Chronological
Chapter 8
The New Creation.[a] 1 God remembered Noah and all the wild and farm animals that were with him in the ark. God made a wind blow upon the earth, and the waters began to recede. 2 The springs of the abyss and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rains from the heavens ceased. 3 The waters slowly receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days they had greatly diminished. 4 In the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat.[b] 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month. In the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains came into view.
6 After forty days had gone by, Noah opened the window that he had made in the ark 7 and released a raven to see if the waters had completely dried up. It flew back and forth until the waters upon the earth dried up. 8 Noah then released a dove, to see if the waters had drained from the surface of the earth, 9 but the dove, not finding any place to land, returned to the ark (for the waters still covered the surface of the earth). He reached out and caught the dove and brought it back into the ark.
10 After waiting another seven days, he once again released the dove from the ark. 11 It returned to him toward the evening. In its beak it had a sprig from an olive tree. Noah understood that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 He waited another seven days and then released the dove. It did not return to him.
13 In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters dried up upon the earth. Noah removed the covering from the ark and, behold, the surface of the earth was dry. 14 In the second month, the twenty-seventh day of the month, the entire surface of the earth was dry.
15 God commanded Noah, 16 “Leave the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. 17 Take all the animals of every species with you, birds, cattle, all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth, take them all with you. Let them spread out upon the earth. May they be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.”
18 Noah left the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.
19 All the living creatures and all the wild animals, all the birds and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth, each according to its kind, all left the ark.
20 Noah built an altar to the Lord, took every kind of clean animal and some of every kind of clean bird, and he offered them as burnt offerings upon the altar.
21 The Lord smelled the pleasant odor and said to himself, “I will never again curse the land because of humankind, for the instinct of every human heart is evil from its youth. I will never again destroy every living creature.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
shall not cease.”
Chapter 9
1 God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 [c]Fear and dread of you will come upon every wild animal and every bird of the air, everything that crawls upon the earth and all the fish of the sea; they will be under your dominion.
3 “Whatever moves and has life will be used for your food. I give you all these things, just as I have already given you every green plant. 4 [d]Only do not eat flesh along with its life, that is, with its blood. 5 For your blood, that is, your life, I will require an accounting. I will require it of every living creature, and I will require it of every human in regard to other humans, each person for his brother.
6 “Whoever spills human blood,
that person’s blood will be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; become numerous upon the earth and have dominion over it.”
Covenant of Mercy.[e] 8 God said to Noah and his sons, 9 “As for me, I will establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 with every living creature along with you—the birds, tame and wild animals, and with all the animals which left the ark. 11 I will establish my covenant with you: never again will all living creatures be cut off by the waters of a flood, nor will the earth be laid waste by a flood again.”
12 God said, “This will be a sign of the covenant that I establish between me and you and every living creature for all generations. 13 I will place my rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I gather the clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds. 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and with every living creature of every kind, that water and flood shall never again destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow will be in the clouds and I will look upon it and remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is found upon the earth.”
17 God said to Noah, “This is a sign of the covenant that I am establishing between myself and every creature upon the earth.”
A World of Diverse Peoples[f]
18 The Return of Sin.[g] The sons of Noah who left the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of the people of Canaan. 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from these came all the people on the earth.
20 Now Noah tilled the soil, and he was the first to plant grape vines. 21 He drank some of the wine and he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of the Canaanites, saw his father lying naked, and he mentioned it to his two brothers who were standing outside.[h] 23 Shem and Japheth took a robe and, holding it in back of them, walked backward toward him and covered their father with it. Having faced backward, they did not see their father naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his drunken slumber, he learned what his youngest son had done to him. 25 Because of this, he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
A slave of slaves
shall he be to his brothers!”[i]
26 [j]And he continued,
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem,
and let Canaan be his slave!
27 May God enlarge Japheth
so that he dwells in the land of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave!”
28 After the flood, Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years. 29 In all, Noah lived for nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.
Chapter 10
The Human Family.[k] 1 These are the descendants of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth, to whom sons were born after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meschech, and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Rodanim.
5 From these came the peoples of the islands and their territories, each clan in the nations with their own language.
6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.
The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush gave birth to Nimrod. He was the first of the mighty ones upon the earth. 9 He was a great hunter before the Lord, for it is said, “Just like Nimrod, a great hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Asshur where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, which is the main city.
13 Mizraim gave birth to the Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim (from whom came the Philistines).
15 Canaan gave birth to Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, 16 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.
Afterward the clans of the Canaanites spread outward. 19 The boundaries of the Canaanites stretch from Sidon in the area of Gerar up to Gaza, and then go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, up to Lasha.
20 These were the sons of Ham according to their clans and their languages, in their various territories and according to their peoples.
21 Shem, the ancestor of all of the sons of Eber and the older brother of Japheth, also had children.
22 The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
24 Arpachshad gave birth to Shelah, and Shelah gave birth to Eber. 25 Eber had two sons: one named Peleg (for in his days the earth was divided) and the other named Joktan.
26 Joktan gave birth to Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
30 They lived in the mountain region in the east, from Mesha on toward Sephar.
31 These were the sons of Shem according to their clans and their languages, in their various territories and according to their languages.
32 These were the families of the sons of Noah in their various generations and clans. These divided up to become all the nations on the earth after the flood.
Chapter 11
An Attempt at Unity.[l] 1 The whole world had only one language, everyone using the same words. 2 Migrating from the east, men came upon a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them in a fire.” These bricks were what they used instead of stone, and bitumen in place of cement.[m] 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build a city and a tower so high that it touches the heavens.[n] We shall make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all throughout the earth.”
5 But the Lord came down and saw the city and the tower that these men were building. 6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are a single people and they have only one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. Now nothing that they think up will be impossible for them. 7 Let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other when they speak.”
8 The Lord scattered them over the whole earth[o] and they ceased building their city. 9 This is why it is called Babel,[p] for there the Lord confused everyone’s language. It was also from there that the Lord scattered people over the whole earth.
10 Genealogy of Abraham.[q] The descendants of Shem are as follow:
Shem was one hundred years old when he had Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 Shem, after he had Arpachshad, lived another five hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
12 Arpachshad was thirty-five years old when he had Shelah. 13 Arpachshad, after he had Shelah, lived another four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.
14 Shelah was thirty years old when he had Eber. 15 Shelah, after he had Eber, lived another four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.
16 Eber was thirty-four years old when he had Peleg. 17 Eber, after he had Peleg, lived another four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.
18 Peleg was thirty years old when he had Reu. 19 Peleg, after he had Reu, lived another two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters.
20 Reu was thirty-two years old when he had Serug. 21 Reu, after he had Serug, lived another two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters.
22 Serug was thirty years old when he had Nahor. 23 Serug, after he had Nahor, lived another two hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
24 Nahor was twenty-nine years old when he had Terah. 25 Nahor, after he had Terah, lived one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters.
26 Terah was seventy years old when he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 These are the descendants of Terah.
Terah had Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran had Lot. 28 Haran then died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.[r] 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The wife of Abram was Sarai, and the wife of Nahor was Milcah who was a daughter of Haran (the father of Milcah and Iscah). 30 Sarai was barren and did not have any children.
31 Then Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law and the wife of Abram his son, and he left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran where they settled.[s]
32 Terah lived to be two hundred and five years old. Terah died in Haran.
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