God saw that the light was beautiful. He separated the light from the darkness,

Then God said, "Let there be a canopy between bodies of water, separating bodies of water from bodies of water!"

So God made a canopy that separated the water beneath the canopy from the water above it. And that is what happened:

Then God said, "Let there be lights across the sky to distinguish day from night, to act as signs for seasons, days, and years,

to differentiate between day and night, and to distinguish light from darkness. And God saw how good it was.

So the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs, and the man became a living being.

A river flows from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides, becoming four branches.

The LORD God commanded the man: "You may freely eat from every tree of the garden,

but you are not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because you will certainly die during the day that you eat from it."

After the LORD God formed from the ground every wild animal and every bird that flies, he brought each of them to the man to see what he would call it. Whatever the man called each living creature became its name.

When the man was asleep, he removed one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh where it had been. Then the LORD God formed the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

So the man exclaimed, "At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This one will be called "Woman,' because she was taken from Man."

Now the Shining One was more clever than any animal of the field that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, "Did God actually say, "You are not to eat from any tree of the garden'?"

"We may eat from the trees of the garden," the woman answered the Shining One,

"but as for the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You are not to eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die.'"

"Even God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll become like God, knowing good and evil."

Whenthey heard the voice of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day, the man and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

"I heard your voice in the garden," the man answered, "and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you."

"Who told you that you are naked?" Godasked. "Did you eat fruit from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?"

The man answered, "The woman whom you provided for me gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate some of it."

He told the man, "Because you have listened to what your wife said, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you. You'll eat from it through pain-filled labor for the rest of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you'll eat the plants from the meadows.

You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you're buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You're made from dust and you'll return to dust."

The LORD God fashioned garments from animal skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Later, the LORD God said, "Look! The man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, so he won't reach out, also take from the tree of life, eat, and then live forever "

therefore the LORD God expelled the man from the garden of Eden so he would work the ground from which he had been taken.

Later, after a while, Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit that he had harvested,

while Abel brought the best parts of some of the firstborn from his flock. The LORD looked favorably upon Abel and his offering,

"What did you do?" God asked. "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Now you're more cursed than the ground, which has opened to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

"You're driving me from the soil today. I'll be hidden from you, and I'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive. In the future, whoever finds me will kill me."

whom he named Noah, because he said, "May this one comfort us from our work, from pain that is caused by our manual labor, and from the ground that the LORD has cursed."

some divine beings noticed how attractive human women were, so they took wives for themselves from a selection that pleased them.

So the LORD said, "I will annihilate these human beings whom I've created from the earth, including people, animals, crawling things, and flying creatures, because I'm grieving that I made them."

Make a roof for the ark, and finish the walls to within one cubit from the top. Place the entrance in the side of the ark, and build a lower, a middle, and an upper deck.

From birds according to their species, from domestic animals according to their species, and from everything that crawls on the ground according to their species two of everything will come to you so they may remain alive.

Seven days from now I'll send rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and I'll destroy every living creature that I've made."

From both clean and unclean animals, from birds, and from everything that crawls on the ground,

All existing creatures that had lived on the surface of the ground were annihilated, from humans to livestock, from crawling creatures to birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah remained, along with those who were with him in the ark.

The water sources from the ocean depths were blocked and the floodgates of the heavens were closed.

Later, he sent a dove out from the ark to see whether the water that covered the land's surface had completely receded,

Noah waited another seven days and sent the dove out from the ark again.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, during the first month, the flood water began to evaporate from the land. Noah then removed the ark's cover and saw that the surface of the land was drying.

Every animal, every crawling thing, every flying creature, and everything that moves on the earth emerged from the ark by groups.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings on it from every clean animal and every clean bird.

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he told himself, "I will never again curse the land because of human beings even though human inclinations remain evil from youth nor will I destroy every living being ever again, as I've done.

All the living creatures of the earth will be filled with fear and terror of you from now on, including all the creatures that fly in the sky, everything that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the ocean. They've been assigned to live under your dominion.

Also, I will certainly demand an accounting regarding bloodshed, from every animal and from every human being. I'll demand an accounting from every human being for the life of another human being.

These three were Noah's sons, and from these men the whole earth was repopulated.

