Genesis 1-11

Evangelical Heritage Version

The Creation of the World

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was undeveloped^[a] and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

³ God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning—the first day.

⁶ God said, “Let there be an expanse^[b] between the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and he separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse, and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse “sky.” ^[c]There was evening and there was morning—the second day.

⁹ God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. ⎣The waters under the sky gathered to their own places, and the dry land appeared.⎦^{[d] 10} God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathering places of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. ¹¹ God said, “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that produces seed, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it—each according to its own kind on the earth,” and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth plants, vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it, each according to its own kind, and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ Let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,” and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set these lights in place in the expanse of the sky to provide light for the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning—the fourth day.

²⁰ God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures^[e] fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” ²¹ God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock,^[f] creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.

²⁶ God said, “Let us make man^[g] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. ³⁰ To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 The heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them.^{[h] 2} On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. ³ God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done.

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁴ This is the account about the development^[i] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens:

⁵ No bushes that grow in the field were yet on the earth,^[j] and no plants of the field had yet sprung up, since the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth. There was not yet a man to till the soil, ⁶ but water^[k] came up from the earth and watered the entire surface of the ground.

⁷ The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground^[l] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden^[m] in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God made every kind of tree grow—trees that are pleasant to look at and good for food, including the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

¹⁰ A river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became the headwaters of four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon. It flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, ¹² and the gold of that land is good. Incense^[n] and onyx stone are also found there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that winds through the whole land of Cush.^{[o] 14} The name of the third river is Tigris. This is the one which flows along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. ¹⁶ The Lord God gave a command to the man. He said, “You may freely eat from every tree in the garden, ¹⁷ but you shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is a suitable partner for him.” ¹⁹ Out of the soil the Lord God had formed every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that became its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal, but for Adam^[p] no helper was found who was a suitable partner for him. ²¹ The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the Lord God took a rib^[q] and closed up the flesh where it had been. ²² The Lord God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man.

The Fall Into Sin

3 Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, ³ but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’”

⁴ The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. ⁵ In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for their waists.^{[t] 8} They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part^[u] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

⁹ The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

¹¹ God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent:

²⁰ The man named his wife Eve^[x] because she would be the mother of all the living. ²¹ The Lord God made clothing of animal skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.

²² The Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever—” ²³ the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken. ²⁴ So he drove the man out, and in front of^[y] the Garden of Eden he stationed cherubim^[z] and a flaming sword, which turned in every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

The First Children: Cain and Abel

4 The man was intimate with Eve, his wife. She conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have gotten a man with the Lord.”^{[aa] 2} She also gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel.

Abel tended sheep, but Cain worked the ground. ³ As time passed, one day Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil. ⁴ Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord looked favorably on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but he did not look favorably on Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and his face showed it.

⁶ The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why do you have that angry look on your face?^{[ab] 7} If you do good, will you not be lifted up? If you do not do good, sin is crouching at the door. It has a strong desire for you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸ Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.”^[ac] When they were in the field, Cain attacked Abel, his brother, and killed him.

⁹ The Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”

He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁰ The Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the soil. ¹¹ Now you are cursed and sent away from the soil^[ad] which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the soil, it will no longer give its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

¹³ Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great for me to bear. ¹⁴ Look, today you have driven me away from the soil. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, “No!^[ae] If anyone kills Cain, he will face sevenfold revenge.” And the Lord appointed a sign for^[af] Cain, so that anyone who found him would not strike him down.

The Descendants of Cain

¹⁶ Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod,^[ag] east of Eden.

¹⁷ Cain was intimate with his wife. She conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Cain built a city and named the city after his son Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch, Irad was born. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.

¹⁹ Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the predecessor^[ah] of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal, who was the predecessor of all who play the lyre and flute. ²² Zillah also gave birth to Tubal Cain, who made all kinds of tools and weapons from bronze and iron. Tubal Cain’s sister was Na’amah.

The Family Line of Seth

²⁵ Adam was intimate with his wife again. She gave birth to a son and named him Seth,^[ai] because she said, “God has set another child in place of Abel for me, since Cain killed him.” ²⁶ Later a son was born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. This is when people began to proclaim^[aj] the name of the Lord.

5 This is the account about the development of Adam’s family:

In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. ² He created them male and female and blessed them, and on the day they were created, he named them “mankind.”^[ak]

³ Adam lived 130 years, and he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his own image, and he named him Seth. ⁴ The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ⁵ All the days that Adam lived were 930 years. Then he died.

⁶ Seth lived 105 years, and he became the father of Enosh. ⁷ Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ⁸ All the days of Seth were 912 years. Then he died.

⁹ Enosh lived 90 years, and he became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰ Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ¹¹ All the days of Enosh were 905 years. Then he died.

¹² Kenan lived 70 years, and he became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³ Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ¹⁴ All the days of Kenan were 910 years. Then he died.

