Genesis 1-20
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath
1 [a]In the beginning God created[b] the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit[c] of God was moving over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
Another Account of the Creation
[d]In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist[e] went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Hav′ilah, where there is gold; 12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphra′tes.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; 22 and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,[f]
because she was taken out of Man.”[g]
24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
The First Sin and Its Punishment
3 Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool 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 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all cattle,
and above all wild animals;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,[h]
and you shall bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
20 The man called his wife’s name Eve,[i] because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Cain Murders Abel
4 [j]Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[k] a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let us go out to the field.”[l] And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, thou hast driven me this day away from the ground; and from thy face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so![m] If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod,[n] east of Eden.
Beginnings of Civilization
17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad was the father of Mehu′ja-el, and Mehu′ja-el the father of Methu′sha-el, and Methu′sha-el the father of Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have cattle. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22 Zillah bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Na′amah.
23 Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, hearken to what I say:
I have slain a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him.” 26 To Seth[o] also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time men began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Adam’s Descendants to Noah and His Sons
5 This is the book of the generations[p] of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
6 When Seth had lived a hundred and five years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 Seth lived after the birth of Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
9 When Enosh had lived ninety years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after the birth of Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
12 When Kenan had lived seventy years, he became the father of Mahal′alel. 13 Kenan lived after the birth of Mahal′alel eight hundred and forty years, and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
15 When Mahal′alel had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Jared. 16 Mahal′alel lived after the birth of Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahal′alel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.
18 When Jared had lived a hundred and sixty-two years he became the father of Enoch. 19 Jared lived after the birth of Enoch eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
21 When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methu′selah. 22 Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methu′selah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
25 When Methu′selah had lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 Methu′selah lived after the birth of Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methu′selah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
28 When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he became the father of a son, 29 and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground which the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” 30 Lamech lived after the birth of Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
32 After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The Wickedness of Mankind
6 When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God[q] saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah Pleases God
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 [r]Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 Make a roof[s] for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
The Great Flood
7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark, to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon 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 day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; 22 everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
The Flood Subsides
8 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 2 the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ar′arat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, 7 and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.” 18 So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark.
God’s Promise to Noah
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
The Covenant With Noah
9 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. 7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.[t] 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Noah and His Sons
18 The sons of Noah who went forth 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 the whole earth was peopled.
20 Noah was the first tiller of the soil. He planted a vineyard; 21 and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;[u]
and let Canaan be his slave.
27 God enlarge Japheth,
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.”
28 After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. 29 All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Nations Descended from Noah
10 These are the generations[v] of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ash′kenaz, Riphath, and Togar′mah. 4 The sons of Javan: Eli′shah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Do′danim. 5 From these the coastland peoples spread. These are the sons of Japheth[w] in their lands, each with his own language, by their families, in their nations.
6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Hav′ilah, Sabtah, Ra′amah, and Sab′teca. The sons of Ra′amah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nin′eveh, Reho′both-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nin′eveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13 Egypt became the father of Ludim, An′amim, Leha′bim, Naph-tu′him, 14 Pathru′sim, Caslu′him (whence came the Philistines), and Caph′torim.
15 Canaan became the father of Sidon his first-born, and Heth, 16 and the Jeb′usites, the Amorites, the Gir′gashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Ar′vadites, the Zem′arites, and the Ha′mathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. 19 And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon, in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomor′rah, Admah, and Zeboi′im, as far as Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
21 To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. 22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpach′shad, Lud, and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 24 Arpach′shad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber. 25 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,[x] for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. 26 Joktan became the father of Almo′dad, Sheleph, Hazarma′veth, Jerah, 27 Hador′am, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abim′a-el, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Hav′ilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. 30 The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. 31 These are the sons of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.
The Tower of Babel
11 [y]Now the whole earth had one language and few words. 2 And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[z] the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Descendants of Shem
10 These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was a hundred years old, he became the father of Arpach′shad two years after the flood; 11 and Shem lived after the birth of Arpach′shad five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpach′shad had lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah; 13 and Arpach′shad lived after the birth of Shelah four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived thirty years, he became the father of Eber; 15 and Shelah lived after the birth of Eber four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg; 17 and Eber lived after the birth of Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived thirty years, he became the father of Re′u; 19 and Peleg lived after the birth of Re′u two hundred and nine years, and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Re′u had lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug; 21 and Re′u lived after the birth of Serug two hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived thirty years, he became the father of Nahor; 23 and Serug lived after the birth of Nahor two hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he became the father of Terah; 25 and Nahor lived after the birth of Terah a hundred and nineteen years, and had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Descendants of Terah
27 Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. 28 Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chal′deans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sar′ai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sar′ai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sar′ai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chalde′ans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
The Call of Abram
12 [aa]Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.”[ab]
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sar′ai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak[ac] of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sar′ai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful to behold; 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, he-asses, menservants, maidservants, she-asses, and camels.
17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sar′ai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.
Abram and Lot Separate
13 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.
2 Now Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle. At that time the Canaanites and the Per′izzites dwelt in the land.
8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zo′ar; this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomor′rah. 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and Lot journeyed east; thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever. 16 I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks[ad] of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord.
Lot’s Captivity and Rescue
14 In the days of Am′raphel king of Shinar, Ar′ioch king of Ella′sar, Ched-or-lao′mer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goi′im, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomor′rah, Shinab king of Admah, Sheme′ber king of Zeboi′im, and the king of Bela (that is, Zo′ar). 3 And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years they had served Ched-or-lao′mer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Ched-or-lao′mer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Reph′aim in Ash′teroth-karna′im, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Sha′veh-kiriatha′im, 6 and the Horites in their Mount Se′ir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness; 7 then they turned back and came to En-mish′pat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amal′ekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Haz′azon-ta′mar. 8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomor′rah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboi′im, and the king of Bela (that is, Zo′ar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 with Ched-or-lao′mer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goi′im, Am′raphel king of Shinar, and Ar′ioch king of Ella′sar, four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomor′rah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the mountain. 11 So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomor′rah, and all their provisions, and went their way; 12 they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
13 Then one who had escaped came, and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks[ae] of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.
Abram Blessed by Melchizedek
17 After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-lao′mer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchiz′edek[af] king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me; let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”
God’s Covenant with Abram
15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”[ag] 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Elie′zer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chalde′ans, to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years; 14 but I will bring judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphra′tes, 19 the land of the Ken′ites, the Ken′izzites, the Kad′monites, 20 the Hittites, the Per′izzites, the Reph′aim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gir′gashites and the Jeb′usites.”
The Birth of Ishmael
16 Now Sar′ai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar; 2 and Sar′ai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sar′ai. 3 So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sar′ai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived;[ah] and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sar′ai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sar′ai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sar′ai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, maid of Sar′ai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sar′ai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ish′mael;[ai] because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “Thou art a God of seeing”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”[aj] 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-la′hai-roi;[ak] it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ish′mael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ish′mael to Abram.
The Sign of the Covenant
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty;[al] walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram,[am] but your name shall be Abraham;[an] for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. 8 And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He that is eight days old among you shall be circumcised; every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house, or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he that is born in your house and he that is bought with your money, shall be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sar′ai your wife, you shall not call her name Sar′ai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “O that Ish′mael might live in thy sight!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.[ao] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasing covenant for his descendants after him. 20 As for Ish′mael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”
22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. 23 Then Abraham took Ish′mael his son and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ish′mael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very day Abraham and his son Ish′mael were circumcised; 27 and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
A Son Promised to Abraham and Sarah
18 And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks[ap] of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, 3 and said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures[aq] of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard[ar] for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Judgment Pronounced on Sodom
16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by him?[as] 19 No, for I have chosen[at] him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomor′rah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know.”
22 So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near, and said, “Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him, and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
The Depravity of Sodom
19 [au]The two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth, 2 and said, “My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the street.” 3 But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; 5 and they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. 10 But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping for the door.
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you any one else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any one you have in the city, bring them out of the place; 13 for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up, get out of this place; for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city. 17 And when they had brought them forth, they[av] said, “Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords; 19 behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die. 20 Behold, yonder city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Make haste, escape there; for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zo′ar.[aw] 23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zo′ar.
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomor′rah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; 25 and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomor′rah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
The Shameful Origin of Moab and Ammon
30 Now Lot went up out of Zo′ar, and dwelt in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zo′ar; so he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the first-born said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night; and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 And on the next day, the first-born said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
Abraham and Sarah at Gerar
20 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abim′elech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abim′elech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abim′elech had not approached her; so he said, “Lord, wilt thou slay an innocent people?
Footnotes
- 1.1—2.4a The aim of this narrative is not to present a scientific picture but to teach religious truth, especially the dependence of all creation on God and its consecration to him through the homage rendered by man, who is the climax of creation. Hence its strong liturgical character and the concluding emphasis on the sabbath. It serves as a prologue to the whole of the Old Testament.
