Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

“Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;

I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

So he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants
He shall be to his brothers.”

Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.

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

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

Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born.

Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

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

These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.

They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood;

and Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he became the father of Reu, and he had other sons and daughters.

Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug;

and Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he became the father of Serug, and he had other sons and daughters.

and Serug lived two hundred years after he became the father of Nahor, and he had other sons and daughters.

Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.

The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.

Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;

So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.

Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.

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

Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman;

Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

Then Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they escorted him away, with his wife and all that belonged to him.

So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.

He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.

So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”

Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.

Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”

Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

All these came as allies to the valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).

Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and conquered all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country.

Then after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself.”

Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
“Do not fear, Abram,
I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.”

And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”

Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”

And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.

God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.

As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,
“To your descendants I have given this land,
From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:

So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.

He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.

And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.

Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.”

Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”

The angel of the Lord said to her further,
“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

“He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”

Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
“I am God Almighty;
Walk before Me, and be blameless.

I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!”

But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.”

Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all the servants who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day, as God had said to him.

In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.

When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,

and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by.

and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.”

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.”

Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.

Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”