CHAPTER 11
1 Forsooth the land was of one language, and of the same speech [or the same words].
2 And when they went forth from the east, they found a field in the land of Shinar, and they dwelled therein.
3 And 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;
4 and 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.
5 Forsooth the Lord came down to see the city, and the tower, which the sons of Adam builded.
6 And 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;
7 therefore 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.
8 And so the Lord separated them from that place into all lands; and they ceased to build the city.
9 And 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.
10 These be the generations of Shem. Shem was an hundred years when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the great flood.
11 And Shem lived after that he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12 Forsooth Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah;
13 and Arphaxad lived after that he begat Salah three hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber;
15 and Salah lived after that he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
16 Soothly Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg;
17 and Eber lived after that he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
18 Also Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu;
19 and Peleg lived after that he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug;
21 and Reu lived after that he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
22 Soothly Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor;
23 and Serug lived after that he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
24 Forsooth Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah;
25 and Nahor lived after that he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram*, Nahor, and Haran.
27 Soothly these be the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Forsooth Haran begat Lot;
28 and Haran died before Terah, his father, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of Chaldees.
29 Forsooth 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.
30 Soothly Sarai was barren, and had no children.
31 And 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.
32 And the days of Terah were made two hundred years and five, and he was dead in Haran.
* CHAPTER 11:26 God would later change Abram’s name to Abraham.