Genesis 10; Genesis 11; Genesis 12

1 These are the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These three had sons after the flood.

2 The sons of Japheth - Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras - were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names.

3 The descendants of Gomer were the people of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

4 The descendants of Javan were the people of Elishah, Spain, Cyprus, and Rhodes;

5 they were the ancestors of the people who live along the coast and on the islands. These are the descendants of Japheth, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

6 The sons of Ham - Cush, Egypt, Libya, and Canaan - were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names.

7 The descendants of Cush were the people of Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were the people of Sheba and Dedan.

8 Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the world's first great conqueror.

9 By the Lord's help he was a great hunter, and that is why people say, "May the Lord make you as great a hunter as Nimrod!"

10 At first his kingdom included Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all three of them in Babylonia.

11 From that land he went to Assyria and built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,

12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

13 The descendants of Egypt were the people of Lydia, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh,

14 Pathrus, Casluh, and of Crete, from whom the Philistines are descended.

15 Canaan's sons - Sidon, the oldest, and Heth - were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names.

16 Canaan was also the ancestor of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,

18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. The different tribes of the Canaanites spread out,

19 until the Canaanite borders reached from Sidon southward to Gerar near Gaza, and eastward to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim near Lasha.

20 These are the descendants of Ham, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

21 Shem, the older brother of Japheth, was the ancestor of all the Hebrews.

22 Shem's sons - Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram - were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names.

23 The descendants of Aram were the people of Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshek.

24 Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, who was the father of Eber.

25 Eber had two sons: one was named Peleg, because during his time the people of the world were divided; and the other was named Joktan.

26 The descendants of Joktan were the people of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All of them were descended from Joktan.

30 The land in which they lived extended from Mesha to Sephar in the eastern hill country.

31 These are the descendants of Shem, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

32 All these peoples are the descendants of Noah, nation by nation, according to their different lines of descent. After the flood all the nations of the earth were descended from the sons of Noah.

1 At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words.

2 As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there.

3 They said to one another, "Come on! Let's make bricks and bake them hard." So they had bricks to build with and tar to hold them together.

4 They said, "Now let's build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth."

5 Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which they had built,

6 and he said, "Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want!

7 Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand each other."

8 So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9 The city was called Babylon, because there the Lord mixed up the language of all the people, and from there he scattered them all over the earth.

10 These are the descendants of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he had a son, Arpachshad.

11 After that, he lived another 500 years and had other children.

12 When Arpachshad was 35 years old, he had a son, Shelah;

13 after that, he lived another 403 years and had other children.

14 When Shelah was 30 years old, he had a son, Eber;

15 after that, he lived another 403 years and had other children.

16 When Eber was 34 years old, he had a son, Peleg;

17 after that, he lived another 430 years and had other children.

18 When Peleg was 30 years old, he had a son, Reu;

19 after that, he lived another 209 years and had other children.

20 When Reu was 32 years old, he had a son, Serug;

21 after that, he lived another 207 years and had other children.

22 When Serug was 30 years old, he had a son, Nahor;

23 after that, he lived another 200 years and had other children.

24 When Nahor was 29 years old, he had a son, Terah;

25 after that, he lived another 119 years and had other children.

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

27 These are the descendants of Terah, who was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot,

28 and Haran died in his hometown of Ur in Babylonia, while his father was still living.

29 Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah.

30 Sarai was not able to have children.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there.

32 Terah died there at the age of 205.

1 The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you.

2 I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations."

4 When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him.

5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan,

6 Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.)

7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants." Then Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord.

9 Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.

10 But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while.

11 When he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "You are a beautiful woman.

12 When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live.

13 Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well."

14 When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful.

15 Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace.

16 Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.

17 But because the king had taken Sarai, the Lord sent terrible diseases on him and on the people of his palace.

18 Then the king sent for Abram and asked him, "What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say that she was your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and get out!"

20 The king gave orders to his men, so they took Abram and put him out of the country, together with his wife and everything he owned.