¹⁸ Now Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham, by the way, was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ Yes, these three, Noah’s sons, went on to populate the entire earth.

²⁰ Now Noah became a farmer and decided to plant a vineyard. ²¹ One day he drank too much of the wine he had made and fell into a deep, drunken sleep in his tent. As he lay there stark naked, ²² Ham (the father of Canaan) peeked in and saw his father’s exposed body. After leaving the tent, he told his two brothers what he had seen. ²³ So Shem and Japheth took a large cloak and laid it across their shoulders, and they walked backward into the tent. They never looked behind, as they covered their father’s nakedness. Out of respect, they purposely kept their faces turned away, so they wouldn’t see their father lying there naked. ²⁴ When Noah regained consciousness and realized what his youngest son had done, ²⁵ he uttered this curse:

²⁸ From the time the flood was over, Noah lived another 350 years. ²⁹ In all, Noah lived 950 years, and then he died.

10 Here is the account of the descendants of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who fathered many children after the flood.

² The descendants of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³ Now the descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵ The descendants of Japheth became the peoples who settled the coastal and island regions. They developed their own languages, their own families and cultures, and they would eventually become separate peoples.

⁶ The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁷ Cush’s descendants were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush also fathered Nimrod, who was the first man on earth to be known as a powerful warrior. ⁹ He was also a skillful hunter before the Eternal One. That’s why you often hear people say, “So-and-so is like Nimrod, a skillful hunter before the Eternal.” ¹⁰ The center of his kingdom was in Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh; all are located in the land of Shinar. ¹¹ From there, he traveled into Assyria and established the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen, which lies between Nineveh and Calah—and that is one magnificent city! ¹³ Now Mizraim fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ Pathrusim, Casluhim (the ancestor of the people known as the Philistines), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan fathered Sidon (his firstborn), Heth, ¹⁶ the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Soon all of the families of Canaan’s descendants would spread abroad. ¹⁹ As a result, the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar all the way to Gaza; and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim all the way to Lasha. ²⁰ All of these are descendants of Ham, who grew from a few initial families into a great people with their own languages, lands, and nations.

²¹ Now Shem (Japheth’s older brother) fathered a great number of children as well. He was the patriarch of all of the people of Eber. ²² His descendants include Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. ²³ Aram’s descendants were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁴ Now Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵ Eber had two sons: one was named Peleg, which means “division,” because in his days, the earth was divided into many languages, and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All of these peoples were descended from Joktan. ³⁰ They lived in the territory that extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the eastern hill country. ³¹ Shem’s descendants also grew from a few initial families to become a great people with their own languages, lands, and nations.

³² So these are the families descended from Noah’s sons according to their known genealogies. These cultures would soon spread farther and farther across the earth after the flood.

11 There was a time when everyone on the earth spoke the very same language. ² As many of these people began moving from the eastern regions into the western part of Mesopotamia, they settled down on a plain in the land of Shinar. ³ Since stone was not readily available, they discovered how to make bricks and use tar for mortar to build their structures.

⁵ The Eternal One came down and took a look at the city and the tower the children of Adam were building. He was not pleased.

⁸ This is how the Eternal scattered people from Shinar all across the surface of the earth. Since they were unable to communicate, they stopped working on the city and went their separate ways. ⁹ So this is why the city was called Babel:^[a] because it was there that the Eternal confused the language of all the peoples and scattered them across the surface of the earth.

10 The Lord then recruited and deployed 70^[a] more disciples. He sent them ahead, in teams of two, to visit all the towns and settlements between them and Jerusalem.

1 This is the family history, the genealogy, of Jesus the Anointed, the coming King. You will see in this history that Jesus is descended from King David, and that He is also descended from Abraham.

² Abraham was the father of Isaac; Isaac was the father of Jacob; Jacob was the father of Judah and of Judah’s 11 brothers; ³ Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (and Perez and Zerah’s mother was Tamar);

Perez was the father of Hezron; Hezron was the father of Ram; ⁴ Ram was the father of Amminadab; Amminadab was the father of Nahshon; Nahshon was the father of Salmon; ⁵ Salmon was the father of Boaz (and Boaz’s mother was Rahab);

Boaz was the father of Obed (his mother was Ruth, a Moabite woman who converted to the Hebrew faith); Obed was the father of Jesse; ⁶ and Jesse was the father of David, who was the king of the nation of Israel. David was the father of Solomon (his mother was Bathsheba, and she was married to a man named Uriah);

⁷ Solomon was the father of Rehoboam; Rehoboam was the father of Abijah; Abijah was the father of Asa; ⁸ Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat; Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram; Joram was the father of Uzziah; ⁹ Uzziah was the father of Jotham; Jotham was the father of Ahaz; Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah; ¹⁰ Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh; Manasseh was the father of Amon; Amon was the father of Josiah; ¹¹ Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, and Josiah’s family lived at the time when God’s chosen people of Israel were deported from the promised land to Babylon.

¹² After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah had a son, Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel; ¹³ Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud; Abiud was the father of Eliakim; Eliakim was the father of Azor; ¹⁴ Azor was the father of Zadok; Zadok was the father of Achim; Achim was the father of Eliud; ¹⁵ Eliud was the father of Eleazar; Eleazar was the father of Matthan; Matthan was the father of Jacob; ¹⁶ Jacob was the father of Joseph, who married a woman named Mary. It was Mary who gave birth to Jesus, and it is Jesus who is the Savior, the Anointed One.

¹⁷ Abraham and David were linked with 14 generations, 14 generations link David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 more take us from the exile to the birth of the Anointed.

²⁶ Six months later in Nazareth, a city in the rural province of Galilee, the heavenly messenger Gabriel made another appearance. This time the messenger was sent by God ²⁷ to meet with a virgin named Mary, who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David himself. ²⁸ The messenger entered her home.

²⁹ The heavenly messenger’s words baffled Mary, and she wondered what type of greeting this was.

²⁸ Then God blessed them and gave them this directive: “Be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth. I make you trustees of My estate, so care for My creation and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that roams across the earth.”

9 God spoke a blessing over Noah and his sons.