Genesis 8 - 11 — Legacy Standard Bible

The Water Dries Up

8Then ^aGod remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and ^bGod caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. ²Also ^athe fountains of the deep and the ¹floodgates of the sky were closed, and ^bthe rain from the sky was restrained; ³and the water receded from the earth, going forth and returning, and at the end ^aof 150 days the water decreased. ⁴In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^athe ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵Now the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶Then it happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the ^awindow of the ark which he had made; ⁷and he sent out a raven, and it went out flying back and forth until the water was dried up ¹from the earth. ⁸Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; ⁹but the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, so it returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the ¹surface of all the earth. Then he stretched out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark to himself. ¹⁰Then he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹And the dove came to him toward ¹evening, and behold, in its ²beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. ¹²Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out ^athe dove; but it did not return to him again.

¹³Now it happened in the ^asix hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up ¹from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the ²surface of the ground was dried up. ¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. ¹⁵Then 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, that they may ^aswarm on the earth, and that they may be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out ¹by their families from the ark.

Yahweh’s Covenant with Noah

²⁰Then Noah built ^aan altar to Yahweh and took of every ^bclean animal and of every clean bird and offered ^cburnt offerings on the altar. ²¹And Yahweh ^asmelled the ¹soothing aroma; and Yahweh said ²to Himself, “I will never again ^bcurse the ground because of man, for ^cthe ³intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^dand I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

²²“While all the days of the earth remain,Seedtime and harvest,And cold and heat,And ^asummer and winter,And ^bday and nightShall not cease.”

9And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “^aBe fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ²“And the fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the ¹sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. ³“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; ^aas with the green plant, I give all to you. ⁴“However, flesh with its life, that is, ^aits blood, you shall not eat. ⁵“Surely I will require ¹^,^ayour lifeblood; ²^,^bfrom every living thing I will require it. And ³from every man, ⁴from each man’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁶“^aWhoever sheds man’s blood,By man his blood shall be shed,For ^bin the image of GodHe made man.⁷“As for you, ^abe fruitful and multiply;¹Swarm on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹“As for Me, behold, ^aI establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you; ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. ¹¹“Indeed I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall ^anever again be cut off by the water of the flood, ^band there shall never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹²Then God said, “This is ^athe sign of the covenant which I am giving to be between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for ¹all successive generations; ¹³I put My ^abow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴“And it will be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵and ^aI will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and ^bnever again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶“So the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the ^aeverlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah’s Three Sons

¹⁸Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and ^aHam was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and ^afrom these the whole earth was scattered abroad.

²⁰Then Noah began to be ¹a man of the land and planted a vineyard. ²¹And he drank of the wine and ^abecame drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²²Then Ham, the father of Canaan, ^asaw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ²³But Shem and Japheth took the garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned backward, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴Then Noah awoke from his wine, and he knew what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵So he said, “^aCursed be Canaan;¹^,^bA servant of servantsHe shall be to his brothers.”

²⁶And he said, “^aBlessed be Yahweh,The God of Shem;And let Canaan be ¹his servant.

²⁷“^aMay God enlarge Japheth,And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;And let Canaan be ¹his servant.”

²⁸And Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹So all the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

The Generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth

10Now these are the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.

²^aThe sons of Japheth were ^bGomer and Magog and ^cMadai and ^dJavan and Tubal and ^eMeshech and Tiras. ³The sons of Gomer were ^aAshkenaz and ¹Riphath and ^bTogarmah. ⁴The sons of Javan were Elishah and ^aTarshish, Kittim and ¹Dodanim. ⁵From these the coastlands of the nations ¹were separated into their lands, every one according to his tongue, according to their families, into their nations.

⁶^aThe sons of Ham were Cush and ¹Mizraim and Put and Canaan. ⁷The sons of Cush were ^aSeba and Havilah and Sabtah and ^bRaamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were ^cSheba and ^dDedan. ⁸Now Cush ¹was the father of Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. ⁹He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh.” ¹⁰The beginning of his kingdom was ¹^,^aBabel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of ^bShinar. ¹¹From that land he went out ^ato Assyria and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, ¹²and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³Mizraim ¹was the father of ^aLudim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim ¹⁴and ^aPathrusim and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines) and Caphtorim.

¹⁵Canaan ¹was the father of ^aSidon, his firstborn, and ^bHeth ¹⁶and ^athe Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite ¹⁷and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite ¹⁸and the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; and afterward the families of the Canaanite were scattered. ¹⁹^aThe border of the Canaanite ¹extended from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward ^bSodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their tongues, by their lands, by their nations.

²¹Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the ¹older brother of Japheth, children were born. ²²^aThe sons of Shem were ^bElam and Asshur and ^cArpachshad and ^dLud and Aram. ²³The sons of Aram were ^aUz and Hul and Gether and Mash. ²⁴Arpachshad ¹was the father of ^aShelah; and Shelah ²was the father of Eber. ²⁵^aNow two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was ¹Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶And Joktan ¹was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah ²⁷and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah ²⁸and ¹Obal and Abimael and Sheba ²⁹and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.

³⁰Now their ¹settlement ²extended from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east. ³¹These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their tongues, by their lands, according to their nations.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, by their nations; and ^aout of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11Now the whole earth ¹had the same language and ²the same words. ²And it happened as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land ^aof Shinar and ¹settled there. ³Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and they had ^atar for mortar. ⁴And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top ^awill reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves ^ba name, lest we ^cbe scattered over the face of the whole earth.” ⁵^aThen Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have ¹^,^athe same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be ²impossible for them. ⁷“Come, ^alet Us go down and there ^bconfuse their ¹language, so that they will not understand one another’s ²language.” ⁸So Yahweh ^ascattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. ⁹Therefore its name was called ¹^,^aBabel, because there Yahweh confused the ²language of the whole earth; and from there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Generations of Shem

¹⁰^aThese are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and ¹became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood; ¹¹and Shem lived 500 years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹²And Arpachshad lived 35 years and became the father of Shelah; ¹³and Arpachshad lived 403 years after he became the father of Shelah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹⁴And Shelah lived 30 years and became the father of Eber; ¹⁵and Shelah lived 403 years after he became the father of Eber, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹⁶And Eber lived 34 years and became the father of Peleg; ¹⁷and Eber lived 430 years after he became the father of Peleg, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

¹⁸And Peleg lived 30 years and became the father of Reu; ¹⁹and Peleg lived 209 years after he became the father of Reu, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²⁰And Reu lived 32 years and became the father of Serug; ²¹and Reu lived 207 years after he became the father of Serug, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²²And Serug lived 30 years and became the father of Nahor; ²³and Serug lived 200 years after he became the father of Nahor, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²⁴Nahor lived 29 years and became the father of ^aTerah; ²⁵and Nahor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

²⁶And Terah lived 70 years and became ^athe father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Generations of Terah

²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and ^aHaran became the father of ^bLot. ²⁸And Haran died ¹in the presence of Terah his father in the land of his birth, in ^aUr of the Chaldeans. ²⁹Abram and ^aNahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was ^bSarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was ^cMilcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. ³⁰^aAnd Sarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out ¹together from ^aUr of the Chaldeans in order to go to the land of Canaan; and they came as far as Haran and ²settled there. ³²And the days of Terah were 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.