Genesis 9:1-11:32 God blessed Noah and his sons. He said: »Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.

NSB⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ God blessed Noah and his sons. He said: »Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ² »All the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air will be filled with fear and dread of you. Every creature that moves along the ground and all the fish of the sea are placed under your control. ³ »Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. ⁴ »You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. ⁵ »I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man. ⁶ »Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God. ⁷ »You should be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply (increase) on the earth.« ⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ »I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ »and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth. ¹¹ »I establish my covenant with you: Never again will the waters of a flood destroy all life. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.« ¹² God said: »This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ »I give you my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world of mankind. ¹⁴ »Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ »I will remember my covenant with you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ »Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the long lasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.« ¹⁷ God said: »This is the sign of the covenant I have established with all life on the earth.« ¹⁸ Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth. ²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of its wine. He became drunk and lay undressed inside his tent. ²² Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. ²³ Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ He (Noah) said: »Canaan is cursed! He will be a lowly slave to his brothers.« ²⁶ He also said: »Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. ²⁷ »May God extend the territory of Japheth. And may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.« ²⁸ After the flood, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. ²⁹ Noah lived a total of nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died. ¹⁰ ¹ This is the genealogy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who also had sons after the flood. ² The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³ The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim (Dodanim). ⁵ From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language. ⁶ The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim (Egypt), Put, and Canaan. ⁷ The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah. That is why it is said: »Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Jehovah.« ¹⁰ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³ Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴ Pathrusites, Casluhites, and Caphtorites. ¹⁵ Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, ¹⁶ Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, ¹⁷ Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸ Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered, ¹⁹ and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰ These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations. ²¹ Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth. Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber. ²² The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram. ²³ The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech. ²⁴ Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah the father of Eber. ²⁵ Two sons were born to Eber. One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided. His brother 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 were sons of Joktan. ³⁰ The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country. ³¹ These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations. ³² These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood. ¹¹ ¹ The entire world had one language and common words. ² As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar (Babylon) and settled there. ³ They said to each other: »Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.« They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said: »Let us build ourselves a city, with a lofty tower that reaches into space, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.« ⁵ But Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ Jehovah said: »If they become one people speaking the same language, nothing will be impossible for them. They have begun to do this. ⁷ »Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.« ⁸ Jehovah scattered them from there over all the earth. They stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel (confusion) because Jehovah confused the language of the whole world. Jehovah scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth. ¹⁰ This is the genealogy of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad. ¹¹ After he became the father of Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and had other sons and daughters. ¹² When Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³ After he became the father of Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴ Shelah lived thirty years. He became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ After he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁶ When Eber lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ After he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁸ When Peleg lived thirty years, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ After he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰ When Reu lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug. ²¹ After he became the father of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters. ²² When Serug lived thirty years, he became the father of Nahor. ²³ After he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁴ Nahor lived twenty-nine years; he became the father of Terah. ²⁵ After he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁶ Terah lived seventy years. He became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. ²⁷ This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was barren. She had no children. ³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. ³² Terah lived two hundred and five years. He died in Haran.