Genesis 11–25

¹And the whole earth is of one pronunciation, and of the same words, ²and it cometh to pass, in their journeying from the east, that they find a valley in the land of Shinar, and dwell there; ³and they say each one to his neighbour, ‘Give help, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly:’ and the brick is to them for stone, and the bitumen hath been to them for mortar. ⁴And they say, ‘Give help, let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head in the heavens, and make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.’

⁵And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men have builded; ⁶and Jehovah saith, ‘Lo, the people is one, and one pronunciation is to them all, and this it hath dreamed of doing; and now, nothing is restrained from them of that which they have purposed to do. ⁷Give help, let us go down, and mingle there their pronunciation, so that a man doth not understand the pronunciation of his companion.’ ⁸And Jehovah doth scatter them from thence over the face of all the earth, and they cease to build the city; ⁹therefore hath one called its name Babel, for there hath Jehovah mingled the pronunciation of all the earth, and from thence hath Jehovah scattered them over the face of all the earth.

¹⁰These are births of Shem: Shem is a son of an hundred years, and begetteth Arphaxad two years after the deluge. ¹¹And Shem liveth after his begetting Arphaxad five hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ¹²And Arphaxad hath lived five and thirty years, and begetteth Salah. ¹³And Arphaxad liveth after his begetting Salah four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ¹⁴And Salah hath lived thirty years, and begetteth Eber. ¹⁵And Salah liveth after his begetting Eber four hundred and three years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ¹⁶And Eber liveth four and thirty years, and begetteth Peleg. ¹⁷And Eber liveth after his begetting Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ¹⁸And Peleg liveth thirty years, and begetteth Reu. ¹⁹And Peleg liveth after his begetting Reu two hundred and nine years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ²⁰And Reu liveth two and thirty years, and begetteth Serug. ²¹And Reu liveth after his begetting Serug two hundred and seven years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ²²And Serug liveth thirty years, and begetteth Nahor. ²³And Serug liveth after his begetting Nahor two hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ²⁴And Nahor liveth nine and twenty years, and begetteth Terah. ²⁵And Nahor liveth after his begetting Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begetteth sons and daughters. ²⁶And Terah liveth seventy years, and begetteth Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷And these are births of Terah: Terah hath begotten Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran hath begotten Lot; ²⁸and Haran dieth in the presence of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor take to themselves wives; the name of Abram’s wife is Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife is Milcah, daughter of Haran, father of Milcah, and father of Iscah. ³⁰And Sarai is barren—she hath no child. ³¹And Terah taketh Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and they go out with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go towards the land of Canaan; and they come unto Charan, and dwell there. ³²And the days of Terah are two hundred and five years, and Terah dieth in Charan.

Chapter 12

¹And Jehovah saith unto Abram, ‘Go for thyself, from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from the house of thy father, unto the land which I shew thee. ²And I make thee become a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing. ³And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground.’

⁴And Abram goeth on, as Jehovah hath spoken unto him, and Lot goeth with him, and Abram is a son of five and seventy years in his going out from Charan. ⁵And Abram taketh Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they have gained, and the persons that they have obtained in Charan; and they go out to go towards the land of Canaan; and they come in to the land of Canaan.

⁶And Abram passeth over into the land, unto the place Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh; and the Canaanite is then in the land. ⁷And Jehovah appeareth unto Abram, and saith, ‘To thy seed I give this land;’ and he buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, who hath appeared unto him. ⁸And he removeth from thence towards a mountain at the east of Beth-El, and stretcheth out the tent (Beth-El at the west, and Hai at the east), and he buildeth there an altar to Jehovah, and preacheth in the name of Jehovah. ⁹And Abram journeyeth, going on and journeying towards the south.

¹⁰And there is a famine in the land, and Abram goeth down towards Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine is grievous in the land; ¹¹and it cometh to pass as he hath drawn near to enter Egypt, that he saith unto Sarai his wife, ‘Lo, I pray thee, I have known that thou art a woman of beautiful appearance; ¹²and it hath come to pass that the Egyptians see thee, and they have said, ‘This is his wife,’ and they have slain me, and thee they keep alive: ¹³say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, so that it is well with me because of thee, and my soul hath lived for thy sake.’

¹⁴And it cometh to pass, at the entering of Abram into Egypt, that the Egyptians see the woman that she is exceeding fair; ¹⁵and princes of Pharaoh see her, and praise her unto Pharaoh, and the woman is taken to Pharaoh’s house; ¹⁶and to Abram he hath done good because of her, and he hath sheep and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and handmaids, and she-asses, and camels. ¹⁷And Jehovah plagueth Pharaoh and his house—great plagues—for the matter of Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸And Pharaoh calleth for Abram, and saith, ‘What is this thou hast done to me? why hast thou not declared to me that she is thy wife? ¹⁹Why hast thou said, She is my sister, and I take her to myself for a wife? and now, lo, thy wife, take and go.’ ²⁰And Pharaoh chargeth men concerning him, and they send him away, and his wife, an all that he hath.

Chapter 13

¹And Abram goeth up from Egypt (he and his wife, and all that he hath, and Lot with him) towards the south; ²and Abram is exceedingly wealthy in cattle, in silver, and in gold. ³And he goeth on his journeyings from the south, even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the commencement, between Bethel and Hai— ⁴unto the place of the altar which he made there at the first, and there doth Abram preach in the name of Jehovah.

⁵And also to Lot, who is going with Abram, there hath been sheep and oxen and tents; ⁶and the land hath not suffered them to dwell together, for their substance hath been much, and they have not been able to dwell together; ⁷and there is a strife between those feeding Abram’s cattle and those feeding Lot’s cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite are then dwelling in the land. ⁸And Abram saith unto Lot, ‘Let there not, I pray thee, be strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thy shepherds, for we are men—brethren. ⁹Is not all the land before thee? be parted, I pray thee, from me; if to the left, then I to the right; and if to the right, then I to the left.’

¹⁰And Lot lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the whole circuit of the Jordan that it is all a watered country (before Jehovah’s destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, as Jehovah’s garden, as the land of Egypt,) in thy coming toward Zoar, ¹¹and Lot chooseth for himself the whole circuit of the Jordan; and Lot journeyeth from the east, and they are parted—a man from his companion; ¹²Abram hath dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot hath dwelt in the cities of the circuit, and tenteth unto Sodom; ¹³and the men of Sodom are evil, and sinners before Jehovah exceedingly.

¹⁴And Jehovah said unto Abram, after Lot’s being parted from him, ‘Lift up, I pray thee, thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; ¹⁵for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed—to the age. ¹⁶And I have set thy seed as dust of the earth, so that, if one is able to number the dust of the earth, even thy seed is numbered; ¹⁷rise, go up and down through the land, to its length, and to its breadth, for to thee I give it.’ ¹⁸And Abram tenteth, and cometh, and dwelleth among the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and buildeth there an altar to Jehovah.

Chapter 14

¹And it cometh to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goyim, ²they have made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. ³All these have been joined together unto the valley of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea; ⁴twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and the thirteenth year they rebelled. ⁵And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings who are with him, and they smite the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, ⁶and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-Paran, which is by the wilderness; ⁷and they turn back and come in unto En-Mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smite the whole field of the Amalekite, and also the Amorite who is dwelling in Hazezon-Tamar. ⁸And the king of Sodom goeth out, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar; and they set the battle in array with them in the valley of Siddim, ⁹with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goyim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with the five. ¹⁰And the valley of Siddim is full of bitumen-pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flee, and fall there, and…