The Tower of Babylon

1The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. 2As people migrated from the east,† they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.† 3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt† for mortar.) 4And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.† Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

5Then the Lord came down† to look over the city and the tower that the humans† were building. 6The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,† and they stopped building the city. 9Therefore it is called Babylon,† † † for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

From Shem to Abram

10These are the family records† of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 12Arpachshad lived 35 years† and fathered Shelah. 13After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 14Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. 15After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 16Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. 17After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 18Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.