Day 2 · Genesis 11–15

Old Testament · Phase 1 · Foundations & The Patriarchs

Tower of Babel; Call of Abram and covenant

Genesis 11–15

The Tower of Babel

¹Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech. ²And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

⁴“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

⁵Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. ⁶And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. ⁷Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not 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 it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

Genealogy from Shem to Abram

¹⁰This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. ¹¹And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. ²¹And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. ²³And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

²⁷This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

²⁹And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

³¹And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there. ³²Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

The Call of Abram

¹Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

²I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

so that you will be a blessing.

³I will bless those who bless you

and curse those who curse you;

and all the families of the earth

will be blessed through you.”

⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. ⁵And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan.

When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

⁷Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

⁸From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.

⁹And Abram journeyed on toward the Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. ¹¹As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman, ¹²and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. ¹³Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”

¹⁴So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh. ¹⁶He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

¹⁷The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

²⁰Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions.

Abram and Lot Part Ways

¹So Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev— he and his wife and all his possessions— and Lot was with him. ²And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

³From the Negev he journeyed from place to place toward Bethel, until he came to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been pitched, ⁴to the site where he had built the altar. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

⁵Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. ⁶But the land was unable to support both of them while they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they were unable to coexist. ⁷And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.

⁸So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are kinsmen. ⁹Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

Lot Proceeds toward Sodom

¹⁰And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.

¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom. ¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.

God Renews the Promise to Abram

¹⁴After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west, ¹⁵for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.

¹⁶I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted. ¹⁷Get up and walk around the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.”

¹⁸So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

The War of the Kings

¹In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim ²went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

³The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). ⁴For twelve years they had been subject to Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

⁵In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim, ⁶and the Horites in the area of Mount Seir, as far as El-paran, which is near the desert. ⁷Then they turned back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and arrayed themselves for battle in the Valley of Siddim ⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar— four kings against five.

Abram Rescues Lot

¹⁰Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some men fell into the pits, but the survivors fled to the hill country.

¹¹The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and they went on their way. ¹²They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since Lot was living in Sodom.

¹³Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were bound by treaty to Abram. ¹⁴And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.

¹⁵During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶He retrieved all the goods, as well as his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the rest of the people.

Melchizedek Blesses Abram

¹⁷After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

¹⁸Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine — since he was priest of God Most High — ¹⁹and he blessed Abram and said:

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Creator of heaven and earth,

²⁰and blessed be God Most High,

who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.

²¹The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.”

²²But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, ²³that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ ²⁴I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share for the men who went with me— Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. They may take their portion.”

God’s Covenant with Abram

¹After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield,

your very great reward.”

²But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” ⁵And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

⁷The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

God Confirms His Promise

⁸But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?”

⁹And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹²As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.

¹³Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. ¹⁴But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. ¹⁵You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. ¹⁶In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

¹⁷When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses. ¹⁸On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land — from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates — ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”