Genesis 11-12

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Tower of Babylon

11 At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.^{[a] 2} As people^[b] migrated from the east,^[c] they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.^{(A) 3} They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.^{(B) 4} And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.^(C) Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ Then the Lord came down^(D) to look over the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ 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. ⁷ Come, let Us go down there and confuse^[d] their language^[e] so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”^{[f] 8} So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth,^(E) and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name is called Babylon,^[g](F) 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.

From Shem to Abram

¹⁰ These are the family records^(G) of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. ¹¹ After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹² Arpachshad lived 35 years^[h] and fathered Shelah. ¹³ After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁴ Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. ¹⁵ After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁶ Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. ¹⁷ After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁸ Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. ¹⁹ After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁰ Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. ²¹ After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²² Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. ²³ After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁴ Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.^{(H) 25} After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁶ Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷ These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸ Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai,^(I) and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah.^(J) She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai was unable to conceive;^(K) she did not have a child.

³¹ 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^(L) to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³² Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.

The Call of Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram:

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.^{(S) 5} He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,^(T) at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.”^(U) So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh.^{(V) 9} Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

Abram in Egypt

¹⁰ There was a famine in the land,^(W) so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. ¹¹ When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live.^{(X) 13} Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” ¹⁴ When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵ Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. ¹⁶ He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.^{(Y) 18} So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.