Berĕshith (Genesis) 11
11
1And all the earth had one language#Hebrew lip. and one speech.
2And it came to be, as they set out from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shin‛ar,#Earlier name for Baḇel. and they dwelt there.
3And they said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over all the face of the earth.”
5Then יהוה came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6And יהוה said, “Look, they are one people and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do! And now, they are not going to be withheld from doing whatever they plan to do.
7“Come, let Us go there and confuse their language, so that they do not understand one another’s speech.”
8And יהוה scattered them from there, over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9That is why its name was called Baḇel,#Baḇel is derived from a verb which means “to confuse.” because there יהוה confused the language of all the earth, and from there יהוה scattered them over the face of all the earth.
10This is the genealogy of Shĕm: Shĕm was a hundred years old and brought forth Arpaḵshaḏ, two years after the flood.
11And after he brought forth Arpaḵshaḏ, Shĕm lived five hundred years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
12And Arpaḵshaḏ lived thirty-five years, and brought forth Shelaḥ.
13And after he brought forth Shelaḥ, Arpaḵshaḏ lived four hundred and three years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
14And Shelaḥ lived thirty years, and brought forth Ěḇer.
15And after he brought forth Ěḇer, Shelaḥ lived four hundred and three years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
16And Ěḇer lived thirty-four years, and brought forth Peleḡ.
17And after he brought forth Peleḡ, Ěḇer lived four hundred and thirty years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
18And Peleḡ lived thirty years, and brought forth Re‛u.
19And after he brought forth Re‛u, Peleḡ lived two hundred and nine years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
20And Re‛u lived thirty-two years, and brought forth Seruḡ.
21And after he brought forth Seruḡ, Re‛u lived two hundred and seven years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
22And Seruḡ lived thirty years, and brought forth Naḥor.
23And after he brought forth Naḥor, Seruḡ lived two hundred years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
24And Naḥor lived twenty-nine years, and brought forth Teraḥ.
25And after he brought forth Teraḥ, Naḥor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and brought forth sons and daughters.
26And Teraḥ lived seventy years, and brought forth Aḇram, Naḥor, and Haran.
27And this is the genealogy of Teraḥ: Teraḥ brought forth Aḇram, Naḥor, and Haran. And Haran brought forth Lot.
28And Haran died before his father Teraḥ in the land of his birth, in Ur-kasdim.
29And Aḇram and Naḥor took wives: the name of Aḇram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Naḥor’s wife, Milkah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milkah and the father of Yiskah.
30And Sarai was barren, she had no child.
31And Teraḥ took his son Aḇram and his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Aḇram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur-kasdim to go to the land of Kena‛an. And they came to Ḥaran and dwelt there.
32And the days of Teraḥ came to be two hundred and five years, and Teraḥ died in Ḥaran.
Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). All rights reserved.
Genesis 11
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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