Open English Translation GEN Chapter 11

11 Now the whole world had a single language and the same words, 2 and as they migrated from the east, they discovered a plain in the Shinar region and settled there. 3 Then they said to each other, “Come on, let’s make bricks and cure them with fire.” So they had bricks instead of stones, and they had tar for mortar.

4 Then they said, “Come on, let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the sky, and let’s make a reputation for ourselves, so that we don’t get scattered all over the whole earth.” 5 Then Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the humans were building 6 and he said, “Look, they’re just one people group, and they all speak the same language. This is only the beginning of what they can do together—soon they’ll be capable of doing anything they plan to do. 7 Come on then, let’s go down and confuse their language so that they won’t be able to understand each other’s words.” 8 So then they stopped building the city and Yahweh caused them to scatter over the whole world. 9 That’s why they named the city ‘Babel’ (meaning ‘mixed-up’) because it was there that Yahweh mixed up everyone’s language and then scattered them over the whole world.

10 This is the record of Shem’s descendants: Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he had a son named Arpakshad. 11 After Arpakshad was born, Shem lived another 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arpakshad was thirty-five years old, he had a son named Shalah. 13 After Shalah was born, Arpakshad lived another 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14 When Shalah was thirty years old, he had a son named Eber. 15 After Eber was born, Shelah lived another 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16 When Eber was thirty-four years old, he had a son named Peleg. 17 After Peleg was born, Eber lived another 430 years and had other sons and daughters

18 When Peleg was thirty years old, he had a son named Reu. 19 After Reu was born, Peleg lived another 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 When Reu was thirty-two years old, he had a son named Serug. 21 After Serug was born, Reu lived another 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22 When Serug was thirty years old, he had a son named Nahor. 23 After Nahor was born, Serug lived another 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24 When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he had a son named Terah. 25 After Terah was born, Nahor lived another 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 After Terah was seventy years old, he had sons whose names were Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 This is the record of Terah’s descendants: Terah’s sons were Abram, Nahor, and Haran and Haran had a son named Lot. 28 While his father was still alive, Haran died in the land where he was born, in the city of Ur where the Chaldeans lived. 29 Meanwhile Abram married Sarai and Nahor married Milcah. (Milcah and her sister Iscah were the daughters of Nahor’s brother Haran.) 30 However, Sarai wasn’t able to get pregnant so they didn’t have any children.

31 Then one day, Terah gathered his son Abram and his grandson Lot (who was Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (who was Abram’s wife), and they all left from the city of Ur (where the Chaldeans lived), to travel to the region of Canaan, but when they arrived at the city of Haran, they decided to live there. 32 Then when Terah was 205 years old, he died there in Haran.