²“All of the land animals will be afraid of you. All of the birds of the air will fear you. Every creature that moves along the ground will fear you. Every fish in the oceans will also be afraid of you. Every living thing is put under your control.

³“Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. I have already given you the green plants for food. Now I am giving you everything.

⁴“But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it. ⁵You can be sure that I will hold someone accountable if you are murdered. I will even hold animals accountable if they kill you. I will also hold anyone accountable who murders another person.

⁶“Anyone who murders man

will be killed by man.

That is because I have made man

in my own likeness.

⁷“Have children and increase your numbers. Multiply on the earth and increase your numbers on it.”

⁸Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons who were with him. He said, ⁹“I am now making my covenant with you and with all of your children who will be born after you. ¹⁰I am making it also with every living thing that was with you in the ark. I am making my covenant with the birds, the livestock and all of the wild animals. I am making it with all of the creatures that came out of the ark with you. I am making it with every living thing on earth.

¹¹“Here is my covenant that I am making with you. The waters of a flood will never destroy all life again. A flood will never destroy the earth again.”

¹²God continued, “My covenant is between me and you and every living thing with you. It is a covenant for all time to come.

“Here is the sign of the covenant I am making. ¹³I have put my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴Sometimes when I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in them. ¹⁵Then I will remember my covenant between me and you and every kind of living thing. The waters will never become a flood to destroy all life again.

¹⁶“When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. I will remember that my covenant will last forever. It is a covenant between me and every kind of living thing on earth.”

¹⁷So God said to Noah, “The rainbow is the sign of my covenant. I have made my covenant between me and all life on earth.”

The Sons of Noah

¹⁸The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹The people who were scattered over the earth came from Noah’s three sons.

²⁰Noah was a man who worked the ground. He decided to plant a vineyard. ²¹He drank some of its wine. It made him drunk. Then he lay down inside his tent without any clothes on. ²²Ham saw his father’s naked body. Ham was the father of Canaan. Ham went outside and told his two brothers.

²³But Shem and Japheth took a piece of clothing. They laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked backward into the tent. They covered their father’s body. They turned their faces away. They didn’t want to see their father’s naked body.

²⁴Then Noah woke up from his sleep that was caused by the wine. He found out what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵He said,

“May a curse be put on Canaan.

He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.”

²⁶Noah also said,

“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed.

May Canaan be the slave of Shem.

²⁷May God add land to Japheth’s territory.

May Japheth live in the tents of Shem.

And may Canaan be their slave.”

²⁸After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹Noah lived a total of 950 years. Then he died.

A List of Nations

10Here is the story of Shem, Ham and Japheth. They were Noah’s sons. After the flood, they too had sons.

The Sons of Japheth

²The sons of Japheth were

Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.

³The sons of Gomer were

Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.

⁴The sons of Javan were

Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim and the Rodanites. ⁵The people who lived by the sea came from all of them. Their tribes and nations spread out into their own territories. Each tribe and nation had its own language.

The Sons of Ham

⁶The sons of Ham were

Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

⁷The sons of Cush were

Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca.

The sons of Raamah were

Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush was the father of Nimrod. Nimrod grew up to be a mighty hero on the earth. ⁹He was a mighty hunter in the Lord’s eyes. That’s why people sometimes compare others with Nimrod. They say, “They are like Nimrod, who is a mighty hunter in the Lord’s eyes.”

¹⁰At first Nimrod’s kingdom was made up of Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh. Those cities were in the land of Babylonia.

¹¹From that land he went to Assyria. There he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir and Calah. ¹²He also built Resen. It is between Nineveh and Calah. Nineveh is the great city.

¹³Egypt was the father of

the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites and Naphtuhites. ¹⁴He was also the father of the Pathrusites, Casluhites and Caphtorites. The Philistines came from the Casluhites.

¹⁵Canaan was the father of

Sidon. Sidon was his oldest son. Canaan was also the father of the Hittites, ¹⁶Jebusites, Amorites and Girgashites. ¹⁷And he was the father of the Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

Later the Canaanite tribes scattered. ¹⁹The borders of Canaan went from Sidon toward Gerar all the way to Gaza. Then they went toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim all the way to Lasha.

²⁰Those are the sons of Ham. They are listed by their tribes and languages in their territories and nations.

The Sons of Shem

²¹Sons were also born to Shem. Shem was Japheth’s younger brother. All of the sons of Eber came from Shem.

²²The sons of Shem were

Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.

²³The sons of Aram were

Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech.

²⁴Arphaxad was the father of Shelah.

Shelah was the father of Eber.

²⁵Eber was the father of two sons.

One was named Peleg. That’s because the earth was divided up in his time. His brother was named Joktan.

²⁶Joktan was the father of

Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth and Jerah. ²⁷He was also the father of Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All of them were sons of Joktan.

³⁰The area where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar. It was in the eastern hill country.

³¹Those are the sons of Shem. They are listed by their tribes and languages in their territories and nations.

³²Those are the tribes of Noah’s sons. They are listed by their family lines within their nations. From them the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11The whole world had only one language. All people spoke it. ²They moved to the east and found a broad valley in Babylonia. There they settled down.

³They said to each other, “Come. Let’s make bricks and bake them well.” They used bricks instead of stones. They used tar to hold the bricks together.

⁴Then they said, “Come. Let’s build a city for ourselves. Let’s build a tower that reaches to the sky. We’ll make a name for ourselves. Then we won’t be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶The Lord said, “They are one people. And all of them speak the same language. That is why they can do this. Now they will be able to do anything they plan to. ⁷Come. Let us go down and mix up their language. Then they will not understand each other.”

⁸So the Lord scattered them from there over the whole earth. And they stopped building the city. ⁹The Lord mixed up the language of the whole world there. That’s why the city was named Babel. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Family Line of Shem

¹⁰Here is the story of Shem.

It was two years after the flood. When Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. ¹¹After Arphaxad was born, Shem lived 500 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived 403 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵After Eber was born, Shelah lived 403 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷After Peleg was born, Eber lived 430 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹After Reu was born, Peleg lived 209 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. ²¹After Serug was born, Reu lived 207 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. ²³After Nahor was born, Serug lived 200 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵After Terah was born, Nahor lived 119 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

²⁶Terah lived for 70 years. Then he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

²⁷Here is the story of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸Haran died in Ur in Babylonia. That was the land where he had been born. Haran died while his father Terah was still alive.

²⁹Abram and Nahor both got married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai. The name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰But Sarai wasn’t able to have children.

³¹Terah started out from Ur in Babylonia. He took his son Abram with him. He also took his grandson Lot. Lot was the son of Haran. And Terah took his daughter-in-law Sarai. She was the wife of his son Abram.

All of them left together to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled down.

³²Terah lived for 205 years. He died in Haran.

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