- Genesis 1:1 Or When God began to create
- Genesis 1:2 Or wind
- 2.4b ff This account of the state of the world at the beginning, which introduces the story of the first sin, comes from a different and earlier source and is composed in a very different style. There is nothing in these early chapters that commits us to any particular scientific view of the origins of the world or man, or that would exclude the evolution hypothesis.
- Genesis 2:6 Or flood
- Genesis 2:23 Heb ishshah
- Genesis 2:23 Heb ish
- 3.15 he shall bruise your head: i.e., the seed of the woman, that is, mankind descended from Eve, will eventually gain the victory over the powers of evil. This victory will, of course, be gained through the work of the Messiah who is par excellence the seed of the woman. The Latin Vulgate has the reading ipsa conteret, “she shall bruise.” Some Old Latin manuscripts have this reading and it occurs also in St. Augustine, De Genesi contra Manichaeos, II, which is earlier than St. Jerome’s translation. It could be due originally to a copyist’s mistake, which was then seen to contain a genuine meaning—namely, that Mary, too, would have her share in the victory, inasmuch as she was mother of the Savior.
- Genesis 3:20 The name in Hebrew resembles the word for living
- 4.1 The story of Cain and Abel has the purpose of showing the effects of sin within society, the fratricide of Cain leading to the vengeance of Lamech and so to the Flood. We are, however, no longer in the first age of humanity, as can be seen from verses 14, 17, etc.
- Genesis 4:1 Heb qanah, get
- Genesis 4:8 Sam Gk Syr Compare Vg: Heb lacks Let us go out to the field
- Genesis 4:15 Gk Syr Vg: Heb Therefore
- Genesis 4:16 That is Wandering
- 4.26 Seth takes the place of the murdered Abel and is the ancestor of Noah. In Ex 3.14 and 6.2-3 we find another account of the origins of Yahwism.
- 5.1 generations: It should be noted that these genealogies are selective and schematic, and the numbers, as often in the Old Testament, are symbolic.
- 6.2 sons of God could mean simply “divine beings,” as elsewhere in the Old Testament. The writer, however, may be using an old story or myth to point out the progressive degradation of mankind before the Flood and to warn against the evil effects of intermarriage either of the descendants of Seth with the Kenites or, more probably, of the Israelites with the native populations of Canaan.
- 6.11 Here begins the Flood narrative formed of two almost parallel accounts. This fact explains the existence of repetitions and discrepancies. It is, in places, remarkably similar to other Flood stories from the ancient Near East.
- Genesis 6:16 Or window
- Genesis 9:10 Gk: Heb repeats every beast of the earth
- Genesis 9:26 Or Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem
- 10.1 generations: This “table of the nations” makes use of old material to show how all the nations of the world as then known have descended from the generation that survived the Flood. It was from this world that Abraham was called to be the father of the chosen people.
- Genesis 10:5 Compare verses 20, 31. Heb lacks These are the sons of Japheth
- Genesis 10:25 That is Division
- 11.1-9 The tower of Babel (= Babylon) is taken as a symbol of political power, empire-building, and the civilization that opposes God’s plan. The tower was probably a ziggurat, i.e., Babylonian temple.
- Genesis 11:9 Compare Heb balal, confuse
- 12.1-3 With Abraham’s call, sacred history in the strict sense begins. The promise theme runs through the whole patriarchal history, e.g., 18.18; 28.14.
- Genesis 12:3 Or in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed
- Genesis 12:6 Or terebinth
- Genesis 13:18 Or terebinths
- Genesis 14:13 Or terebinths
- 14.18 Melchizedek was later taken as a Messianic figure (Ps 110.4) and interpreted in the New Testament as foreshadowing Christ, whose priesthood (including the offering of bread and wine) exceeds that of the Old Testament; cf. Heb. 7.1-7.
- 15.1 The Vulgate has “I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.” There was, however, at this stage, no idea of a reward in a future life.
- 16.1-4 The practice suggested by Sarai, involving as it did polygamy, was in accord with moral standards at that time and is referred to in legal codes of the period.
- Genesis 16:11 That is God hears
- Genesis 16:13 Cn: Heb have I even here seen after him who sees me?
- Genesis 16:14 That is the well of one who sees and lives
- Genesis 17:1 Heb El Shaddai
- Genesis 17:5 That is exalted father
- Genesis 17:5 Here taken to mean father of a multitude
- Genesis 17:19 That is he laughs
- Genesis 18:1 Or terebinths
- Genesis 18:6 Heb seahs
- Genesis 18:14 Or wonderful
- Genesis 18:18 Or in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed
- Genesis 18:19 Heb known
- 19.1 The Sodom episode, so often referred to in the Old and New Testaments, expresses the abhorrence of the true Israelite for unnatural sin and the violation of the sacred duty of hospitality, cf. Judg 19.11-30.
- Genesis 19:17 Gk Syr Vg: Heb he
- Genesis 19:22 That is Little
Genesis 1-34
New King James Version
The History of Creation(A)
1 In the (B)beginning (C)God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was (D)without form, and void; and darkness [a]was on the face of the deep. (E)And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 (F)Then God said, (G)“Let there be (H)light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the (I)darkness He called Night. [b]So the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 Then God said, (J)“Let there be a [c]firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, (K)and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were (L)above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 Then God said, (M)“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and (N)let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth (O)bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the (P)fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be (Q)lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and (R)seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great [d]lights: the (S)greater light to rule the day, and the (T)lesser light to rule the night. He made (U)the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the (V)heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to (W)rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living [e]creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the [f]firmament of the heavens.” 21 So (X)God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, (Y)“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, (Z)“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; (AA)let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [g]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man (AB)in His own image; in the image of God He created him; (AC)male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, (AD)“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and (AE)subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that [h]moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; (AF)to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to (AG)every beast of the earth, to every (AH)bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is [i]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then (AI)God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The Garden of Eden
2 Thus the heavens and the earth, and (AJ)all the host of them, were finished. 2 (AK)And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God (AL)blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
4 (AM)This is the [j]history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any (AN)plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not (AO)caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man (AP)to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the Lord God formed man of the (AQ)dust of the ground, and (AR)breathed into his (AS)nostrils the breath of life; and (AT)man became a living being.
Life in God’s Garden
8 The Lord God planted (AU)a garden (AV)eastward in (AW)Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made (AX)every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. (AY)The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and (AZ)evil.
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts (BA)the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. (BB)Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is (BC)Hiddekel;[k] it is the one which goes toward the east of [l]Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 Then the Lord God took [m]the man and put him in the garden of Eden to [n]tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (BD)you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it (BE)you[o] shall surely (BF)die.”
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; (BG)I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 (BH)Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and (BI)brought them to [p]Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
21 And the Lord God caused a (BJ)deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He [q]made into a woman, (BK)and He (BL)brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said:
“This is now (BM)bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called [r]Woman,
Because she was (BN)taken out of [s]Man.”
24 (BO)Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and (BP)be[t] joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 (BQ)And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not (BR)ashamed.
The Temptation and Fall of Man(BS)
3 Now (BT)the serpent was (BU)more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the (BV)fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you (BW)touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 (BX)Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman (BY)saw that the tree was good for food, that it was [u]pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit (BZ)and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, (CA)and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [v]coverings.
8 And they heard (CB)the [w]sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the [x]cool of the day, and Adam and his wife (CC)hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, (CD)and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, (CE)“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, (CF)“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And (CG)you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between (CH)your seed and (CI)her Seed;
(CJ)He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
16 To the woman He said:
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
(CK)In pain you shall bring forth children;
(CL)Your desire shall be [y]for your husband,
And he shall (CM)rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, (CN)“Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree (CO)of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
(CP)“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
(CQ)In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall [z]bring forth for you,
And (CR)you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 (CS)In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
(CT)For dust you are,
And (CU)to dust you shall return.”
20 And Adam called his wife’s name (CV)Eve,[aa] because she was the mother of all living.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden (CW)to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So (CX)He drove out the man; and He placed (CY)cherubim (CZ)at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of (DA)life.
Cain Murders Abel(DB)
4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore [ab]Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother [ac]Abel. Now (DC)Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And [ad]in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit (DD)of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of (DE)the firstborn of his flock and of (DF)their fat. And the Lord (DG)respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is [ae]for you, but you should rule over it.”
8 Now Cain [af]talked with Abel his [ag]brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and (DH)killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, (DI)“I do not know. Am I (DJ)my brother’s keeper?”
10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood (DK)cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now (DL)you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My [ah]punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; (DM)I shall be (DN)hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that (DO)anyone who finds me will kill me.”
15 And the Lord said to him, [ai]“Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him (DP)sevenfold.” And the Lord set a (DQ)mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
The Family of Cain
16 Then Cain (DR)went out from the (DS)presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of [aj]Nod on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, (DT)and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.
19 Then Lamech took for himself (DU)two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. 20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and [ak]flute. 22 And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
23 Then Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have [al]killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man [am]for hurting me.
