Genesis 9–11

God’s Covenant With Noah

9Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.^{p 2}The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.^{q 3}Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.^r Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.^s

⁴“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.^{t 5}And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.^u I will demand an accounting from every animal.^v And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.^w

⁶“Whoever sheds human blood,

by humans shall their blood be shed;^x

for in the image of God^y

has God made mankind.

⁷As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”^z

⁸Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹“I now establish my covenant with you^a and with your descendants after you ¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹I establish my covenant^b with you:^c Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.^d”

¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant^e I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:^{f 13}I have set my rainbow^g in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow^h appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenantⁱ between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.^{j 16}Whenever the rainbow^k appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant^l between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant^m I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

The Sons of Noah

¹⁸The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth.ⁿ (Ham was the father of Canaan.)^{o 19}These were the three sons of Noah,^p and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.^q

²⁰Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded^a to plant a vineyard. ²¹When he drank some of its wine,^r he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. ²²Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked^s and told his two brothers outside. ²³But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said,

“Cursed^t be Canaan!^u

The lowest of slaves

will he be to his brothers.^v”

²⁶He also said,

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!^w

May Canaan be the slave^x of Shem.

²⁷May God extend Japheth’s^b territory;^y

may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,^z

and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

²⁸After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.^a

The Table of Nations

10This is the account^b of Shem, Ham and Japheth,^c Noah’s sons,^d who themselves had sons after the flood.

The Japhethites

10:2–5pp—1Ch 1:5–7

²The sons^a of Japheth:

Gomer,^e Magog,^f Madai, Javan,^g Tubal,^h Meshekⁱ and Tiras.

³The sons of Gomer:

Ashkenaz,^j Riphath and Togarmah.^k

⁴The sons of Javan:

Elishah,^l Tarshish,^m the Kittitesⁿ and the Rodanites.^{b 5}(From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)^o

The Hamites

10:6–20pp—1Ch 1:8–16

⁶The sons of Ham:

Cush,^p Egypt, Put^q and Canaan.^r

⁷The sons of Cush:

Seba,^s Havilah,^t Sabtah, Raamah^u and Sabteka.

The sons of Raamah:

Sheba^v and Dedan.^w

⁸Cush was the father^c of Nimrod,^x who became a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹He was a mighty^y hunter^z before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon,^a Uruk,^b Akkad and Kalneh,^c in^d Shinar.^{ed 11}From that land he went to Assyria,^e where he built Nineveh,^f Rehoboth Ir,^f Calah ¹²and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.

¹³Egypt was the father of

the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines^g came) and Caphtorites.^h

¹⁵Canaanⁱ was the father of

Sidon^j his firstborn,^gk and of the Hittites,^{l 16}Jebusites,^m Amorites,ⁿ Girgashites,^{o 17}Hivites,^p Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸Arvadites,^q Zemarites and Hamathites.^r

Later the Canaanite^s clans scattered ¹⁹and the borders of Canaan^t reached from Sidon^u toward Gerar^v as far as Gaza,^w and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim,^x as far as Lasha.

²⁰These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

The Semites

10:21–31pp—Ge 11:10–27; 1Ch 1:17–27

²¹Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was^h Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.^y

²²The sons of Shem:

Elam,^z Ashur,^a Arphaxad,^b Lud and Aram.^c

²³The sons of Aram:

Uz,^d Hul, Gether and Meshek.ⁱ

²⁴Arphaxad was the father of^j Shelah,

and Shelah the father of Eber.^e

²⁵Two sons were born to Eber:

One was named Peleg,^k because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.

²⁶Joktan was the father of

Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal,^f Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba,^{g 29}Ophir,^h Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.

³⁰The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

³¹These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

³²These are the clans of Noah’s sons,ⁱ according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth^j after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11Now the whole world had one language^k and a common speech. ²As people moved eastward,^a they found a plain in Shinar^bl and settled there.

³They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks^m and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone,ⁿ and tar^o for mortar. ⁴Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,^p so that we may make a name^q for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered^r over the face of the whole earth.”^s

⁵But the Lord came down^t to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language^u they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷Come, let us^v go down^w and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”^x

⁸So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,^y and they stopped building the city. ⁹That is why it was called Babel^cz—because there the Lord confused the language^a of the whole world.^b From there the Lord scattered^c them over the face of the whole earth.

From Shem to Abram

11:10–27pp—Ge 10:21–31; 1Ch 1:17–27

¹⁰This is the account^d of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father^d of Arphaxad.^{e 11}And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.^{f 13}And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.^e

¹⁴When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.^{g 15}And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.^{h 17}And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.^{i 19}And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.^{j 21}And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.^{k 23}And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.^{l 25}And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram,^m Nahorⁿ and Haran.^o

Abram’s Family

²⁷This is the account^p of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor^q and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.^{r 28}While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans,^s in the land of his birth. ²⁹Abram and Nahor^t both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,^u and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah;^v she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.^w

³¹Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot^x son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law^y Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans^z to go to Canaan.^a But when they came to Harran,^b they settled there.

³²Terah^c lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.