Then God commanded, “Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear”—and it was done.

He named the land “Earth,” and the water which had come together he named “Sea.” And God was pleased with what he saw.

there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because he had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land;

You are driving me off the land and away from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.”

And Cain went away from the Lord's presence and lived in a land called “Wandering,” which is east of Eden.

In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.

but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in.

From that land he went to Assyria and built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,

The land in which they lived extended from Mesha to Sephar in the eastern hill country.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there.

God's Call to Abram

The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you.

Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan,

Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.)

And so there was not enough pasture land for the two of them to stay together, because they had too many animals.

So quarrels broke out between the men who took care of Abram's animals and those who took care of Lot's animals. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were still living in the land.)

So let's separate. Choose any part of the land you want. You go one way, and I'll go the other.”

Lot looked around and saw that the whole Jordan Valley, all the way to Zoar, had plenty of water, like the Garden of the Lord or like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.)

Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled among the cities in the valley and camped near Sodom,

I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever.

Now, go and look over the whole land, because I am going to give it all to you.”

Then they turned around and came back to Kadesh (then known as Enmishpat). They conquered all the land of the Amalekites and defeated the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.

Then the Lord said to him, “I am the Lord, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”

The Lord said to him, “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years.

But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them.

Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River,