Beginning
The Flood Ends
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and tame animals with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth. And the water went down. 2 The underground springs stopped flowing. And the clouds in the sky stopped pouring down rain. 3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water had gone down so much that the boat touched land again. It came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.[a] This was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. 5 The water continued to go down. By the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.
6 Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. 7 He sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then Noah sent out a dove. This was to find out if the water had dried up from the ground. 9 The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth. So it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird. And he brought it back into the boat.
10 After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat. 11 And that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry. 12 Seven days later he sent the dove out again. But this time it did not come back.
13 Noah was now 601 years old. It was the first day of the first month of that year. The water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “You and your wife, your sons and their wives should go out of the boat. 17 Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones and let them grow in number.”
18 So Noah went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth and every bird went out of the boat. They left by families.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and animals. And he burned them on the altar as offerings to God. 21 The Lord was pleased with these sacrifices. He said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil even when they are young. But I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.
22 “As long as the earth continues,
there will be planting and harvest.
Cold and hot,
summer and winter,
day and night
will not stop.”
The New Beginning
9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have many children. Grow in number and fill the earth. 2 Every animal on earth and every bird in the sky will respect and fear you. So will every animal that crawls on the ground and every fish in the sea respect and fear you. I have given them to you.
3 “Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants. And now I give you everything for food. 4 But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life. 5 I will demand your blood for your lives. That is, I will demand the life of any animal that kills a person. And I will demand the life of anyone who takes another person’s life.
6 “Whoever kills a human being
will be killed by a human being.
This is because God made humans
in his own image.
7 “Noah, I want you and your family to have many children. Grow in number on the earth and become many.”
8 Then God said to Noah and his sons, 9 “Now I am making my agreement with you and your people who will live after you. 10 And I also make it with every living thing that is with you. It is with the birds, the tame animals and the wild animals. It is with all that came out of the boat with you. I make my agreement with every living thing on earth. 11 I make this agreement with you: I will never again destroy all living things by floodwaters. A flood will never again destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “I am making an agreement between me and you and every living creature that is with you. It will continue from now on. This is the sign: 13 I am putting my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of the agreement between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow appears in the clouds. 15 Then I will remember my agreement. It is between me and you and every living thing. Floodwaters will never again destroy all life on the earth. 16 When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. Then I will remember the agreement that continues forever. It is between me and every living thing on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “That rainbow is a sign. It is the sign of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.”
Noah and His Sons
18 The sons of Noah came out of the boat with him. They were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three men were Noah’s sons. And all the people on earth came from these three sons.
20 Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. 21 He drank wine made from his grapes. Then he became drunk and lay naked in his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, looked at his naked father. Ham told his brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth got a coat and carried it on both their shoulders. They walked backwards into the tent and covered their father. They turned their faces away. In this way they did not see their father without clothes.
24 Noah was sleeping because of the wine. Later he woke up. Then he learned what his youngest son, Ham, had done to him. 25 So Noah said,
“May there be a curse on Canaan!
May he be the lowest slave to his brothers.”
26 Noah also said,
“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be praised!
May Canaan be Shem’s slave.
27 May God give more land to Japheth.
May Japheth live in Shem’s tents,
and may Canaan be their slave.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 He lived a total of 950 years. Then he died.
Nations Grow and Spread
10 This is the family history of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. After the flood these three men had sons.
Japheth’s Sons
2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim[b] and Rodanim. 5 Those who lived in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea came from these sons of Japheth. All the families grew and became different nations. Each nation had its own land and its own language.
Ham’s Sons
6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim,[c] Put and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca.
The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush also had a descendant named Nimrod. Nimrod became a very powerful man on earth. 9 He was a great hunter before the Lord. That is why people say someone is “like Nimrod, a great hunter before the Lord.” 10 At first Nimrod’s kingdom covered Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in the land of Babylonia. 11 From there he went to Assyria. There he built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir and Calah. 12 He also built Resen, the great city between Nineveh and Calah.
13 Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Casluhites and the people of Crete. (The Philistines came from the Casluhites.)
15 Canaan was the father of Sidon his first son and of Heth. 16 Canaan was also the father of the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. The families of the Canaanites scattered. 19 The land of the Canaanites reached from Sidon to Gerar as far as Gaza. And it reached to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
20 All these people were the sons of Ham. All these families had their own languages, their own lands and their own nations.
Shem’s Sons
21 Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. One of his descendants was the father of all the sons of Eber.
22 The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech.
24 Arphaxad was the father of Shelah. Shelah was the father of Eber. 25 Eber was the father of two sons. One son was named Peleg[d] because the earth was divided during his life. Eber’s other son was named 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 people were the sons of Joktan. 30 These people lived in the area between Mesha and Sephar in the hill country in the East.
31 These are the people from the family of Shem. They are arranged by families, languages, countries and nations.
32 This is the list of the families from the sons of Noah. They are arranged according to their nations. From these families came all the nations who spread across the earth after the flood.
The Languages Confused
11 At this time the whole world spoke one language. Everyone used the same words. 2 As people moved from the East, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia. They settled there to live.
3 They said to each other, “Let’s make bricks and bake them to make them hard.” So they used bricks instead of stones, and tar instead of mortar. 4 Then they said to each other, “Let’s build for ourselves a city and a tower. And let’s make the top of the tower reach high into the sky. We will become famous. If we do this, we will not be scattered over all the earth.”
5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. 6 The Lord said, “Now, these people are united. They all speak the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. They will be able to do anything they want. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language. Then they will not be able to understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth. And they stopped building the city. 9 That is where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. So the place is called Babel.[e] So the Lord caused them to spread out from there over all the whole world.
The Story of Shem’s Family
10 This is the family history of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, his son Arphaxad was born. 11 After that, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arphaxad was 35 years old, his son Shelah was born. 13 After that, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah was 30 years old, his son Eber was born. 15 After that, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber was 34 years old, his son Peleg was born. 17 After that, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg was 30 years old, his son Reu was born. 19 After that, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu was 32 years old, his son Serug was born. 21 After that, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug was 30 years old, his son Nahor was born. 23 After that, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor was 29 years old, his son Terah was born. 25 After that, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor and Haran were born.
The Story of Terah’s Family
27 This is the family history of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. 28 Haran died while his father, Terah, was still alive. This happened in Ur in Babylonia, where he was born. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai. Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was not able to have children.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son) and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram’s wife). They moved out of Ur of Babylonia. They had planned to go to the land of Canaan. But when they reached the city of Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived to be 205 years old. Then he died in Haran.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.