The Sealed Book from the Mormon Plates

The Sealed Book of Moses

CHAPTER 8

The Lord descends to see what is happening; He sees the construction of the tower of babel; God confounds the language of the peoples, Abram arises.

1 And the LORD came down, and saw the city, and the tower, which the children of men were building; and the Lord said, Behold, the people are one, and they all have one tongue; and for this reason they began to build this tower, because they look at the words of a single man who is promoted in the position of a god among the men in the flesh. And now there will be no restriction on what they intend to do, unless I, the Lord, confuse their language, so that no one understands the pronunciation of each other. For I the Lord, I will scatter them on the face of the earth, between the four corners of the world.

2 Then it came to pass that the men no longer understood one another, and this caused strife and great confusion among them, and because they no longer understood the commands of their kings and lords, they stopped building the city and began, each seeking those who spoke a language understandable to oneself, in order to depart from that place which they started to call themselves 'confusion'.

3 And therefore it is called Babel, because the Lord was displeased with their works, and it was at that time in the history of the earthly man, that the Lord confounded and mixed the tongue of every man, woman, and child of that place; and from there the Lord scattered them on every corner of the earth.

4 And these were the generations of Shem the son of Noah, the high priest of the holy order of the priesthood of the Son of God, who begot Arphaxad at the age of a hundred years, only two years after the flood. And Shem did live five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and begat Salah; and Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years; and begat sons and daughters. And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber; and after he begat Eber, he lived four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg; and Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. Peleg lived thirty years and begot Reu; and lived after he had begotten Reu, two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. Reu lived thirty-two years and begot Serug; and Reu lived after he begat Serug, two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. Serug lived thirty years and begot Nahor; and Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. Nahor lived twenty-nine years and begot Terah; Nahor lived after he begat Terah, a hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

5 These were the generations of Terah; when he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot. But Haran died before his father Terah, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

6 Abram and Nahor took for themselves wives; and the name of the wife of Abram was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Isca. But Sarai was barren and had no son. In these days Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, son of Haran, son of his son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of his son Abram, and he went out with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to Canaan; and they dwelt there.