Historical

Chapter 8

¹ God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. ² The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back. ³ Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished ⁴ that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.^{[a] 5} The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch of the ark that he had made, ^7 [b]and he released a raven. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. ⁸ Then he released a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. ⁹ But the dove could find no place to perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water over all the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. ¹⁰ He waited yet seven days more and again released the dove from the ark. ¹¹ In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had diminished on the earth. ¹² He waited yet another seven days and then released the dove; but this time it did not come back.

^13 [c]In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground had dried. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah: ¹⁶ Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all creatures, be they birds or animals or crawling things that crawl on the earth—and let them abound on the earth, and be fertile and multiply on it.^{(A) 18} So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives; ¹⁹ and all the animals, all the birds, and all the crawling creatures that crawl on the earth went out of the ark by families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, the Lord said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.^(B)

Chapter 9

Covenant with Noah. ^1 [d]God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.^{(D) 2 [e]}Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. ^3 (E)Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. ^4 (F)Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.^{[f] 5} Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.^(G)

⁷ Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.^(I)

^8 [h]God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you^{(J) 10} and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. ¹¹ I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.^{(K) 12} God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: ^13 (L)I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.^{(M) 16} When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth. ¹⁷ God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.

Noah and His Sons. ^18 [i]The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.^{(N) 19} These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent.^{(O) 22} Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. ²³ Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their shoulders, they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said:

²⁶ He also said:

²⁸ Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. ²⁹ The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

Chapter 10

Table of the Nations.^{[k] 1} These are the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, to whom children were born after the flood.

^2 (Q)The descendants of Japheth: Gomer,^[l] Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.^{(R) 3} The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz,^[m] Diphath and Togarmah. ⁴ The descendants of Javan: Elishah,^[n] Tarshish, the Kittim and the Rodanim. ⁵ From these branched out the maritime nations.

These are the descendants of Japheth by their lands, each with its own language, according to their clans, by their nations.

⁶ The descendants of Ham: Cush,^[o] Mizraim, Put and Canaan. ⁷ The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

⁸ Cush^[p] became the father of Nimrod, who was the first to become a mighty warrior on earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter in the eyes of the Lord; hence the saying, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the eyes of the Lord.” ¹⁰ His kingdom originated in Babylon, Erech and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.^{[q] 11} From that land he went forth to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir^[r] and Calah, ¹² as well as Resen, between Nineveh and Calah,^[s] the latter being the principal city.

^13 (S)Mizraim became the father of the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ the Pathrusim,^[t] the Casluhim, and the Caphtorim from whom the Philistines came.

¹⁵ Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and of Heth;^{[u] 16} also of 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 out, ¹⁹ so that the Canaanite borders extended from Sidon all the way to Gerar, near Gaza, and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, near Lasha.

²⁰ These are the descendants of Ham, according to their clans, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.

²¹ To Shem also, Japheth’s oldest brother and the ancestor of all the children of Eber,^[v] children were born. ^22 (T)The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram. ²³ The descendants of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash.

²⁴ Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber. ²⁵ To Eber two sons were born: the name of the first was Peleg, for in his time the world was divided;^[w] and the name of his brother was Joktan.

²⁶ Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were descendants of Joktan. ³⁰ Their settlements extended all the way from Mesha to Sephar, the eastern hill country.

³¹ These are the descendants of Shem, according to their clans, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.

³² These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their origins and by their nations. From these the nations of the earth branched out after the flood.

Chapter 11

Tower of Babel.^{[x] 1} The whole world had the same language and the same words. ² When they were migrating from the east, they came to a valley in the land of Shinar^[y] and settled there. ³ They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky,^[z] and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”

⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. ⁶ Then the Lord said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach. ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that no one will understand the speech of another. ⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel,^[aa] because there the Lord confused the speech of all the world. From there the Lord scattered them over all the earth.

Descendants from Shem to Abraham.^{[ab] 10 (U)}These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old, he begot Arpachshad, two years after the flood. ¹¹ Shem lived five hundred years after he begot Arpachshad, and he had other sons and daughters. ¹² When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old, he begot Shelah.^{[ac] 13} Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after he begot Shelah, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ When Shelah was thirty years old, he begot Eber. ¹⁵ Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he begot Eber, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber^[ad] was thirty-four years old, he begot Peleg. ¹⁷ Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he begot Peleg, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg was thirty years old, he begot Reu. ¹⁹ Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he begot Reu, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu was thirty-two years old, he begot Serug. ²¹ Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he begot Serug, and he had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug was thirty years old, he begot Nahor. ²³ Serug lived two hundred years after he begot Nahor, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he begot Terah. ²⁵ Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he begot Terah, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ When Terah was seventy years old, he begot Abram,^[ae] Nahor and Haran.^(V)

II. The Story of the Ancestors of Israel

Terah. ²⁷ These are the descendants of Terah.^[af] Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begot Lot. ²⁸ Haran died before Terah his father, in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.^{[ag] 29} Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,^[ah] and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.^{(W) 30} Sarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan. But when they reached Haran, they settled there.^{(X) 32} The lifetime of Terah was two hundred and five years; then Terah died in Haran.^[ai]