24 (DV)If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
A New Son
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and (DW)named him [an]Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” 26 And as for Seth, (DX)to him also a son was born; and he named him [ao]Enosh. Then men began (DY)to call on the name of the Lord.
The Family of Adam(DZ)
5 This is the book of the (EA)genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in (EB)the likeness of God. 2 He created them (EC)male and female, and (ED)blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. 3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son (EE)in his own likeness, after his image, and (EF)named him Seth. 4 After he begot Seth, (EG)the days of Adam were eight hundred years; (EH)and he had sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; (EI)and he died.
6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot (EJ)Enosh. 7 After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters. 8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot [ap]Cainan. 10 After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters. 11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
12 Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. 13 After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters. 14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. 16 After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters. 17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.
18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot (EK)Enoch. 19 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch (EL)walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And (EM)Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God (EN)took him.
25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. 26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. 27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. 29 And he called his name (EO)Noah,[aq] saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground (EP)which the Lord has cursed.” 30 After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. 31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot (EQ)Shem, Ham, (ER)and Japheth.
The Wickedness and Judgment of Man
6 Now it came to pass, (ES)when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they (ET)took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
3 And the Lord said, (EU)“My Spirit shall not (EV)strive[ar] with man forever, (EW)for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were [as]giants on the earth in those (EX)days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 Then [at]the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every (EY)intent[au] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil [av]continually. 6 And (EZ)the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and (FA)He was grieved in His (FB)heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will (FC)destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah (FD)found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah Pleases God
9 This is the genealogy of Noah. (FE)Noah was a just man, [aw]perfect in his generations. Noah (FF)walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: (FG)Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt (FH)before God, and the earth was (FI)filled with violence. 12 So God (FJ)looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for (FK)all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
The Ark Prepared(FL)
13 And God said to Noah, (FM)“The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; (FN)and behold, (FO)I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make [ax]rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred [ay]cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 (FP)And behold, I Myself am bringing (FQ)floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall (FR)die. 18 But I will establish My (FS)covenant with you; and (FT)you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring (FU)two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind (FV)will come to you to keep them alive. 21 And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.”
22 (FW)Thus Noah did; (FX)according to all that (FY)God commanded him, so he did.
The Great Flood(FZ)
7 Then the (GA)Lord said to Noah, (GB)“Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that (GC)you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take with you seven each of every (GD)clean animal, a male and his female; (GE)two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep [az]the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after (GF)seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth (GG)forty days and forty nights, and I will [ba]destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” 5 (GH)And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was (GI)six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.
7 (GJ)So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on (GK)that day all (GL)the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the (GM)windows of heaven were opened. 12 (GN)And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— 14 (GO)they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every (GP)sort. 15 And they (GQ)went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in (GR)as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
17 (GS)Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, (GT)and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 (GU)And all flesh died that moved on [bb]the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in (GV)whose nostrils was the breath [bc]of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only (GW)Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 (GX)And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
Noah’s Deliverance
8 Then God (GY)remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. (GZ)And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 (HA)The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also (HB)stopped, and (HC)the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end (HD)of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened (HE)the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.
13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, (HF)you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and (HG)be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
God’s Covenant with Creation
20 Then Noah built an (HH)altar to the Lord, and took of (HI)every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered (HJ)burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled (HK)a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again (HL)curse the ground for man’s sake, although the (HM)imagination[bd] of man’s heart is evil from his youth; (HN)nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22 “While the earth (HO)remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And (HP)day and night
Shall not cease.”
God’s Promise to Noah
9 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: (HQ)“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 (HR)And 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. 3 (HS)Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you (HT)all things, even as the (HU)green herbs. 4 (HV)But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; (HW)from the hand of every beast I will require it, and (HX)from the hand of man. From the hand of every (HY)man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6 “Whoever (HZ)sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
(IA)For in the image of God
He made man.
7 And as for you, (IB)be fruitful and multiply;
Bring forth abundantly in the earth
And multiply in it.”
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 “And as for Me, (IC)behold, I establish (ID)My covenant with you and with your [be]descendants after you, 10 (IE)and 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. 11 Thus (IF)I 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.”
12 And God said: (IG)“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: 13 I set (IH)My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and (II)I 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. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember (IJ)the 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.”
Noah and His Sons
18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (IK)And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 (IL)These three were the sons of Noah, (IM)and from these the whole earth was populated.
20 And Noah began to be (IN)a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine (IO)and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 (IP)But 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 [bf]turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said:
26 And he said:
(IS)“Blessed be the Lord,
The God of Shem,
And may Canaan be his servant.
27 May God (IT)enlarge Japheth,
(IU)And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.”
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Nations Descended from Noah(IV)
10 Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (IW)And sons were born to them after the flood.
2 (IX)The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, [bg]Riphath, and Togarmah. 4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and [bh]Dodanim. 5 From these (IY)the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.
6 (IZ)The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, [bi]Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush begot (JA)Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty (JB)hunter (JC)before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 (JD)And the beginning of his kingdom was (JE)Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went (JF)to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).
13 Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, and Casluhim (JG)(from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).
15 Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and (JH)Heth; 16 (JI)the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; 17 the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; 18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. 19 (JJ)And 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. 20 These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.
21 And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, [bj]the brother of Japheth the elder. 22 The (JK)sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, (JL)Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and [bk]Mash. 24 [bl]Arphaxad begot (JM)Salah, and Salah begot Eber. 25 (JN)To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was [bm]Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. 26 Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 [bn]Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 30 And their dwelling place was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. 31 These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.
32 (JO)These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; (JP)and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and one [bo]speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land (JQ)of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and [bp]bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower (JR)whose top is in the heavens; let us make a (JS)name for ourselves, lest we (JT)be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 (JU)But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed (JV)the people are one and they all have (JW)one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they (JX)propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, (JY)let Us go down and there (JZ)confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So (KA)the Lord scattered them abroad from there (KB)over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called [bq]Babel, (KC)because 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(KD)
10 (KE)This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. 11 After he begot Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, (KF)and begot Salah. 13 After he begot Salah, Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.
14 Salah lived thirty years, and begot Eber. 15 After he begot Eber, Salah lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters.
16 (KG)Eber lived thirty-four years, and begot (KH)Peleg. 17 After he begot Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived thirty years, and begot Reu. 19 After he begot Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot (KI)Serug. 21 After he begot Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. 23 After he begot Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot (KJ)Terah. 25 After he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and daughters.
26 Now Terah lived seventy years, and (KK)begot [br]Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah’s Descendants
27 This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot (KL)Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. 28 And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was (KM)Sarai,[bs] and the name of Nahor’s wife, (KN)Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. 30 But (KO)Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 And Terah (KP)took 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 (KQ)Ur of the Chaldeans to go to (KR)the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32 So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
Promises to Abram(KS)
12 Now the (KT)Lord had said to Abram:
“Get (KU)out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 (KV)I will make you a great nation;
(KW)I will bless you
And make your name great;
(KX)And you shall be a blessing.
3 (KY)I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in (KZ)you all the families of the earth shall be (LA)blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and (LB)the [bt]people whom they had acquired (LC)in Haran, and they (LD)departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram (LE)passed through the land to the place of Shechem, (LF)as far as [bu]the terebinth tree of Moreh. (LG)And the Canaanites were then in the land.
7 (LH)Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, (LI)“To your [bv]descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an (LJ)altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and (LK)called on the name of the Lord. 9 So Abram journeyed, (LL)going on still toward the [bw]South.
Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was (LM)a famine in the land, and Abram (LN)went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was (LO)severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are (LP)a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they (LQ)will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 (LR)Please say you are my (LS)sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that [bx]I may live because of you.”
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house. 16 He (LT)treated Abram well for her sake. He (LU)had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord (LV)plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, (LW)“What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.” 20 (LX)So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
Abram Inherits Canaan
13 Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and (LY)Lot with him, (LZ)to the [by]South. 2 (MA)Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he went on his journey (MB)from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the (MC)place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram (MD)called on the name of the Lord.
5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. 6 Now (ME)the land was not able to [bz]support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was (MF)strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (MG)The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
8 So Abram said to Lot, (MH)“Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. 9 (MI)Is not the whole land before you? Please (MJ)separate from me. (MK)If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all (ML)the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord (MM)destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) (MN)like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward (MO)Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot (MP)dwelt in the cities of the plain and (MQ)pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom (MR)were exceedingly wicked and (MS)sinful against the Lord.
14 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot (MT)had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—(MU)northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see (MV)I give to you and (MW)your [ca]descendants forever. 16 And (MX)I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. 17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
18 (MY)Then Abram moved his tent, and went and (MZ)dwelt by [cb]the terebinth trees of Mamre, (NA)which are in Hebron, and built an (NB)altar there to the Lord.
