⁴The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, ⁿ and Rodanim. ⁵Those who lived in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea came from these sons of Japheth. All the families grew and became different nations, each nation with its own land and its own language.

Ham’s Sons

⁶The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, ⁿ Put, and Canaan.

⁷The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.

The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush also had a descendant named Nimrod, who became a very powerful man on earth. ⁹He was a great hunter before the Lord, which is why people say someone is “like Nimrod, a great hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰At first Nimrod’s kingdom covered Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Babylonia. ¹¹From there he went to Assyria, where he built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, and Calah. ¹²He also built Resen, the great city between Nineveh and Calah.

¹³Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴Pathrusites, Casluhites, and the people of Crete. (The Philistines came from the Casluhites.)

¹⁵Canaan was the father of Sidon, his first son, and of Heth. ¹⁶He was also the father of the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, ¹⁷Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. The families of the Canaanites scattered. ¹⁹Their land reached from Sidon to Gerar as far as Gaza, and then to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

²⁰All these people were the sons of Ham, and all these families had their own languages, their own lands, and their own nations.

Shem’s Sons

²¹Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. One of his descendants was the father of all the sons of Eber.

²²The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

²³The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.

²⁴Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, who was the father of Eber. ²⁵Eber was the father of two sons—one named Peleg, ⁿ because the earth was divided during his life, and the other was named Joktan.

²⁶Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these people were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰They lived in the area between Mesha and Sephar in the hill country in the East.

³¹These are the people from the family of Shem, arranged by families, languages, countries, and nations.

³²This is the list of the families from the sons of Noah, arranged according to their nations. From these families came all the nations who spread across the earth after the flood.

The Languages Confused

11At this time the whole world spoke one language, and everyone used the same words. ²As people moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there.

³They said to each other, “Let’s make bricks and bake them to make them hard.” So they used bricks instead of stones, and tar instead of mortar. ⁴Then they said to each other, “Let’s build a city and a tower for ourselves, whose top will reach high into the sky. We will become famous. Then we will not be scattered over all the earth.”

⁵The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. ⁶The Lord said, “Now, these people are united, all speaking the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. They will be able to do anything they want. ⁷Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not be able to understand each other.”

⁸So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹The place is called Babel ⁿ since that is where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. So the Lord caused them to spread out from there over the whole world.

The Story of Shem’s Family

¹⁰This is the family history of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, his son Arphaxad was born. ¹¹After that, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arphaxad was 35 years old, his son Shelah was born. ¹³After that, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah was 30 years old, his son Eber was born. ¹⁵After that, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber was 34 years old, his son Peleg was born. ¹⁷After that, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg was 30 years old, his son Reu was born. ¹⁹After that, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu was 32 years old, his son Serug was born. ²¹After that, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug was 30 years old, his son Nahor was born. ²³After that, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor was 29 years old, his son Terah was born. ²⁵After that, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran were born.

The Story of Terah’s Family

²⁷This is the family history of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. ²⁸While his father, Terah, was still alive, Haran died in Ur in Babylonia, where he was born. ²⁹Abram and Nahor both married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰Sarai was not able to have children.

³¹Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram’s wife) and moved out of Ur of Babylonia. They had planned to go to the land of Canaan, but when they reached the city of Haran, they settled there.

³²Terah lived to be 205 years old, and then he died in Haran.

God Calls Abram

12The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land I will show you.

²I will make you a great nation,

and I will bless you.

I will make you famous,

and you will be a blessing to others.

³I will bless those who bless you,

and I will place a curse on those who harm you.

And all the people on earth

will be blessed through you.”

⁴So Abram left Haran as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. At this time Abram was 75 years old. ⁵He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and everything they owned, as well as all the servants they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan, and in time they arrived there.

⁶Abram traveled through that land as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time. ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸Then he traveled from Shechem to the mountain east of Bethel and set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. There Abram built another altar to the Lord and worshiped him. ⁹After this, he traveled on toward southern Canaan.

Abram Goes to Egypt

¹⁰At this time there was not much food in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live because there was so little food. ¹¹Just before they arrived in Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know you are a very beautiful woman. ¹²When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but let you live. ¹³Tell them you are my sister so that things will go well with me and I may be allowed to live because of you.”

¹⁴When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was very beautiful. ¹⁵The Egyptian officers saw her and told the king of Egypt how beautiful she was. They took her to the king’s palace, and ¹⁶the king was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was her brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord sent terrible diseases on the king and all the people in his house because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸So the king sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’ so that I made her my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and leave!” ²⁰Then the king commanded his men to make Abram leave Egypt; so Abram and his wife left with everything they owned.

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Footnotes

nKittim His descendants were the people of Cyprus.
nMizraim This is another name for Egypt.
nPeleg This name sounds like the Hebrew word for “divided.”
nBabel This name sounds like the Hebrew word for “confused.”