¹⁵ Mahalalel lived 65 years, and he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶ Mahalalel lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ¹⁷ All the days of Mahalalel were 895 years. Then he died.

¹⁸ Jared lived 162 years, and he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹ Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ²⁰ All the days of Jared were 962 years. Then he died.

²¹ Enoch lived 65 years, and he became the father of Methuselah. ²² After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ²³ All the days of Enoch were 365 years. ²⁴ Enoch walked with God. Then, he was not there, for God took him.

²⁵ Methuselah lived 187 years, and he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶ After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ²⁷ All the days of Methuselah were 969 years. Then he died.

²⁸ Lamech lived 182 years and became the father of a son. ²⁹ He named him Noah^[al] and said, “This one will bring us comfort during our work and the hard labor that we must perform with our hands because the Lord has cursed the soil.” ³⁰ Lamech lived 595 years after he became father of Noah, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ³¹ All the days of Lamech were 777 years. Then he died.

³² Noah was 500 years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.^[am]

The World Descends Into Evil

6 This is what happened when mankind^[an] began to multiply on the face of the earth.^[ao]

When daughters were born to people, ² the sons of God^[ap] saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives for themselves any of them they chose. ³ The Lord said, “My Spirit will not struggle^[aq] with man forever, because he is only flesh.^[ar] His days will be 120 years.” ⁴ The Nephilim^[as] were on the earth in those days. After that, the sons of God went to the daughters of men, who bore children for them. Those became the powerful, famous men of ancient times.

⁵ The Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every day. ⁶ The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow.^{[at] 7} The Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, along with the animals, the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, because I regret that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah and the Ark

⁹ This is the account about the development of Noah’s family.

Noah was a righteous man, a man of integrity in that generation. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹¹ In the sight of God the earth was morally corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh was corrupt in all their ways on the earth.

¹³ So God said to Noah, “I have decreed the end of all flesh, because the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

¹⁴ “Make an ark^[au] of gopher wood.^[av] Make rooms in the ark. Seal it inside and outside with pitch. ¹⁵ This is how you are to make it: The length of the ark is to be 450 feet, its width 75 feet, and its height 45 feet. ¹⁶ Make a roof for the ark, and leave an eighteen-inch opening just under the roof. Place a door on the side of the ark. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

¹⁷ “I myself am about to bring a flood of waters on the earth, in order to destroy all flesh under the sky that has the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth will die, ¹⁸ but I will establish my covenant^[aw] with you. You shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You shall bring a pair (male and female) of every kind of living flesh into the ark with you to keep them alive. ²⁰ Include the birds according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing on the ground according to their kinds. Two of every sort shall come to you, so you can keep them alive. ²¹ Take with you every type of food that is eaten, and store it for yourself, so it can be used as food for you and for them.”

²² So that is what Noah did. He did everything that God commanded him, just as he had been told.

7 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and your entire household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. ² From every clean animal take with you seven pairs,^[ax] a male and his female. From the animals that are not clean, take two, a male and his female. ³ Also from the ⎣clean⎦ birds of the sky take seven and seven, male and female, ⎣and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female⎦^[ay] to keep their offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. ⁴ In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will wipe off the face of the earth.”

⁵ Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

The Flood

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood^[az] came, and water covered the earth.

⁷ Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground ⁹ went into the ark with Noah two by two (male and female), just as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰ After seven days, the waters of the flood came on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates^[ba] of the sky were opened. ¹² The rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah, Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons along with them entered the ark. ¹⁴ They went in with every animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and everything that flies according to its kind, flying birds of every sort. ¹⁵ Pairs of all the animals^[bb] that have the breath of life in them went to Noah in the ark. ¹⁶ A male and female of each animal that breathes went in, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut Noah in.

¹⁷ The flood kept coming on the earth for forty days. The waters became deeper and lifted up the ark until it floated high above the earth. ¹⁸ The water kept increasing and overwhelmed the earth, and the ark was carried along on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water overwhelmed the earth. All the high mountains that were under the entire sky were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains and covered them. ²¹ All living creatures^[bc] that moved on the earth perished, including birds, livestock, wild animals, every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything that breathed the breath of life through its nostrils, that is, everything that was on the dry land, died. ²³ Every living thing that was on the face of the earth was wiped out, including mankind, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They all were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, as well as those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ The waters overwhelmed the earth for one hundred fifty days.

8 God remembered Noah, as well as all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. ² The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were also closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. ³ The waters kept receding from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had decreased. ⁴ In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters receded continuously until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

⁶ Then at the end of forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. ⁷ He sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground, ⁹ but the dove found no place to rest its foot, and it returned to him in the ark, because there was water on the surface of the whole earth. Noah reached out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back to him in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days. Then he sent the dove out of the ark again. ¹¹ The dove came back to him at evening, and there in its mouth was an olive leaf it had just plucked. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again. This time it did not return to him anymore.

