1 The whole earth had one language, one manner of speaking, and one counsel. They spoke in the language of the Sanctuary, the language in which the world was created in the beginning. 2 And when they moved from the east they found a plain in the land of Babel and settled there. 3 They said to one another: 'Come, let us cast bricks and bake them in the furnace.' And they had bricks for stone, and clay for mortar. 4 And they said: 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching towards the heavens. Let us make ourselves an idol at its top, and let us put a sword in its hand, and let it draw up battle formations against him before we are scattered from upon the face of the earth.' 5 The Lord revealed himself to take revenge on them for the work of the city and the tower which the sons of man had built. 6 And the Lord said: 'Behold they are one people, and they have all one language, and they have planned to do this! And now, nothing they plan to do can be withheld from them.' 7 Then the Lord said to the seventy angels that stand before him: 'Come then, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s language.'⁠a 8 The Memra of the Lord was revealed against the city; and with it seventy angels corresponding to seventy nations, each having the language of his people and the characters of its writing in his hand. He scattered them thence upon the face of all the earth into seventy languages, so that one did not know what the other said, and they killed one another. And they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the inhabitants of the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the whole earth. 10 This is the line of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years after the Flood. 11 Shem lived five hundred years after he had begotten Arpachshad, and he begot sons and daughters. 12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and he begot Shelah. 13 Arpachshad lived four hundred and thirty years after he had begotten Shelah, and he begot sons and daughters. 14 Shelah lived thirty years, and he begot Eber. 15 Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he had begotten Eber, and he begot sons and daughters. 16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and he begot Peleg. 17 Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he had begotten Peleg, and he begot sons and daughters. 18 Peleg lived thirty years, and he begot Reu. Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he had begotten Reu, and he begot sons and daughters. 19 Reu lived thirty-two years, and he begot Serug. 20 Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he had begotten Serug, and he begot sons and daughters. 21 Serug lived thirty years, and he begot Nahor. 22 Serug lived two hundred years after he had begotten Nahor, and he begot sons and daughters. 23 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and he begot Terah. 24 Nahor lived a hundred and sixteen years after he had begotten Terah, and he begot sons and daughters. 25 Terah lived seventy years, and he begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 26 This is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. 27 It came to pass, when Nimrod cast Abram into the furnace of fire because he would not worship his idol,⁠b the fire had no power to burn him. Then Haran was undecided, and he said: 'If Nimrod triumphs, I will be on his side; but if Abram triumphs, I will be on his side.' And when all the people who were there saw that the fire had no power over Abram, they said to themselves: 'Is not Haran the brother of Abram full of divination and sorcery? It is he who uttered charms over the fire so that it would not burn his brother.' Immediately fire fell from the heavens on high and consumed him; and Haran died in the sight of Terah his father, being burned in the land of his birth in the furnace of fire which the Chaldeans had made for Abram his brother. 28 And Abram and Nahor took wives to themselves; 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—she is Sarai. 29 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. 30 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they went forth together from the fire of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and settled there. 31 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.