Genesis 9–11

9So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ^a“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ^2bAnd the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. ^3cEvery moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you ^dall things, even as the ^egreen herbs. ^4fBut you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; ^gfrom the hand of every beast I will require it, and ^hfrom the hand of man. From the hand of every ⁱman’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁶“Whoever ^jsheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed;

^kFor in the image of God

He made man.

⁷And as for you, ^lbe fruitful and multiply;

Bring forth abundantly in the earth

And multiply in it.”

⁸Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹“And as for Me, ^mbehold, I establish ⁿMy covenant with you and with your ¹descendants after you, ^10oand with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹Thus ^pI establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²And God said: ^q“This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³I set ^rMy rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵and ^sI will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember ^tthe everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷And 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.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ^uAnd Ham was the father of Canaan. ^19vThese three were the sons of Noah, ^wand from these the whole earth was populated.

²⁰And Noah began to be ^xa farmer, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹Then he drank of the wine ^yand was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ^23zBut Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were ²turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. ²⁵Then he said:

^a“Cursed be Canaan;

A ^bservant of servants

He shall be to his brethren.”

²⁶And he said:

^c“Blessed be the Lord,

The God of Shem,

And may Canaan be his servant.

²⁷May God ^denlarge Japheth,

^eAnd may he dwell in the tents of Shem;

And may Canaan be his servant.”

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

Nations Descended from Noah

10Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ^aAnd sons were born to them after the flood.

^2bThe sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, ¹Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and ²Dodanim. ⁵From these ^cthe coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

^6dThe sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, ³Put, and Canaan. ⁷The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush begot ^eNimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. ⁹He was a mighty ^fhunter ^gbefore the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” ^10hAnd the beginning of his kingdom was ⁱBabel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹From that land he went ^jto Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, ¹²and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).

¹³Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴Pathrusim, and Casluhim ^k(from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).

¹⁵Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and ^lHeth; ^16mthe Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; ¹⁷the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; ¹⁸the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. ¹⁹ⁿAnd the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.

²¹And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, ⁴the brother of Japheth the elder. ²²The ^osons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, ^pArphaxad, Lud, and Aram. ²³The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and ⁵Mash. ²⁴⁶Arphaxad begot ^qSalah, and Salah begot Eber. ^25rTo Eber were born two sons: the name of one was ⁷Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰And their dwelling place was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. ³¹These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.

^32sThese were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; ^tand from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11Now the whole earth had one language and one ¹speech. ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land ^aof Shinar, and they dwelt there. ³Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and ²bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. ⁴And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower ^bwhose top is in the heavens; let us make a ^cname for ourselves, lest we ^dbe scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

^5eBut the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶And the Lord said, “Indeed ^fthe people are one and they all have ^gone language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they ^hpropose to do will be withheld from them. ⁷Come, ⁱlet Us go down and there ^jconfuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So ^kthe Lord scattered them abroad from there ^lover the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. ⁹Therefore its name is called ³Babel, ^mbecause there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Shem’s Descendants

¹⁰ⁿThis is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. ¹¹After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹²Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, ^oand begot Salah. ¹³After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁴Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. ¹⁵After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.

^16pEber lived thirty-four years, and begot ^qPeleg. ¹⁷After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.

¹⁸Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. ¹⁹After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁰Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot ^rSerug. ²¹After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.

²²Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. ²³After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁴Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot ^sTerah. ²⁵After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.

²⁶Now Terah lived seventy years, and ^tbegot ⁴Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

²⁷This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot ^uAbram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. ²⁸And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was ^vSarai, ⁵and the name of Nahor’s wife, ^wMilcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. ³⁰But ^xSarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹And Terah ^ytook his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from ^zUr of the Chaldeans to go to ^athe land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. ³²So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.