¹³ And so in the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked out. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ God spoke to Noah. He said, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of every sort that is with you, all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may swarm over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸ Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species.^[bd]

²⁰ Noah built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. ²² While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

God’s Covenant With the Earth

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ² Every animal on the earth and every bird in the sky will fear you and dread you. Everything that swarms on the ground and all the fish in the sea are handed over to you. ³ Every living, moving thing will be food for you. I have given everything to you, just as I gave you the green plants. ⁴ But flesh that has the blood (which is its life) still in it, you shall not eat. ⁵ In fact, I will hold each animal and each person responsible for your lifeblood. I will hold each man responsible for the life of his brother. ⁶ Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image.

⁷ “But you, be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply on it.”

⁸ God said to Noah and to his sons, who were with him, ⁹ “Listen, I will now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with everything with you that has the breath of life: with the birds, with the livestock, and with every wild animal that is on the earth with you, with everything that went out of the ark, even with every wild animal on the earth. ¹¹ I will establish my covenant with you: Never again will all living creatures^[be] be cut off by the waters of a flood. Neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² God also said, “This is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you that I am giving for all generations to come. ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of every sort,^[bf] and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it so that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

The Repopulation of the Earth

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, people spread out over the whole earth.

²⁰ Noah began to be a man of the soil and planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine and got drunk. He lay uncovered inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ²³ Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it over their shoulders. They went in backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. They faced backwards, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ He said:

²⁶ Then he said:

²⁸ Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹ All the days of Noah were 950 years. Then he died.

10 Now this is the account about the development of groups of people who descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. Sons^[bg] were born to them after the flood.

The Descendants of Japheth

² The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek, and Tiras.^[bh]

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

⁴ The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Dodanim.^[bi]

⁵ The islands and coastlands were divided into different lands among these peoples on the basis of their languages, their ethnic groups, and their nations.

The Descendants of Ham

⁶ The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim,^[bj] Put, and Canaan.

⁷ The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Ra’amah, and Sabteca.

The sons of Ra’amah were Sheba and Dedan.

⁸ Cush became the father of Nimrod. He was the first to be a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. That is why the saying is “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰ The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Uruk, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.^{[bk] 11} From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, the great city.

¹³ Mizraim^[bl] became the father of the Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines descended), and the Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn) and Heth, ¹⁶ as well as the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites spread out. ¹⁹ Then the borders of the Canaanites extended from Sidon, southward toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; from there it extended eastward toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

²⁰ These were the sons of Ham, according to their ethnic groups, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

The Descendants of Shem

²¹ Sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth,^[bm] the father of all the descendants of Eber.

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

²³ The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.^[bn]

²⁴ Arphaxad became the father of Shelah.^[bo] Shelah became the father of Eber. ²⁵ To Eber two sons were born. The name of one was Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided.^[bp]

Eber’s brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰ Their dwelling was from Mesha all the way to Sephar, in the hill country of the east.

³¹ These were the descendants of Shem according to their ethnic groups, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

³² These are the families and groups of peoples descended from the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations. From these, nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

The Division of the Earth

11 The whole earth had one language and a single vocabulary. ² As people traveled in the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there. ³ They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used mud brick instead of stone for building material, and they used tar for mortar. ⁴ They said, “Come, let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If this is the first thing they are doing as one people, who all have one language, then nothing that they intend to do will be too difficult for them. ⁷ Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another’s speech.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ It was named Babel,^[bq] because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Ancestors of Abraham

¹⁰ This is the account about the development of the family of Shem.

Shem was 100 years old and became the father of Arphaxad two years after the flood. ¹¹ Shem lived 500 years after he became the father of Arphaxad, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

¹² Arphaxad lived 35 years and became the father of Shelah. ¹³ Arphaxad lived 403 years after he became the father of Shelah, and he became the father of sons and daughters.^[br]

¹⁴ Shelah lived 30 years and became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ Shelah lived 403 years after he became the father of Eber, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

¹⁶ Eber lived 34 years and became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ Eber lived 430 years after he became the father of Peleg, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

¹⁸ Peleg lived 30 years and became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ Peleg lived 209 years after he became the father of Reu, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁰ Reu lived 32 years and became the father of Serug. ²¹ Reu lived 207 years after he became the father of Serug, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

²² Serug lived 30 years and became the father of Nahor. ²³ Serug lived 200 years after he became the father of Nahor, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁴ Nahor lived 29 years and became the father of Terah. ²⁵ Nahor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terah, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

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

The Development of the Family of Terah

²⁷ Now this is the account about the development^[bs] of the family of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ Haran died before his father Terah. He died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

²⁹ Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai was barren. She had no child.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, who was the wife of his son Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there. ³² The days of Terah were 205 years. Terah died in Haran.