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Now {at first,} all {the people on} the earth spoke the same language, so that everyone understood each other's words. 2 As time passed, they moved from the east, and came to a wide, flat valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 Then they urged each other, "Come on, let's {work together and} make bricks {from clay} and harden them with fire.” They used bricks {to build with} instead of stone, and they used tar {between the bricks} instead of mortar. 4 Then they said {to each other}, "Come on, let's build a city for ourselves that has a {high} tower that reaches up to heaven, so that we make ourselves famous, and so that we do not spread out all over the earth.”5 But {one day} Yahweh came down {from heaven} and looked at the city and the tower that the people were building. 6 Then he said, "Look, they are one people {group} and they all speak the same language. This is {only} the beginning of what they can do {together}. Soon nothing that they plan {to do} will be impossible for them. 7 {So} let's go down there {now} and mix up their language, so that they are not able to understand what they say to each other." 8 That is how Yahweh caused the people to leave from there and spread out all over the earth, so that they stopped building the city {and the tower}. 9 That is why the name of the city is Babel {which means "mixed up"}, because that is where Yahweh mixed up the language that everyone on the earth shared, and {in that way} he made them spread out from there all over the earth.
10 This is the record of Shem's descendants:
Two years after the flood {began}, when Shem was 100 years old, he had {a son named} Arpachshad. 11 After Arpachshad was born, Shem lived {another} 500 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpachshad was 35 years old, he had {a son named} Shelah. 13 After Shelah was born, Arpachshad lived {another} 403 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah was 30 years old, he had {a son named} Eber. 15 After Eber was born, Shelah lived {another} 403 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber was 34 years old, he had {a son named} Peleg. 17 After Peleg was born, Eber lived {another} 430 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg was 30 years old, he had {a son named} Reu. 19 After Reu was born, Peleg lived {another} 209 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu was 32 years old, he had {a son named} Serug. 21 After Serug was born, Reu lived {another} 207 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug was 30 years old, he had {a son named} Nahor. 23 After Nahor was born, Serug lived {another} 200 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor was 29 years old, he had {a son named} Terah. 25 After Terah was born, Nahor lived {another} 119 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
26 After Terah was 70 years old, he had {sons named} Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 Here is the history about Terah and his descendants: Terah’s sons were Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran’s son was named Lot. 28 While his father was still alive, Haran died in the land where he was born, in {the city of} Ur where the Chaldeans lived. 29 Then Abram and Nahor each married a wife. Abram's wife was named Sarai, and Nahor's wife was Milcah. Milcah and {her sister} Iscah were the daughters of {Nahor's brother} Haran. 30 But Sarai was not able to become pregnant, {so} she did not have any children.
31 Then Terah took his son Abram, and his grandson Lot, who was Haran's son, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, who was Abram's wife, and they {all} left from {the city of} Ur where the Chaldeans lived to go to the land of Canaan. But when they arrived at {the city of} Haran, they decided to live there {instead}. 32 Then {many years later} when Terah was 205 years old, he died {there} in {the city of} Haran.