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."

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

By this time, the earth had become ruined in God's opinion and filled with violence.

So make yourself an ark out of cedar, constructing compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with tar.

Make the ark like this: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.

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.

"For my part, I'm about to flood the earth with water and destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die.

However, I will establish my own covenant with you, and you are to enter the ark you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives.

You are to bring two of every living thing into the ark so they may remain alive with you. They are to be male and female.

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.

For your part, take some of the edible food and store it away these stores will be food for you and the animals."

Then the LORD told Noah, "Come you and all your household into the ark, because I've seen that you alone are righteous in this generation.

You are to take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of the unclean animals, a male and its mate;

along with seven pairs of the flying birds, male and female, in order to keep their offspring alive on the surface of all the earth.

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."

Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives entered the ark with him before the flood waters arrived.

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

two by two, male and female, they entered the ark to join Noah, just as God had commanded.

and it rained throughout the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

On that very day, Noah entered the ark with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's wife, his sons' three wives with them,

along with every species of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and every creature that has wings.

The males and females of each living creature entered the ark, just as God had commanded. Then the LORD sealed them inside.

Every living thing on earth died flying creatures, livestock, wildlife, all creatures that swarm over the earth, and all human beings.

Everything that breathed and everything that had lived on dry land died.

God kept Noah in mind, along with all the wildlife and livestock that were with him in the ark. God's Spirit moved throughout the earth, causing the flood waters to subside.

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

Then the flood waters steadily receded, diminishing completely by the end of the 150 days.

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

and sent out a raven. It went back and forth as the flood water continued to evaporate throughout the earth.

but the dove could not yet find a place to rest, so it returned to Noah on the ark, since water still covered the land. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back into the ark with him.

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

He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but it did not return to him anymore.

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.

"It's time for you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives who are with you to leave the ark.

Bring out with you every living creature including the flying creatures, animals, and everything that crawls on the ground so they may disperse throughout the land, be fruitful, and multiply throughout the earth."

So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives emerged.

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.

"Never again, as long as the earth exists, will sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night ever cease."

God blessed Noah and his sons and ordered them, "Be productive, multiply, and fill the earth.

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.

Now as for you, be productive and multiply; spread out over the land and multiply throughout it."

Later, God told Noah and his sons,

"Pay attention! I'm establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants after you,

and with every living creature that is with you the flying creatures, the livestock, and all the wildlife of the earth that are with you all the earth's animals that came out of the ark.

I will establish my covenant with you: No living beings will ever be cut off again by flood waters, and there will never again be a flood that destroys the earth."

God also said, "Here's the symbol that represents the covenant that I'm making between me and you and every living being with you, for all future generations:

I've set my rainbow in the sky to symbolize the covenant between me and the earth.

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow becomes visible in the clouds,

I'll remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature, so that water will never again become a flood to destroy all living beings.

When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will observe it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living beings on the earth."

God also told Noah, "This is the symbol of the covenant that I've established between me and everything that lives on the earth."

Noah's sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham later fathered Canaan.)

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.

He drank some of the wine, got drunk, and lay down naked right in the middle of his tent.

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

Then Shem and Japheth took their father's cloak, laid it across both their shoulders, and walking backwards, they both covered their father's genitals. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's genitals.

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

He also said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.

May God make room for Japheth; may God live in Shem's tents, and may Canaan serve him."

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

Japheth's descendants included Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

Gomer's descendants included Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

Javan's descendants included Elisha, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim,

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

Ham's descendants included Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.

Cush's descendants included Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. Raamah's descendants included Sheba and Dedan.

His kingdom began in the region of Shinar with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh.

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

along with Resen, which was located between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

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

the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.

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.

These are Ham's descendants, listed by their families, each with their own lands, language, and family groups.

Shem's sons included Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.

Aram's descendants included Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

Arpachshad fathered Cainan, Cainan fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber.

Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were Joktan's descendants.

These are Shem's descendants, listed by their families, each with their own lands, language, and family groups.

As people migrated westward, they came across a plain in the region of Shinar and settled there.

They told each other, "Come on! Let's burn bricks thoroughly." They used bricks for stone and tar for mortar.

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."

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.

Shem lived 500 years after he fathered Arpachshad and had other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Cainan, Arpachshad lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters, and then died. Cainan lived 130 years and fathered Shelah. After he fathered Shelah, Cainan lived 330 years and had other sons and daughters, and then died.

After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Now these are the family records of Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.

Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and Iscah.

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,