Genesis 11–25

Chapter 11

And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.

²And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.

³And each one said to his neighbour: Come let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar:

⁴And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.

⁵And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building.

⁶And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed.

⁷Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

⁸And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city.

⁹And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.

¹⁰These are the generations of Sem: Sem was a hundred years old when he begot Arphaxad, two years after the flood.

¹¹And Sem lived after he begot Arphaxad, five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹²And Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Sale.

¹³And Arphaxad lived after he begot Sale, three hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁴Sale also lived thirty years, and begot Heber.

¹⁵And Sale lived after he begot Heber, four hundred and three years: and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁶And Heber lived thirty-four years, and begot Phaleg.

¹⁷And Heber lived after he begot Phaleg, four hundred and thirty years: and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁸Phaleg also lived thirty years, and begot Reu.

¹⁹And Phaleg lived after he begot Reu, two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁰And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Sarug.

²¹And Reu lived after he begot Sarug, two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.

²²And Sarug lived thirty years, and begot Nachor.

²³And Sarug lived after he begot Nachor, two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁴And Nachor lived nine and twenty years, and begot Thare.

²⁵And Nachor lived after he begot Thare, a hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁶And Thare lived seventy years, and begot Abram, and Nachor, and Aran.

²⁷And these are the generations of Thare: Thare begot Abram, Nachor, and Aran. And Aran begot Lot.

²⁸And Aran died before Thare his father, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees.

²⁹And Abram and Nachor married wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai: and the name of Nachor’s wife, Melcha, the daughter of Aran, father of Melcha and father of Jescha.

³⁰And Sarai was barren, and had no children.

³¹And Thare took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Aran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Chanaan: and they came as far as Haran, and dwelt there.

³²And the days of Thare were two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran.

Chapter 12

And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed.

³I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and IN THEE shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

⁴So Abram went out as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran.

⁵And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all the substance which they had gathered, and the souls which they had gotten in Haran: and they went out to go into the land of Chanaan. And when they were come into it,

⁶Abram passed through the country unto the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale: now the Chanaanite was at that time in the land.

⁷And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To thy seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸And passing on from thence to a mountain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon his name.

⁹And Abram went forward, going and proceeding on to the south.

¹⁰And there came a famine in the country: and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land.

¹¹And when he was near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that thou art a beautiful woman:

¹²And that when the Egyptians shall see thee, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep thee.

¹³Say, therefore, I pray thee, that thou art my sister: that I may be well used for thee, and that my soul may live for thy sake.

¹⁴And when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful.

¹⁵And the princes told Pharao, and praised her before him: and the woman was taken into the house of Pharao.

¹⁶And they used Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen and he asses, and men servants, and maid servants, and she asses, and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord scourged Pharao and his house with most grievous stripes for Sarai, Abram’s wife.

¹⁸And Pharao called Abram, and said to him: What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

¹⁹For what cause didst thou say, she was thy sister, that I might take her to my wife? Now therefore there is thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

²⁰And Pharao gave his men orders concerning Abram: and they led him away and his wife, and all that he had.

Chapter 13

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into the south.

²And he was very rich in possession of gold and silver.

³And he returned by the way, that he came, from the south to Bethel, to the place where before he had pitched his tent between Bethel and Hai,

⁴In the place of the altar which he had made before, and there he called upon the name of the Lord.

⁵But Lot also, who was with Abram, had flocks of sheep, and herds of beasts, and tents.

⁶Neither was the land able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, and they could not dwell together.

⁷Whereupon also there arose a strife between the herdsmen of Abram and of Lot. And at that time the Chanaanite and the Pherezite dwelled in that country.

⁸Abram therefore said to Lot: Let there be no quarrel, I beseech thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen: for we are brethren.

⁹Behold the whole land is before thee: depart from me, I pray thee: if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will take the right: if thou choose the right hand, I will pass to the left.

¹⁰And Lot lifting up his eyes, saw all the country about the Jordan, which was watered throughout, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, as the paradise of the Lord, and like Egypt as one comes to Segor.

¹¹And Lot chose to himself the country about the Jordan, and he departed from the east: and they were separated one brother from the other.

¹²Abram dwelt in the land of Chanaan: and Lot abode in the towns, that were about the Jordan, and dwelt in Sodom.

¹³And the men of Sodom were very wicked, and sinners before the face of the Lord beyond measure.

¹⁴And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him: Lift up thy eyes, and look from the place wherein thou now art, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west.

¹⁵All the land which thou seest, I will give to thee, and to thy seed for ever.

¹⁶And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: if any man be able to number the dust of the earth, he shall be able to number thy seed also.

¹⁷Arise and walk through the land in the length, and the breadth thereof: for I will give it to thee.

¹⁸So Abram removing his tent, came, and dwelt by the vale of Mambre, which is in Hebron: and he built there an altar to the Lord.

Chapter 14

And it came to pass at that time, that Amraphel, king of Sennaar, and Arioch, king of Pontus, and Chodorlahomor, king of the Elamites, and Thadal, king of nations,

²Made war against Bara, king of Sodom, and against Bersa, king of Gomorrha, and against Sennaab, king of Adama, and against Semeber, king of Seboim, and against the king of Bala, which is Segor.

³All these came together into the woodland vale, which now is the salt sea.

⁴For they had served Chodorlahomor twelve years, and in the thirteenth year they revolted from him.

⁵And in the fourteenth year came Chodorlahomor, and the kings that were with him: and they smote the Raphaim in Astarothcarnaim, and the Zuzim with them, and the Emim in Save of Cariathaim.

⁶And the Chorreans in the mountains of Seir, even to the plains of Pharan, which is in the wilderness.

⁷And they returned, and came to the fountain of Misphat, the same is Cades: and they smote all the country of the Amalecites, and the Amorrhean that dwelt in Asasonthamar.

⁸And the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrha, and the king of Adama, and the king of Seboim, and the king of Bala, which is Segor, went out: and they set themselves against them in battle array, in the woodland vale:

⁹To wit, against Chodorlahomor king of the Elamites, and Thadal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Sennaar, and Arioch king of Pontus: four kings against five.

¹⁰Now the woodland vale had many pits of slime. And the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrha turned their backs, and were overthrown there: and they that remained, fled to the mountain.

¹¹And they took all the substance of the Sodomites, and Gomorrhites,…