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The Flood Ends

But God did not forget about Noah. God remembered him and all the animals that were with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth, and all the water began to disappear.

Rain stopped falling from the sky, and water stopped flowing from under the earth. 3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water was low enough that the boat touched land again. The boat stopped on one of the mountains of Ararat. This was the 17th day of the seventh month. The water continued to go down, and by the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains were above the water.

Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. Then he sent out a raven. The raven flew from place to place until the ground was dry and the water was gone. Noah also sent out a dove. He wanted it to find dry ground. He wanted to know if water still covered the earth.

The dove could not find a place to rest because water still covered the earth, so the dove came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and caught the dove and brought it back into the boat.

10 After seven days Noah again sent out the dove. 11 And that afternoon the dove came back to Noah. The dove had a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. This was a sign to show Noah that there was dry ground on the earth. 12 Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. But this time the dove didn’t come back.

13 After that Noah opened the door[a] of the boat. He looked and saw that the ground was dry. This was the first day of the first month of the year. He was 601 years old. 14 By the 27th day of the second month, the ground was completely dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Leave the boat. You, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives should go out now. 17 Bring every living animal out of the boat with you—all the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. These animals will make many more animals, and they will fill the earth again.”

18 So Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals, everything that crawls, and every bird left the boat. All the animals came out of the boat in family groups.

20 Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and some of all the clean animals and burned them on the altar as a gift to God.

21 The Lord smelled these sacrifices, and it pleased him. The Lord said to himself, “I will never again curse the earth as a way to punish people. People are evil from the time 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 always be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night on earth.”

The New Beginning

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Have many children. Fill the earth with your people. Every animal on earth, every bird in the air, every animal that crawls on the ground, and every fish in the sea will be afraid of you. All of them will be under your control. In the past, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now every animal will also be food for you. I give you everything on earth—it is yours. But I give you one command. You must not eat meat that still has its life (blood) in it. Also, I will demand your blood for your lives. That is, I will demand the life of any person or animal that takes a human life.

“God made humans to be like himself.
    So whoever kills a person must be killed by another person.

“Have many children and fill the earth with your people.”

Then God said to Noah and his sons, “I now make my promise to you and to your people who will live after you. 10 I make my promise to all the birds, and to all the cattle, and to all the animals that came out of the boat with you. I make my promise to every living thing on earth. 11 This is my promise to you: All life on the earth was destroyed by the flood. But that will never happen again. A flood will never again destroy all life on the earth.”

12 And God said, “I will give you something to prove that I made this promise to you. It will continue forever to show that I have made an agreement with you and every living thing on earth. 13 I am putting a rainbow in the clouds as proof of the agreement between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, you will see the rainbow in the clouds. 15 When I see this rainbow, I will remember the agreement between me and you and every living thing on the earth. This agreement says that a flood will never again destroy all life on the earth. 16 When I look and see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the agreement that continues forever. I will remember the agreement between me and every living thing on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This rainbow is proof of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.”

Problems Begin Again

18 Noah’s sons came out of the boat with him. Their names 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 One day Noah made some wine. He got drunk, went into his tent, and took off all his clothes. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his brothers who were outside the tent. 23 Shem and Japheth took a robe, put it across their shoulders, and walked backward into the tent. Then they covered their father without looking at him.

24 Later, Noah woke up. (He was sleeping because of the wine.) When he learned what his youngest son Ham had done to him, 25 he said,

“May there be a curse on Canaan[b]!
    May he be a 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 God 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 history of the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They are Noah’s sons. These men had children after the flood.

Japheth’s Descendants

Japheth’s sons were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

Gomer’s sons were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

Javan’s sons were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.[c]

All the people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea came from these sons of Japheth. The people separated and went to different countries according to languages, families, and nations.

Ham’s Descendants

Ham’s sons were Cush,[d] Mizraim,[e] Put, and Canaan.

Cush’s sons were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.

Raamah’s sons were Sheba and Dedan.

Cush also had a son named Nimrod who became a very powerful man on earth. He was a great hunter before the Lord. That is why people compare other men to him and say, “That man is like Nimrod, a great hunter before the Lord.”

10 Nimrod’s kingdom spread from Babylon to Erech, to Akkad, and then to Calneh in the land of Babylonia.[f] 11 Nimrod also went into Assyria. In Assyria, Nimrod built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen. (Resen is the city between Nineveh and Calah, the big city.)

