Genesis 9-12

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

2The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand.

3Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.

4But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

5And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:

6Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

7But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.”

8Then God said to Noah and his sons with him,

9“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you,

10and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark.

11And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

14Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

15I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

16And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.”

17So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”

18The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.

19These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

20Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.

21But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.

22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

23Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

24When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

25he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

26He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem.

27May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”

28After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.

29So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

1This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.

2The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

3The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

4And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites.

5From these, the maritime peoples separated into their territories, according to their languages, by clans within their nations.

6The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

7The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

8Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth.

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

10His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

11From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

12and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

13Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, the Anamites, the Lehabites, the Naphtuhites,

14the Pathrusites, the Casluhites (from whom the Philistines came), and the Caphtorites.

15And Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,

16the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

17the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,

18the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans were scattered,

19and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

20These are the sons of Ham according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.

21And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.

22The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

23The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

24Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber.

25Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan.

26And Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

27Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

28Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

29Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.

30Their territory extended from Mesha to Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

31These are the sons of Shem, according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.

32All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.

1Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

2And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

4“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

5Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

6And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them.

7Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

8So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

10This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.

11And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah.

13And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

14When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber.

15And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg.

17And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu.

19And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug.

21And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor.

23And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah.

25And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

28During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

29And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

30But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

31And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there.

32Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

1Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

3I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

4So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

5And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

8From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.

9And Abram journeyed on toward the Negev.

10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

11As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman,

12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.

13Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”

14So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh.

16He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

17The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?

19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

20Then Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram, and they sent him away with his wife and all his possessions.