THE TOWER OF BABYLON

11 The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. 2 As people migrated from the east,J they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.l 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphaltm for mortar.) 4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.n Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

5 Then the Lord came downo to look over the city and the tower that the humansK were building. 6 The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,p and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore it is called Babylon,L,M,q for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

FROM SHEM TO ABRAM

10 These are the family recordsr of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 12 Arpachshad lived 35 years* and fathered Shelah. 13 After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 14 Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. 15 After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 16 Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. 17 After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 18 Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. 19 After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 20 Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. 21 After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 22 Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. 23 After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 24 Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.a 25 After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 26 Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai,b and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah.c She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was unable to conceive;d she did not have a child.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeanse to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.

THE CALL OF ABRAM

12 The Lord said to Abram:

Go from your land,

your relatives,

and your father’s house

to the land that I will show you.f

2 I will make you into a great nation,g

I will bless you,h

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.i

3 I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,j

and all the peoples on earth

will be blessedB through you.C,k

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.l 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,m at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringn,* I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord.o 9 Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

ABRAM IN EGYPT

10 There was a famine in the land,p so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live.q 13 Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. 16 He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife, Sarai.r 18 So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.

ABRAM AND LOT SEPARATE

13 Abram went up from Egypt to the Negevs—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him. 2 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. 3 He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been, 4 to the site where he had built the altar. And Abram called on the name of the Lord there.t

5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together,u 7 and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.v (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.)w

8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives. 9 Isn’t the whole land before you? Separate from me: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

10 Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain* of the Jordana as far as Zoarb was well watered everywhere like the Lord’s gardenc and the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)d 11 So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself. Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other. 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom. 13 (Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immenselyD against the Lord.)e

14 After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west,f 15 for I will give you and your offspring* forever all the land that you see.g 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth,h so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you.”

18 So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron,i where he built an altar to the Lord.