Bible in 90 Days

God makes the earth

1 In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without shape and it was empty. Deep water covered the earth and everywhere was dark. The Spirit of God moved above the water.^[a]

³ God said, ‘There will be light!’

And there was light.

⁴ God saw that the light was good.

He caused the light and the dark to be separate.

⁵ God called the light ‘day’. He called the dark ‘night’.

Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the first day.^[b]

⁶ Then God said, ‘A wide space will appear between the waters. So the waters will be in two separate places.’

⁷ So God made this wide space. He made the water under the space separate from the water that was above it. What God said happened.

⁸ God called the wide space ‘sky’.

Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the second day.

⁹ God said, ‘The water that is under the sky will come together in one place. Then dry ground will appear.’

And what God said happened.

¹⁰ God called the dry ground ‘land’. He called the water that had come together ‘sea’.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, ‘The land will cause plants to grow. There will be plants with their seeds and trees with their fruits. Each kind of plant and tree will have its own seeds and fruits.’

And what God said happened.

¹² All kinds of plants and trees began to grow in the ground. The plants made seeds. The trees made fruits with seeds in them. Each plant made its own kind of seeds.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹³ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the third day.

¹⁴ God said, ‘There will be lights all across the sky.^[c] They will make the day different from the night. They will show the seasons, days and years. ¹⁵ The lights in the sky will give light to the earth.’

And what God said happened.

¹⁶ God made two great lights. The brighter light ruled over the day. The less bright light ruled over the night. God also made the stars.

¹⁷ God put all these lights in the sky to shine their light on the earth.

¹⁸ They were to rule over the day and night. They were to make the time of light separate from the time of dark.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹⁹ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the fourth day.

²⁰ God said, ‘The waters will become full with many living things. Birds will appear and fly above the earth, all across the sky.’

²¹ God made big animals to live in the sea. He made every different kind of living thing that filled the sea. He made every different kind of bird to fly in the sky.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

²² God blessed the animals and the birds. He said to them, ‘Give birth to many young ones, so that you grow in number. Fill all the water in the seas. The birds also should become very many, all across the earth.’^[d]

²³ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the fifth day.

²⁴ God said, ‘Different kinds of animals will now appear on the land. There will be farm animals and wild animals. There will also be other small animals that move along the ground. There will be many kinds of animals and each kind will be different.’^[e]

And what God said happened.

²⁵ God made the different kinds of wild animals and the different kinds of farm animals. He made all the different kinds of animals that move along the ground.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, ‘We will make humans so that they are very much like us.^[f] They will rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky. They will rule over the farm animals. They will rule over the whole earth and all the animals that move along the ground.’

²⁸ God blessed them. He said to them, ‘Give birth to children. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish in the sea. Rule over the birds in the sky. Rule over every different kind of living animal that moves along the ground.’^[g]

²⁹ Then God said, ‘Listen! I now give to you every plant on the earth as your food. I give you every plant that has seeds in it. I give you every tree that has fruit with a seed in it. I give them to you for your food.

³⁰ I give to the animals green plants for their food. It will be food for all the animals on the earth, all the birds in the sky and all the animals that move along the ground. Everything that has life may eat every kind of green plant.’

And what God said happened.

³¹ God looked at everything that he had made. He saw that it was very good.

Evening passed. And then it was morning.

That was the sixth day.

2 In that way God finished making the heavens and the earth, and everything that was in them.

² The seventh day came. Then God stopped the work that he had been doing. He had finished his work and he rested on the seventh day.

³ God blessed the seventh day. He made it a special day, because he had finished making everything. He did not work on that day.

God makes a man and a woman

⁴ This is what happened when God made the heavens and the earth.

When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, ⁵ there were no plants or grasses growing on the earth.^[h] That was because the Lord God had not sent any rain on the earth. Also, there was nobody to dig the soil so that plants would grow. ⁶ But streams of water were coming up from the earth. The water made all the top of the ground wet.

⁷ Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and he made a man. He breathed air into the nose of the man to give him life. So the man became alive.

