God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.

No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed.

Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Adam was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have had a male child with the Lord’s help.”

And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,

the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth.

And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

two of each, male and female, entered the ark with Noah, just as God had commanded him.

Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.

The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the waters had decreased significantly.

After 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made,

and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.

Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down,

When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down.

After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.

In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying.

When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

These are the family records of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They also had sons after the flood.

The coastland peoples spread out into their lands. These are Japheth’s sons by their clans, in their nations. Each group had its own language.

And Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. Shem was the father of all the sons of Eber.

Eber had two sons. One was named Peleg, for during his days the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.

At one time the whole earth had the same language and vocabulary.

They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.

Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.

He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.

Then Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev—he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him.

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

to the site where he had built the altar. And Abram called on the name of Yahweh there.

Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents.

But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together,

After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west,

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled his 318 trained men, born in his household, and they went in pursuit as far as Dan.

When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.

Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar.

So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years.

So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son Hagar had.

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, just as God had said to him.

Then Abraham took curds and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree.

Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”

The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar.

Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when He demolished the cities where Lot had lived.

Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’”

for the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The Lord came to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised.

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.

But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.

But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the water well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.

Abimelech replied, “I don’t know who did this thing. You didn’t report anything to me, so I hadn’t heard about it until today.”

Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock.

After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.

When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

Abraham agreed with Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had agreed to in the presence of the Hittites: 400 shekels of silver at the current commercial rate.

Abraham was now old, getting on in years, and the Lord had blessed him in everything.

Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah—daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor—coming with a jug on her shoulder.

Now the girl was very beautiful, a young woman who had not known a man intimately. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up.

When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.”

while the man silently watched her to see whether or not the Lord had made his journey a success.

After the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and for her wrists two bracelets weighing 10 shekels of gold.

Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring.

As soon as he had seen the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he had heard his sister Rebekah’s words—“The man said this to me!”—he went to the man. He was standing there by the camels at the spring.

“Before I had finished praying silently, there was Rebekah coming with her jug on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her: Please let me have a drink.

Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.

Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him.

The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s slaves had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with dirt.

Isaac reopened the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

On that same day Isaac’s slaves came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!”

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them.

Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived from the hunt.

He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau determined in his heart: “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place.

When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then he took him to his house, and Jacob told him all that had happened.

Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my own flesh and blood.”

After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

Leah had ordinary eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?”

That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them.

And the man became very rich. He had many flocks, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were.

He took all the livestock and possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, and he drove his herds to go to the land of his father Isaac in Canaan.