People unite to build a city and a tower reaching to heaven. God confuses their language and scatters them. The chapter then traces Shem's line down to Abram and his family's move to Haran.
1 And the whole earth was of one language , and of one speech .
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east , that they found a plain in the land of Shinar ; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another , Go to , let us make brick , and burn them throughly . And they had brick for stone , and slime had they for morter .
4 And they said , Go to , let us build us a city and a tower , whose top may reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name , lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth .
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower , which the children of men builded .
6 And the LORD said , Behold, the people is one , and they have all one language ; and this they begin to do : and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do .
7 Go to , let us go down , and there confound their language , that they may not understand one another's speech .
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth : and they left off to build the city .
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel ; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth : and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth .
10 These are the generations of Shem : Shem was an hundred years old , and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood :
11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years , and begat sons and daughters .
12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years , and begat Salah :
13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years , and begat sons and daughters .
14 And Salah lived thirty years , and begat Eber :
15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years , and begat sons and daughters .
16 And Eber lived four and thirty years , and begat Peleg :
17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years , and begat sons and daughters .
18 And Peleg lived thirty years , and begat Reu :
19 And Peleg lived after 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 he begat Serug two hundred and seven years , and begat sons and daughters .
22 And Serug lived thirty years , and begat Nahor :
23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years , and begat sons and daughters .
24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years , and begat Terah :
25 And Nahor lived after 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 Now these are the generations of Terah : Terah begat Abram , Nahor , and Haran ; and Haran begat Lot .
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity , in Ur of the Chaldees .
29 And Abram and Nahor took them 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 the father of Iscah .
30 But Sarai was barren ; she had no child .
31 And Terah took Abram his son , and Lot the son of Haran his son's son , and Sarai his daughter in law , his son Abram's wife ; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees , to go into the land of Canaan ; and they came unto Haran , and dwelt there.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years : and Terah died in Haran .