⁸ The Lord God planted a garden. It was in the east, in a place called Eden.^[i] God took the man that he had made and he put him in the garden. ⁹ The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground there. The trees were beautiful to look at. The fruit from the trees was good for people to eat.^[j] In the middle of the garden were two special trees. One was the tree that gives life. The other was the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is evil.^[k]

¹⁰ A river began in Eden. It went through the garden and it gave water for the ground. After that, it became four separate rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first river is the Pishon. It goes through the whole land of Havilah. There is gold in that land. ¹² The gold there is very good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also in Havilah.^[l]

¹³ The name of the second river is the Gihon. It goes through the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The third river is called the Tigris. It goes along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is called the Euphrates.

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and he put him in the Garden of Eden. God wanted the man to work in the garden and to take care of it. ¹⁶ Then the Lord God told the man, ‘You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, as much as you like. ¹⁷ But you must not eat any fruit from the tree that gives knowledge of good and evil. If you do eat fruit from that tree, that day you will certainly die.’

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.’^[m]

¹⁹ The Lord God took soil from the ground and he made all the animals and birds. He brought them to the man. God wanted to know what names the man would call them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became its name. ²⁰ So the man gave names to the farm animals, to the birds in the sky and to all the other animals.

But none of these animals was the right helper for the man. ²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to sleep.^[n] While the man was sleeping, God took a rib from the man. Then he closed up the place in his body and he covered it again.^{[o] 22} The Lord God used the man's rib to make a woman. He brought the woman to the man.

²³ Then the man said, ‘Finally, this is someone who is right for me. She has bones that are taken from my bones. Her body comes from my body. I will call her “woman” because God used me, a man, to make her.’

²⁴ Because of this, when a man marries, he leaves his father and his mother. Instead, God joins the man and his wife together. The two people become as one body.^[p]

²⁵ The man and his wife were not wearing any clothes. But they did not feel ashamed.

The man and the woman turn away from God

3 The Lord God made many wild animals. But the snake was the most clever of them all. The snake asked the woman, ‘Did God say, “You must not eat the fruit from any tree in the garden”? Is that really true?’

² The woman replied, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. ³ But God said, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it. If you do that, you will die.” ’

⁴ Then the snake said to the woman, ‘No, you will not die. ⁵ God knows that when you eat the fruit from this tree, you will understand things. You will become like God himself. You will know about good things and evil things.’^[q]

⁶ The woman looked at the fruit on the tree. She saw that it would be good to eat, and it was beautiful to look at. She wanted to eat it because it would make her become wise. So she took some fruit and she ate it. Then she gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her. He also ate it.

⁷ Then they understood what they had done.^[r] They realized that they were not wearing any clothes. So they took some leaves from fig trees. They tied them together to cover their bodies.

⁸ In the evening there was a nice cool wind. The Lord God walked in the garden. The man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God. They hid themselves behind some trees, so that God would not see them. ⁹ The Lord God called out to the man. He said to him, ‘Where are you?’

¹⁰ The man replied, ‘I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I had no clothes. So I hid myself from you.’

¹¹ The Lord God said, ‘Who told you that you had no clothes? Have you eaten fruit from the tree that I said you must not eat?’

¹² The man said, ‘It was the woman that you put here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree. So I ate it.’

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘Why have you done a thing like that?’ The woman replied, ‘It was the snake. The snake deceived me with a lie. So I ate the fruit.’

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the snake,

¹⁶ God said to the woman, ‘I will cause you to have great pain when you give birth to children. You will want to please your husband. But he will rule over you as your master.’

¹⁷ Then God said to Adam,^[v] ‘You listened to your wife and you did what she said. You ate fruit from the tree after I told you, “You must not eat fruit from this tree.” Because you did that, I will curse the ground. You will have to work very hard to make plants grow in it for your food. It will be like this for your whole life. ¹⁸ Thorn bushes and thistles will grow in the ground.^[w] But you will eat plants that grow in the fields. ¹⁹ You will have to work hard for a long time before you have any food to eat. You will do this for your whole life until you die. Then you will return into the ground. That is where you came from. I made you from the soil of the ground, and you will become soil again.’

²⁰ Adam gave his wife a name. He called her Eve. This was because she would become the mother of all people.^[x]

²¹ The Lord God made clothes for Adam and Eve to wear. He used the skins from animals to make them.

²² The Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us because he understands good and evil. So we must not let him take fruit from the tree that gives life. If he eats that fruit, he will live for ever.’

²³ So the Lord God sent Adam out of the Garden of Eden. To get his food, Adam had to dig the ground that God had used to make him. ²⁴ Then God put cherubs to be guards for the garden. God put them on the east side of the garden. There was also a sword of fire that moved quickly from side to side. As a result, nobody could go near to the tree that gives life.

