Genesis 8:1--13:18
8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over the earth and the waters receded.
8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain stopped falling from the sky.
8:3 The waters kept receding steadily from the earth, so that they had gone down by the end of the 150 days.
8:4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.
8:5 The waters kept on receding until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
8:6 At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
8:7 and sent out a raven; it kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.
8:8 Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
8:9 The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back into the ark.
8:10 He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark.
8:11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
8:12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but it did not return to him this time.
8:13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year, in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
8:14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.
8:15 Then God spoke to Noah and said,
8:16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
8:17 Bring out with you all the living creatures that are with you. Bring out every living thing, including the birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them increase and be fruitful and multiply on the earth!”
8:18 Noah went out along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.
8:19 Every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth went out of the ark in their groups.
8:20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on. I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.
8:22 “While the earth continues to exist,
planting time and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
and day and night will not cease.”
God’s Covenant with Humankind through Noah
9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority.
9:3 You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
9:4 But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it.
9:5 For your lifeblood I will surely exact punishment, from every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person I will exact punishment for the life of the individual since the man was his relative.
9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by other humans
must his blood be shed;
for in God’s image
God has made humankind.”
9:7 But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; increase abundantly on the earth and multiply on it.”
9:8 God said to Noah and his sons,
9:9 “Look! I now confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you
9:10 and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature of the earth.
9:11 I confirm my covenant with you: Never again will all living things be wiped out by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee of the covenant I am making with you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all subsequent generations:
9:13 I will place my rainbow in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth.
9:14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,
9:15 then I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures of all kinds. Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy all living things.
9:16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.”
9:17 So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things that are on the earth.”
The Curse of Canaan
9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Now Ham was the father of Canaan.)
9:19 These were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
9:20 Noah, a man of the soil, began to plant a vineyard.
9:21 When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.
9:22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers who were outside.
9:23 Shem and Japheth took the garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.
9:24 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor he learned what his youngest son had done to him.
9:25 So he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
he will be to his brothers.”
9:26 He also said,
“Worthy of praise is the Lord, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem!
9:27 May God enlarge Japheth’s territory and numbers!
May he live in the tents of Shem
and may Canaan be his slave!”
9:28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years.
9:29 The entire lifetime of Noah was 950 years, and then he died.
The Table of Nations
10:1 This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
10:2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
10:3 The sons of Gomer were Askenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
10:4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Dodanim.
10:5 From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to its language, according to their families, by their nations.
10:6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
10:7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
10:8 Cush was the father of Nimrod; he began to be a valiant warrior on the earth.
10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. (That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”)
10:10 The primary regions of his kingdom were Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.
10:11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,
10:12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city Calah.
10:13 Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites,
10:14 Pathrusites, Casluhites (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorites.
10:15 Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, Heth,
10:16 the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,
10:17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,
10:18 Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Eventually the families of the Canaanites were scattered
10:19 and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon all the way to Gerar as far as Gaza, and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
10:20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and by their nations.
10:21 And sons were also born to Shem (the older brother of Japheth), the father of all the sons of Eber.
10:22 The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
10:23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
10:24 Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber.
10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.
10:26 Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
10:27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
10:28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
10:29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
10:30 Their dwelling place was from Mesha all the way to Sephar in the eastern hills.
10:31 These are the sons of Shem according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and according to their nations.
10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations, and from these the nations spread over the earth after the flood.
The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel
11:1 The whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary.
11:2 When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
11:3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.)
11:4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.”
11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building.
11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.
11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”
11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city.
11:9 That is why its name was called Babel – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
The Genealogy of Shem
11:10 This is the account of Shem.
Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
11:11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.
11:13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.
11:15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.
11:17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.
11:19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.
11:21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.
11:23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.
11:25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
11:26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Record of Terah
11:27 This is the account of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, while his father Terah was still alive.
11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.
11:32 The lifetime of Terah was 205 years, and he died in Haran.
The Obedience of Abram
12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household
to the land that I will show you.
12:2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,
and I will make your name great,
so that you will exemplify divine blessing.
12:3 I will bless those who bless you,
but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,
and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”
12:4 So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.)
12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they left for the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.
12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)
12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord.
12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev.
The Promised Blessing Jeopardized
12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe.
12:11 As he approached Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman.
12:12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive.
12:13 So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you.”
12:14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
12:15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram’s wife was taken into the household of Pharaoh,
12:16 and he did treat Abram well on account of her. Abram received sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
12:17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
12:18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?
12:19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Here is your wife! Take her and go!”
12:20 Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, and so they expelled him, along with his wife and all his possessions.
Abram’s Solution to the Strife
13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt into the Negev. He took his wife and all his possessions with him, as well as Lot.
13:2 (Now Abram was very wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold.)
13:3 And he journeyed from place to place from the Negev as far as Bethel. He returned to the place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai.
13:4 This was the place where he had first built the altar, and there Abram worshiped the Lord.
13:5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents.
13:6 But the land could not support them while they were living side by side. Because their possessions were so great, they were not able to live alongside one another.
13:7 So there were quarrels between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.)
13:8 Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives.
13:9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself now from me. If you go to the left, then I’ll go to the right, but if you go to the right, then I’ll go to the left.”
13:10 Lot looked up and saw the whole region of the Jordan. He noticed that all of it was well-watered (before the Lord obliterated Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, all the way to Zoar.
13:11 Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled toward the east.
So the relatives separated from each other.
13:12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan plain and pitched his tents next to Sodom.
13:13 (Now the people of Sodom were extremely wicked rebels against the Lord.)
13:14 After Lot had departed, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west.
13:15 I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants forever.
13:16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted.
13:17 Get up and walk throughout the land, for I will give it to you.”
13:18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord there.
Genesis 16:1-16
The Birth of Ishmael
16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.
16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” Abram did what Sarai told him.
16:3 So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband to be his wife.
16:4 He had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai.
16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she despised me. May the Lord judge between you and me!”
16:6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your servant is under your authority, do to her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai treated Hagar harshly, so she ran away from Sarai.
16:7 The Lord’s angel found Hagar near a spring of water in the desert – the spring that is along the road to Shur.
16:8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.”
16:9 Then the Lord’s angel said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.
16:10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the Lord’s angel added, “so that they will be too numerous to count.”
16:11 Then the Lord’s angel said to her,
“You are now pregnant
and are about to give birth to a son.
You are to name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard your painful groans.
16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man.
He will be hostile to everyone,
and everyone will be hostile to him.
He will live away from his brothers.”
16:13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!”
16:14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. (It is located between Kadesh and Bered.)
16:15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, whom Abram named Ishmael.
16:16 (Now Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.)
Genesis 1:15-20
1:15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so.
1:16 God made two great lights
– the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also.
1:17 God placed the lights
in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth,
1:18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.
God saw that it was good.
1:19 There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.
1:20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”