1 The whole earth had a single language and a single set of words.
2 As they moved on from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let us mold bricks and fire them well." They used brick in place of stone, and bitumen in place of mortar.
4 And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches into the heavens; let us make ourselves a name, so that we are not scattered across the face of the whole earth."
5 The LORD came down to look at the city and the tower that the sons of men had built.
6 And the LORD said, "Look, they are one people with one language for all of them, and this is what they have begun to do; now nothing they plan to do will be beyond their reach.
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that no one will understand the speech of his neighbor."
8 Thus the LORD scattered them from there across the face of the whole earth, and they left off building the city.
9 That is why it was named Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the LORD scattered them across the face of the whole earth.
10 This is the line of Shem. When Shem was a hundred years old he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the flood.
11 After becoming the father of Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and had sons and daughters.
12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah.
13 After becoming the father of Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years and had sons and daughters.
14 Shelah lived thirty years and became the father of Eber.
15 After becoming the father of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years and had sons and daughters.
16 Eber lived thirty-four years and became the father of Peleg.
17 After becoming the father of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and had sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived thirty years and became the father of Reu.
19 After becoming the father of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and had sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived thirty-two years and became the father of Serug.
21 After becoming the father of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years and had sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived thirty years and became the father of Nahor.
23 After becoming the father of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and had sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years and became the father of Terah.
25 After becoming the father of Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteen years and had sons and daughters.
26 Terah lived seventy years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 This is the line of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot.
28 Haran died before his father Terah, in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29 Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram's wife was named Sarai, and Nahor's wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and of Iscah.
30 But Sarai was infertile; she had no offspring.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but when they came as far as Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah's days were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.