Genesis 11 - Simple English

1The whole earth had one language, and everyone used the same words.

2As people travelled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.

3They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and bake them hard." So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

4They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top reaching to heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the children of men were building.

6The LORD said, "Look, the people are one, and they all have one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. Now nothing they plan to do will be held back from them."

7"Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they cannot understand one another's speech."

8So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9That is why its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

10These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old when he was the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.

11After Shem was the father of Arphaxad, he lived five hundred years, and he had sons and daughters.

12Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and was the father of Salah.

13After Arphaxad was the father of Salah, he lived four hundred and three years, and he had sons and daughters.

14Salah lived thirty years, and was the father of Eber.

15After Salah was the father of Eber, he lived four hundred and three years, and he had sons and daughters.

16Eber lived thirty-four years, and was the father of Peleg.

17After Eber was the father of Peleg, he lived four hundred and thirty years, and he had sons and daughters.

18Peleg lived thirty years, and was the father of Reu.

19After Peleg was the father of Reu, he lived two hundred and nine years, and he had sons and daughters.

20Reu lived thirty-two years, and was the father of Serug.

21After Reu was the father of Serug, he lived two hundred and seven years, and he had sons and daughters.

22Serug lived thirty years, and was the father of Nahor.

23After Serug was the father of Nahor, he lived two hundred years, and he had sons and daughters.

24Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and was the father of Terah.

25After Nahor was the father of Terah, he lived a hundred and nineteen years, and he had sons and daughters.

26Terah lived seventy years, and was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot.

28Haran died before his father Terah, in the land where he was born, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

30But Sarai could not have children; she had no child.

31Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram. They went out together from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran, and settled there.

32The days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.