Genesis 9–11

God’s Covenant with Noah and Humankind

9And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ²And fear of you and dread of you shall be upon every animal of the earth, and on every bird of heaven,^a and on everything that moves upon the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they shall be given. ³Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As I gave the green plants to you, I now give you everything. ⁴Only you shall not eat raw flesh with blood in it.^{b 5}And^c your lifeblood^d I will require; from every animal^e I will require it. And from the hand of humankind, from the hand of each man to his brother I will require the life of humankind.

⁶“As for the one shedding the blood of humankind,

by humankind his blood shall be shed,

for God made humankind in his own image.

⁷“And you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it.” ⁸And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹“As for me, behold, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your seed after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and every animal of the earth with you, from all that came out of the ark to all the animals of the earth. ¹¹I am establishing my covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, nor will there ever be a flood that destroys the earth.” ¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you, and between every living creature that is with you for future generations. ¹³My bow I have set in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and between the earth. ¹⁴And when I make clouds appear over the earth the bow shall be seen in the clouds. ¹⁵Then^f I will remember my covenant that is between me and you, and between every living creature, with all flesh. And the waters of a flood will never again cause the destruction^g of all flesh. ¹⁶The bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it, so as to remember the everlasting covenant between God and between every living creature, with all flesh that is upon the earth.” ¹⁷And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am establishing between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”

Noah’s Descendants

¹⁸Now^h the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.^{i 20}And Noah began to be a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹And he drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he exposed himself in the midst of his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside. ²³Then^j Shem and Japheth took a garment, and the two of them put it on their shoulders and, walking backward, they covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned backward, so that^k they did not see the nakedness of their father. ²⁴Then^l Noah awoke from his drunkenness,^m and he knew what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵And he said,

“Cursed be Canaan,

a slave of slaves he shall be to his brothers.”

²⁶Thenⁿ he said,

“Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem,

and let Canaan be a slave to them.

²⁷May God make space for Japheth,

and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,

and let Canaan be a slave for him.”

²⁸And Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. ²⁹And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

The Descendants of the Sons of Noah

10These are the generations^a of the sons of Noah—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Children^b were born to them after the flood. ²The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵From these the coastland peoples spread out through their lands, each according to his own language by their own families, in their nations.

⁶And the sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. ⁷And the sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. ⁸And Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on earth to be a mighty warrior.^{c 9}He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it was said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh.” ¹⁰Now,^d the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹From that land he went out to Assyria, and he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹²Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³And Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth, ¹⁶and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. ¹⁹And the territory of the Canaanites was from Sidon in the direction of^e Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of^f Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰These are the descendants^g of Ham, according to their families and their languages, in their lands, and in their nations.

²¹And to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the older brother of Japheth, children were also born. ²²The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. ²³And the sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁴And Arphaxad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵And to Eber two sons were born. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and the name of his brother was Joktan. ²⁶And Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰And their dwelling place extended from^h Mesha in the direction ofⁱ Sephar to the hill country of the east. ³¹These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, and according to their nations.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations^j and in their nations. And from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11Now^a the whole earth had one language and the same words. ²And as people migrated^b from the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³And they said to each other,^c “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.”^d And they had brick for stone and they had tar for mortar. ⁴And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵Then^e Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that humankind^f was building. ⁶And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people with one language,^g and this is only the beginning of what they will do.^h Soⁱ now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand each other’s language.”^{j 8}So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Descendants of Shem

¹⁰These are the generations^k of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old,^l he fathered Arphaxad, two years after the flood. ¹¹And Shem lived five hundred years after he fathered Arphaxad, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹²When Arphaxad had lived thirty-five years, he fathered Shelah. ¹³And Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years after he fathered Shelah, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁴When Shelah had lived thirty years, he fathered Eber. ¹⁵And Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he fathered Eber, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁶When Eber had lived thirty-four years, he fathered Peleg. ¹⁷And Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he fathered Peleg, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁸When Peleg had lived thirty years, he fathered Reu. ¹⁹And Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he fathered Reu, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁰When Reu had lived thirty-two years, he fathered Serug. ²¹And Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he fathered Serug, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ²²When Serug had lived thirty years, he fathered Nahor. ²³And Serug lived two hundred years after he fathered Nahor, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁴When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he fathered Terah. ²⁵And Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he fathered Terah, and he fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁶When Terah had lived seventy years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Descendants of Terah

²⁷Now^m these are the generationsⁿ of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸And Haran died in the presence of Terah his father in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of the wife of Abram was Sarai, and the name of the wife of Nahor was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰And Sarai was barren; she had no child. ³¹And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson,^o and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. And they went to Haran, and they settled there. ³²And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.