Genesis 11–25

The Tower of Babylon

11At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. ⁿ²As people ^omigrated from the east, ^pthey found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. ^q3They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar. ^r4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. ^sLet us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵Then the Lord came down ^tto look over the city and the tower that the men 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 Us go down there and confuse ^utheir language ^vso that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ^w8So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, ^xand they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore its name is called Babylon, ^yzfor there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

From Shem to Abram

¹⁰These are the family records ^aof 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 ^band 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. ^c25After 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, ^dand Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. ^eShe was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰Sarai was unable to conceive; ^fshe 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 ^gto 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 out from your land,

your relatives,

and your father’s house

to the land that I will show you. ^h

²I will make you into a great nation, ⁱ

I will bless you, ^j

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing. ^kl

³I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse those who treat you with contempt, ^m

and all the peoples ⁿon earth

will be blessed ^othrough you. ^pq

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. ^r5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he 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, ^sat the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” ^tSo 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 Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh. ^u9Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

Abram in Egypt

¹⁰There was a famine in the land, ^vso Abram went down to Egypt to live 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. ^w13Please 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. ^x18So 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.

Abram and Lot Separate

13Then Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev ^y—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him. ²Abram was very rich ^zin livestock, silver, and gold. ³He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been, ⁴to the site where he had built the altar. And Abram called on the name of Yahweh there. ^a

⁵Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. ⁶But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together, ^b7and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. ^cAt that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land. ^d

⁸Then Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives. ^e9Isn’t the whole land before you? Separate from me: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

¹⁰Lot looked out and saw that the entire Jordan Valley ^fas far as ^gZoar ^hwas well watered everywhere like the Lord’s garden ⁱand the land of Egypt. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. ^j11So Lot chose the entire Jordan Valley for himself. Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other. ¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities of the valley and set up his tent near Sodom. ¹³Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning greatly ^kagainst the Lord. ^l

¹⁴After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, ^m15for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see. ⁿ¹⁶I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, ^oso that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted. ¹⁷Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you.”

¹⁸So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, ^pwhere he built an altar to the Lord.

Abram Rescues Lot

14In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, ^qArioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, ^rsand Tidal ^tking of Goiim ^u2waged war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, ^vas well as the king of Bela (that is, Zoar ^w). ³All of these came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea ^x). ⁴They were subject to Chedorlaomer for 12 years, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. ⁵In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim ^yin Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, ^zthe Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, ⁶and the Horites ^ain the mountains of Seir, as far as El-paran ^bby the wilderness. ⁷Then they came back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh ^c), and they defeated all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar. ^d

⁸Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and lined up for battle in the Valley of Siddim ⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. ¹⁰Now the Valley of Siddim contained many asphalt pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, ^ebut the rest fled to the mountains. ^f11The four kings took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went on. ¹²They also took Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, for he was living in Sodom, ^gand they went on.

¹³One of the survivors came and told Abram the Hebrew, ^hwho lived near the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner. They were bound by a treaty with ⁱAbram. ¹⁴When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled ^jhis 318 trained men, born in his household, ^kand they went in pursuit as far as Dan. ^l15And he and his servants deployed against them by night, attacked them, and pursued them as far as Hobah to the north of Damascus. ¹⁶He brought back all the goods and also his relative Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the other people.

Melchizedek’s Blessing

¹⁷After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with…