The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in ^zthe land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, ^aand bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower ^bwith its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And ^cthe Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, ^dlet us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So ^ethe Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called ^fBabel, because there the Lord confused¹ the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Shem’s Descendants

10 ^gThese are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. 13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24 When ^hNahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 When ^hTerah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was ⁱSarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, ^jMilcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

31 Terah ^ktook Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together ^lfrom Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

The Call of Abram

1 Now ^mthe Lord said² to Abram, “Go from your country³ and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 ⁿAnd I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 ^oI will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and ^pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”⁴

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from ^qHaran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram ^rpassed through the land to the place at Shechem, to ^sthe oak⁵ of ^tMoreh. At that time ^uthe Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ^v“To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of ^wBethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 Now ^xthere was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they ^ywill kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord ^zafflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

O Lord, Deliver My Life

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to ^vThe Sheminith.¹ A Psalm of David.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

1 When he came down from the mountain, ^dgreat crowds followed him. 2 ^eAnd behold, a leper¹ came to him and ^fknelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus² stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, ^g“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, ^hshow yourself to the priest and ⁱoffer the gift that Moses commanded, ^jfor a proof to them.”

The Faith of a Centurion

5 ^kWhen he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but ^lonly say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant,³ ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, ^mhe marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with ⁿno one in Israel⁴ have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, ^omany will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 ^pwhile the sons of the kingdom ^qwill be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place ^rthere will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you ^sas you have believed.” ^tAnd the servant was healed at that very moment.

Jesus Heals Many

14 ^uAnd when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw ^vhis mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He ^wtouched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were ^xoppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits ^ywith a word and healed all who were sick. 17 ^zThis was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ^a“He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

The Cost of Following Jesus

18 Now ^bwhen Jesus saw a crowd around him, ^che gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 ^dAnd a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave ^ethe dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus Calms a Storm

23 ^fAnd when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but ^ghe was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, ^h“Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you ⁱafraid, ^jO you of little faith?” Then he rose and ^krebuked the winds and the sea, and ^lthere was a great calm. 27 And the men ^mmarveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even ⁿwinds and sea obey him?”

Jesus Heals Two Men with Demons

28 ^oAnd when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,⁵ two ^pdemon-possessed⁶ men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they ^qcried out, “What have you to do with us, ^rO Son of God? Have you come here to torment us ^sbefore the time?” 30 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” 32 And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. 33 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the ^tdemon-possessed men. 34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, ^uthey begged him to leave their region.