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant and farm a vineyard.

from whom the coastal nations spread into their own lands and nations, each with their own language and family groups.

From there he went north to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, and Calah,

the Pathrusites, the Casluhites (from which came the Philistines), and the Caphtorites.

Later, the Canaanite families were widely scattered. The Canaanite border extended south from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and east toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

Their settlements extended from Mesha towards Sephar, the eastern hill country.

These are the families of Noah's sons, according to their records, by their nations. From these people, the nations on the earth spread out after the flood.

So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the surface of the whole earth, so that they had to stop building the city.

Therefore it was called Babylon, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth, and from there the LORD scattered them over the surface of the entire earth.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran's son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they journeyed together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they had gone as far as Haran, they settled there,

From there Abram traveled on to the hill country east of Bethel and set up his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Abram traveled from Egypt, along with his wife and everyone who belonged to his household including Lot to the Negev.

He journeyed by stages from the Negev to Bethel, the place where his tent had formerly been, between Bethel and Ai,

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan plain. Then Lot traveled eastward, and they separated from each other.

After Lot had separated from Abram, the LORD told Abram, "Look off to the north, south, east, and west from where you're living,

After Abram's return from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with them, the king of Sodom went out to meet with him in the Shaveh Valley (that is, the King's Valley).

Some time later, a message came from the LORD to Abram in a vision. "Stop being afraid, Abram," he said. "I myself your shield am your very great reward."

But Abram replied, "Lord GOD, what can you give me since I continue to be childless, and the heir of my household is Eliezer from Damascus?

A message came from the LORD to him again: "This one will not be your heir. Instead, the child who will be born to you will be your heir."

The LORD spoke to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance."

That very day the LORD made this covenant with Abram: "I'm giving this land to your descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River

So Sarai told Abram, "You are well aware that the LORD has prevented me from giving birth to a child. Go have sex with my servant, so that I may possibly bear a son through her."

Abram answered Sarai, "Look, your servant is under your control, so do to her as you wish." So Sarai dealt so harshly with Hagar that she ran away from Sarai.

"Hagar, servant of Sarai," he asked, "Where are you coming from and where are you going?" She answered, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."

I'm going to cause you to have many descendants, and I'll bring nations from you. Kings will come from you.

Generation after generation, every male among you is to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, including the servant born in your house or the one purchased from a foreigner, who is not of your offspring.

Any uncircumcised male who does not have the foreskin of his flesh circumcised on the eighth day after his birth is to be eliminated from his people because he has broken my covenant."

I will bless her. Furthermore, I will give you a son from her. I will bless her, so that nations, kings, and people will come from her."

Every man born in his household as well as those who had been purchased with money from a foreigner was circumcised with him.

he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground.

Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the time set for it, I will return to you about a year from now and Sarah will have a son."

After this, the men set out from there and looked out over Sodom. Abraham went with them to send them off.

"Should I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do," the LORD asked,

Then two of the men turned away from there and walked toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing in the presence of the LORD.

Far be it from you to do such a thing to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won't he?"

and blinded the men who were at the entrance of the house, from the least important to the greatest, so they were unable to find the doorway.

Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire out of the sky from the LORD on Sodom and Gomorrah,

He looked off toward Sodom, Gomorrah, and the entire plain, and he saw smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

And so it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out from the midst of the destruction when he overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Abraham traveled from there to the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was living in Gerar as an outsider,

Then God replied to him in the dream, "I know that you did this with pure intentions, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I didn't allow you to touch her.

When God caused me to journey from my father's house, I asked her to do me this favor and say, "He's my brother.'"

God heard the boy's voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. He asked her, "What's wrong with you, Hagar? Don't be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the youth where he is.

Later he settled in the desert area of Paran, and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

He replied, "You are to accept from me these seven ewe lambs as a witness that I have dug this well."

On the third day he looked ahead and saw the place from a distance.

Just then, an angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven and said, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he answered.

"Don't lay your hand on the youth!" he said. "Don't do anything to him, because I've just demonstrated that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only unique one, from me."

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven

Then Abraham stood up from beside his dead wife and addressed the Hittites. He said,

"I am an alien and an outsider among you. Give me a cemetery among you where I can bury my dead away from my presence."