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

Ham, who fathered Canaan, saw his father's genitals and told his two brothers outside.

When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

he said, "Canaan is cursed! He will be the lowest of slaves to his relatives."

These are the records of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, to whom descendants were born after the flood.

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

To Eber were born two sons. One was named Peleg, because the earth was divided during his lifetime. His brother was named Joktan.

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.

Then they said, "Come on! Let's build ourselves a city and a tower, with its summit in the heavens, and let's make a name for ourselves so we won't be scattered over the surface of the whole earth."

However, the LORD descended to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building.

The LORD said, "Look! They are one people with the same language for all of them, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing that they have a mind to do will be impossible for them!

Come on! Let's go down there and confuse their language, so that they won't understand each other's speech."

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

These are the family records of Shem. When Shem had lived 100 years, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

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,

The LORD told Abram, "You are to leave your land, your relatives, and your father's house and go to the land that I'm going to show you.

Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the servants he had acquired while living in Haran. Then they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they arrived in the land of Canaan,

Abram traveled through the land to the place called Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I'll give this land to your descendants." So Abram built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

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.

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

When he was about to enter Egypt, he told his wife Sarai, "Look, I'm aware that you're a beautiful woman.

When the Egyptians see you, they will say, "She is his wife.' Then they'll kill me, but allow you to live.

When Pharaoh's officials saw her, they brought her to the attention of Pharaoh and took the woman to Pharaoh's palace.

Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, "What have you done to me! Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

So Pharaoh assigned men to Abram, and they escorted him, his wife, and all that he had out of the country.

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,

Isn't the whole land available to you? Let's separate: If you go to the left, then I will go to the right; if you go to the right, then I will go to the left."

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

because I'm going to give you and your descendants all of the land that you see forever!

Get up! Walk throughout the length and breadth of the land, because I'm going to give it to you."

So Abram moved his tent and settled beside the oaks of Mamre that are by Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

They were subject to Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but they rebelled in the thirteenth year.

Next they turned back and came to En-mishpat (which was also known as Kadesh) and conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, along with the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, so when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of their people fell into them, while the rest fled to the hill country.

Someone escaped, arrived, and reported what had happened to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite, whose brothers Eshcol and Aner were allied with Abram.

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).

The king of Sodom told Abram, "Return the people to me, and you take the possessions for yourself."

But Abram answered the king of Sodom, "I have made an oath to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that belongs to you, so you won't be able to say, "I made Abram rich.'

I will take nothing except what my warriors have eaten. But as for what belongs to the men who were allied with me, including Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, let them take their share."

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?

Look!" Abram said, "You haven't given me any offspring, so a servant born in my house is going to be my heir."

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."

Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

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."

As the sun began to set, Abram was overcome with deep sleep, and suddenly a frightening and terrifying darkness descended on him.

Then the LORD told Abram, "You can be certain about this: Your descendants will be foreigners in a land that isn't theirs. They will be slaves there and will be oppressed for 400 years.

Now as for you, you'll die peacefully, join your ancestors, and be buried at a good old age.

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 listened to Sarai's suggestion, so Abram's wife Sarai took her Egyptian servant, Hagar, and gave her as a wife to her husband Abram. This took place ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.

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.

The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the desert on the road to Shur.

The angel of the LORD told her, "You must go back to your mistress and submit to her authority."

The angel of the LORD also told her, "I will greatly multiply your offspring, who will be too many to count.

"Look, you are pregnant and will give birth to a son," the angel of the LORD continued to say to her. "You will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your cry of misery.

So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are "God who sees,' because I have truly seen the one who looks after me."

Hagar eventually gave birth to Abram's son. Abram named his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael.

Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for Abram.

When Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and announced, "I am God Almighty. Live in constant awareness that I'm always with you, and be blameless.

Then Abram fell to the ground as God continued speaking to him.

Your name is no longer to be Abram. Instead your name will be Abraham, since I'll make you the father of many nations.

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

I'm establishing my covenant between me and you, and with your descendants who come after you, generation after generation, as an eternal covenant, to be your God and your descendants' God after you.

I'll give to you and to your descendants the land to which you have traveled all the land of Canaan as an eternal possession. I will be their God."

God continued to speak to Abraham, "You and your descendants who are born in the future are to keep my covenant that is, you and your descendants, generation after generation.

Here is my covenant that you are to observe, between me and you and your descendants: Every male among you is to be circumcised.

You are all to be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and this is to be the sign of the covenant between me and 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.

The servant born in your house or the one purchased with money is to be circumcised. My covenant is to remain in your flesh as an eternal covenant.

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."

God told Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are not to call her Sarai any longer, because her name is to be Sarah.

Abraham fell to the ground, laughed, and told himself, "Can a child be born to a 100-year-old man? Can a 90-year-old Sarah give birth?"

So Abraham responded to God, "If only Ishmael would live in constant awareness that you're always with him!"

But God replied, "No, but your wife Sarah will give birth to your son, and you are to name him Isaac. I'll confirm my covenant with him as an eternal covenant for his descendants.

And as for Ishmael, I've heard you. I'll bless him, and he'll have many descendants. I will multiply him greatly, he'll father twelve tribal leaders, and I'll cause his descendants to become a great nation.

Now as to Isaac, I'll confirm my covenant with him, to whom Sarah will give birth as your son at this time next year."

With that, God finished talking to Abraham, and ascended, leaving him.

Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the servants born in his house or purchased with his money every male among the men of his household and circumcised them that very day, just as God had spoken to him.

Both Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day.

Later, the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks belonging to Mamre. As Abraham was sitting near the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day,

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.

"My lords," he told them, "if I have found favor with you, please don't leave your servant.

I'll have some water brought to wash your feet while you rest under the tree.

I'll bring some food for you, and after that you may continue your journey, since you have come to visit your servant." So they replied, "Okay! Do what you've proposed."

Next, Abraham ran to the herd, found a choice and tender calf, and gave it to the young men, who went off in a hurry to prepare it.

Then one of them said, "I will certainly return to you in about a year's time. By then, your wife Sarah will have borne a son."

That's why Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, "After I'm so old and my husband is old, too, am I going to have sex?"

The LORD asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and think, "Am I really going to bear a child, since I'm so old?'

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."

But Sarah denied it. "I didn't laugh," she claimed, because she was afraid. The LORD replied, "No! You did laugh!"

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,

Indeed, I've made myself known to him in order that he may encourage his sons and his household that is born after him to keep the way of the LORD, and to do what is right and just, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised."

I'm going down to see whether they've acted according to the protests that have reached me. If not, I wish to know."

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?"