Genesis 10–12

THE TABLE OF NATIONS

10These are the family records^u of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They also had sons after the flood.

²Japheth’s sons:^v Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³Gomer’s sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴And Javan’s sons: Elishah, Tarshish,^w Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵From these descendants, the peoples of the coasts and islands spread out into their lands according to their clans in their nations, each with its own language.

⁶Ham’s sons:^x Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁷Cush’s sons: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And Raamah’s sons: Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush fathered Nimrod, who began to be powerful in the land. ⁹He was a powerful hunter in the sight of the Lord. That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a powerful hunter in the sight of the Lord.” ¹⁰His kingdom started with Babylon,^a Erech,^D Accad,^E and Calneh,^F in the land of Shinar.^{Gb 11}From that land he went to Assyria^c and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, ¹²and Resen, between Nineveh and the great city Calah.

¹³Mizraim^Hd fathered the people of Lud, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, ¹⁴Pathrus, Casluh (the Philistines came from them), and Caphtor.^e

¹⁵Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, ¹⁶as well as the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,^{f 17}the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the Canaanite clans scattered. ¹⁹The Canaanite border went from Sidon going toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and going toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim as far as Lasha.

²⁰These are Ham’s sons by their clans, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

²¹And Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. Shem was the father of all the sons of Eber.^{g 22}Shem’s sons^h were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

²³Aram’s sons: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

²⁴Arpachshad fathered Shelah,ⁱ and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵Eber had two sons. One was named Peleg,^A for during his days the earth was divided;^j his brother was named Joktan. ²⁶And Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were Joktan’s sons. ³⁰Their settlements extended from Mesha to Sephar, the eastern hill country.

³¹These are Shem’s sons by their clans, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

³²These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their family records, in their nations. The nations on earth spread out from these after the flood.^k

THE TOWER OF BABYLON

11The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. ²As people migrated from the east,^B they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.^{l 3}They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt^m for mortar.) ⁴And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.ⁿ Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

⁵Then the Lord came down^o to look over the city and the tower that the humans^C were building. ⁶The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,^p and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore it is called Babylon,^DEq for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

FROM SHEM TO ABRAM

¹⁰These are the family records^r of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. ¹¹After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹²Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah. ¹³After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁴Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. ¹⁵After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁶Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. ¹⁷After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁸Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. ¹⁹After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁰Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. ²¹After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²²Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. ²³After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁴Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.^{a 25}After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁶Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. ²⁹Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai,^b and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah.^c She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰Sarai was unable to conceive;^d she did not have a child.

³¹Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans^e to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³²Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.

THE CALL OF ABRAM

12The Lord said to Abram:

Go from your land,

your relatives,

and your father’s house

to the land that I will show you.^f

²I will make you into a great nation,^g

I will bless you,^h

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.ⁱ

³I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,^j

and all the peoples on earth

will be blessed^A through you.^Bk

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.^{l 5}He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,^m at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringⁿ,^C I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord.^{o 9}Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

ABRAM IN EGYPT

¹⁰There was a famine in the land,^p so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. ¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. ¹²When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live.^{q 13}Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” ¹⁴When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. ¹⁶He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife, Sarai.^{r 18}So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.