Lot’s Captivity and Rescue
14 And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king (NC)of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of (ND)Elam, and Tidal king of [cc]nations, 2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of (NE)Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, (NF)Zoar). 3 All these joined together in the Valley of Siddim (NG)(that is, the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years (NH)they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him came and attacked (NI)the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, (NJ)the Zuzim in Ham, (NK)the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, 6 (NL)and the Horites in their mountain of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is by the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and attacked all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt (NM)in Hazezon Tamar.
8 And the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and joined together in battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of [cd]nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of (NN)asphalt pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled; some fell there, and the remainder fled (NO)to the mountains. 11 Then they took (NP)all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, Abram’s (NQ)brother’s son (NR)who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the (NS)Hebrew, for (NT)he dwelt by [ce]the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; (NU)and they were allies with Abram. 14 Now (NV)when Abram heard that (NW)his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were (NX)born in his own house, and went in pursuit (NY)as far as Dan. 15 He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants (NZ)attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is [cf]north of Damascus. 16 So he (OA)brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.
17 And the king of Sodom (OB)went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the (OC)King’s Valley), (OD)after his return from the [cg]defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him.
Abram and Melchizedek(OE)
18 Then (OF)Melchizedek king of Salem brought out (OG)bread and wine; he was (OH)the priest of (OI)God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said:
(OJ)“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
(OK)Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 And (OL)blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
And he (OM)gave him [ch]a tithe of all.
21 Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the [ci]persons, and take the goods for yourself.”
22 But Abram (ON)said to the king of Sodom, “I (OO)have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, (OP)the Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that (OQ)I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’— 24 except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”
God’s Covenant with Abram(OR)
15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram (OS)in a vision, saying, (OT)“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your (OU)shield, [cj]your exceedingly (OV)great reward.”
2 (OW)But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, (OX)seeing I [ck]go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed (OY)one[cl] born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who (OZ)will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and (PA)count the (PB)stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, (PC)“So shall your (PD)descendants be.”
6 And he (PE)believed in the Lord, and He (PF)accounted it to him for righteousness.
7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who (PG)brought you out of (PH)Ur of the Chaldeans, (PI)to give you this land to inherit it.”
8 And he said, “Lord God, (PJ)how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and (PK)cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut (PL)the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, (PM)a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly (PN)that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and (PO)they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 And also the nation whom they serve (PP)I will judge; afterward (PQ)they shall come out with great possessions. 15 Now as for you, (PR)you shall [cm]go (PS)to your fathers in peace; (PT)you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But (PU)in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity (PV)of the Amorites (PW)is not yet complete.”
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that (PX)passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the Lord (PY)made a covenant with Abram, saying:
(PZ)“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Hagar and Ishmael
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, (QA)had borne him no children. And she had (QB)an Egyptian maidservant whose name was (QC)Hagar. 2 (QD)So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord (QE)has restrained me from bearing children. Please, (QF)go in to my maid; perhaps I shall [cn]obtain children by her.” And Abram (QG)heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram (QH)had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became (QI)despised in her [co]eyes.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, [cp]“My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. (QJ)The Lord judge between you and me.”
6 (QK)So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, (QL)she fled from her presence.
7 Now the (QM)Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, (QN)by the spring on the way to (QO)Shur. 8 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and (QP)submit yourself under her hand.” 10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, (QQ)“I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” 11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her:
“Behold, you are with child,
(QR)And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name [cq]Ishmael,
Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
12 (QS)He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
(QT)And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-[cr]the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here [cs]seen Him (QU)who sees me?” 14 Therefore the well was called (QV)Beer Lahai Roi;[ct] observe, it is (QW)between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So (QX)Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
The Sign of the Covenant(QY)
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord (QZ)appeared to Abram and said to him, (RA)“I am [cu]Almighty God; (RB)walk before Me and be (RC)blameless. 2 And I will make My (RD)covenant between Me and you, and (RE)will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be (RF)a father of [cv]many nations. 5 No longer shall (RG)your name be called [cw]Abram, but your name shall be [cx]Abraham; (RH)for I have made you a father of [cy]many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make (RI)nations of you, and (RJ)kings shall come from you. 7 And I will (RK)establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, (RL)to be God to you and (RM)your descendants after you. 8 Also (RN)I give to you and your descendants after you the land (RO)in[cz] which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and (RP)I will be their God.”
9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, (RQ)you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: (RR)Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be (RS)a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you (RT)shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person (RU)shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but [da]Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her (RV)and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother (RW)of nations; (RX)kings of peoples shall be from her.”
17 Then Abraham fell on his face (RY)and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham (RZ)said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
19 Then God said: “No, (SA)Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My (SB)covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and (SC)will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget (SD)twelve princes, (SE)and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My (SF)covenant I will establish with Isaac, (SG)whom Sarah shall bear to you at this (SH)set time next year.” 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
23 So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; 27 and (SI)all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
The Son of Promise(SJ)
18 Then the Lord appeared to him by [db]the (SK)terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 (SL)So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; (SM)and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. 4 Please let (SN)a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And (SO)I will bring a morsel of bread, that (SP)you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, (SQ)inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”
They said, “Do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. 8 So (SR)he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.
9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”
So he said, “Here, (SS)in the tent.”
10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you (ST)according to the time of life, and behold, (SU)Sarah your wife shall have a son.”
(Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) 11 Now (SV)Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and [dc]Sarah (SW)had passed the age of childbearing. 12 Therefore Sarah (SX)laughed within herself, saying, (SY)“After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my (SZ)lord being old also?”
13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 (TA)Is anything too hard for the Lord? (TB)At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.
And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”
Abraham Intercedes for Sodom
16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them (TC)to send them on the way. 17 And the Lord said, (TD)“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be (TE)blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order (TF)that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the Lord said, “Because (TG)the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their (TH)sin is very grave, 21 (TI)I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, (TJ)I will know.”
22 Then the men turned away from there (TK)and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 And Abraham (TL)came near and said, (TM)“Would You also (TN)destroy the (TO)righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so (TP)that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! (TQ)Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 So the Lord said, (TR)“If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am (TS)but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”
29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”
30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”
32 Then he said, (TT)“Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”
(TU)And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
Sodom’s Depravity
19 Now (TV)the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and (TW)Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please (TX)turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and (TY)wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”
And they said, (TZ)“No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”
3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. (UA)Then he made them a feast, and baked (UB)unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 (UC)And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? (UD)Bring them out to us that we (UE)may know them carnally.”
6 So (UF)Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8 (UG)See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, (UH)since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
9 And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one (UI)came in to [dd]stay here, (UJ)and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. 10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they (UK)struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed(UL)
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—(UM)take them out of this place! 13 For we will destroy this place, because the (UN)outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and (UO)the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, (UP)who had married his daughters, and said, (UQ)“Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” (UR)But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, (US)“Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And while he lingered, the men (UT)took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the (UU)Lord being merciful to him, (UV)and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that [de]he said, (UW)“Escape for your life! (UX)Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape (UY)to the mountains, lest you be [df]destroyed.”
18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, (UZ)no, my lords! 19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. 20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
21 And he said to him, “See, (VA)I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there. For (VB)I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
Therefore (VC)the name of the city was called [dg]Zoar.
23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained (VD)brimstone and (VE)fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 So He [dh]overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and (VF)what grew on the ground.
26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became (VG)a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where (VH)he had stood before the Lord. 28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, (VI)the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God (VJ)remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.
The Descendants of Lot
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar and (VK)dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. 31 Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth (VL)to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we (VM)may preserve the [di]lineage of our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the [dj]lineage of our father.” 35 Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; (VN)he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; (VO)he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.
Abraham and Abimelech
20 And Abraham journeyed from (VP)there to the South, and dwelt between (VQ)Kadesh and Shur, and (VR)stayed in Gerar. 2 Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, (VS)“She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and (VT)took Sarah.
3 But (VU)God came to Abimelech (VV)in a dream by night, and said to him, (VW)“Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is [dk]a man’s wife.”
4 But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, (VX)will You slay a righteous nation also? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ (VY)In the [dl]integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”
6 And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For (VZ)I also withheld you from sinning (WA)against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; (WB)for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, (WC)know that you shall surely die, you (WD)and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid. 9 And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I [dm]offended you, (WE)that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me (WF)that ought not to be done.” 10 Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?”
11 And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely (WG)the fear of God is not in this place; and (WH)they will kill me on account of my wife. 12 But indeed (WI)she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13 And it came to pass, when (WJ)God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, (WK)say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
14 Then Abimelech (WL)took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “See, (WM)my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 Then to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; (WN)indeed this [dn]vindicates you (WO)before all who are with you and before everybody.” Thus she was [do]rebuked.
17 So Abraham (WP)prayed to God; and God (WQ)healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the Lord (WR)had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Isaac Is Born(WS)
21 And the Lord (WT)visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah (WU)as He had spoken. 2 For Sarah (WV)conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, (WW)at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—(WX)Isaac.[dp] 4 Then Abraham (WY)circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, (WZ)as God had commanded him. 5 Now (XA)Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, (XB)“God has [dq]made me laugh, and all who hear (XC)will laugh with me.” 7 She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? (XD)For I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Hagar and Ishmael Depart(XE)
8 So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.
9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar (XF)the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, (XG)scoffing.[dr] 10 Therefore she said to Abraham, (XH)“Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” 11 And the matter was very [ds]displeasing in Abraham’s sight (XI)because of his son.
