1. The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2. It happened, as they traveled east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.

3. They said one to another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

4. They said, “Come, let’s build us a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”

5. יהוה came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

6. יהוה said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

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

8. So יהוה scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

9. Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because יהוה confused the language of all the earth there. From there, יהוה scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.

10. This is the history of the generations of Shem . Shem  was one hundred years old and became the father of Arpachshad  two years after the flood.

11. Shem  lived  after he became the father of Arpachshad  five hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

12. Arpachshad  lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah .

13. Arpachshad  lived after he became the father of Shelah  four hundred three years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

14. Shelah  lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber :

15. And Shelah  lived after he became the father of Eber  four hundred three years , and became the father of sons and daughters.

16. Eber  lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg .

17. Eber  lived  after he became the father of Peleg  four hundred thirty years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

18. Peleg  lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu .

19. Peleg  lived after he became the father of Reu two hundred nine years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

20. Reu  lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug .

21. Reu  lived after he became the father of Serug  two hundred seven years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

22. Serug  lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor .

23. Serug  lived after he became the father of Nahor  two hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

24. Nahor  lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah .

25. Nahor  lived after he became the father of Terah  one hundred nineteen years , and became the father of sons and daughters.

26. Terah  lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram , Nahor , and Haran .

27. Now this is the history of the generations of Terah . Terah  became the father of Abram , Nahor , and Haran . Haran  became the father of Lot .

28. Haran  died before his father Terah  in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

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

30. Sarai  was barren. She had no child.

31. Terah  took Abram  his son,  Lot , the son of Haran , his son’s son, and Sarai  his daughter-in-law, his son Abram ’s wife. They went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.

32. The days of Terah  were two hundred five years. Terah  died in Haran.