CHAPTER 11 Jan. 6 
The Tower of Babel
The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2It happened, as they travelled east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. 3A man said to his neighbour, Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4They said, Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth. 5Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. 6Yahweh said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. 7Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city. 9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth. 
The Generations from Shem to Abram
10This is the history of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of sons and daughters. 12Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah. 13Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after he became the father of Shelah, and became the father of sons and daughters. 14Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber: 15and Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he became the father of Eber, and became the father of sons and daughters. 16Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg. 17Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and became the father of sons and daughters. 18Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu. 19Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of sons and daughters. 20Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug. 21Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he became the father of Serug, and became the father of sons and daughters. 22Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor. 23Serug lived two hundred years after he became the father of Nahor, and became the father of sons and daughters. 24Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah. 25Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and became the father of sons and daughters. 26Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. 28Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, 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, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. 30Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there. 32The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran. 

Commentary

11:15 The genealogies of Genesis 11 reveal how some human lives repeat according to the same outline schema. Thus both Arpachshad and Shelah each lived 403 years after the births of the eldest sons; Shelah, Peleg and Serug were each 30 when their first sons were born. Abraham and Shem both had sons at 100 years old (Gen. 11:10). And it is the very nature of Christian fellowship that God has arranged that our human lives likewise have elements of amazing similarity of pattern.
11:31 Terah and his family departed “to go into the land of Canaan”. These are the same Hebrew words as in the command to Abram: “Get you out of your country” (Gen. 12:1). We can therefore conclude that Abram received this call to quit his country, but didn't obey it, until some unrecorded situation led his father to announce the family's emigration to Canaan. Abram was therefore very slow to obey the call. Note too that the command to Abram had been to leave his land and also his “relatives and... father's house”. This he didn't do- for he left Ur with his father and brothers, i.e. his kindred. His brother Haran died, and his father then died in Haran, where they temporarily lived on the way to Canaan. We see here how God seeks to almost make us obedient. And Gen. 15:7 records that it was God who brought Abram out of Ur- even though Abraham failed to rise up and be obedient in his own strength, God manipulated family circumstances to make him obedient to the call; and in essence He does this for us too.