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.’^[y]

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.^{[z] 5} But God was not pleased with Cain and his gift. So Cain became very angry. His face looked sad.^[aa]

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.’^[ab]

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.’^[ac]

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,

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.^[ae]

²⁵ When Methuselah was 187 years old, he had a son. He called him Lamech.^{[af] 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.^[ag]

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.^[ah]

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.^[ai] The ship must have rooms in it. Cover the inside and the outside of the ship with tar.^[aj]

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.^[ak]

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.^[al] 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.^{[am] 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.

The deep water goes away

8 Then God thought of Noah, and all the wild animals and the farm animals that were with him in the ship. He caused a wind to blow over the earth. As a result, the water began to go down. ² Streams of water stopped coming up from below the earth. Rain stopped coming down from the sky. ³ The deep water continued to go down for 150 days. ⁴ On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ship stopped on the ground. It was sitting on the top of Ararat mountains. ⁵ The water continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared above the water.

⁶ After 40 more days, Noah opened a window in the ship. ⁷ He sent a raven to fly away. The raven flew away from the ship and then it returned. It continued to do this until the earth was dry.

⁸ Then Noah sent out a dove. He wanted to see if the water had gone away from the top of the ground. ⁹ But the dove could not find anywhere to stand. Water still covered all the ground. So it returned to Noah in the ship. Noah put out his hand and took the dove back into the ship. ¹⁰ He waited for seven days. Then he sent the dove out of the ship again. ¹¹ The dove returned to Noah in the evening. It carried a fresh leaf from an olive tree in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the water had gone down. ¹² He waited for seven more days. Then he sent the dove out again. This time, it did not return to Noah.^[an]

¹³ Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the first month, the water that had covered the earth was now gone. The ground had become dry. Noah made a hole in the roof of the ship and he looked around. He saw that the top of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the 27th day of the second month, the earth had become completely dry.

¹⁵ God said to Noah, ¹⁶ ‘Come out of the ship. Bring your wife, your sons and their wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring every different kind of living animal out of the ship. Bring out the birds, the animals, and the living things that move across the ground. Now they may give birth to young ones again. They can grow in number all over the earth.’

¹⁸ Noah went out of the ship, together with his wife, his sons and their wives. ¹⁹ All the living animals also went out of the ship. The birds and the living things that move across the ground all went out. Every different kind of animal came out of the ship, each of them in its own group.

God makes a promise to Noah

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to make sacrifices to the Lord. He took one from each kind of clean animal and clean bird. He offered them to the Lord as sacrifices which he burned on the altar.^[ao]

²¹ The Lord smelled the sacrifice and it made him happy. The Lord said to himself, ‘I will never curse the ground again because of the bad things that people do. From the time that they are children, they want to do bad things. But I will never again destroy everything that breathes, as I have done this time.

God's covenant with Noah

9 God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, ‘Give birth to many children so that you become very many people. Your descendants will live all over the earth. ² All the animals and all the birds will be afraid of you. You have authority over them. You also have authority over all the living things that move across the ground and all the fish in the sea. ³ You may now eat anything that lives and moves. Before, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now I give you everything to eat as your food.

⁴ But you must not eat meat that still has the blood of life in it.

⁵ If any person or animal kills a human, I will certainly punish them. Their punishment will be death.

⁷ But as for you, you should give birth to many children so that you become very many people. There will be many people and they will live all over the earth.’

⁸ God said to Noah and to his sons, ⁹ ‘I promise you that I will obey the covenant that I am making with you.^[ar] I promise this to you and to all your descendants. ¹⁰ I also promise this to all the animals and birds that came out of the ship with you. That is everything that lives on the earth. ¹¹ This is the covenant that I promise to keep: I will never cause water to destroy all living things on the earth again. Deep water will never again come again to destroy the earth.’

¹² Then God said, ‘I will show you clearly that I have made this covenant with you, and with every living animal. I will keep this promise for ever, for as long as people live on the earth. ¹³ I have put my rainbow among the clouds in the sky. It will show you clearly that I have made this covenant with everything on the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will sometimes appear. ¹⁵ Then I will remember the covenant that I have made with you and with all the different kinds of living things. Never again will the water become so deep that it destroys everything that lives. ¹⁶ When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember my covenant. It is a promise that I have made with every kind of living thing on the earth.’

