Genesis 4:1-11:32 Adam had sexual intercourse with his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said: »With the help of Jehovah I have brought forth a man.«

NSB⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Adam had sexual intercourse with his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said: »With the help of Jehovah I have brought forth a man.« ² Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³ As time went by, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to Jehovah. ⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn (firstlings) of his flock. Jehovah looked with favor on Abel and his offering. ⁵ He did not look with favor on Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his face was downcast (he had a bad attitude). ⁶ Jehovah said to Cain: »Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ »If you do what is right, will not your attitude improve? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.« ⁸ While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹ Jehovah asked Cain: »Where is your brother Abel?« »I do not know,« he replied. »Am I my brother’s keeper?« ¹⁰ Jehovah said: »What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood (life) cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ »Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² »When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer (vagabond) on the earth.« ¹³ Cain said to Jehovah: »My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ »You are driving me from the land today. I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless (homeless) wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.« ¹⁵ Jehovah replied to him: »If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.« Then Jehovah put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. ¹⁶ Cain went out from Jehovah’s presence and lived in the land of Nod (Fugitiveness). Nod is east of Eden. ¹⁷ Cain had intercourse with his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Later Cain built a city. He named it after his son Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. ¹⁹ Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. ²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. ²² Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of copper and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah. ²³ Lamech said to his wives: »Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. ²⁴ »If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.« ²⁵ Adam had intercourse with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. She said: »God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.« ²⁶ Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on (proclaim) the name of Jehovah. ⁵ ¹ This is the written genealogy of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. ² He created them male and female and blessed them. When they were created, he called them Mankind. ³ When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. ⁴ After Seth was born, Adam lived eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters. ⁵ Altogether, Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, and then he died. ⁶ Seth lived one hundred and five years when he became the father of Enosh. ⁷ After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters. ⁸ Altogether, Seth lived nine hundred and twelve years, and then he died. ⁹ Enosh lived ninety years. He became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰ After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years and had other sons and daughters. ¹¹ Enosh lived a total of nine hundred and five years, and then he died. ¹² Kenan lived seventy years. He became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³ After that Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴ Altogether, Kenan lived nine hundred and ten years, and then he died. ¹⁵ When Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶ After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁷ Mahalalel lived a total of eight hundred and ninety-five years, and then he died. ¹⁸ When Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹ After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰ Jared lived a total of nine hundred and sixty-two years, and then he died. ²¹ When Enoch lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. ²² After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years and had other sons and daughters. ²³ Altogether, Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years. ²⁴ Enoch walked with God. Then he was no more, because God took (moved) him away. ²⁵ When Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶ After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred eighty-two years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷ Altogether, Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and then he died. ²⁸ When Lamech had lived one hundred and eighty-two years, he had a son. ²⁹ He named him Noah. He said: »He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground Jehovah has cursed.« ³⁰ After Noah was born, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹ Lamech lived a total of seven hundred seventy-seven years, and then he died. ³² After Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ⁶ ¹ Men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them. ² The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They married any of them they chose. ³ Jehovah said: »My Spirit will not contend (judge) (plead) with man forever, for he is mortal and corrupt. Therefore his days will be a hundred and twenty years.« ⁴ The NEPHILIM were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God had sexual intercourse with the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. ⁵ Jehovah saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. ⁶ Jehovah was grieved that he had made man on the earth. His heart was grieved with pain. ⁷ So Jehovah said: »I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. All of them: men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air. I am sorry that I created them.« ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah. ⁹ This is the ACCOUNT OF NOAH. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. He walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹¹ The earth was corrupt in God’s sight. It was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become. All the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ God said to Noah: »I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am going to destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ »BUILD AN ARK of cypress wood (a resinous tree). Make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ »This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. ¹⁶ »Build a roof on it and finish the ark to within eighteen inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle, and upper decks. ¹⁷ »I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. Every creature that has the breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ »But I will establish my covenant with you. You will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ »Bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ »Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ »Take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.« ²² Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him. ⁷ ¹ Jehovah said to Noah: »Go into the ark, you and your whole family. For I have found you righteous in this generation. ² »Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate. ³ »Also take seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. ⁴ »Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.« ⁵ Noah did all that Jehovah commanded him. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. ⁷ Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹ male and female came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ Seven days passed and the floodwaters came on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. ¹² Rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. ¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. ¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, just as God had commanded Noah. Then Jehovah shut him in. ¹⁷ The flood came upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth. The ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. ²¹ Every living thing that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. Men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. ²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. ⁸ ¹ God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark. He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the skies were closed. So the rain stopped falling from the sky. ³ Water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible. ⁶ After forty days Noah opened the window he constructed in the ark. ⁷ He sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ The dove, however, could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth. It returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and held the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. ¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. ¹⁵ God said to Noah: ¹⁶ »Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. ¹⁷ »Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground. They will multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.« ¹⁸ Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds, everything that moves on the earth came out of the ark, one kind after another. ²⁰ Noah built an altar to Jehovah and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ Jehovah smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: »Never again will I curse the ground because of man, for the intent of his heart is evil from childhood. I will never again destroy every living creature, as I have done. ²² »As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.« ⁹ 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.