Genesis 11

CHAPTER 11

1Forsooth the land was of one language, and of the same speech [or the same words].

2And when they went forth from the east, they found a field in the land of Shinar, and they dwelled therein.

3And one said to his neighbour, Come ye, and make we tilestones, and bake we those [or them] with fire; and they had tile for stones, and pitch, either strong glue, for mortar;

4and they said, Come ye, and make we to us a city and a tower, whose highness stretch till to heaven; and make we solemn our name, before that we be parted into all lands.

5Forsooth the Lord came down to see the city, and the tower, which the sons of Adam builded.

6And he said, Lo! the people is one, and one language is to all, and they have begun to make this; neither they shall cease of their thoughts, till they [ful] fill those [or them] in work;

7therefore come ye, go we down, and shame [or confound] we there the tongue of them, that each man hear not the voice of his neighbour.

8And so the Lord separated them from that place into all lands; and they ceased to build the city.

9And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, for the language of all [the] earth was confounded there; and from thence the Lord scattered them on the face of all countries.

10These be the generations of Shem. Shem was an hundred years when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the great flood.

11And Shem lived after that he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

12Forsooth Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah;

13and Arphaxad lived after that he begat Salah three hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

14And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber;

15and Salah lived after that he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

16Soothly Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg;

17and Eber lived after that he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

18Also Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu;

19and Peleg lived after that he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

20And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug;

21and Reu lived after that he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

22Soothly Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor;

23and Serug lived after that he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

24Forsooth Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah;

25and Nahor lived after that he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

26And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram#11:26 God would later change Abram’s name to Abraham., Nahor, and Haran.

27Soothly these be the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Forsooth Haran begat Lot;

28and Haran died before Terah, his father, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of Chaldees.

29Forsooth Abram and Nahor wedded wives; the name of the wife of Abram was Sarai, and the name of the wife of Nahor was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, father of Milcah, and father of Iscah.

30Soothly Sarai was barren, and had no children.

31And so Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram, his son, and led them out of Ur of Chaldees, that they should go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelled there.

32And the days of Terah were made two hundred years and five, and he was dead in Haran.

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Genesis 11

People tried to build a tall building called Babel

1You know, at first everyone talked the same language. 2And as people moved from place to place in the east, they got to some flat country in Babylonia, and they stayed there. 3-4Then they said to each other, “Look, we can make bricks here. So come on, let’s do that. We will bake them properly so that they are good strong bricks, and we will use them to build a city here. So come on, let’s build a big tall building in that city. It will be so tall that it will go right up into the sky.” You see, they had bricks and tar instead of stones and cement. And they said, “If we do that, everyone will think we are smart. Then we will not go and live all over the earth, but we will stay together right here.”

God made people talk in different languages

5So the people started to build a city and a really tall building, and God came down to look at those things. 6He said, “These people can all talk to each other in the same language, so they can do anything they want. If they keep on going this way, nothing will stop them from doing anything. 7Come on, let’s go down to these people, and we will make them talk in different languages. Then they will not understand each other, and they will be all mixed up. They will not work things out with each other, so they will not keep on building this city.”

8So God made all the people talk in different languages. None of them could understand anything the other people were saying. So they stopped building their big city. 9They all left that city and went to live in lots of different places, all over the world. That’s how God got people to be in different tribes all over the world. And they called that city Babel. That means mixed up. They gave it that name because God mixed up their languages at that time.

The story of Shem’s family

10This is the story about Shem’s family.

Shem was 100 years old when he had a son called Arfaxad. That was 2 years after the big flood. 11Shem lived for 500 years after he had Arfaxad, and he had more sons and daughters.

12Arfaxad was 35 years old when he had a son called Shelah. 13Arfaxad lived for 403 years after he had Shelah, and he had more sons and daughters.#Genesis 10:24; Luke 3:35-36

14Shelah was 30 years old when he had a son called Eber. 15Shelah lived for 403 years after he had Eber, and he had more sons and daughters.

16Eber was 34 years old when he had a son called Peleg. 17Eber lived for 430 years after he had Peleg, and he had more sons and daughters.

18Peleg was 30 years old when he had a son called Reyu. 19Peleg lived for 209 years after he had Reyu, and he had more sons and daughters.

20Reyu was 32 years old when he had a son called Serug. 21Reyu lived for 207 years after he had Serug, and he had more sons and daughters.

22Serug was 30 years old when he had a son called Nahor. 23Serug lived for 200 years after he had Nahor, and he had more sons and daughters.

24Nahor was 29 years old when he had a son called Terah. 25Nahor lived for 119 years after he had Terah, and he had more sons and daughters.

26Terah had 3 sons after he was 70 years old. Their names were Abram, Nahor and Haran.

The story of Terah’s family

27This is the story about Terah’s family. Terah had 3 sons, called Abram, and Nahor, and Haran.

Haran had a son called Lot. 28-29And he also had 2 daughters called Milcah and Iscah. After that, Haran died, while his father, Terah, was still alive. He died in Ur, in Chaldia country, the place where he was born.

Nahor, Haran’s brother, married Milcah. And Abram married a woman called Sarai, 30but Abram and Sarai didn’t have any kids. Sarai just couldn’t have a baby.

31Then Terah went away from Ur, in Chaldia country, and he took some of his family with him. They were his son Abram, and Abram’s wife Sarai, and his grand-son Lot. They all left Ur, and they started to go to the country called Canaan. But they stopped half-way, at a place called Haran, and they stayed there.

32Terah lived until he was 205 years old. Then he died there in Haran.

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