Add parallel Print Page Options

The Water Goes Down

God did not forget about Noah and the animals with him in the boat. So God made a wind blow, and the water started going down. God stopped up the places where the water had been gushing out from under the earth. He also closed up the sky, and the rain stopped. For 150 days the water slowly went down. Then on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the year, the boat came to rest somewhere in the Ararat mountains. The water kept going down, and the mountain tops could be seen on the first day of the tenth month.

6-7 Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up. Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, so he sent out a dove. Deep water was still everywhere, and when the dove could not find a place to land, it flew back to the boat. Then Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.

10 Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. 11 It returned in the evening, holding in its beak a green leaf from an olive tree. Noah knew the water was finally going down. 12 He waited seven more days before sending the dove out again, and this time it did not return.

13 Noah was now 601 years old. And by the first day of that year, almost all the water had gone away. Noah made an opening in the roof of the boat[a] and saw that the ground was getting dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry.

15 God said to Noah, 16 “You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. 17 Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.” 18 After Noah and his family had left the boat, 19 the living creatures left in groups of their own kind.

The Lord's Promise for the Earth

20 Noah built an altar where he could offer sacrifices to the Lord. Then he offered on the altar one of each kind of animal and bird that could be used for a sacrifice.[b] 21 The smell of the burning offering pleased the Lord, and he said:

Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things its people do. All of them have evil thoughts from the time they are young, but I will never destroy everything that breathes, as I did this time.

22 As long as the earth remains,
there will be planting
    and harvest,
    cold and heat;
winter and summer,
    day and night.

God's Promise to Noah

(A) God said to Noah and his sons:

I am giving you my blessing. Have a lot of children and grandchildren, so people will live everywhere on this earth. All animals, birds, reptiles, and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them under your control, and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten. (B) But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it. 5-6 (C) I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.

(D) I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.

Again, God said to Noah and his sons:

I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. 10 This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. 11 I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.

12-13 The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, 15 I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. 17 The rainbow will be the sign of that solemn promise.

Noah and His Family

18 Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, left the boat. Ham later had a son named Canaan. 19 All people on earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.

20 Noah farmed the land and was the first to plant a vineyard. 21 One day he got drunk and was lying naked in his tent. 22 Ham entered the tent and saw him naked, then went back outside and told his brothers. 23 Shem and Japheth put a robe over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. Without looking at their father, they placed it over his body.

24 When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done, 25 he said,

“I now put a curse on Canaan!
He will be the lowest slave
    of his brothers.
26 I ask the Lord my God
to bless Shem
    and make Canaan his slave.
27 I pray God will give Japheth
    more and more[c] land
and let him take over
    the territory of Shem.
May Canaan be his slave.”

28 Noah lived 350 years after the flood 29 and died at the age of 950.

The Descendants of Noah

10 After the flood Shem, Ham, and Japheth had many descendants.

The Descendants of Japheth

2-5 Japheth's descendants had their own languages, tribes, and land. They were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

Gomer was the ancestor of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

Javan was the ancestor of Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim,[d] who settled along the coast.

The Descendants of Ham

6-20 Ham's descendants had their own languages, tribes, and land. They were Ethiopia,[e] Egypt, Put, and Canaan.

Cush[f] was the ancestor of Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.

Raamah was the ancestor of Sheba and Dedan.

Cush was also the ancestor of Nimrod, a mighty warrior whose strength came from the Lord. This is why people say: “You hunt like Nimrod with the strength of the Lord!” Nimrod first ruled in Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all of[g] which were in Babylonia.[h] From there Nimrod went to Assyria and built the great city of Nineveh. He also built Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, as well as Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah.

Egypt was the ancestor of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim, the ancestor of the Philistines.[i]

Canaan's sons were Sidon and Heth. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.

Later the Canaanites spread from the territory of Sidon and settled as far away as Gaza in the direction of Gerar. They also went as far as Lasha in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim.

The Descendants of Shem

21-31 Shem's descendants had their own languages, tribes, and land. He was the older brother of Japheth and the ancestor of the tribes of Eber.

Shem was the ancestor of Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

Aram was the ancestor of Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

Arpachshad was the father of Shelah and the grandfather of Eber, whose first son was named Peleg,[j] because it was during his time that tribes divided up the earth. Eber's second son was Joktan.

Joktan was the ancestor of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. Their land reached from Mesha in the direction of Sephar, the hill country in the east.

32 This completes the list of Noah's descendants. After the flood their descendants became nations and spread all over the world.

The Tower of Babel

11 At first everyone spoke the same language, but after some of them moved from the east[k] and settled in Babylonia,[l] 3-4 they said:

Let's build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We'll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We'll become famous, and we won't be scattered all over the world.

But when the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower, he said:

These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. Let's go down and confuse them! We'll make them speak different languages, and they won't be able to understand each other.

8-9 So the people had to stop building the city, because the Lord confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That's how the city of Babel[m] got its name.

