Genesis 11–25

Chapter 11

Universal Language, Babel, Confusion

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

²It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land ^aof Shinar and ¹settled there.

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

⁴They 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, otherwise we ^cwill be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

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

⁶The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have ^1athe same language. And this is what they began to do, and 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 speech.”

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

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

Descendants of Shem

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

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

¹²Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah;

¹³and Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after he became the father of Shelah, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber;

¹⁵and Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he became the father of Eber, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg;

¹⁷and Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu;

¹⁹and Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he became the father of Reu, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁰Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug;

²¹and Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he became the father of Serug, and he had other sons and daughters.

²²Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor;

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

²⁴Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of ^aTerah;

²⁵and Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and he had other sons and daughters.

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

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

²⁸Haran died ¹in the presence of his father Terah 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 ¹and Iscah.

^30aSarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹Terah 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 enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and ²settled there.

³²The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.

Chapter 12

Abram Journeys to Egypt

¹Now ^athe Lord said to Abram,

“¹Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

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 the Lord had spoken to him; and ^aLot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

⁵Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their ^apossessions which they had accumulated, and ^bthe ¹persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they ²set out for the land of Canaan; ^cthus they came to the land of Canaan.

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

⁷The Lord ^aappeared to Abram and said, “^bTo your ¹descendants I will give this land.” So he built ^can altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

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

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

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.

¹¹It came about when he ¹came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a ^2abeautiful woman;

^12aand when the Egyptians see you, 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.”

¹⁴It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians ¹saw that the woman was very beautiful.

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

¹⁶Therefore ^ahe treated Abram well for her sake; and ^1bgave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord ^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 my wife? Now then, ¹here is your wife, take her and go.”

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

Chapter 13

Abram and Lot

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.

³He 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 on the name of the Lord.

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

⁶And ^athe land could not ¹sustain them ²while dwelling together, ^bfor their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain 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 dwelling 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.”

¹⁰Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the ^1avalley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord ^bdestroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like ^cthe garden of the Lord, ^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 ¹settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in ^athe cities of the ²valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.

¹³Now ^athe men of Sodom were wicked ¹exceedingly and ^bsinners against the Lord.

¹⁴The Lord 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 ¹descendants forever.

¹⁶“I will make your ¹descendants ^aas the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants 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 dwelt by the ^1aoaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built ^ban altar to the Lord.

Chapter 14

War of the Kings

¹And it came about 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).

⁴Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him, came and ¹defeated the ^aRephaim in ^bAshteroth-karnaim and the Zuzim in Ham and the Emim in ^2cShaveh-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 ¹conquered all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who lived 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 arrayed for battle against them in ^athe valley of Siddim,

⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of ¹Goiim and Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings…