Genesis 11–13

1Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

2And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

4“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

5Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

6And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them.

7Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

8So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

10This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.

11And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah.

13And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber.

15And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg.

17And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu.

19And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug.

21And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor.

23And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah.

25And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

28During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

29And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

30But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

31And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

32Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

1Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

3I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

4So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

5And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

8From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.

9And Abram journeyed on toward the Negev.

10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman,

12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.

13Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”

14So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh.

16He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

17The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?

19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

20Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions.

1So Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev—he and his wife and all his possessions—and Lot was with him.

2And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

3From the Negev he journeyed from place to place toward Bethel, until he came to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been pitched,

4to the site where he had built the altar. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

5Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

6But the land was unable to support both of them while they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they were unable to coexist.

7And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.

8So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are kinsmen.

9Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

10And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

11So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.

12Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

13But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.

14After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west,

15for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.

16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.

17Get up and walk around the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.”

18So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.