1 Now the whole earth was of one language and one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a level valley in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

3 Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them with burning. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

4 And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, that we not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

6 And Jehovah said, Behold, the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they devise to do will be withheld from them.

7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they cannot understand one another’s speech.

8 So Jehovah scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there Jehovah confused the language of all the earth; and from there Jehovah scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.

11 After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah.

13 After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

14 Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber.

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

16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg.

17 After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.

18 Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu.

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

20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug.

21 After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.

22 Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor.

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

24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah.

25 After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.

26 Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 These are the generations of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot.

28 And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

29 And Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31 And Terah took 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 Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.

32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.