¹⁷ Then God said to Noah, ‘The rainbow will show you that I will certainly keep my promise. I will keep my covenant that is between me and everything that lives on the earth.’

Noah's sons

¹⁸ The names of Noah's sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth. They all came out of the ship with Noah. Ham later became the father of a son called Canaan. ¹⁹ All the people who live on the earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.

²⁰ Noah was a farmer. He was the first person to plant vines.

²¹ He used the grapes to make wine. One day, he drank some of the wine and he became drunk. He lay inside his tent and he slept. He was not wearing any clothes. ²² Canaan's father, Ham, saw that Noah was not wearing any clothes. He went out of the tent. He told his two brothers what he had seen. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took Noah's coat and they put it between their shoulders. They walked into Noah's tent with their backs to Noah. In this way they covered their father with the coat. They looked away from their father so that they did not see him. They did this because Noah was not wearing any clothes.^[as]

²⁴ Later, when he was no longer drunk with the wine, Noah woke up. He found out what his youngest son, Ham, had done. ²⁵ He said, ‘I curse Canaan! He will become a slave that must serve his brothers.’

²⁶ Noah also said, ‘I praise the Lord, the God of Shem! Let Canaan become Shem's slave! ²⁷ I pray that God will make the land of Japheth and his descendants grow bigger. I pray that the descendants of Japheth will share good things with Shem. I pray that Canaan will become Japheth's slave.’^[at]

²⁸ Noah lived for 350 years after God covered the earth with deep water. ²⁹ In his whole life, Noah lived for 950 years. Then he died.

10 This is the report about Noah's sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their families.

After the deep water went away, they all had children themselves.

Japheth's family

² These are the sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras. ³ These are the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. ⁴ These are the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim people and the Rodanim people.^[au]

⁵ These people lived by the sea. They lived in groups. Each group went to live in a different place. Each group spoke its own language.

Ham's family

⁶ These are the sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan. ⁷ These are the sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca. These are the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush was also the father of Nimrod. Nimrod became the first brave soldier in the world. ⁹ The Lord helped Nimrod to be a great hunter. That is why people say, ‘Like Nimrod, a great hunter that the Lord helped.’

¹⁰ The first of Nimrod's lands were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria. This is where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir and Calah. ¹² He also built Resen. Resen is between Nineveh and Calah, which is a large city. ¹³ Mizraim was the ancestor of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴ Pathrusites, Kasluhites and Caphtorites. The Philistines were descendants of the Kasluhites.^[av]

¹⁵ Canaan was the father of Sidon, who was born first. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Hittites, ¹⁶ Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, ¹⁷ Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸ Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. After some time had passed, the Canaanite families separated to different places. ¹⁹ The land of Canaan went from Sidon to Gerar, as far as Gaza. It went to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰ These are all descendants of Ham. They lived in groups in their own parts of the land. Each group spoke their own language.

Shem's family

²¹ Shem also had sons. Shem was Japheth's older brother. All the sons of Eber are descendants of Shem. ²² These are the sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram. ²³ These are the sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech. ²⁴ Arphaxad was the father of Shelah. Shelah was the father of Eber. ²⁵ Eber had two sons. The name of one son was Peleg. When he was alive, people began to live in different places on the earth. That is why his name was Peleg.^[aw] Peleg's 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 those were Joktan's sons. ³⁰ The land where they lived went from Mesha to Sephar. This is in the land with hills in the east. ³¹ These are the descendants of Shem. They lived in groups in their own parts of the land. Each group spoke their own language.

³² All these people are descendants of Noah's sons, and their children. They went to live in different parts of the earth and their children became different nations. This happened after God covered the earth with water and then the water went away.

The tower in Babel

11 At this time, everyone who lived on the earth spoke one language. They used the same words. ² People moved to the east. They reached a large flat piece of land called Shinar. They stayed there to live. ³ They said to each other, ‘We should make bricks and cook them until they are hard.’ These people used bricks instead of stones to build houses. They used tar to hold the bricks together, instead of cement.^[ax]

⁴ They said, ‘Let us build a city to live in. We should also build a very tall tower. The tower will go up into the heavens. Then we will always be famous. If we do that, we will not have to separate and go to live in different places on the earth.’

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. He saw that the people had started to build them. ⁶ The Lord said, ‘Because they all speak the same language, they are able to do this. If they can do this together, they may decide to do whatever they want. ⁷ Now we must go down to them. We must make their language become confused. Then they will not be able to understand each other.’

⁸ So the Lord separated the people from one another. They went to live in different lands all over the earth. They stopped building the city for themselves. ⁹ That is why people called the city Babel.^[ay] It was because the Lord confused all the people of the world and he gave them different languages to speak. From that time, the Lord separated the people from each other so that they lived in different places all over the earth.

Shem's family

¹⁰ This is the report about Shem and his family.

Two years after the deep water went away from the earth, Shem was 100 years old. He became the father of Arphaxad. ¹¹ After Arphaxad was born, Shem lived for 500 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³ After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived for 403 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ After Eber was born, Shelah lived for 403 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ After Peleg was born, Eber lived for 430 years. He had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ After Reu was born, Peleg lived for 209 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. ²¹ After Serug was born, Reu lived for 207 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. ²³ After Nahor was born, Serug lived for 200 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵ After Terah was born, Nahor lived for 119 years. He had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Terah's family

²⁷ This is the report about Terah and his family.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While Terah was still alive, his son, Haran, died. Haran died in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. That was where Haran had been born.

²⁹ Abram married Sarai. Nahor married Milcah. Milcah was Haran's daughter. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai could not give birth to children. She did not have any children.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot. (Lot was Haran's son.) Terah also took Abram's wife Sarai. They all left Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. They began to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they stayed there. ³² Terah lived for 205 years. Then he died in Haran.

Abram leaves Haran

12 The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country and the people of your father's family. Go to the land that I will show you.^[az]

² I will cause your descendants to become a great nation. I will bless you. Everyone will know your name. You will bring my blessing to other people. ³ I will bless those people who bless you. But I will curse anyone who insults you. Through you, I will bless all the families of people on the earth.’^[ba]

⁴ Abram did what the Lord had told him. He left Haran. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. Lot went with him. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. He took everything that belonged to them. He also took the people that worked for them in Haran. They all left to go to the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Canaan, ⁶ Abram walked through the land. He went as far as Shechem, to the special oak tree of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites lived in this land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram there. He said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ So Abram built an altar in that place to worship the Lord.^[bb] He did that because the Lord had appeared to him.

⁸ Then Abram left Shechem. He went to the hills that are on the east of Bethel. He put up his tent in that place. Bethel was towards the west, and Ai was towards the east. Abram also built an altar there to worship the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram took his tent and he left that place. He continued to travel towards the Negev.^[bc]

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰ There was a famine in the land of Canaan. So Abram went to live in Egypt for some time, because the famine was very bad.^[bd]

¹¹ When Abram came near to Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘Listen to me. I know that you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you they will say, “This is Abram's wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.^{[be] 13} So tell them that you are my sister. Then they will do good things to me, because they want to please you. They will not kill me because they will think that you are my sister.’

¹⁴ When Abram arrived in Egypt, the people saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ The king's officers saw her. They told Pharaoh that she was very beautiful. They took her to the king's palace.^[bf]

¹⁶ Pharaoh did good things to help Abram because of Sarai. He gave Abram sheep, cows, donkeys and camels. He also gave Abram male servants and female servants.

¹⁷ But the Lord made Pharaoh and the people in his palace very ill. The Lord did this because the king had taken Abram's wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh called Abram to come to him. Pharaoh said, ‘You have done this bad thing to me! You did not tell me that Sarai is your wife! Why not? ¹⁹ You told me “She is my sister”. As a result, I took her to be my wife. Now, here is your wife. Take her and go away!’

²⁰ Pharaoh told his officers what to do with Abram. They sent Abram away, with his wife and everything that belonged to them.

Abram and Lot go different ways

13 Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. ² Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.

³ Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.

⁵ Lot was travelling with Abram. Lot also had many cows, sheep and tents. ⁶ But the land could not grow enough food for all of them to eat. They could not all live together in the same place, because they had so many animals and people with them. ⁷ Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds began to quarrel with each other. (At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites also lived in the land.)^[bg]

⁸ Abram said to Lot, ‘We must not quarrel with each other. Your shepherds and my shepherds must not quarrel with each other. Remember that we belong to the same family. ⁹ Look everywhere! There is enough land for all of us. We must go different ways. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.’

¹⁰ Lot looked up and he saw the flat land of Jordan, as far as Zoar. He saw that it had lots of water, like the garden of the Lord. It was good land, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed the cities there called Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan River. He travelled towards the east.^[bh]

¹² Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and he lived there. But Lot lived near the cities that were in the Jordan Valley. He put up his tents near the city of Sodom. ¹³ The people of Sodom were very wicked. They did not obey the Lord at all.

¹⁴ After Lot had gone away, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Stand where you are and look all around! Look to the north, the south, the east and the west. ¹⁵ I will give you all the land that you can see. I will give it to you and your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants become very many. Like the dust of the ground, people will not be able to count them all. ¹⁷ Go and travel round all this land. Look at it, because I am giving it to you!’

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the special oak trees of Mamre. That place is at Hebron. Abram built an altar to worship the Lord there.

Abram at war with the kings

14 ^1-4 Now there were many kings living in that land, at that time. They fought against each other. One fight was when Kedorlaomer had ruled over the other kings for 12 years. And in the next year, five kings made one group like that and fought against him. Kedorlaomer joined with three other kings. So it was four kings against five other kings.

The four kings were Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim. Those kings fought a war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela. (Bela is another name for the town of Zoar.) They fought in the Valley of Siddim. (That is the Salt Sea.) ⁵ In the 14th year, Kedorlaomer and the kings with him won against the Rephaites. This was in Ashteroth Karnaim. They won against the Zuzites in Ham. They won against the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim. ⁶ And they won against the Horites in the country of Seir. This was as far as El Paran near the desert. ⁷ They then went back. They went to En Mishpat. (That is Kadesh.) They took the whole land of the Amalekites. They also took the land of the Amorites who were living in Hazezon Tamar.

⁸ Then, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar) went to fight. That was in the Valley of Siddim. ⁹ They fought against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar. There were four kings fighting against five kings. ¹⁰ The Valley of Siddim had many holes in the ground. The holes were filled with tar. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah ran away. Some of their men fell into the deep tar. The other men ran away to the hills. ¹¹ The four kings took everything in Sodom and Gomorrah, including all the food. Then they went away. ¹² Abram's nephew, Lot, was living in Sodom at that time. So they took him away from there, and everything that belonged to him.

Abram and Melchizedek

¹³ At that time, Abram, the Hebrew man, was living near the special oak trees of Mamre. Mamre was an Amorite. He was the brother of Eshcol and Aner. These men had agreed to be Abram's friends.

A man ran away from Sodom. He told Abram everything that had happened. ¹⁴ Abram understood that the kings had caught his nephew. So he called 318 men to come together. These men had been born in Abram's camp and they knew how to fight. Abram took his men with him. They went to attack the men who had caught Lot. They went as far as Dan.

¹⁵ During the night, Abram separated his men into two groups. Then they attacked Kedorlaomer and his men who had taken Lot. Those men ran away and Abram followed them as far as Hobah. Hobah is north of Damascus. ¹⁶ Abram took back everything that those men had taken from Sodom. He also brought back his nephew Lot, together with the women and the other people.

¹⁷ In that way, Abram won against Kedorlaomer and the kings with him. As Abram was returning home, the king of Sodom came out to meet him. They met in the Valley of Shaveh, which people call the King's Valley.

¹⁸ Melchizedek was the king of Salem, and he was a priest of the Most High God. He brought out bread and wine for Abram. ¹⁹ He blessed Abram. He said, ‘I pray that the Most High God who made heaven and earth will bless Abram. ²⁰ Praise the Most High God! He has given you power over your enemies.’

After that, Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth part of everything.^[bi]

²¹ Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give back to me all my people. Take everything else for yourself.’ ²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have made a strong promise to the Lord, the Most High God who made heaven and earth. ²³ I promised that I would not take anything that belonged to you. I will not take the smallest thing, not even a piece of string, or part of a shoe. Then you will never be able to say, “I made Abram become rich.” ²⁴ I myself will accept only the food that my young men have eaten. But Aner, Eshcol and Mamre went with me to help me to fight. They should take their part of the things that we brought back with us.’^[bj]

The Lord's covenant with Abram

15 After this, the Lord spoke to Abram in a dream. God said, ‘Do not be afraid Abram. I will keep you safe. I myself will give you many good gifts.’

² But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, there is one gift that I want. I still have no children. When I die, Eliezer of Damascus will receive everything that I have. ³ Because you have not given me any children, understand this: Everything that I have will one day belong to a servant in my house.’^[bk]

⁴ The Lord gave Abram this message: ‘No! Eliezer will not be the one who receives your things. You will have your own son. He will be the one who receives everything that you have.’

⁵ The Lord took Abram outside. He said to Abram, ‘Look up at the sky. Count the stars. They are too many for you to count!’ Then God said, ‘That is how many descendants you will have.’

⁶ Abram believed the Lord. As a result, the Lord accepted Abram as right with him.

⁷ The Lord also said to Abram, ‘I am the Lord. I brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to bring you to this land. I am giving it to you. It will belong to you.’ ⁸ But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, how can I be sure that this land will belong to me?’

⁹ The Lord said to Abram, ‘Bring a young cow, a goat and a male sheep to offer them to me. Each animal must be three years old. Also bring a dove and a young pigeon.’

¹⁰ Abram brought the three animals and the two birds to offer to God. Abram cut each animal in two pieces. He put the halves opposite each other. But he did not cut the birds in two pieces. ¹¹ Some birds flew down to eat the animals' dead bodies. But Abram sent them away.

¹² When the sun was going down, Abram started to sleep. Suddenly he became very afraid because it was dark all around him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Be sure of this: Your descendants will live in a foreign country. They will be strangers there. People will do bad things to them and they will become slaves. This will continue for 400 years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the people of that country who give them trouble. After this, your descendants will leave that country. They will take many valuable things with them. ¹⁵ But as for you, Abram, you will have a long life. When you die, you will have peace in your mind. ¹⁶ After four generations, your descendants will come back here to Canaan. At that time, I will punish the Amorites because they do very bad things. But the time has not yet arrived that I will punish them.’^[bl]

¹⁷ Then the sun went down and it became dark. Abram saw a pot that had coals in it. The coals were burning and making smoke. There was also a branch that burned with bright fire. These passed between the halves of the animals that Abram had cut in two pieces.^[bm]

¹⁸ On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The Lord promised, ‘I give this land to your descendants. The land starts from the river of Egypt and continues as far as the River Euphrates. ¹⁹ These people live in the land: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’^[bn]

Sarai and Hagar

16 Abram's wife, Sarai, had not given birth to any children. She had an Egyptian servant. The servant's name was Hagar. ² Sarai said to Abram, ‘The Lord has not let me have any children. Go and sleep with my servant. Then if she gives birth, her children will be my family.’ Abram agreed to do this.^[bo]

³ Abram had now been living in Canaan for ten years. Sarai gave her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to him. She became like another wife for Abram.

⁴ Abram had sex with Hagar and she became pregnant. When Hagar knew that she was pregnant, she no longer respected Sarai.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘It is because of you that Hagar is now insulting me. I gave her to you so that you could have sex with her. Now she is pregnant and she does not respect me. The Lord will decide who is right, you or me.’

⁶ Abram said to Sarai, ‘Hagar is your servant and you have authority over her. Do to her whatever you think is right.’ Then Sarai caused trouble for Hagar. So Hagar ran away from Sarai.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar. She was by a spring of water in the desert. The spring was near the road to Shur. ⁸ The angel said, ‘Sarai's servant, Hagar, where have you come from? Where are you going?’ Hagar replied, ‘I am running away from Sarai. I am her servant.’

⁹ The angel of the Lord told Hagar, ‘Go back to Sarai. You are her servant and you must obey her.’

¹⁰ The angel also said, ‘I will make the number of your descendants become very many. They will be too many for people to count.’

¹¹ The angel of the Lord said to Hagar,

‘Now you are pregnant and you will give birth to a son.

When you cried in pain, the Lord heard you,

so you must give your son the name “Ishmael”.^[bp]

¹² Like a wild donkey, nobody will be able to rule him.

He will fight against everyone, and everyone will fight against him.

He will think that everyone is his enemy.

He will keep away from his brothers.’

¹³ When Hagar heard what the angel said, she said to herself, ‘I have seen the God who sees me!’ So she called the Lord ‘The God who sees me.’ ¹⁴ That is why they called the well in that place ‘Beer Lahai Roi’.^[bq] The well is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ After some time Hagar gave birth to a son. Abram was his father. Abram gave his son the name ‘Ishmael’. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.