13 Mizraim was the father of the people of Lud, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, 14 Pathrus, Casluh, and Caphtor. (The Philistine people came from Casluh.)

15 Canaan was the father of Sidon. Sidon was Canaan’s first son. Canaan was also the father of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, the Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites.

The families of Canaan spread to different parts of the world. 19 The land where the Canaanites lived went from Sidon down along the coast to Gerar and from Gaza as far east as Sodom and Gomorrah and from Admah and Zeboiim as far north as Laish.

20 All these people were descendants of Ham. They are arranged by families, languages, countries, and nations.

Shem’s Descendants

21 Shem was Japheth’s older brother. One of Shem’s descendants was Eber, the father of all the Hebrew people.[g]

22 Shem’s sons were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

23 Aram’s sons were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

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.[h] He was given this name because the earth was divided during his life. The 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 Joktan’s sons. 30 They lived in the area between Mesha and the hill country in the East.[i] Mesha was toward the country of Sephar.

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 Noah’s sons. They are arranged according to their nations. From these families came all the people who spread across the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

11 There was a time when the whole world spoke one language. Everyone used the same words. Then people began to move from the East. They found a plain in the land of Babylonia and stayed there to live. Then they said to each other, “Let’s make some bricks of clay and bake them in the fire.” Then they used these bricks as stones, and they used tar as mortar.

Then the people said, “Let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth.”

Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. The Lord said, “These people all speak the same language. And I see that they are joined together to do this work. This is only the beginning of what they can do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. Let’s go down and confuse their language. Then they will not understand each other.”

So people stopped building the city, and the Lord scattered them all over the earth. That is the place where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. That is why it is called Babel.[j] And it was from there that the Lord caused the people to spread out to all the other places on earth.

The History of Shem’s Family

10 This is the history of Shem’s family. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, his son Arphaxad was born. 11 After that Shem lived 500 years. He had other sons and daughters.

12 When Arphaxad was 35 years old, his son Shelah was born. 13 After Shelah was born, Arphaxad lived 403 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

14 After Shelah was 30 years old, his son Eber was born. 15 After Eber was born, Shelah lived 403 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

16 After Eber was 34 years old, his son Peleg was born. 17 After Peleg was born, Eber lived another 430 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

18 After Peleg was 30 years old, his son Reu was born. 19 After Reu was born, Peleg lived another 209 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

20 After Reu was 32 years old, his son Serug was born. 21 After Serug was born, Reu lived another 207 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

22 After Serug was 30 years old, his son Nahor was born. 23 After Nahor was born, Serug lived another 200 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

24 After Nahor was 29 years old, his son Terah was born. 25 After Terah was born, Nahor lived another 119 years. During that time he had other sons and daughters.

26 After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran were born.

The History of Terah’s Family

27 This is the history of Terah’s family. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. 28 Haran died in his hometown, Ur of Babylonia,[k] while his father Terah was still alive. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai. Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. Milcah was the daughter of Haran. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai did not have any children because she was not able to have children.

31 Terah took his family and left Ur of Babylonia. They planned to travel to Canaan. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram’s wife). They traveled to the city of Haran and decided to stay there. 32 Terah lived to be 205 years old. He died in Haran.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 8:13 opened the door Literally, “removed the covering.”
  2. Genesis 9:25 Canaan Ham’s son. The people of Canaan lived along the coast of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Later, God gave this land to the Israelites.
  3. Genesis 10:4 Dodanim Or “Rodanim, the people of Rhodes.”
  4. Genesis 10:6 Cush Another name for Ethiopia.
  5. Genesis 10:6 Mizraim Another name for Egypt. Also in verse 13.
  6. Genesis 10:10 Babylonia Literally, “Shinar,” which may be a form of the name Sumer. Also in 11:2; 14:1.
  7. Genesis 10:21 One … Hebrew people Literally, “To Shem was born the father of Eber’s sons.”
  8. Genesis 10:25 Peleg This name means “division.”
  9. Genesis 10:30 East This usually means the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as far east as the Persian Gulf. Also in 11:2.
  10. Genesis 11:9 Babel Or “Babylon.” This is like a word meaning “confuse.”
  11. Genesis 11:28 Ur of Babylonia Literally, “Ur of the Chaldeans.” A city in southern Babylonia. Also in verse 31.

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