Genesis 8:9–24:67

9 but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the 1surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself.

10 So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

11 The dove came to him toward 1evening, and behold, in her 2beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.

12 Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out athe dove; but she did not return to him again.

13 Now it came about in the asix hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up 1from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the 2surface of the ground was dried up.

14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.

17 “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may 1abreed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.

19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out 1by their families from the ark.

20 Then Noah built aan altar to the Lord, and took of every bclean animal and of every clean bird and offered cburnt offerings on the altar.

21 The Lord asmelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said 1to Himself, “I will never again bcurse the ground on account of man, for cthe 2intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; dand I will never again 3destroy every living thing, as I have done.

22 “While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And asummer and winter,

And bday and night

Shall not cease.”

Chapter 9

Covenant of the Rainbow

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “aBe fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

2 “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the 1sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.

3 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, aas I gave the green plant.

4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, aits blood.

5 “Surely I will require 1ayour lifeblood; 2bfrom every beast I will require it. And 2from every man, 2from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

6 “aWhoever sheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed,

For bin the image of God

He made man.

7 “As for you, abe fruitful and multiply;

1Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

9 “Now behold, aI Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your 1descendants after you;

10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.

11 “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall anever again be cut off by the water of the flood, bneither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 God said, “This is athe sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for 1all successive generations;

13 I set My abow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

14 “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,

15 and aI will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and bnever again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the aeverlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

18 Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and aHam was the father of Canaan.

19 These three were the sons of Noah, and afrom these the whole earth was 1populated.

20 Then Noah began 1farming and planted a vineyard.

21 He drank of the wine and abecame drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, asaw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were 1turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

25 So he said,

“aCursed be Canaan;

1bA servant of servants

He shall be to his brothers.”

26 He also said,

“aBlessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem;

And let Canaan be 1his servant.

27 “aMay God enlarge Japheth,

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;

And let Canaan be 1his servant.”

28 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

Chapter 10

Descendants of Noah

1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.

2 aThe sons of Japheth were bGomer and Magog and cMadai and dJavan and Tubal and eMeshech and Tiras.

3 The sons of Gomer were aAshkenaz and 1Riphath and bTogarmah.

4 The sons of Javan were Elishah and aTarshish, Kittim and 1Dodanim.

5 From these the coastlands of the nations 1were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

6 aThe sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.

7 The sons of Cush were aSeba and Havilah and Sabtah and bRaamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were bSheba and cDedan.

8 Now Cush 1became the father of Nimrod; he 2became a mighty one on the earth.

9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.”

10 The beginning of his kingdom was 1aBabel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of bShinar.

11 From that land he went forth ainto Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah,

12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

13 Mizraim 1became the father of aLudim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim

14 and aPathrusim and Casluhim (from which came the Philistines) and Caphtorim.

15 Canaan 1became the father of aSidon, his firstborn, and bHeth

16 and athe Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite

17 and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite

18 and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; and afterward the families of the Canaanite were spread abroad.

19 aThe territory of the Canaanite 1extended from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward bSodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.

21 Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the 1older brother of Japheth, children were born.

22 aThe sons of Shem were bElam and Asshur and cArpachshad and dLud and Aram.

23 The sons of Aram were aUz and Hul and Gether and Mash.

24 Arpachshad 1became the father of aShelah; and Shelah 1became the father of Eber.

25 aTwo sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was 1Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

26 Joktan 1became the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah

27 and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah

28 and 1Obal and Abimael and Sheba

29 and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.

30 Now their 1settlement 2extended from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east.

31 These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, according to their nations.

32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and aout of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.

Chapter 11

Universal Language, Babel, Confusion

1 Now the whole earth 1used the same language and 2the same words.

2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land aof Shinar and 1settled there.

3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used atar for mortar.

4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top awill reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves ba name, otherwise we cwill be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

5 aThe Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have 1athe same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be 2impossible for them.

7 “Come, alet Us go down and there bconfuse their 1language, so that they will not understand one another’s 1speech.”

8 So the Lord ascattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

9 Therefore its name was called 1aBabel, because there the Lord confused the 2language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Descendants of Shem

10 aThese are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and 1became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood;

11 and Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and he had other sons and daughters.

12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah;

13 and Arpachshad lived four hundred and …