Genesis 11–25

CHAPTER 11

The Tower of Babel

¹Now the whole earth ¹had the same language and ²the same words.

²And it happened as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land ^aof Shinar and ¹settled there.

³Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and they had ^atar for mortar.

⁴And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top ^awill reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves ^ba name, lest we ^cbe scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

^5aThen Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

⁶And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have ^1athe same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be ²impossible for them.

⁷“Come, ^alet Us go down and there ^bconfuse their ¹language, so that they will not understand one another’s ²language.”

⁸So Yahweh ^ascattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

⁹Therefore its name was called ^1aBabel, because there Yahweh confused the ²language of the whole earth; and from there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Generations of Shem

^10aThese are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and ¹became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood;

¹¹and Shem lived 500 years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹²And Arpachshad lived 35 years and became the father of Shelah;

¹³and Arpachshad lived 403 years after he became the father of Shelah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹⁴And Shelah lived 30 years and became the father of Eber;

¹⁵and Shelah lived 403 years after he became the father of Eber, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹⁶And Eber lived 34 years and became the father of Peleg;

¹⁷and Eber lived 430 years after he became the father of Peleg, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹⁸And Peleg lived 30 years and became the father of Reu;

¹⁹and Peleg lived 209 years after he became the father of Reu, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²⁰And Reu lived 32 years and became the father of Serug;

²¹and Reu lived 207 years after he became the father of Serug, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²²And Serug lived 30 years and became the father of Nahor;

²³and Serug lived 200 years after he became the father of Nahor, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²⁴Nahor lived 29 years and became the father of ^aTerah;

²⁵and Nahor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²⁶And Terah lived 70 years and became ^athe father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Generations of Terah

²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and ^aHaran became the father of ^bLot.

²⁸And Haran died ¹in the presence of Terah his father in the land of his birth, in ^aUr of the Chaldeans.

²⁹Abram and ^aNahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was ^bSarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was ^cMilcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

^30aAnd Sarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out ¹together from ^aUr of the Chaldeans in order to go to the land of Canaan; and they came as far as Haran and ²settled there.

³²And the days of Terah were 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.

CHAPTER 12

Yahweh Appears to Abram

¹And ^aYahweh said to Abram,

“¹Go forth from your land,

And from your kin

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

²And ^aI will make you a great nation,

And ^bI will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so ^1cyou shall be a blessing;

³And ^aI will bless those who bless you,

And the one who ¹curses you I will ²curse.

^bAnd in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

⁴So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and ^aLot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

⁵So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their ^apossessions which they had accumulated, and ^bthe ¹persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go forth to the land of Canaan; ^cthus they came to the land of Canaan.

⁶And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of ^aShechem, to the ¹oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.

⁷Then Yahweh ^aappeared to Abram and said, “^bTo your seed I will give this land.” So he built ^can altar there to Yahweh who had appeared to him.

⁸Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with ^aBethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to Yahweh and ^bcalled upon the name of Yahweh.

⁹And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward ^athe ¹Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰Now there was ^aa famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was ^bsevere in the land.

¹¹And it happened as he drew near to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Now behold, I know that you are a woman ^abeautiful in appearance;

^12aand it will be when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

¹³“Please say that you are ^amy sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that ^1bI may live on account of you.”

¹⁴Now it happened when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians ¹saw that the woman was very beautiful.

¹⁵And Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and ^athe woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

¹⁶Therefore ^ahe treated Abram well because of her; and sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels ^1bcame into his possession.

¹⁷But Yahweh ^astruck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

¹⁸Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “^aWhat is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

¹⁹“Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife? So now, ¹here is your wife, take her and go.”

²⁰So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they ¹sent him away with his wife and all that belonged to him.

CHAPTER 13

Abram and Lot Separate

¹So Abram went up from Egypt to ^athe ¹Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.

²Now Abram was ^avery rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

³And he went ¹on his journeys from the ²Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, ^abetween Bethel and Ai,

⁴to the place of the ^aaltar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called upon the name of Yahweh.

⁵Now ^aLot, who was going with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

⁶And ^athe land could not ¹sustain them ²while living together, ^bfor their possessions were so abundant that they were not able to live together.

^7aAnd there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now ^bthe Canaanite and the Perizzite were living then in the land.

^8aSo Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

⁹“Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”

¹⁰Then Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the ^1avalley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before Yahweh ^bdestroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like ^cthe garden of Yahweh, ^dlike the land of Egypt as you go to ^eZoar.

¹¹So Lot chose for himself all the ¹valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.

¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived in ^athe cities of the ¹valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom.

¹³Now ^athe men of Sodom were evil and ^bsinners, exceedingly so, against Yahweh.

¹⁴And Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “^aNow lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, ^bnorthward and southward and eastward and westward;

^15afor all the land which you see, ^bI will give it to you and to your seed forever.

¹⁶“And I will make your seed ^aas the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your seed can also be numbered.

¹⁷“Arise, ^awalk about the land through its length and breadth; for ^bI will give it to you.”

¹⁸Then Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the ^1aoaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built ^ban altar to Yahweh.

CHAPTER 14

Kings of the Valley Take Lot

¹And it happened in the days of Amraphel king of ^aShinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of ^bElam, and Tidal king of ¹Goiim,

²that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of ^aAdmah, and Shemeber king of ^bZeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, ^cZoar).

³All these ¹came as allies to ^athe valley of Siddim (that is, ^bthe Salt Sea).

⁴Now for twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵So in the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, came and struck the ^aRephaim in ^bAshteroth-karnaim and the Zuzim in Ham and the Emim in ^1cShaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶and the ^aHorites in their Mount Seir, as far as ^bEl-paran, which is by the wilderness.

⁷Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, ^aKadesh). And they struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who were living in ^bHazazon-tamar.

⁸And the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) came out; and they arranged themselves for battle against them in ^athe valley of Siddim,

⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of ¹Goiim…