The Descendants of Shem

10-11 Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100, he had a son named Arpachshad. He had more children and died at the age of 600. This is a list of his descendants:

12 When Arpachshad was 35, he had a son named Shelah. 13 Arpachshad had more children and died at the age of 438.

14 When Shelah was 30, he had a son named Eber. 15 Shelah had more children and died at the age of 433.

16 When Eber was 34, he had a son named Peleg. 17 Eber had more children and died at the age of 464.

18 When Peleg was 30, he had a son named Reu. 19 Peleg had more children and died at the age of 239.

20 When Reu was 32 he had a son named Serug. 21 Reu had more children and died at the age of 239.

22 When Serug was 30, he had a son named Nahor. 23 Serug had more children and died at the age of 230.

24 When Nahor was 29, he had a son named Terah. 25 Nahor had more children and died at the age of 148.

The Descendants of Terah

26-28 After Terah was 70 years old, he had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran, who became the father of Lot. Terah's sons were born in the city of Ur in Chaldea,[n] and Haran died there before the death of his father. The following is the story of Terah's descendants.

29-30 Abram married Sarai, but she was not able to have children. And Nahor married Milcah, who was the daughter of Haran and the sister of Iscah.

31 Terah decided to move from Ur to the land of Canaan. He took along Abram and Sarai and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran. But when they came to the city of Haran,[o] they settled there instead. 32 Terah lived to be 205 years old and died in Haran.

Footnotes

  1. 8.13 made … boat: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 8.20 animal … sacrifice: See the note at 7.2.
  3. 9.27 more and more: In Hebrew “Japheth” sounds like “more and more.”
  4. 10.2-5 Dodanim: Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and one ancient translation have “Rodanim.”
  5. 10.6-20 Ethiopia: See the note at 2.13.
  6. 10.6-20 Cush: See the note at 2.13.
  7. 10.6-20 and Accad, all of: Or “Accad, and Calneh.”
  8. 10.6-20 Babylonia: The Hebrew text has “Shinar,” another name for Babylonia.
  9. 10.6-20 Casluhim, and Caphtorim, the ancestor of the Philistines: Hebrew “Caphtorim, and Casluhim, the ancestor of the Philistines.” The Philistines were from Caphtor (see Jeremiah 47.4; Amos 9.7), better known as Crete.
  10. 10.21-31 Peleg: In Hebrew “Peleg” means “divided.”
  11. 11.2 from the east: Or “to the east.”
  12. 11.2 Babylonia: See the note at 10.6-20.
  13. 11.8,9 Babel: In Hebrew “Babel” sounds like “confused.”
  14. 11.26-28 Ur in Chaldea: Chaldea was a region at the head of the Persian Gulf. Ur was on the main trade routes from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea.
  15. 11.31 Haran: About 885 kilometers northwest of Ur.

But God remembered(A) Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth,(B) and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens(C) had been closed, and the rain(D) had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days(E) the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month(F) the ark came to rest on the mountains(G) of Ararat.(H) The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

After forty days(I) Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven,(J) and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.(K) Then he sent out a dove(L) to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.(M) 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year,(N) the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month(O) the earth was completely dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.(P) 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”(Q)

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.(R) 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord(S) and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean(T) birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings(U) on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma(V) and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground(W) because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.(X) And never again will I destroy(Y) all living creatures,(Z) as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,(AA)
cold and heat,
summer and winter,(AB)
day and night
will never cease.”(AC)

God’s Covenant With Noah

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.(AD) The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.(AE) Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.(AF) Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.(AG)

“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.(AH) And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.(AI) I will demand an accounting from every animal.(AJ) And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.(AK)

“Whoever sheds human blood,
    by humans shall their blood be shed;(AL)
for in the image of God(AM)
    has God made mankind.

As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”(AN)

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you(AO) and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant(AP) with you:(AQ) Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.(AR)

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant(AS) I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:(AT) 13 I have set my rainbow(AU) in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow(AV) appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant(AW) between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.(AX) 16 Whenever the rainbow(AY) appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant(AZ) between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant(BA) I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

The Sons of Noah

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth.(BB) (Ham was the father of Canaan.)(BC) 19 These were the three sons of Noah,(BD) and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.(BE)

20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded[b] to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine,(BF) he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked(BG) and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

“Cursed(BH) be Canaan!(BI)
    The lowest of slaves
    will he be to his brothers.(BJ)

26 He also said,

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!(BK)
    May Canaan be the slave(BL) of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[c] territory;(BM)
    may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,(BN)
    and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.(BO)

The Table of Nations

10 This is the account(BP) of Shem, Ham and Japheth,(BQ) Noah’s sons,(BR) who themselves had sons after the flood.

The Japhethites(BS)

The sons[d] of Japheth:

Gomer,(BT) Magog,(BU) Madai, Javan,(BV) Tubal,(BW) Meshek(BX) and Tiras.

