Genesis 11 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

The Tower of Babel

Gen 11:1Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

Gen 11:2And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Gen 11:3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

Gen 11:4

Gen 11:4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Gen 11:5

Gen 11:5And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

Gen 11:6

Gen 11:6And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Gen 11:7

Gen 11:7Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Gen 11:8

Gen 11:8So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

Gen 11:9

Gen 11:9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused[fn] the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Shem’s Descendants

(1Ch 1:17–27; Luk 3:34–36 )

Gen 11:10

Gen 11:10These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

Gen 11:11

Gen 11:11And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:12

Gen 11:12When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah.

Gen 11:13

Gen 11:13And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:14

Gen 11:14When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber.

Gen 11:15

Gen 11:15And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:16

Gen 11:16When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg.

Gen 11:17

Gen 11:17And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:18

Gen 11:18When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.

Gen 11:19

Gen 11:19And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:20

Gen 11:20When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.

Gen 11:21

Gen 11:21And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:22

Gen 11:22When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor.

Gen 11:23

Gen 11:23And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:24

Gen 11:24When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah.

Gen 11:25

Gen 11:25And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

Gen 11:26

Gen 11:26When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

Gen 11:27

Gen 11:27Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.

Gen 11:28

Gen 11:28Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Gen 11:29

Gen 11:29And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.

Gen 11:30

Gen 11:30Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Gen 11:31

Gen 11:31Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Gen 11:32

Gen 11:32The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(11:9)

Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused

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Genesis Chapter 11 — Additional Translations: