Genesis 10:1–11:9

The Descendants of the Sons of Noah

10These are the generations^a of the sons of Noah—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Children^b were born to them after the flood. ²The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵From these the coastland peoples spread out through their lands, each according to his own language by their own families, in their nations.

⁶And the sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. ⁷And the sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. ⁸And Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty warrior.^{c 9}He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it was said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh.” ¹⁰Now,^d the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹From that land he went out to Assyria, and he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹²Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³And Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, ¹⁶and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. ¹⁹And the territory of the Canaanites was from Sidon in the direction of^e Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of^f Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰These are the descendants^g of Ham, according to their families and their languages, in their lands, and in their nations.

²¹And to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the older brother of Japheth, children were also born. ²²The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. ²³And the sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁴And Arphaxad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵And to Eber two sons were born. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and the name of his brother was Joktan. ²⁶And Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰And their dwelling place extended from^h Mesha in the direction ofⁱ Sephar to the hill country of the east. ³¹These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, and according to their nations.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations^j and in their nations. And from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11Now^a the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²And as people migrated^b from the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to each other,^c “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.”^d And they had brick for stone and they had tar for mortar. ⁴And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵Then^e Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that humankind^f was building. ⁶And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people with one language,^g and this is only the beginning of what they will do.^h Soⁱ now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand each other’s language.”^{j 8}So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.