Beginning
The Flood Recedes
8 God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the water receded. 2 Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain from the heavens was restrained. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth, and after the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The water continually decreased until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 Then at the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, 7 and he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro until the waters were dried up on the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were on the surface of all the earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself. 10 He waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark. 11 The dove came to him in the evening, and in her mouth there was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again, but it did not return to him again.
13 So in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw the surface 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 spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, 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 animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
18 So Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went out. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
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 The Lord smelled a soothing aroma; and the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22 While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
and day and night
will not cease.”
The Noahic Covenant
9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 Every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky and all that moves on the earth and all the fish of the sea will fear you and be terrified of you. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. I give you everything, just as I gave you the green plant.
4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 But for your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; from every animal will I require it; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow 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 as for you, be fruitful and multiply; increase abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.”
8 Again God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “As for Me, I establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 I establish My covenant with you. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 Then God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations. 13 I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 When I bring a cloud over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the cloud; 15 then I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow will appear in the cloud, and I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
The Sons of Noah
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank some 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 So Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went 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 younger son had done to him, 25 he said,
“Canaan be cursed!
He will be a servant of servants
to his brothers.”
26 He also said,
“Blessed be the Lord God of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth,
and may he dwell in the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be his servant.”
28 Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.
The Table of Nations
10 Now these are the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. And sons were born to them after the flood.
The Japhethites(A)
2 The sons of Japheth were
Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek, and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer were
Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan were
Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites. 5 From these the coastlands of the nations were divided[a] into their lands, everyone according to his tongue, according to their families, by their nations.
The Hamites(B)
6 The sons of Ham were
Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were
Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteka;
and the sons of Raamah were
Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush was the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Even like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel,[b] Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, the city Rehoboth Ir, and Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).
13 Egypt was the father of
the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorites.
15 Canaan was the father of
Sidon his firstborn and Heth, 16 and the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites, and the Hamathites.
Later the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. 19 The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon toward Gerar to Gaza, and then to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.
20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.
The Semites(C)
21 To Shem, who was the father of all the children of Eber, whose older brother was Japheth,[c] were sons born also.
22 The sons of Shem were
Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were
Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshek.
24 Arphaxad was the father of Shelah,
and Shelah was the father of Eber.
25 To Eber were born two sons.
The name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; his brother’s name was Joktan.
26 Joktan was the father of
Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
30 Their dwelling place was from Mesha all the way to Sephar, the hill country of the east.
31 These are the sons of Shem, by their families and their language, in their lands and their nations.
32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations. From these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 As the people journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top will reach to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men built. 6 The Lord said, “The people are one and they have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; now nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so 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 stopped building the city. 9 Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Shem’s Descendants(D)
10 These are the generations of Shem.
Shem was a hundred years old, and two years after the flood he became the father of Arphaxad. 11 Shem lived after the birth of Arphaxad five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
12 Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah. 13 Arphaxad lived after the birth of Shelah four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.
14 Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber. 15 Shelah lived after the birth of Eber four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.
16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg. 17 Eber lived after the birth of Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu. 19 Peleg lived after the birth of Reu two hundred and nine years, and had other sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug. 21 Reu lived after the birth of Serug two hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor. 23 Serug lived after the birth of Nahor two hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah. 25 Nahor lived after the birth of Terah one hundred and nineteen years, and had other sons and daughters.
26 Now Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Terah’s Descendants
27 These are the generations of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran became the father of Lot. 28 Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milkah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milkah and the father of Iskah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Harran, they settled there.
32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Harran.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.