The sons of Gomer:

Ashkenaz,(BY) Riphath and Togarmah.(BZ)

The sons of Javan:

Elishah,(CA) Tarshish,(CB) the Kittites(CC) and the Rodanites.[e] (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)(CD)

The Hamites(CE)

The sons of Ham:

Cush,(CF) Egypt, Put(CG) and Canaan.(CH)

The sons of Cush:

Seba,(CI) Havilah,(CJ) Sabtah, Raamah(CK) and Sabteka.

The sons of Raamah:

Sheba(CL) and Dedan.(CM)

Cush was the father[f] of Nimrod,(CN) who became a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty(CO) hunter(CP) before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon,(CQ) Uruk,(CR) Akkad and Kalneh,(CS) in[g] Shinar.[h](CT) 11 From that land he went to Assyria,(CU) where he built Nineveh,(CV) Rehoboth Ir,[i] Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.

13 Egypt was the father of

the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines(CW) came) and Caphtorites.(CX)

15 Canaan(CY) was the father of

Sidon(CZ) his firstborn,[j](DA) and of the Hittites,(DB) 16 Jebusites,(DC) Amorites,(DD) Girgashites,(DE) 17 Hivites,(DF) Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites,(DG) Zemarites and Hamathites.(DH)

Later the Canaanite(DI) clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan(DJ) reached from Sidon(DK) toward Gerar(DL) as far as Gaza,(DM) and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim,(DN) as far as Lasha.

20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

The Semites(DO)

21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was[k] Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.(DP)

22 The sons of Shem:

Elam,(DQ) Ashur,(DR) Arphaxad,(DS) Lud and Aram.(DT)

23 The sons of Aram:

Uz,(DU) Hul, Gether and Meshek.[l]

24 Arphaxad was the father of[m] Shelah,

and Shelah the father of Eber.(DV)

25 Two sons were born to Eber:

One was named Peleg,[n] because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.

26 Joktan was the father of

Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal,(DW) Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,(DX) 29 Ophir,(DY) Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.

30 The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons,(DZ) according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth(EA) after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole world had one language(EB) and a common speech. As people moved eastward,[o] they found a plain in Shinar[p](EC) and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks(ED) and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone,(EE) and tar(EF) for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens,(EG) so that we may make a name(EH) for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered(EI) over the face of the whole earth.”(EJ)

But the Lord came down(EK) to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language(EL) they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us(EM) go down(EN) and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”(EO)

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth,(EP) and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel[q](EQ)—because there the Lord confused the language(ER) of the whole world.(ES) From there the Lord scattered(ET) them over the face of the whole earth.

From Shem to Abram(EU)

10 This is the account(EV) of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father[r] of Arphaxad.(EW) 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah.(EX) 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.[s]

14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber.(EY) 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg.(EZ) 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu.(FA) 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug.(FB) 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor.(FC) 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.(FD) 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram,(FE) Nahor(FF) and Haran.(FG)

Abram’s Family

27 This is the account(FH) of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor(FI) and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.(FJ) 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans,(FK) in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor(FL) both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,(FM) and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah;(FN) she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. 30 Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.(FO)

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot(FP) son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law(FQ) Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans(FR) to go to Canaan.(FS) But when they came to Harran,(FT) they settled there.

32 Terah(FU) lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 8:21 Or humans, for
  2. Genesis 9:20 Or soil, was the first
  3. Genesis 9:27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for extend.
  4. Genesis 10:2 Sons may mean descendants or successors or nations; also in verses 3, 4, 6, 7, 20-23, 29 and 31.
  5. Genesis 10:4 Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text and Samaritan Pentateuch (see also Septuagint and 1 Chron. 1:7); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text Dodanites
  6. Genesis 10:8 Father may mean ancestor or predecessor or founder; also in verses 13, 15, 24 and 26.
  7. Genesis 10:10 Or Uruk and Akkad—all of them in
  8. Genesis 10:10 That is, Babylonia
  9. Genesis 10:11 Or Nineveh with its city squares
  10. Genesis 10:15 Or of the Sidonians, the foremost
  11. Genesis 10:21 Or Shem, the older brother of
  12. Genesis 10:23 See Septuagint and 1 Chron. 1:17; Hebrew Mash.
  13. Genesis 10:24 Hebrew; Septuagint father of Cainan, and Cainan was the father of
  14. Genesis 10:25 Peleg means division.
  15. Genesis 11:2 Or from the east; or in the east
  16. Genesis 11:2 That is, Babylonia
  17. Genesis 11:9 That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for confused.
  18. Genesis 11:10 Father may mean ancestor; also in verses 11-25.
  19. Genesis 11:13 Hebrew; Septuagint (see also Luke 3:35, 36 and note at Gen. 10:24) 35 years, he became the father of Cainan. 13 And after he became the father of Cainan, Arphaxad lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters, and then he died. When Cainan had lived 130 years, he became the father of Shelah. And after he became the father of Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and had other sons and daughters