12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for (XJ)in Isaac your seed shall be called. 13 Yet I will also make (XK)a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your [dt]seed.”
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and [du]a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and (XL)sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. 15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. 16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.
17 And (XM)God heard the voice of the lad. Then the (XN)angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for (XO)I will make him a great nation.”
19 Then (XP)God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. 20 So God (XQ)was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, (XR)and became an archer. 21 He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother (XS)took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
A Covenant with Abimelech
22 And it came to pass at that time that (XT)Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, (XU)“God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore, (XV)swear[dv] to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”
24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25 Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants (XW)had seized. 26 And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them (XX)made a [dw]covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
29 Then Abimelech asked Abraham, (XY)“What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?”
30 And he said, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that (XZ)they may be my witness that I have dug this well.” 31 Therefore he (YA)called that place [dx]Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.
32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. So Abimelech rose with Phichol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and (YB)there called on the name of the Lord, (YC)the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days.
Abraham’s Faith Confirmed(YD)
22 Now it came to pass after these things that (YE)God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
2 Then He said, “Take now your son, (YF)your only son Isaac, whom you (YG)love, and go (YH)to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a (YI)burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the [dy]lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will (YJ)come back to you.”
6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and (YK)laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”
And he said, “Here I am, my son.”
Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the [dz]lamb for a burnt offering?”
8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the (YL)lamb for a (YM)burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and (YN)laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the (YO)Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
So he said, “Here I am.”
12 And He said, (YP)“Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for (YQ)now I know that you fear God, since you have not (YR)withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, [ea]The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: (YS)“By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will (YT)bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants (YU)as the stars of the heaven (YV)and as the sand which is on the seashore; and (YW)your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 (YX)In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, (YY)because you have obeyed My voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to (YZ)Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
The Family of Nahor
20 Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, “Indeed (ZA)Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 (ZB)Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father (ZC)of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 And (ZD)Bethuel begot [eb]Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.
Sarah’s Death and Burial
23 Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 So Sarah died in (ZE)Kirjath Arba (that is, (ZF)Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
3 Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of (ZG)Heth, saying, 4 (ZH)“I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. (ZI)Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
5 And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Hear us, my lord: You are (ZJ)a [ec]mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead.”
7 Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. 8 And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and [ed]meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me, 9 that he may give me the cave of (ZK)Machpelah which he has, which is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price, as property for a burial place among you.”
10 Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who (ZL)entered at the gate of his city, saying, 11 (ZM)“No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you. Bury your dead!”
12 Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; 13 and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there.”
14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred (ZN)shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.” 16 And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham (ZO)weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.
17 So (ZP)the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave that is in it (ZQ)were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place.
A Bride for Isaac
24 Now Abraham (ZR)was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord (ZS)had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 So Abraham said (ZT)to the oldest servant of his house, who (ZU)ruled over all that he had, “Please, (ZV)put your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will make you (ZW)swear[ee] by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that (ZX)you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; 4 (ZY)but you shall go (ZZ)to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
5 And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?”
6 But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord God of heaven, who (AAA)took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, (AAB)‘To your [ef]descendants I give this land,’ (AAC)He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then (AAD)you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.” 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, (AAE)for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to (AAF)the city of Nahor. 11 And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time (AAG)when women go out to draw water. 12 Then he (AAH)said, “O Lord God of my master Abraham, please (AAI)give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 Behold, here (AAJ)I stand by the well of water, and (AAK)the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And (AAL)by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”
15 And it happened, (AAM)before he had finished speaking, that behold, (AAN)Rebekah,[eg] who was born to Bethuel, son of (AAO)Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. 16 Now the young woman (AAP)was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up. 17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”
18 (AAQ)So she said, “Drink, my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. 19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” 20 Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels. 21 And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether (AAR)the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.
22 So it was, when the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden (AAS)nose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold, 23 and said, “Whose daughter are you? Tell me, please, is there room in your father’s house for us [eh]to lodge?”
24 So she said to him, (AAT)“I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 Moreover she said to him, “We have both straw and feed enough, and room to lodge.”
26 Then the man (AAU)bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. 27 And he said, (AAV)“Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken (AAW)His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord (AAX)led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” 28 So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household these things.
29 Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was (AAY)Laban, and Laban ran out to the man by the well. 30 So it came to pass, when he saw the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, saying, “Thus the man spoke to me,” that he went to the man. And there he stood by the camels at the well. 31 And he said, “Come in, (AAZ)O blessed of the Lord! Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house, and a place for the camels.”
32 Then the man came to the house. And he unloaded the camels, and (ABA)provided straw and feed for the camels, and water to (ABB)wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. 33 Food was set before him to eat, but he said, (ABC)“I will not eat until I have told about my errand.”
And he said, “Speak on.”
34 So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 The Lord (ABD)has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. 36 And Sarah my master’s wife (ABE)bore a son to my master when she was old; and (ABF)to him he has given all that he has. 37 Now my master (ABG)made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell; 38 (ABH)but you shall go to my father’s house and to my family, and take a wife for my son.’ 39 (ABI)And I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not follow me.’ 40 (ABJ)But he said to me, ‘The Lord, (ABK)before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and [ei]prosper your way; and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s house. 41 (ABL)You will be clear from this oath when you arrive among my family; for if they will not give her to you, then you will be released from my oath.’
42 “And this day I came to the well and said, (ABM)‘O Lord God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go, 43 (ABN)behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,” 44 and she says to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,”—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’
45 (ABO)“But before I had finished (ABP)speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew water. And I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ 46 And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. 47 Then I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the nose ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists. 48 (ABQ)And I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to (ABR)take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will (ABS)deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”
50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, (ABT)“The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot (ABU)speak to you either bad or good. 51 (ABV)Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the Lord has spoken.”
52 And it came to pass, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, that (ABW)he worshiped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth. 53 Then the servant brought out (ABX)jewelry of silver, jewelry of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave (ABY)precious things to her brother and to her mother.
54 And he and the men who were with him ate and drank and stayed all night. Then they arose in the morning, and he said, (ABZ)“Send me away to my master.”
55 But her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman stay with us a few days, at least ten; after that she may go.”
56 And he said to them, “Do not [ej]hinder me, since the Lord has prospered my way; send me away so that I may go to my master.”
57 So they said, “We will call the young woman and ask her personally.” 58 Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”
And she said, “I will go.”
59 So they sent away Rebekah their sister (ACA)and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her:
“Our sister, may you become
(ACB)The mother of thousands of ten thousands;
(ACC)And may your descendants possess
The gates of those who hate them.”
61 Then Rebekah and her maids arose, and they rode on the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed.
62 Now Isaac came from the way of (ACD)Beer Lahai Roi, for he dwelt in the South. 63 And Isaac went out (ACE)to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming. 64 Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac (ACF)she dismounted from her camel; 65 for she had said to the servant, “Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?”
The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took a veil and covered herself.
66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he (ACG)took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac (ACH)was comforted after his mother’s death.
Abraham and Keturah(ACI)
25 Abraham again took a wife, and her name was (ACJ)Keturah. 2 And (ACK)she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4 And the sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
5 And (ACL)Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. 6 But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he (ACM)sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to (ACN)the country of the east.
Abraham’s Death and Burial
7 This is the sum of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years. 8 Then Abraham breathed his last and (ACO)died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and (ACP)was gathered to his people. 9 And (ACQ)his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of (ACR)Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, 10 (ACS)the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. (ACT)There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. 11 And it came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt at (ACU)Beer Lahai Roi.
The Families of Ishmael and Isaac(ACV)
12 Now this is the (ACW)genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. 13 And (ACX)these were the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 [ek]Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and their [el]settlements, (ACY)twelve princes according to their nations. 17 These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; and (ACZ)he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. 18 (ADA)(They dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria.) He [em]died (ADB)in the presence of all his brethren.
19 This is the (ADC)genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. (ADD)Abraham begot Isaac. 20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, (ADE)the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, (ADF)the sister of Laban the Syrian. 21 Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; (ADG)and the Lord granted his plea, (ADH)and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” (ADI)So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 And the Lord said to her:
(ADJ)“Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than (ADK)the other,
(ADL)And the older shall serve the younger.”
24 So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. 25 And the first came out red. He was (ADM)like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name [en]Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, and (ADN)his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so (ADO)his name was called [eo]Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
27 So the boys grew. And Esau was (ADP)a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was (ADQ)a [ep]mild man, (ADR)dwelling in tents. 28 And Isaac loved Esau because he (ADS)ate of his game, (ADT)but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Esau Sells His Birthright(ADU)
29 Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called [eq]Edom.
