The whole earth had one language and one set of words.
And as they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.
They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them with fire.” They had brick for stone, and they had bitumen for mortar.
They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens, and let’s make ourselves a name, lest we become spread out over the face of the whole earth.”
And Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the children of men built.
Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people and they have all one language, and this is what they are beginning to do. Now all the things that they intend to do will not be withheld from them.
Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they do not understand each other’s language.”
So Yahweh spread them out from there over the face of the whole earth. So they stopped building the city.
Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, and from there Yahweh spread them out over the face of the whole earth.
Shem's Descendants
These are the descendants of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.
Shem lived 500 years after he fathered Arpachshad and fathered sons and daughters.
Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah.
Arpachshad lived 403 years after he fathered Shelah and he fathered sons and daughters.
Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber;
and Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber and fathered sons and daughters.
Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg.
Eber lived 430 years after he fathered Peleg and fathered sons and daughters.
Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.
Peleg lived 209 years after he fathered Reu and fathered sons and daughters.
Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug.
Reu lived 207 years after he fathered Serug and fathered sons and daughters.
Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor.
Serug lived 200 years after he fathered Nahor and fathered sons and daughters.
Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.
Nahor lived 119 years after he fathered Terah and fathered sons and daughters.
Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah's Descendants
Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran fathered Lot.
Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.
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 who also was the father of Iscah.
Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, but they went as far as Haran and settled there.
The days of Terah were 205 years. Terah died in Haran.