Genesis 11:1–32
11 The whole world had only one language. All people spoke it. 2They moved to the east and found a broad valley in Babylonia. There they settled down.
3They said to each other, “Come. Let’s make bricks and bake them well.” They used bricks instead of stones. They used tar to hold the bricks together.
4Then they said, “Come. Let’s build a city for ourselves. Let’s build a tower that reaches to the sky. We’ll make a name for ourselves. Then we won’t be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6The Lord said, “They are one people. And all of them speak the same language. That is why they can do this. Now they will be able to do anything they plan to. 7Come. Let us go down and mix up their language. Then they will not understand each other.”
8So the Lord scattered them from there over the whole earth. And they stopped building the city. 9The Lord mixed up the language of the whole world there. That’s why the city was named Babel. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
10Here is the story of Shem.
It was two years after the flood. When Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11After Arphaxad was born, Shem lived 500 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
12When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived 403 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
14When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15After Eber was born, Shelah lived 403 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
16When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17After Peleg was born, Eber lived 430 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
18When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19After Reu was born, Peleg lived 209 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
20When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21After Serug was born, Reu lived 207 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
22When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23After Nahor was born, Serug lived 200 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
24When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25After Terah was born, Nahor lived 119 years. And he had other sons and daughters.
26Terah lived for 70 years. Then he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28Haran died in Ur in Babylonia. That was the land where he had been born. Haran died while his father Terah was still alive.
29Abram and Nahor both got married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. The name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30But Sarai wasn’t able to have children.
31Terah started out from Ur in Babylonia. He took his son Abram with him. He also took his grandson Lot. Lot was the son of Haran. And Terah took his daughter-in-law Sarai. She was the wife of his son Abram.
All of them left together to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled down.