31 But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”
32 And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so (ADV)what is this birthright to me?”
33 Then Jacob said, [er]“Swear to me as of this day.”
So he swore to him, and (ADW)sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then (ADX)he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau (ADY)despised his birthright.
Isaac and Abimelech
26 There was a famine in the land, besides (ADZ)the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to (AEA)Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: (AEB)“Do not go down to Egypt; live in (AEC)the land of which I shall tell you. 3 (AED)Dwell in this land, and (AEE)I will be with you and (AEF)bless you; for to you and your descendants (AEG)I give all these lands, and I will perform (AEH)the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And (AEI)I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; (AEJ)and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 (AEK)because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. 7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And (AEL)he said, “She is my sister”; for (AEM)he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is (AEN)beautiful to behold.” 8 Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, [es]showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. 9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”
10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and (AEO)you would have brought guilt on us.” 11 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who (AEP)touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year (AEQ)a hundredfold; and the Lord (AER)blessed him. 13 The man (AES)began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; 14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines (AET)envied him. 15 Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells (AEU)which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for (AEV)you are much mightier than we.”
17 Then Isaac departed from there and [et]pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. (AEW)He called them by the names which his father had called them.
19 Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar (AEX)quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well [eu]Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name [ev]Sitnah. 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name [ew]Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall (AEY)be fruitful in the land.”
23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord (AEZ)appeared to him the same night and said, (AFA)“I am the God of your father Abraham; (AFB)do not fear, for (AFC)I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he (AFD)built an altar there and (AFE)called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, (AFF)and Phichol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, (AFG)since you hate me and have (AFH)sent me away from you?”
28 But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord (AFI)is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a [ex]covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. (AFJ)You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”
30 (AFK)So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 Then they arose early in the morning and (AFL)swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 So he called it [ey]Shebah. (AFM)Therefore the name of the city is [ez]Beersheba to this day.
34 (AFN)When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And (AFO)they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
Isaac Blesses Jacob
27 Now it came to pass, when Isaac was (AFP)old and (AFQ)his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”
And he answered him, “Here I am.”
2 Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I (AFR)do not know the day of my death. 3 (AFS)Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4 And make me [fa]savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul (AFT)may bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. 6 So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, 7 ‘Bring me game and make [fb]savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, (AFU)obey my voice according to what I command you. 9 Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make (AFV)savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. 10 Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he (AFW)may bless you before his death.”
11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, (AFX)Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. 12 Perhaps my father will (AFY)feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring (AFZ)a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
13 But his mother said to him, (AGA)“Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” 14 And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother (AGB)made [fc]savory food, such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took (AGC)the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18 So he went to his father and said, “My father.”
And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, (AGD)that your soul may bless me.”
20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”
21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I (AGE)may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because (AGF)his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.
24 Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
He said, “I am.”
25 He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so (AGG)that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.” 27 And he came near and (AGH)kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:
“Surely, (AGI)the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the Lord has blessed.
28 Therefore may (AGJ)God give you
Of (AGK)the dew of heaven,
Of (AGL)the fatness of the earth,
And (AGM)plenty of grain and wine.
29 (AGN)Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And (AGO)let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
(AGP)Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!”
Esau’s Lost Hope(AGQ)
30 Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also had made [fd]savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and (AGR)eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”
32 And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”
So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—(AGS)and indeed he shall be blessed.”
34 When Esau heard the words of his father, (AGT)he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!”
35 But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”
36 And Esau said, (AGU)“Is he not rightly named [fe]Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
37 Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, (AGV)“Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with (AGW)grain and wine I have [ff]sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”
38 And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice (AGX)and wept.
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
“Behold, (AGY)your dwelling shall be of the [fg]fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.
40 By your sword you shall live,
And (AGZ)you shall serve your brother;
And (AHA)it shall come to pass, when you become restless,
That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
Jacob Escapes from Esau
41 So Esau (AHB)hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, (AHC)“The days of mourning for my father [fh]are at hand; (AHD)then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau (AHE)comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban (AHF)in Haran. 44 And stay with him a (AHG)few days, until your brother’s fury turns away, 45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”
46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, (AHH)“I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; (AHI)if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Jacob Sent to His Uncle Laban
28 Then Isaac called Jacob and (AHJ)blessed him, and [fi]charged him, and said to him: (AHK)“You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 (AHL)Arise, go to (AHM)Padan Aram, to the house of (AHN)Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of (AHO)Laban your mother’s brother.
3 “May (AHP)God Almighty bless you,
And make you (AHQ)fruitful and multiply you,
That you may be an assembly of peoples;
4 And give you (AHR)the blessing of Abraham,
To you and your descendants with you,
That you may inherit the land
(AHS)In[fj] which you are a stranger,
Which God gave to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Esau Marries Mahalath
6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. 8 Also Esau saw (AHT)that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and (AHU)took (AHV)Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, (AHW)the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
Jacob’s Vow at Bethel
10 Now Jacob (AHX)went out from Beersheba and went toward (AHY)Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he (AHZ)dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there (AIA)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 (AIB)And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: (AIC)“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; (AID)the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your (AIE)descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad (AIF)to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and (AIG)in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, (AIH)I am with you and will (AII)keep[fk] you wherever you go, and will (AIJ)bring you back to this land; for (AIK)I will not leave you (AIL)until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in (AIM)this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, (AIN)set it up as a pillar, (AIO)and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of (AIP)that place [fl]Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. 20 (AIQ)Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If (AIR)God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me (AIS)bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that (AIT)I come back to my father’s house in peace, (AIU)then the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar (AIV)shall be God’s house, (AIW)and of all that You give me I will surely give a [fm]tenth to You.”
Jacob Meets Rachel
29 So Jacob went on his journey (AIX)and came to the land of the people of the East. 2 And he looked, and saw a (AIY)well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. 3 Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth.
4 And Jacob said to them, “My brethren, where are you from?”
And they said, “We are from (AIZ)Haran.”
5 Then he said to them, “Do you know (AJA)Laban the son of Nahor?”
And they said, “We know him.”
6 So he said to them, (AJB)“Is he well?”
And they said, “He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel (AJC)is coming with the sheep.”
7 Then he said, “Look, it is still [fn]high day; it is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”
8 But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they have rolled the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.”
9 Now while he was still speaking with them, (AJD)Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and (AJE)rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob (AJF)kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was (AJG)her father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. (AJH)So she ran and told her father.
13 Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, that (AJI)he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So he told Laban all these things. 14 And Laban said to him, (AJJ)“Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.
Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, (AJK)what should your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were [fo]delicate, but Rachel was (AJL)beautiful of form and appearance.
18 Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, (AJM)“I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”
19 And Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.” 20 So Jacob (AJN)served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may (AJO)go in to her.” 22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and (AJP)made a feast. 23 Now it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her. 24 And Laban gave his maid (AJQ)Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid. 25 So it came to pass in the morning, that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you (AJR)deceived me?”
26 And Laban said, “It must not be done so in our [fp]country, to give the younger before the firstborn. 27 (AJS)Fulfill her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years.”
28 Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife also. 29 And Laban gave his maid (AJT)Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a maid. 30 Then Jacob also went in to Rachel, and he also (AJU)loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban (AJV)still another seven years.
The Children of Jacob
31 When the Lord (AJW)saw that Leah was [fq]unloved, He (AJX)opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. 32 So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name [fr]Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely (AJY)looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.” 33 Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am [fs]unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name [ft]Simeon. 34 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called [fu]Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name (AJZ)Judah.[fv] Then she stopped bearing.
Jacob’s Children
30 Now when Rachel saw that (AKA)she bore Jacob no children, Rachel (AKB)envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, (AKC)or else I die!”
2 And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, (AKD)“Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 So she said, “Here is (AKE)my maid Bilhah; go in to her, (AKF)and she will bear a child on my knees, (AKG)that I also may [fw]have children by her.” 4 Then she gave him Bilhah her maid (AKH)as wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has (AKI)judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name [fx]Dan. 7 And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With [fy]great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name [fz]Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and (AKJ)gave her to Jacob as wife. 10 And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, [ga]“A troop comes!” So she called his name [gb]Gad. 12 And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters (AKK)will call me blessed.” So she called his name [gc]Asher.
14 Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, (AKL)“Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 But she said to her, (AKM)“Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”
And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.
17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name [gd]Issachar. 19 Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name [ge]Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a (AKN)daughter, and called her name [gf]Dinah.
22 Then God (AKO)remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and (AKP)opened her womb. 23 And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away (AKQ)my reproach.” 24 So she called his name [gg]Joseph, and said, (AKR)“The Lord shall add to me another son.”
Jacob’s Agreement with Laban
25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, (AKS)“Send me away, that I may go to (AKT)my own place and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children (AKU)for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”
27 And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for (AKV)I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” 28 Then he said, (AKW)“Name me your wages, and I will give it.”
29 So Jacob said to him, (AKX)“You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. 30 For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you [gh]since my coming. And now, when shall I also (AKY)provide for my own house?”
