Genesis 11–25

The Tower of Babel

11Now the whole world had one language^k and a common speech. ²As people moved eastward,^a they found a plain in Shinar^bl and settled there.

³They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks^m and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone,ⁿ and tar^o for mortar. ⁴Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,^p so that we may make a name^q for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered^r over the face of the whole earth.”^s

⁵But the Lord came down^t to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language^u they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us^v go down^w and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”^x

⁸So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,^y and they stopped building the city. ⁹That is why it was called Babel^cz—because there the Lord confused the language^a of the whole world.^b From there the Lord scattered^c them over the face of the whole earth.

From Shem to Abram

11:10–27pp—Ge 10:21–31; 1Ch 1:17–27

¹⁰This is the account^d of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father^d of Arphaxad.^{e 11}And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.^{f 13}And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.^e

¹⁴When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.^{g 15}And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.^{h 17}And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.^{i 19}And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.^{j 21}And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.^{k 23}And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.^{l 25}And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram,^m Nahorⁿ and Haran.^o

Abram’s Family

²⁷This is the account^p of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor^q and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.^{r 28}While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans,^s in the land of his birth. ²⁹Abram and Nahor^t both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,^u and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah;^v she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.^w

³¹Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot^x son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law^y Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans^z to go to Canaan.^a But when they came to Harran,^b they settled there.

³²Terah^c lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

The Call of Abram

12The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household^d to the land^e I will show you.^f

²“I will make you into a great nation,^g

and I will bless you;^h

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.^ai

³I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;^j

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.^k”^b

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot^l went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old^m when he set out from Harran.^{n 5}He took his wife Sarai,^o his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated^p and the people^q they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan,^r and they arrived there.

⁶Abram traveled through the land^s as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh^t at Shechem.^u At that time the Canaanites^v were in the land. ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram^w and said, “To your offspring^c I will give this land.^x”^y So he built an altar there to the Lord,^z who had appeared to him.

⁸From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel^a and pitched his tent,^b with Bethel on the west and Ai^c on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.^d

⁹Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.^e

Abram in Egypt

12:10–20Ref—Ge 20:1–18; 26:1–11

¹⁰Now there was a famine in the land,^f and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.^{g 11}As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai,^h “I know what a beautiful womanⁱ you are. ¹²When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. ¹³Say you are my sister,^j so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

¹⁴When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.^{k 15}And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. ¹⁶He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.^l

¹⁷But the Lord inflicted^m serious diseases on Pharaoh and his householdⁿ because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?”^o he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?^{p 19}Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’^q so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Abram and Lot Separate

13So Abram went up from Egypt^r to the Negev,^s with his wife and everything he had, and Lot^t went with him. ²Abram had become very wealthy^u in livestock^v and in silver and gold.

³From the Negev^w he went from place to place until he came to Bethel,^x to the place between Bethel and Ai^y where his tent had been earlier ⁴and where he had first built an altar.^z There Abram called on the name of the Lord.^a

⁵Now Lot,^b who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. ⁶But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.^{c 7}And quarreling^d arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites^e and Perizzites^f were also living in the land^g at that time.

⁸So Abram said to Lot,^h “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me,ⁱ or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives.^{j 9}Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”^k

¹⁰Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain^l of the Jordan toward Zoar^m was well watered, like the garden of the Lord,ⁿ like the land of Egypt.^o (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom^p and Gomorrah.)^{q 11}So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: ¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan,^r while Lot^s lived among the cities of the plain^t and pitched his tents near Sodom.^{u 13}Now the people of Sodom^v were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.^w

¹⁴The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.^{x 15}All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring^a forever.^{y 16}I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.^{z 17}Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land,^a for I am giving it to you.”^b

¹⁸So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre^c at Hebron,^d where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.^e

Abram Rescues Lot

14At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar,^af Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer^g king of Elam^h and Tidal king of Goyim, ²these kings went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim,ⁱ and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).^{j 3}All these latter kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim^k (that is, the Dead Sea Valley^l). ⁴For twelve years they had been subject to Kedorlaomer,^m but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomerⁿ and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites^o in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites^p in Shaveh Kiriathaim ⁶and the Horites^q in the hill country of Seir,^r as far as El Paran^s near the desert. ⁷Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh),^t and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites,^u as well as the Amorites^v who were living in Hazezon Tamar.^w

⁸Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah,^x the king of Admah, the king of Zeboyim^y and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar)^z marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim^{a 9}against Kedorlaomer^b king of Elam,^c Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. ¹⁰Now the Valley of Siddim^d was full of tar^e pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah^f fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills.^{g 11}The four kings seized all the goods^h of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. ¹²They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lotⁱ and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.

¹³A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew.^j Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre^k the Amorite, a brother^b of Eshkol^l and Aner,…