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Genesis 11 :: Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

The Tower of Babylon
Gen 11:1

The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.

Gen 11:2

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

Gen 11:3

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

Gen 11:4

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

Gen 11:5

Then the LORD came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans[fn] were building.

Gen 11:6

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.

Gen 11:7

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

Gen 11:8

So from there the LORD scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city.

Gen 11:9

Therefore it is called Babylon,[fn][fn] for there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the LORD scattered them throughout the earth.

From Shem to Abram
Gen 11:10

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

Gen 11:11

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

Gen 11:12

Arpachshad lived 35 years[fn] and fathered Shelah.

Gen 11:13

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

Gen 11:14

Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber.

Gen 11:15

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

Gen 11:16

Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg.

Gen 11:17

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

Gen 11:18

Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.

Gen 11:19

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

Gen 11:20

Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug.

Gen 11:21

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

Gen 11:22

Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor.

Gen 11:23

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

Gen 11:24

Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.

Gen 11:25

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

Gen 11:26

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

Gen 11:27

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

Gen 11:28

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

Gen 11:29

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.

Gen 11:30

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

Gen 11:31

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 to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Gen 11:32

Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.

CSB Footnotes
Or migrated eastward
Or the descendants of Adam
Hb Babel
In Hb, the name for “Babylon,” babel sounds like the word for “confuse,” balal.
LXX reads years and fathered Cainan. [13]After he fathered Cainan, Arpachshad lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters, and he died. Cainan lived 130 years and fathered Shelah. After he fathered Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and fathered other sons and daughters, and he died ; Gn 10:24; Lk 3:35–36
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Genesis Chapter 11 — Additional Translations: