Old/New Testament

10 Here is the account of the descendants of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who fathered many children after the flood.

² The descendants of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³ Now the descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵ The descendants of Japheth became the peoples who settled the coastal and island regions. They developed their own languages, their own families and cultures, and they would eventually become separate peoples.

⁶ The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁷ Cush’s descendants were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush also fathered Nimrod, who was the first man on earth to be known as a powerful warrior. ⁹ He was also a skillful hunter before the Eternal One. That’s why you often hear people say, “So-and-so is like Nimrod, a skillful hunter before the Eternal.” ¹⁰ The center of his kingdom was in Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh; all are located in the land of Shinar. ¹¹ From there, he traveled into Assyria and established the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen, which lies between Nineveh and Calah—and that is one magnificent city! ¹³ Now Mizraim fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ Pathrusim, Casluhim (the ancestor of the people known as the Philistines), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan fathered Sidon (his firstborn), Heth, ¹⁶ the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Soon all of the families of Canaan’s descendants would spread abroad. ¹⁹ As a result, the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar all the way to Gaza; and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim all the way to Lasha. ²⁰ All of these are descendants of Ham, who grew from a few initial families into a great people with their own languages, lands, and nations.

²¹ Now Shem (Japheth’s older brother) fathered a great number of children as well. He was the patriarch of all of the people of Eber. ²² His descendants include Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. ²³ Aram’s descendants were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁴ Now Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. ²⁵ Eber had two sons: one was named Peleg, which means “division,” because in his days, the earth was divided into many languages, and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All of these peoples were descended from Joktan. ³⁰ They lived in the territory that extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the eastern hill country. ³¹ Shem’s descendants also grew from a few initial families to become a great people with their own languages, lands, and nations.

³² So these are the families descended from Noah’s sons according to their known genealogies. These cultures would soon spread farther and farther across the earth after the flood.

11 There was a time when everyone on the earth spoke the very same language. ² As many of these people began moving from the eastern regions into the western part of Mesopotamia, they settled down on a plain in the land of Shinar. ³ Since stone was not readily available, they discovered how to make bricks and use tar for mortar to build their structures.

⁵ The Eternal One came down and took a look at the city and the tower the children of Adam were building. He was not pleased.

⁸ This is how the Eternal scattered people from Shinar all across the surface of the earth. Since they were unable to communicate, they stopped working on the city and went their separate ways. ⁹ So this is why the city was called Babel:^[a] because it was there that the Eternal confused the language of all the peoples and scattered them across the surface of the earth.

¹⁰ Here is the account of the descendants of Shem, Noah’s son. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad. (This was about two years after the flood.) ¹¹ After Arpachshad was born, Shem lived another 500 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. ¹³ After Shelah was born, Arpachshad lived 403 more years, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. ¹⁵ After Eber was born, Shelah lived 403 more years, and he had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. ¹⁷ After Peleg was born, Eber lived 430 more years, and he also had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. ¹⁹ After Reu was born, Peleg lived 209 more years, and he had other sons and daughters as well.

²⁰ When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. ²¹ After Serug was born, Reu lived 207 more years, and he had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. ²³ After Nahor was born, Serug lived 200 more years, and he had other sons and daughters as well.

²⁴ When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. ²⁵ After Terah was born, Nahor lived 119 more years, and he had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ When Terah had lived 70 years, he had fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷ Here is the account of Terah’s descendants. Terah, as said, had fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. ²⁸ While Terah was still alive, Haran died in the same land in which he was born—in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁹ However, Abram and Nahor lived on and married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. Now Milcah was the daughter of Haran, who fathered both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ But Sarai couldn’t conceive and didn’t have a child.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram and grandson Lot (Haran’s son) and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram’s wife). They left Ur of the Chaldeans together and traveled in the direction of the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Haran, they settled there. ³² Terah was 205 years old at that time, and he ended up dying in Haran.

12 One day, the Eternal One called out to Abram.

^4-5 Without any hesitation, Abram went. He did exactly as the Eternal One asked him to do. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. He took with him his wife Sarai, his brother’s son Lot, all of their possessions, and all of the persons they had acquired for their household while in Haran; and they all set off toward the land of Canaan. When they reached Canaan, ⁶ Abram kept going through it to a sacred place called Shechem where the oak of Moreh stood. (At this time, the Canaanite people were living on this land, so Abram could not take it as his own.) ⁷ There the Eternal appeared to Abram.

So, out of honor and respect, there Abram built an altar table to the Eternal One, who had appeared to him and spoken these words of promise. ⁸ After that, Abram traveled on to the hill country east of Bethel, and there he pitched a tent and made a home for himself and his family between Bethel in the west and Ai in the east. Here Abram built another altar table for the Eternal One, where he called upon the name of the Eternal frequently. ⁹ Then Abram journeyed south toward the Negev region.

¹⁰ Now at this time, there came a severe famine in the land of Canaan. Food was scarce, so Abram made his way to Egypt to live there for a while as a foreigner. ¹¹ As Abram was about to enter Egypt, he pulled Sarai his wife aside.

¹⁴ So when Abram came into Egypt with Sarai and his family, the Egyptians did indeed see that Sarai was very beautiful. ¹⁵ And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they told Pharaoh just how beautiful she was. So Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s house and made part of his harem. ¹⁶ She pleased the Pharaoh, so he treated Abram very well, giving him gifts of sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels. ¹⁷ But the Eternal One was not pleased and began afflicting the Pharaoh and his household with skin diseases because of what was happening to Sarai, Abram’s wife. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram to come before him.

²⁰ And Pharaoh gave his men orders to make sure Abram went on his way along with his wife and all of his belongings.

4 The Spirit then led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ² Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. After this fast, He was, as you can imagine, hungry. ³ But He was also curiously stronger, when the tempter came to Jesus.

⁵ Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, and he had Jesus stand at the very highest point in the holy temple.

⁸ And still the devil subjected Jesus to a third test. He took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain, and he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in all their splendor and glory, their power and pomp.

¹¹ Then the devil left Jesus. And heavenly messengers came and ministered to Him.

¹² It was not long until powerful people put John in prison. When Jesus learned this, He went back to Galilee. ¹³ He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, a town by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali. ¹⁴ He did this to fulfill one of the prophecies of Isaiah:

¹⁷ From that time on, preaching was part of Jesus’ work.

¹⁸ One day Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee when He saw Simon (also called Peter) and Andrew throwing their nets into the water. They were, of course, fishermen.

²⁰ Immediately Peter and Andrew left their fishnets and followed Jesus.

²¹ Going on from there, Jesus saw two more brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They, too, were fishermen. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee getting their nets ready to fish. Jesus summoned them, just as He had called to Peter and Andrew, ²² and immediately they left their boat and their father to follow Jesus.

²³ And so Jesus went throughout Galilee. He taught in the synagogues. He preached the good news of the Kingdom, and He healed people, ridding their bodies of sickness and disease. ²⁴ Word spread all over Syria, as more and more sick people came to Him. The innumerable ill who came before Him had all sorts of diseases, they were in crippling pain; they were possessed by demons; they had seizures; they were paralyzed. But Jesus healed them all. ²⁵ Large crowds from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from the ten cities called the Decapolis, from Judea, and from the region across the Jordan followed him.