, he had a son named Reu. 19 Peleg had more children and died at the age of 239.
20 When Reu was 32 he had a son named Serug. 21 Reu had more children and died at the age of 239.
22 When Serug was 30, he had a son named Nahor. 23 Serug had more children and died at the age of 230.
24 When Nahor was 29, he had a son named Terah. 25 Nahor had more children and died at the age of 148.
The Descendants of Terah
26-28 After Terah was 70 years old, he had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran, who became the father of Lot. Terah's sons were born in the city of Ur in Chaldea, and Haran died there before the death of his father. The following is the story of Terah's descendants.
29-30 Abram married Sarai, but she was not able to have children. And Nahor married Milcah, who was the daughter of Haran and the sister of Iscah.
31 Terah decided to move from Ur to the land of Canaan. He took along Abram and Sarai and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran. But when they came to the city of Haran, they settled there instead. 32 Terah lived to be 205 years old and died in Haran.
The Tower of Babylon
1 At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words. 2 As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come on! Let's make bricks and bake them hard.” So they had bricks to build with and tar to hold them together. 4 They said, “Now let's build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.”
5 Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which they had built, 6 and he said, “Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want! 7 Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 The city was called Babylon, because there the Lord mixed up the language of all the people, and from there he scattered them all over the earth.
The Descendants of Shem
(1 Chronicles 1.24-27)10 These are the descendants of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he had a son, Arpachshad. 11 After that, he lived another 500 years and had other children.
12 When Arpachshad was 35 years old, he had a son, Shelah; 13 after that, he lived another 403 years and had other children.
14 When Shelah was 30 years old, he had a son, Eber; 15 after that, he lived another 403 years and had other children.
16 When Eber was 34 years old, he had a son, Peleg; 17 after that, he lived another 430 years and had other children.
18 When Peleg was 30 years old, he had a son, Reu; 19 after that, he lived another 209 years and had other children.
20 When Reu was 32 years old, he had a son, Serug; 21 after that, he lived another 207 years and had other children.
22 When Serug was 30 years old, he had a son, Nahor; 23 after that, he lived another 200 years and had other children.
24 When Nahor was 29 years old, he had a son, Terah; 25 after that, he lived another 119 years and had other children.
26 After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Descendants of Terah
27 These are the descendants of Terah, who was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot, 28 and Haran died in his hometown of Ur in Babylonia, while his father was still living. 29 Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. 30 Sarai was not able to have children.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there. 32 Terah died there at the age of 205.