Genesis 11–12

The Tower of Babel

11Now the whole earth had one language and one ¹speech. ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land ^aof Shinar, and they dwelt there. ³Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and ²bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. ⁴And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower ^bwhose top is in the heavens; let us make a ^cname for ourselves, lest we ^dbe scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

^5eBut the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶And the Lord said, “Indeed ^fthe people are one and they all have ^gone language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they ^hpropose to do will be withheld from them. ⁷Come, ⁱlet Us go down and there ^jconfuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So ^kthe Lord scattered them abroad from there ^lover the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. ⁹Therefore its name is called ³Babel, ^mbecause there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Shem’s Descendants

¹⁰ⁿThis is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. ¹¹After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹²Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, ^oand begot Salah. ¹³After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁴Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. ¹⁵After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

^16pEber lived thirty-four years, and begot ^qPeleg. ¹⁷After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁸Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. ¹⁹After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁰Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot ^rSerug. ²¹After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.

²²Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. ²³After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁴Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot ^sTerah. ²⁵After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁶Now Terah lived seventy years, and ^tbegot ⁴Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

²⁷This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot ^uAbram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. ²⁸And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was ^vSarai, ⁵and the name of Nahor’s wife, ^wMilcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. ³⁰But ^xSarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹And Terah ^ytook his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from ^zUr of the Chaldeans to go to ^athe land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. ³²So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Promises to Abram

12Now the ^aLord had said to Abram:

“Get ^bout of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

^2cI will make you a great nation;

^dI will bless you

And make your name great;

^eAnd you shall be a blessing.

^3fI will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in ^gyou all the families of the earth shall be ^hblessed.”

⁴So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and ⁱthe ¹people whom they had acquired ^jin Haran, and they ^kdeparted to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶Abram ^lpassed through the land to the place of Shechem, ^mas far as ²the terebinth tree of Moreh. ⁿAnd the Canaanites were then in the land.

^7oThen the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ^p“To your ³descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an ^qaltar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and ^rcalled on the name of the Lord. ⁹So Abram journeyed, ^sgoing on still toward the ⁴South.

Abram in Egypt

¹⁰Now there was ^ta famine in the land, and Abram ^uwent down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was ^vsevere in the land. ¹¹And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are ^wa woman of beautiful countenance. ¹²Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they ^xwill kill me, but they will let you live. ^13yPlease say you are my ^zsister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that ⁵I may live because of you.”

¹⁴So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. ¹⁵The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. ¹⁶He ^atreated Abram well for her sake. He ^bhad sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

¹⁷But the Lord ^cplagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸And Pharaoh called Abram and said, ^d“What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” ^20eSo Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.