Beginning

8 Then God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the land and the water subsided. ² Also the sources of the deep and the windows of the skies were closed up, and the rain from the sky was held back. ³ The waters kept receding gradually from upon the land and the waters decreased by the end of 150 days. ⁴ The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters went on decreasing until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ It was at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven and it kept going back and forth until the waters were drying up from the land. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see whether the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole land. He stretched out his hand and he took her, and brought her to him into the ark. ¹⁰ So he waited yet another seven days and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came to him at evening, and surprisingly—a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the land. ¹² After he waited seven more days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.

¹³ It was in his six-hundred-and first year—in the first month, on the first day of the month—that the waters had dried up from the land. Then Noah removed the cover of the ark and he looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up. ¹⁴ By the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was dry.

Noah’s Soothing Sacrifice

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Every animal that is with you of all flesh, including the flying creatures, livestock and every crawling creature that crawls on the land, bring out with you, and let them swarm in the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the land.”

¹⁸ So Noah came out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal—every crawling creature, every flying creature, everything that crawls upon the land—came out from the ark in their families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to Adonai and he took of every clean domestic animal and of every clean flying creature and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ When Adonai smelled the soothing aroma, Adonai said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, even though the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from youth. Nor will I ever again smite all living creatures, as I have done.

Covenant with Noah’s Descendants

9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land. ² The fear and terror of you will be on every wild animal, and on every flying creature of the sky, with everything that crawls on the ground and with all the fish of the sea—into your hand they are given. ³ Every crawling thing that is alive will be food for you, as are the green plants—I have now given you everything. ⁴ Only flesh with its life—that is, its blood—you must not eat! ⁵ Surely your lifeblood will I avenge. From every animal and from every person will I avenge it. From every person’s brother will I avenge that person’s life.

⁷ But as for you, be fruitful and multiply! Flourish in the land and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹ “Now I, behold, I am about to establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, including the flying creatures, the livestock, and every wild animal with you, of all that is coming out of the ark—every animal of the earth. ¹¹ I will confirm My covenant with you—never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to ruin the land.”

¹² Then God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. ¹³ My rainbow do I place in the cloud, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the land. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the land and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember My covenant that is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the rainbow is in the cloud, I will look at it, to remember the perpetual covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the land.”

¹⁷ Then God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed between Me and all flesh that is on the land.”

Dispersion of Noah’s Family

¹⁸ Noah’s sons who came out from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were Noah’s sons, and from these the whole earth dispersed.

²⁰ Then Noah, a man of the soil, was first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine, got drunk, and was uncovered in his tent. ²² Then Ham, Canaan’s father, saw his father’s private parts and told his two brothers outside. ²³ So Shem and Japheth took the cloak and laid it over both their shoulders and walked backwards and with it covered their father’s private parts. But their faces were turned away, so they did not see their father’s private parts.

²⁴ When Noah woke up from his wine, he learned what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ So he said,

²⁶ He also said,

²⁸ Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹ So all Noah’s days were 950 years. Then he died.

10 And these are the genealogical records of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

² Japheth’s sons were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras. ³ Gomer’s sons were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. ⁴ Javan’s sons were Elishah and Tarshish, Kittites and Dodanites. ⁵ From these the coastlands of the nations spread out in their lands, each one according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

⁶ Ham’s sons were Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan. ⁷ Cush’s sons were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. And Raamah’s sons were Sheba, and Dedan.

⁸ Now Cush fathered Nimrod. He started to become mighty in the land. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before Adonai. This is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Adonai.” ¹⁰ The beginning of his kingdom included Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went out to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rechovot-ir, Calah ¹² and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah—it is the great city.

¹³ Mizraim fathered the Ludites, the Anamites, the Lehabites, the Naphtuhites, ¹⁴ the Pathrusites, the Casluhites—from whom came the Philistines—and the Caphtorites.

¹⁵ Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn, Heth, ¹⁶ the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, ¹⁷ the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, ¹⁸ the Arvadite, the Zemarite and the Hamathite—and afterwards, the Canaanite families were scattered. ¹⁹ Now the Canaanite border was from Zidon, as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

²⁰ These are Ham’s sons according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, in their nations.

²¹ Sons were also born to Shem, who was Japheth’s older brother and the father of all the sons of Eber. ²² Shem’s sons were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram. ²³ Aram’s sons were Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash. ²⁴ Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵ Two sons were born to Eber. The name of the first was Peleg—because in his days the land was divided—and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan fathered Elmodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All of these are Joktan’s sons. ³⁰ Their dwelling place was from Mesha till you come toward Sephar, the eastern hill country. ³¹ These are Shem’s sons, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.

³² These are the families of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies in their nations, and from these the nations were dispersed on the earth after the flood.

Tower of Babel

11 Now the entire earth had the same language with the same vocabulary. ² When they traveled eastward, they found a valley-plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ They said to one another, “Come! Let’s make bricks and bake them until they’re hard.” So they used bricks for stone, and tar for mortar.

⁴ Then they said, “Come! Let’s build ourselves a city, with a tower whose top reaches into heaven. So let’s make a name for ourselves, or else we will be scattered over the face of the whole land.”

⁵ Then Adonai came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. ⁶ Adonai said, “Look, the people are one and all of them have the same language. So this is what they have begun to do. Now, nothing they plan to do will be impossible. ⁷ Come! Let Us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand each other’s language.”

⁸ So Adonai scattered them from there over the face of the entire land, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ This is why it is named Babel, because Adonai confused the languages of the entire world there, and from there Adonai scattered them over the face of the entire world.

From Shem to Abram

¹⁰ These are the genealogical records of Shem: Shem was 100 years old when he fathered Arpachshad—two years after the flood. ¹¹ Shem lived 500 years after he fathered Arpachshad, and he fathered sons and daughters. ¹² Arpachshad lived 35 years when he fathered Shelah. ¹³ Arpachshad lived 403 years after he fathered Shelah, and fathered sons and daughters. ¹⁴ Shelah lived 30 years and he fathered Eber. ¹⁵ Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber, and fathered sons and daughters. ¹⁶ Eber lived 34 years and he fathered Peleg. ¹⁷ Eber lived 430 years after he fathered Peleg, and he fathered sons and daughters. ¹⁸ Peleg lived 30 years and he fathered Reu. ¹⁹ Peleg lived 209 years after he fathered Reu, and he fathered sons and daughters. ²⁰ Reu lived 32 years and he fathered Serug. ²¹ Reu lived 207 years after he fathered Serug, and he fathered sons and daughters. ²² Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. ²³ Serug lived 200 years after he fathered Nahor, and he fathered sons and daughters. ²⁴ Nahor lived 27 years and he fathered Terah. ²⁵ Nahor lived 119 years after he fathered Terah, and he fathered sons and daughters. ²⁶ Terah lived 70 years when he fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran.

²⁷ These are Terah’s genealogies: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸ Haran died before Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah—the daughter of Haran, father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai was barren; she did not have a child.

³¹ Terah took Abram his son and Lot, Haran’s son, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and he took them out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

³² Terah’s days were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.