31 So he said, “What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: 32 Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and (AKZ)these shall be my wages. 33 So my (ALA)righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”
34 And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” 35 So he removed that day the male goats that were (ALB)speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36 Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Now (ALC)Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. 38 And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41 And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43 Thus the man (ALD)became exceedingly prosperous, and (ALE)had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Jacob Flees from Laban
31 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all this (ALF)wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw the (ALG)countenance of Laban, and indeed it was not (ALH)favorable toward him as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, (ALI)“Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will (ALJ)be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, 5 and said to them, (ALK)“I see your father’s [gi]countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father (ALL)has been with me. 6 And (ALM)you know that with all my might I have served your father. 7 Yet your father has deceived me and (ALN)changed my wages (ALO)ten times, but God (ALP)did not allow him to hurt me. 8 If he said thus: (ALQ)‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked. 9 So God has (ALR)taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.
10 “And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. 11 Then (ALS)the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for (ALT)I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, (ALU)where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now (ALV)arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ ”
14 Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, (ALW)“Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not considered strangers by him? For (ALX)he has sold us, and also completely consumed our money. 16 For all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children’s; now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.”
17 Then Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels. 18 And he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Padan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of (ALY)Canaan. 19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the (ALZ)household[gj] idols that were her father’s. 20 And Jacob stole away, unknown to Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. 21 So he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river, and (AMA)headed[gk] toward the mountains of Gilead.
Laban Pursues Jacob
22 And Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. 23 Then he took (AMB)his brethren with him and pursued him for seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the mountains of Gilead. 24 But God (AMC)had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you (AMD)speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”
25 So Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mountains of Gilead.
26 And Laban said to Jacob: “What have you done, that you have stolen away unknown to me, and (AME)carried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword? 27 Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp? 28 And you did not allow me (AMF)to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now (AMG)you have done foolishly in so doing. 29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the (AMH)God of your father spoke to me (AMI)last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’ 30 And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you (AMJ)steal my gods?”
31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was (AMK)afraid, for I said, ‘Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force.’ 32 With whomever you find your gods, (AML)do not let him live. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the two maids’ tents, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. 34 Now Rachel had taken the [gl]household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban [gm]searched all about the tent but did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let it not displease my lord that I cannot (AMM)rise before you, for the manner of women is with me.” And he searched but did not find the [gn]household idols.
36 Then Jacob was angry and rebuked Laban, and Jacob answered and said to Laban: “What is my [go]trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me? 37 Although you have searched all my things, what part of your household things have you found? Set it here before my brethren and your brethren, that they may judge between us both! 38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39 (AMN)That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. (AMO)You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. 41 Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I (AMP)served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and (AMQ)you have changed my wages ten times. 42 (AMR)Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and (AMS)the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. (AMT)God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and (AMU)rebuked you last night.”
Laban’s Covenant with Jacob
43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and this flock is my flock; all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? 44 Now therefore, come, (AMV)let us make a [gp]covenant, (AMW)you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”
45 So Jacob (AMX)took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 Then Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. 47 Laban called it [gq]Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it [gr]Galeed. 48 And Laban said, (AMY)“This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore its name was called Galeed, 49 also (AMZ)Mizpah,[gs] because he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another. 50 If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us—see, God is witness between you and me!”
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father (ANA)judge between us.” And Jacob (ANB)swore by (ANC)the [gt]Fear of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. 55 And early in the morning Laban arose, and (AND)kissed his sons and daughters and (ANE)blessed them. Then Laban departed and (ANF)returned to his place.
Esau Comes to Meet Jacob
32 So Jacob went on his way, and (ANG)the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is God’s (ANH)camp.” And he called the name of that place [gu]Mahanaim.
3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother (ANI)in the land of Seir, (ANJ)the [gv]country of Edom. 4 And he commanded them, saying, (ANK)“Speak thus to my lord Esau, ‘Thus your servant Jacob says: “I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. 5 (ANL)I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that (ANM)I may find favor in your sight.” ’ ”
6 Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and (ANN)he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” 7 So Jacob was greatly afraid and (ANO)distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. 8 And he said, “If Esau comes to the one company and [gw]attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.”
9 (ANP)Then Jacob said, (ANQ)“O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord (ANR)who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the (ANS)mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with (ANT)my staff, and now I have become two companies. 11 (ANU)Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and [gx]attack me and (ANV)the mother with the children. 12 For (ANW)You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the (ANX)sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”
13 So he lodged there that same night, and took what [gy]came to his hand as (ANY)a present for Esau his brother: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. 16 Then he delivered them to the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves.” 17 And he commanded the first one, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?’ 18 then you shall say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us.’ ” 19 So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, “In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; 20 and also say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us.’ ” For he said, “I will (ANZ)appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.” 21 So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp.
Wrestling with God
22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, (AOA)and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 He took them, sent them [gz]over the brook, and sent over what he had. 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and (AOB)a Man wrestled with him until the [ha]breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He [hb]touched the socket of his hip; and (AOC)the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And (AOD)He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But he said, (AOE)“I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
28 And He said, (AOF)“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but [hc]Israel; for you have (AOG)struggled with God and (AOH)with men, and have prevailed.”
29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”
And He said, (AOI)“Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He (AOJ)blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the name of the place [hd]Peniel: “For (AOK)I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” 31 Just as he crossed over [he]Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He [hf]touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.
Jacob and Esau Meet
33 Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there, (AOL)Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. 2 And he put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last. 3 Then he crossed over before them and (AOM)bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4 (AON)But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, (AOO)and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 And he lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, “Who are these with you?”
So he said, “The children (AOP)whom God has graciously given your servant.” 6 Then the maidservants came near, they and their children, and bowed down. 7 And Leah also came near with her children, and they bowed down. Afterward Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed down.
8 Then Esau said, “What do you mean by (AOQ)all this company which I met?”
And he said, “These are (AOR)to find favor in the sight of my lord.”
9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.”
10 And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I (AOS)have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. 11 Please, take (AOT)my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt (AOU)graciously with me, and because I have [hg]enough.” (AOV)So he urged him, and he took it.
12 Then Esau said, “Let us take our journey; let us go, and I will go before you.”
13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are weak, and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And if the men should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die. 14 Please let my lord go on ahead before his servant. I will lead on slowly at a pace which the livestock that go before me, and the children, [hh]are able to endure, until I come to my lord (AOW)in Seir.”
15 And Esau said, “Now let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.”
But he said, “What need is there? (AOX)Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” 16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. 17 And Jacob journeyed to (AOY)Succoth, built himself a house, and made [hi]booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called [hj]Succoth.
Jacob Comes to Canaan
18 Then Jacob came [hk]safely to (AOZ)the city of (APA)Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched his tent before the city. 19 And (APB)he bought the parcel of [hl]land, where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. 20 Then he erected an altar there and called it (APC)El[hm] Elohe Israel.
The Dinah Incident
34 Now (APD)Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he (APE)took her and lay with her, and violated her. 3 His soul [hn]was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke [ho]kindly to the young woman. 4 So Shechem (APF)spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”
5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob (APG)held[hp] his peace until they came. 6 Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved and very angry, because he (APH)had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, (API)a thing which ought not to be done. 8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. 10 So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.”
11 Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12 Ask me ever so much (APJ)dowry[hq] and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife.”
13 But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke (APK)deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is (APL)uncircumcised, for (APM)that would be a reproach to us. 15 But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, 16 then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17 But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.”
18 And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was (APN)more honorable than all the household of his father.
Footnotes
- Genesis 1:2 Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.
- Genesis 1:5 Lit. And evening was, and morning was, a day, one.
- Genesis 1:6 expanse
- Genesis 1:16 luminaries
- Genesis 1:20 souls
- Genesis 1:20 expanse
- Genesis 1:26 Syr. all the wild animals of
- Genesis 1:28 moves about on
- Genesis 1:30 a living soul
- Genesis 2:4 Heb. toledoth, lit. generations
- Genesis 2:14 Or Tigris
- Genesis 2:14 Heb. Ashshur
- Genesis 2:15 Or Adam
- Genesis 2:15 cultivate
- Genesis 2:17 Lit. dying you shall die
- Genesis 2:19 Or the man
- Genesis 2:22 Lit. built
- Genesis 2:23 Heb. Ishshah
- Genesis 2:23 Heb. Ish
- Genesis 2:24 Lit. cling
- Genesis 3:6 Lit. a desirable thing
- Genesis 3:7 girding coverings
- Genesis 3:8 Or voice
- Genesis 3:8 Or wind, breeze
- Genesis 3:16 Lit. toward
- Genesis 3:18 cause to grow
- Genesis 3:20 Lit. Life or Living
- Genesis 4:1 Lit. Acquire
- Genesis 4:2 Lit. Breath or Nothing
- Genesis 4:3 Lit. at the end of days
- Genesis 4:7 Lit. toward
- Genesis 4:8 Lit. said to
- Genesis 4:8 Sam., LXX, Syr., Vg. add “Let us go out to the field.”
