Beginning
Cain and Abel
4 Adam had sex with his wife, Eve. She became pregnant. She gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘With the Lord's help, I have given birth to a son.’[a]
2 Some time later, Eve gave birth to Cain's brother. She called him Abel. When they had grown to become men, Abel took care of sheep. Cain worked on the land as a farmer.
3 One day, it was time for the harvest. Cain brought to the Lord some of his crops as an offering. 4 But Abel brought to God some of the first lambs that his sheep had given birth to. He brought pieces of fat from the best of his lambs to offer them to God. Abel and his gift pleased the Lord.[b] 5 But God was not pleased with Cain and his gift. So Cain became very angry. His face looked sad.[c]
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why do you look sad? 7 If you do what is right, I will accept you. But if you do not do the right thing, sin will be very near to you. It will be like a wild animal at your door that is ready to eat you. But you must become its master.’[d]
Cain kills Abel
8 One day Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘We should go out to the fields.’ While they were in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel. He killed Abel.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel, your brother?’ Cain replied, ‘I do not know where he is. Must I always keep my brother safe?’
10 Then the Lord God said, ‘Why have you done this bad thing? Now your brother's blood is lying there on the ground. That is like his voice which is shouting to me for help. 11 The ground received your brother's blood when you killed him. As a result, the ground no longer accepts you. It has brought a curse on you. 12 When you work hard to dig the ground, no plants will grow in it for your food. You will travel from place to place. You will not have your own home.’[e]
13 Cain said to the Lord, ‘That punishment is too much! It will give me too much pain. 14 Now you are making me leave my home here on the land. I will be far away from where you are. I will be a traveller without a home. If someone sees me, they will kill me.’
15 But the Lord said to Cain, ‘No! If anyone kills Cain, I will punish that person seven times more than I have punished you.’
Then the Lord put a special mark on Cain. This was to tell other people that they must not kill Cain.
16 Cain went away from the Lord. He went to live in the land called Nod, which is east of Eden.
The descendants of Cain
17 Cain had sex with his wife. She became pregnant and she gave birth to Enoch. Cain started to build a city. He called the city Enoch because that was his son's name. 18 Enoch became the father of Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech married two women. One was called Adah. The other was called Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal. Jabal became the father of people who live in tents and they take care of animals.
21 Jabal had a brother called Jubal. Jubal became the father of people who make music with harps and flutes.
22 Zillah gave birth to a son. His name was Tubal-Cain. He used bronze and iron to make tools. Tubal-Cain had a sister. Her name was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his two wives,
‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me!
My wives, hear my words!
A man attacked me, so I killed him.
Yes, I killed a young man because he hurt me.
24 If someone kills Cain, God will punish that person seven times more.
But if someone attacks me, I will punish that person 77 times more!’[f]
The birth of Seth
25 Adam again had sex with his wife, Eve. She gave birth to another son. She called him Seth. Eve said, ‘God has given me another child to take the place of Abel, because Cain killed Abel.’ 26 Later Seth had a son and he called him Enosh.
At that time, people began to use the name of the Lord to worship him.
The descendants of Adam
5 This is the report about Adam and his family.
When God made men and women, he made them like himself. 2 God made male and female people and he called them ‘human’. He blessed them.
3 When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was like him. Adam called him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived for 800 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 5 Adam was 930 years old when he died.
6 When Seth was 105 years old, he had a son. He called him Enosh. 7 After Enosh was born, Seth lived for 807 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 8 Seth was 912 years old when he died.
9 When Enosh was 90 years old, he had a son. He called him Kenan. 10 After Kenan was born, Enosh lived for 815 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 11 Enosh was 905 years old when he died.
12 When Kenan was 70 years old, he had a son. He called him Mahalalel. 13 After Mahalalel was born, Kenan lived for 840 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 14 Kenan was 910 years old when he died.
15 When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he had a son. He called him Jared. 16 After Jared was born, Mahalalel lived for 830 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 17 Mahalalel was 895 years old when he died.
18 When Jared was 162 years old, he had a son. He called him Enoch. 19 After Enoch was born, Jared lived for 800 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 20 Jared was 962 years old when he died.
21 When Enoch was 65 years old, he had a son. He called him Methuselah. 22 After Methuselah was born, Enoch lived as God wanted for 300 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 23 Enoch lived on earth for 365 years. 24 Enoch lived to please God all this time, then Enoch was not there any more. God took Enoch to be with him.[g]
25 When Methuselah was 187 years old, he had a son. He called him Lamech.[h] 26 After Lamech was born, Methuselah lived for 782 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 27 Methuselah was 969 years old when he died.
