Genesis 9–11

GOD’S COVENANT WITH NOAH

9God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.^{b 2}The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. ³Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you;^c as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.^{d 4}However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.^{e 5}And I will require a penalty for your lifeblood;^A I will require it from any animal^f and from any human; if someone murders a fellow human, I will require that person’s life.^g

⁶Whoever sheds human blood,

by humans his blood will be shed,^h

for God made humans in his image.ⁱ

⁷But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”^j

⁸Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, ⁹“Understand that I am establishing my covenant^k with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”^l

¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant^m I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: ¹³I have placed my bow in the clouds,ⁿ and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant^o between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. ¹⁶The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant^p between God and all the living creatures on earth.” ¹⁷God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.”

PROPHECIES ABOUT NOAH’S FAMILY

¹⁸Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated.^q

²⁰Noah, as a man of the soil, began by planting^B a vineyard. ²¹He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²²Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.^{r 23}Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said:

Canaan is cursed.^s

He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.^t

²⁶He also said:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;

Let Canaan be Shem’s slave.

²⁷Let God extend Japheth;^B

let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem;

let Canaan be Shem’s slave.

²⁸Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹So Noah’s life lasted 950 years; then he died.

THE TABLE OF NATIONS

10These are the family records^u of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They also had sons after the flood.

²Japheth’s sons:^v Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³Gomer’s sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴And Javan’s sons: Elishah, Tarshish,^w Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵From these descendants, the peoples of the coasts and islands spread out into their lands according to their clans in their nations, each with its own language.

⁶Ham’s sons:^x Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁷Cush’s sons: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And Raamah’s sons: Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush fathered Nimrod, who began to be powerful in the land. ⁹He was a powerful hunter in the sight of the Lord. That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a powerful hunter in the sight of the Lord.” ¹⁰His kingdom started with Babylon,^a Erech,^D Accad,^E and Calneh,^F in the land of Shinar.^{Gb 11}From that land he went to Assyria^c and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, ¹²and Resen, between Nineveh and the great city Calah.

¹³Mizraim^Hd fathered the people of Lud, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, ¹⁴Pathrus, Casluh (the Philistines came from them), and Caphtor.^e

¹⁵Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, ¹⁶as well as the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,^{f 17}the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the Canaanite clans scattered. ¹⁹The Canaanite border went from Sidon going toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and going toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim as far as Lasha.

²⁰These are Ham’s sons by their clans, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

²¹And Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. Shem was the father of all the sons of Eber.^{g 22}Shem’s sons^h were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

²³Aram’s sons: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

²⁴Arpachshad fathered Shelah,ⁱ and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵Eber had two sons. One was named Peleg,^A for during his days the earth was divided;^j his brother was named Joktan. ²⁶And Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were Joktan’s sons. ³⁰Their settlements extended from Mesha to Sephar, the eastern hill country.

³¹These are Shem’s sons by their clans, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

³²These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their family records, in their nations. The nations on earth spread out from these after the flood.^k

THE TOWER OF BABYLON

11The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. ²As people migrated from the east,^B they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.^{l 3}They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt^m for mortar.) ⁴And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky.ⁿ Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

⁵Then the Lord came down^o to look over the city and the tower that the humans^C were building. ⁶The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth,^p and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore it is called Babylon,^DEq for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

FROM SHEM TO ABRAM

¹⁰These are the family records^r of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. ¹¹After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹²Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah. ¹³After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁴Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. ¹⁵After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁶Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. ¹⁷After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁸Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. ¹⁹After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁰Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. ²¹After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²²Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. ²³After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁴Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.^{a 25}After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁶Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. ²⁹Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai,^b and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah.^c She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰Sarai was unable to conceive;^d she did not have a child.

³¹Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans^e to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³²Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.