Genesis 9-11

New American Standard Bible

Covenant of the Rainbow

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “^(A)Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ² The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the sky; on everything that crawls on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. They are handed over to you. ³ Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, ^(B)as I gave the green plant. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, ^(C)its blood. ⁵ I certainly will require ^[a](D)your lifeblood; ^[b](E)from every animal I will require it. And ^[c]from every person, ^[d]from every man as his brother I will require the life of a person.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹ “Now behold, ^(I)I Myself am establishing My covenant with you, and with your ^[f]descendants after you; ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, every animal of the earth. ¹¹ I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall ^(J)never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, ^(K)nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² God said, “This is ^(L)the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for ^[g]all future generations; ¹³ I have set My ^(M)rainbow in the cloud, and it shall ^[h]serve as a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall come about, when I make a cloud appear over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ and ^(N)I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and ^(O)never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the rainbow is in the cloud, then I will look at it, to remember the ^(P)everlasting 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, Ham, and Japheth; and ^(Q)Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and ^(R)from these the whole earth was ^[i]populated.

²⁰ Then Noah began ^[j]farming and planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine and ^(S)became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, ^(T)saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were ^[k]turned 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,

²⁶ He also said,

²⁸ Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹ So all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

Descendants of Noah

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

^2 (Y)The sons of Japheth were ^(Z)Gomer, Magog, ^(AA)Madai, ^(AB)Javan, Tubal, ^(AC)Meshech, and Tiras. ³ The sons of Gomer were ^(AD)Ashkenaz, ^[o]Riphath, and ^(AE)Togarmah. ⁴ The sons of Javan were Elishah, ^(AF)Tarshish, Kittim, and ^[p]Dodanim. ⁵ From these the people of the coastlands of the nations ^[q]were separated into their lands, every one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

^6 (AG)The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁷ The sons of Cush were ^(AH)Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, ^(AI)Raamah, and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were ^(AJ)Sheba and ^(AK)Dedan. ⁸ Now Cush fathered Nimrod; he ^[r]became 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 And the beginning of his kingdom was ^[s](AL)Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of ^(AM)Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went ^(AN)to Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³ Mizraim fathered ^(AO)Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ^14 (AP)Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan fathered ^(AQ)Sidon, his firstborn, and ^(AR)Heth, ^16 (AS)the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, ¹⁷ the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, ¹⁸ the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite; and afterward the families of the Canaanite were spread abroad. ^19 (AT)The territory of the Canaanite ^[t]extended from Sidon ^[u]going toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; and ^[v]going toward ^(AU)Sodom and Gomorrah, 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, and by their nations.

²¹ Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born. ^22 (AV)The sons of Shem were ^(AW)Elam, Asshur, ^(AX)Arpachshad, ^(AY)Lud, and Aram. ²³ The sons of Aram were ^(AZ)Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁴ Arpachshad fathered ^(BA)Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber. ^25 (BB)Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was ^[w]Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ^28 [x]Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all of these were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰ Now their ^[y]settlement ^[z]extended from Mesha ^[aa]going 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, and according to their nations.

³² These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their descendants, by their nations; and ^(BC)out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11 Now all the earth ^[ab]used the same language and ^[ac]the same words. ² And it came about, as they journeyed ^[ad]east, that they found a plain in the land ^(BD)of Shinar and ^[ae]settled there. ³ Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and ^[af]fire them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used ^(BE)tar for mortar. ⁴ And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top ^(BF)will reach into heaven, and let’s make ^(BG)a name for ourselves; otherwise we ^(BH)will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” ⁵ Now ^(BI)the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the ^[ag]men had built. ⁶ And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have ^[ah](BJ)the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be ^[ai]impossible for them. ⁷ Come, ^[aj](BK)let Us go down and there ^(BL)confuse their ^[ak]language, so that they will not understand one another’s ^[al]speech.” ⁸ So the Lord ^(BM)scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore it was named ^[am](BN)Babel, because there the Lord confused the ^[an]language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Descendants of Shem

^10 (BO)These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old when he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood; ¹¹ and Shem lived five hundred years after he fathered Arpachshad, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

¹² Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and fathered Shelah; ¹³ and Arpachshad lived 403 years after he fathered Shelah, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ Shelah lived thirty years, and fathered Eber; ¹⁵ and Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ Eber lived thirty-four years, and fathered Peleg; ¹⁷ and Eber lived 430 years after he fathered Peleg, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ Peleg lived thirty years, and fathered Reu; ¹⁹ and Peleg lived 209 years after he fathered Reu, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

²⁰ Reu lived thirty-two years, and fathered Serug; ²¹ and Reu lived 207 years after he fathered Serug, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

²² Serug lived thirty years, and fathered Nahor; ²³ and Serug lived two hundred years after he fathered Nahor, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

²⁴ Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and fathered ^(BP)Terah; ²⁵ and Nahor lived 119 years after he fathered Terah, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

²⁶ Terah lived seventy years, and ^(BQ)fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷ Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and ^(BR)Haran fathered ^(BS)Lot. ²⁸ Haran died ^[ao]during the lifetime of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in ^(BT)Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹ Abram and ^(BU)Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was ^(BV)Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was ^(BW)Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah ^[ap]and Iscah. ^30 (BX)Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.

³¹ Now Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they departed ^[aq]together from ^(BY)Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran and ^[ar]settled there. ³² The days of Terah were 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.