Genesis 8:1--15:21
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.
The Blessing of Victory for God’s People
14:1 At that time Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations
14:2 went 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).
14:3 These last five kings joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
14:4 For twelve years they had served Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
14:5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
14:6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is near the desert.
14:7 Then they attacked En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh) again, and they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.
14:8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and prepared for battle. In the Valley of Siddim they met
14:9 Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar. Four kings fought against five.
14:10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, but some survivors fled to the hills.
14:11 The four victorious kings took all the possessions and food of Sodom and Gomorrah and left.
14:12 They also took Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions when they left, for Lot was living in Sodom.
14:13 A fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner. (All these were allied by treaty with Abram.)
14:14 When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he mobilized his 318 trained men who had been born in his household, and he pursued the invaders as far as Dan.
14:15 Then, during the night, Abram divided his forces against them and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
14:16 He retrieved all the stolen property. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, as well as the women and the rest of the people.
14:17 After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley).
14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.)
14:19 He blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by the Most High God,
Creator of heaven and earth.
14:20 Worthy of praise is the Most High God,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
14:21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.”
14:22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow
14:23 that I will take nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I who made Abram rich.’
14:24 I will take nothing except compensation for what the young men have eaten. As for the share of the men who went with me – Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre – let them take their share.”
The Cutting of the Covenant
15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield and the one who will reward you in great abundance.”
15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?”
15:3 Abram added, “Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!”
15:4 But look, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
15:5 The Lord took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord considered his response of faith as proof of genuine loyalty.
15:7 The Lord said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
15:8 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, by what can I know that I am to possess it?”
15:9 The Lord said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
15:10 So Abram took all these for him and then cut them in two and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half.
15:11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him.
15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.
15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions.
15:15 But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.
15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.”
15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts.
15:18 That day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River –
15:19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
15:21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”