- Genesis 4:13 iniquity
- Genesis 4:15 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. Not so;
- Genesis 4:16 Lit. Wandering
- Genesis 4:21 pipe
- Genesis 4:23 slain a man for my wound
- Genesis 4:23 for my hurt
- Genesis 4:25 Lit. Appointed
- Genesis 4:26 Gr. Enos, Luke 3:38
- Genesis 5:9 Heb. Qenan
- Genesis 5:29 Lit. Rest
- Genesis 6:3 LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg. abide
- Genesis 6:4 Heb. nephilim, fallen or mighty ones
- Genesis 6:5 So with MT, Tg.; Vg. God; LXX Lord God
- Genesis 6:5 thought
- Genesis 6:5 all the day
- Genesis 6:9 blameless or having integrity
- Genesis 6:14 Lit. compartments or nests
- Genesis 6:15 A cubit is about 18 inches.
- Genesis 7:3 Lit. seed
- Genesis 7:4 Lit. blot out
- Genesis 7:21 the land
- Genesis 7:22 LXX, Vg. omit of the spirit
- Genesis 8:21 intent or thought
- Genesis 9:9 Lit. seed
- Genesis 9:23 Lit. backwards
- Genesis 10:3 Diphath, 1 Chr. 1:6
- Genesis 10:4 Sam. Rodanim and 1 Chr. 1:7
- Genesis 10:6 Or Phut
- Genesis 10:21 Or the older brother of Japheth
- Genesis 10:23 LXX Meshech and 1 Chr. 1:17
- Genesis 10:24 So with MT, Vg., Tg.; LXX Arphaxad begot Cainan, and Cainan begot Salah (cf. Luke 3:35, 36)
- Genesis 10:25 Lit. Division
- Genesis 10:28 Ebal, 1 Chr. 1:22
- Genesis 11:1 Lit. lip
- Genesis 11:3 Lit. burn
- Genesis 11:9 Lit. Confusion, Babylon
- Genesis 11:26 Abraham, Gen. 17:5
- Genesis 11:29 Sarah, Gen. 17:15
- Genesis 12:5 Lit. souls
- Genesis 12:6 Heb. Alon Moreh
- Genesis 12:7 Lit. seed
- Genesis 12:9 Heb. Negev
- Genesis 12:13 Lit. my soul
- Genesis 13:1 Heb. Negev
- Genesis 13:6 Lit. bear
- Genesis 13:15 Lit. seed
- Genesis 13:18 Heb. Alon Mamre
- Genesis 14:1 Heb. goyim
- Genesis 14:9 Heb. goyim
- Genesis 14:13 Heb. Alon Mamre
- Genesis 14:15 Lit. on the left hand of
- Genesis 14:17 Lit. striking
- Genesis 14:20 one-tenth
- Genesis 14:21 Lit. souls
- Genesis 15:1 Or your reward shall be very great
- Genesis 15:2 am childless
- Genesis 15:3 a servant
- Genesis 15:15 Die and join your ancestors
- Genesis 16:2 Lit. be built up from
- Genesis 16:4 sight
- Genesis 16:5 The wrong done to me be
- Genesis 16:11 Lit. God Hears
- Genesis 16:13 Heb. El Roi
- Genesis 16:13 Seen the back of
- Genesis 16:14 Lit. Well of the One Who Lives and Sees Me
- Genesis 17:1 Heb. El Shaddai
- Genesis 17:4 Lit. a multitude of nations
- Genesis 17:5 Lit. Exalted Father
- Genesis 17:5 Lit. Father of a Multitude
- Genesis 17:5 a multitude of
- Genesis 17:8 Lit. of your sojournings
- Genesis 17:15 Lit. Princess
- Genesis 18:1 Heb. Alon Mamre
- Genesis 18:11 Lit. the manner of women had ceased to be with Sarah
- Genesis 19:9 As a resident alien
- Genesis 19:17 LXX, Syr., Vg. they
- Genesis 19:17 Lit. swept away
- Genesis 19:22 Lit. Little or Insignificant
- Genesis 19:25 devastated
- Genesis 19:32 Lit. seed
- Genesis 19:34 Lit. seed
- Genesis 20:3 Lit. married to a husband
- Genesis 20:5 innocence
- Genesis 20:9 sinned against
- Genesis 20:16 Lit. is a covering of the eyes for you to all
- Genesis 20:16 Or justified
- Genesis 21:3 Lit. Laughter
- Genesis 21:6 Lit. made laughter for me
- Genesis 21:9 Lit. laughing
- Genesis 21:11 distressing
- Genesis 21:13 descendant
- Genesis 21:14 A water bottle made of skins
- Genesis 21:23 take an oath
- Genesis 21:27 treaty
- Genesis 21:31 Lit. Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven
- Genesis 22:5 Or young man
- Genesis 22:7 Or goat
- Genesis 22:14 Heb. YHWH Yireh
- Genesis 22:23 Rebecca, Rom. 9:10
- Genesis 23:6 Lit. prince of God
- Genesis 23:8 entreat
- Genesis 24:3 take an oath
- Genesis 24:7 Lit. seed
- Genesis 24:15 Rebecca, Rom. 9:10
- Genesis 24:23 to spend the night
- Genesis 24:40 make your way successful
- Genesis 24:56 delay
- Genesis 25:15 MT Hadad
- Genesis 25:16 camps
- Genesis 25:18 fell
- Genesis 25:25 Lit. Hairy
- Genesis 25:26 Supplanter or Deceitful, lit. One Who Takes the Heel
- Genesis 25:27 Lit. complete
- Genesis 25:30 Lit. Red
- Genesis 25:33 Take an oath
- Genesis 26:8 caressing
- Genesis 26:17 camped
- Genesis 26:20 Lit. Quarrel
- Genesis 26:21 Lit. Enmity
- Genesis 26:22 Lit. Spaciousness
- Genesis 26:28 treaty
- Genesis 26:33 Lit. Oath or Seven
- Genesis 26:33 Lit. Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven
- Genesis 27:4 tasty
- Genesis 27:7 tasty
- Genesis 27:14 tasty
- Genesis 27:31 tasty
- Genesis 27:36 Supplanter or Deceitful, lit. One Who Takes the Heel
- Genesis 27:37 provided support for
- Genesis 27:39 fertility
- Genesis 27:41 are soon here
- Genesis 28:1 commanded
- Genesis 28:4 Lit. Of your sojournings
- Genesis 28:15 protect
- Genesis 28:19 Lit. House of God
- Genesis 28:22 tithe
- Genesis 29:7 early in the day
- Genesis 29:17 Or weak
- Genesis 29:26 Lit. place
- Genesis 29:31 Lit. hated
- Genesis 29:32 Lit. See, a Son
- Genesis 29:33 Lit. hated
- Genesis 29:33 Lit. Heard
- Genesis 29:34 Lit. Attached
- Genesis 29:35 Lit. Praise
- Genesis 30:3 Lit. be built up by her
- Genesis 30:6 Lit. Judge
- Genesis 30:8 Lit. wrestlings of God
- Genesis 30:8 Lit. My Wrestling
- Genesis 30:11 So with Qr., Syr., Tg.; Kt., LXX, Vg. in fortune
- Genesis 30:11 Lit. Troop or Fortune
- Genesis 30:13 Lit. Happy
- Genesis 30:18 Lit. Wages
- Genesis 30:20 Lit. Dwelling
- Genesis 30:21 Lit. Judgment
- Genesis 30:24 Lit. He Will Add
- Genesis 30:30 Lit. at my foot
- Genesis 31:5 Lit. face
- Genesis 31:19 Heb. teraphim
- Genesis 31:21 Lit. set his face toward
- Genesis 31:34 Heb. teraphim
- Genesis 31:34 Lit. felt
- Genesis 31:35 Heb. teraphim
- Genesis 31:36 transgression
- Genesis 31:44 treaty
- Genesis 31:47 Lit., in Aram., Heap of Witness
- Genesis 31:47 Lit., in Heb., Heap of Witness
- Genesis 31:49 Lit. Watch
- Genesis 31:53 A reference to God
- Genesis 32:2 Lit. Double Camp
- Genesis 32:3 Lit. field
- Genesis 32:8 Lit. strikes
- Genesis 32:11 Lit. strike
- Genesis 32:13 he had received
- Genesis 32:23 across
- Genesis 32:24 dawn
- Genesis 32:25 struck
- Genesis 32:28 Lit. Prince with God
- Genesis 32:30 Lit. Face of God
- Genesis 32:31 Lit. Face of God; same as Peniel, v. 30
- Genesis 32:32 struck
- Genesis 33:11 Lit. all
- Genesis 33:14 can stand
- Genesis 33:17 shelters
- Genesis 33:17 Lit. Booths
- Genesis 33:18 Or to Shalem, a city of
- Genesis 33:19 Lit. the field
- Genesis 33:20 Lit. God, the God of Israel
- Genesis 34:3 Lit. clung to
- Genesis 34:3 tenderly
- Genesis 34:5 kept silent
- Genesis 34:12 bride-price
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
