God said, "Let there be light." And there was light!

God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day.

God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.

God called the expanse "sky." There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds." It was so.

The land produced vegetation -- plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

There was evening, and there was morning, a third day.

God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years,

There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind." It was so.

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

God saw all that he had made -- and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed.

Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams.

The name of the first is Pishon; it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

(The gold of that land is pure; pearls and lapis lazuli are also there).

The name of the second river is Gihon; it runs through the entire land of Cush.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God were having sexual relations with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.

But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.

Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive.

and also seven of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the earth.

On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons' three wives.

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth went out of the ark in their groups.

And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on. I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

Shem and Japheth took the garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father's nakedness.

From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to its language, according to their families, by their nations.

These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and by their nations.

Their dwelling place was from Mesha all the way to Sephar in the eastern hills.

These are the sons of Shem according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and according to their nations.

These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations, and from these the nations spread over the earth after the flood.

When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

Come, let's go down and confuse their language so they won't be able to understand each other."

So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city.

That is why its name was called Babel -- because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord.

There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe.

This was the place where he had first built the altar, and there Abram worshiped the Lord.

But the land could not support them while they were living side by side. Because their possessions were so great, they were not able to live alongside one another.

So there were quarrels between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen. (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.)

Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives.

So Abram moved his tents and went to live by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord there.

and the Horites in their hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is near the desert.

I will take nothing except compensation for what the young men have eaten. As for the share of the men who went with me -- Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre -- let them take their share."

The Lord said to him, "Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."

I will confirm my covenant as a perpetual covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

I will give the whole land of Canaan -- the land where you are now residing -- to you and your descendants after you as a permanent possession. I will be their God."

Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. Kings of countries will come from her!"

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing across from him. When he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, "Quick! Take three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread."

Then they asked him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" He replied, "There, in the tent."

When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom. (Now Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.)

So the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant

What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it?

So the Lord replied, "If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy the whole city because five are lacking?" He replied, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there."

Abraham spoke to him again, "What if forty are found there?" He replied, "I will not do it for the sake of the forty."

Then Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak! What if thirty are found there?" He replied, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."

Abraham said, "Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?" He replied, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty."

Finally Abraham said, "May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?" He replied, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten."

Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it's just a little one. Let me go there. It's just a little place, isn't it? Then I'll survive."

Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)

Later the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby to have sexual relations with us, according to the way of all the world.

Come, let's make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father."

So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.

So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, "Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let's make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father."

So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.

In this way both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident in Gerar,

But God said to Abraham, "Do not be upset about the boy or your slave wife. Do all that Sarah is telling you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted.

Early in the morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went wandering aimlessly through the wilderness of Beer Sheba.

That is why he named that place Beer Sheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer Sheba. There he worshiped the Lord, the eternal God.

God said, "Take your son -- your only son, whom you love, Isaac -- and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you."

So he said to his servants, "You two stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go up there. We will worship and then return to you."

When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies.

and said to Ephron in their hearing, "Hear me, if you will. I pay to you the price of the field. Take it from me so that I may bury my dead there."

"Be careful never to take my son back there!" Abraham told him.

"The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and the land of my relatives, promised me with a solemn oath, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' He will send his angel before you so that you may find a wife for my son from there.

But if the woman is not willing to come back with you, you will be free from this oath of mine. But you must not take my son back there!"

Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah (Milcah was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor).

"Whose daughter are you?" he asked. "Tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?"

When he saw the bracelets on his sister's wrists and the nose ring and heard his sister Rebekah say, "This is what the man said to me," he went out to meet the man. There he was, standing by the camels near the spring.

So Abraham's servant went to the house and unloaded the camels. Straw and feed were given to the camels, and water was provided so that he and the men who were with him could wash their feet.

When Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord.

After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Let me leave now so I can return to my master."

So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, accompanied by her female attendant, with Abraham's servant and his men.

They blessed Rebekah with these words: "Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands! May your descendants possess the strongholds of their enemies."

He went out to relax in the field in the early evening. Then he looked up and saw that there were camels approaching.

This was the field Abraham had purchased from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.

These are the names of Ishmael's sons, by their names according to their records: Nebaioth (Ishmael's firstborn), Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,