At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.

Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah.

After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg.

Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber.

After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.

Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.

After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.

After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug.

Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime.

Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor.

After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the men were building.

Therefore its name is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.

They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.

Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.

Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.

These are the family records of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

The 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.

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