28 When Lamech was 182 years old, he had a son. 29 He called his son Noah. Lamech said, ‘He will help us in our difficult work on the land. We have pain when we work on the land to get food. That is because the Lord God cursed the ground.’ 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived for 595 years. During this time, he had other sons and daughters. 31 Lamech was 777 years old when he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
6 People began to grow in number all over the earth. They gave birth to daughters. 2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They chose for themselves any of them that they wanted to become their wives.[i]
3 The Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not give life to humans for ever. One day they will die. I will not let them live for more than 120 years. Then they will die.’
4 The Nephilites lived on the earth at that time, and for some time after that. During that time, the sons of God were having sex with the daughters of men, who gave birth to their children. The Nephilites were famous great men and fighters.
5 The Lord saw that men and women on the earth had become very bad. They thought only of evil things all the time. 6 The Lord was sorry that he had made humans and put them on the earth. He became very upset. 7 So the Lord said, ‘I made humans, but now I will destroy them. I will completely take them off the earth. As well as human people, I will also destroy the animals, the living things that move on the ground, and the birds. I am sorry that I made them.’
8 But as for Noah, the Lord was happy about him.[j]
God saves Noah
9 This is the report about Noah and his family.
Noah was a good man. He was the only person at that time who lived in a completely right way. He stayed near to God in his life. 10 Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 God saw that everything on the earth had become spoiled. Everywhere, people were attacking each other. 12 God saw how much the earth had become spoiled. Everyone was doing bad things. 13 God said to Noah, ‘I will destroy everyone. That is what I have decided to do. Everywhere on the earth, people are attacking each other. Now I will destroy the people and also the earth. 14 So make a ship for yourself. Use wood from cypress trees to make it.[k] The ship must have rooms in it. Cover the inside and the outside of the ship with tar.[l]
15 This is how you will build the ship: It must be 150 metres long, 25 metres wide and 15 metres high.
16 Make a roof for the ship. Leave a space 45 centimetres high all round under the roof. Put a door in the side of the ship. Inside the ship, make three floors above each other.
17 I will cover the earth with deep water. I will destroy all living things, wherever they live. Everything that breathes will die. 18 But I will make a covenant with you, Noah. You will go into the ship. You will take your wife with you, and also your three sons and their wives. 19 You must also take two of every different kind of animal into the ship. One will be male and the other will be female. Then they will stay alive with you. 20 Bring two of every different kind of bird, two of every different animal and two of every different living thing that moves along the ground. All these will come to you. You will take care of them so that they will stay alive. 21 You must also take every different kind of food. That will be food for you and food for the animals.’
22 Noah obeyed God. He did everything that God had told him to do.
God destroys people and animals
7 Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ship. Take your wife and family with you. I can see that you alone do what is right, among all the people on the earth.
2 Take seven of every different kind of clean animal. Take a male and a female together. Take two of every different kind of unclean animal. Take a male and a female together. 3 Take seven of every kind of bird. Take males and females. Do this so that they will give birth to young ones. Then each different kind of animal and bird will continue to live on the earth.[m]
4 In seven days, I will cause rain to fall on the earth. It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights. In that way, I will destroy every living thing that I have made on the earth.’
5 Noah did everything that God told him to do.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the deep water covered the earth. 7 Noah and his wife went into the ship. His sons and their wives also went in. They all went into the ship to be safe from the deep water. 8 Pairs of clean animals and unclean animals came to Noah in the ship.[n] Also, pairs of birds and pairs of all the living things that move across the ground came to him. 9 Each pair was one male and one female. They all came to Noah in the ship. Everything happened as God had said to Noah. 10 After seven days had passed, God sent the deep water to cover the earth.
11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th day of the second month, streams of water came up everywhere from below the earth. Also, the water in the heavens poured down on the earth. 12 Rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.
13 On the day that the rain began to fall, Noah and his wife went into the ship. Noah's three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and their three wives also went in. 14 With them was every different kind of wild animal and every different kind of farm animal. They also had with them every kind of living thing that moves along the ground. Every different kind of bird and other flying things were there too. 15 Pairs of every kind of animal that lived came to Noah and went into the ship.[o] 16 Each pair was one male and one female. This happened in the way that God had told Noah. When they were all in the ship, the Lord shut the door.
17 For 40 days, the water on the earth became deeper. The water lifted the ship high above the ground.
18 The water became even deeper and completely covered the earth. The ship went safely on top of the water. 19 More water came until it covered all the high mountains on the earth. 20 The water still became deeper so that it was more than 6 metres higher than the tops of the mountains.
21 As a result, everything that had lived on the earth now died. The birds, the farm animals and the wild animals died. Every living thing that moved across the ground died, and so did all the people. 22 Everything that lived on the dry land died. Nothing could breathe any more. 23 God destroyed everything that lived on the earth. He destroyed people, animals, living things that move across the ground, and birds. God removed them from the earth. Only Noah and his family, together with the animals that were in the ship, stayed alive.
24 The deep water covered the earth for 150 days.
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