Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness [was] over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God [was] hovering over the surface of the waters.

{before any plant of the field was} on earth, and [before] {any plant of the field} had sprung up, because Yahweh God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no human being to cultivate the ground,

Now a river flowed out from Eden that watered the garden, and from there it diverged and became four branches.

And the man said, "{She is now} bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; {she} shall be called 'Woman,' for {she was taken} from man."

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other {wild animal} which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God indeed say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked. And they sewed together fig leaves and they made for themselves coverings.

And Yahweh God said, "Look--the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil. {What if} he stretches out his hand and takes also from the tree of life and eats, and lives forever?"

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain. And she said, "I have given birth to a man with [the help of] Yahweh."

Then Yahweh said to Cain, "Where [is] Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"

So now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand.

When you till the ground {it shall no longer yield its strength to you}. You shall be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth."

And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And when he built a city {he named the city after his son, Enoch}.

Then Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. And she called his name Seth, for [she said] "God has appointed to me another child in the place of Abel, because Cain killed him."

And Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him.

And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one {shall relieve us} from our work, and from the hard labor of our hands, from the ground which Yahweh had cursed.

And after Lamech had fathered Noah he lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

When Noah {was five hundred years old}, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.

These [are] the generations of Noah. Noah [was] a righteous man, without defect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

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

And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh [has] come before me, for the earth was filled [with] violence because of them. Now, look, I [am going] to destroy them [along] with the earth.

And Noah did according to all that God commanded him; thus he did.

Then Yahweh said to Noah, "Go--you and all your household--into the ark, for I have seen you [are] righteous before me in this generation.

And Noah did according to all that Yahweh commanded him.

Noah {was six hundred years old} when the flood waters came upon the earth.

And Noah and his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

{two of each} went to Noah, into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month--on that day all the springs of the great deep were split open, and the windows of heaven were opened.

On this same day, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark,

And they came to Noah to the ark, {two of each}, from every living thing in which [was] the breath of life.

And he blotted out every living thing upon the surface of the ground, from humankind, to animals, to creeping things, and to the birds of heaven; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah and those who [were] with him in the ark remained.

And God remembered Noah and all the wild animals, and all the domesticated animals that [were] with him in the ark. And God caused a wind to blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

And it happened [that] at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made.

And the dove came to him {in the evening}, and behold, a freshly-picked olive tree leaf [was] in her mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had subsided from upon the earth.

And it happened that, in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, the waters dried up from upon the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dried up.

And God spoke to Noah, saying:

So Noah went out, with his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.

And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

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

Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As [I gave] the green plants to you, I have [now] given you everything.

And God said to Noah and to his sons with him,

And God said to Noah, "This [is] the sign of the covenant which I am establishing between me and all flesh that [is] upon the earth.

Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark [were] Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham [was] the father of Canaan.)

These three [were] the sons of Noah, and from these {the whole earth was populated}.

And Noah began [to be] a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard.

Then Noah awoke from his drunkenness, and he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

And Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood.

And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

These [are] the generations of the sons of Noah--Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Children were born to them after the flood.

Now, the beginning of his kingdom [was] Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations [and] in their nations. And from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

Now the whole earth [had] one language and the same words.

And Yahweh said, "Behold, {they are one people with one language}, and {this is only the beginning of what they will do}. So now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them.

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.

And Sarai was barren; she had no child.

And Abram went [out] as Yahweh had told him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram {was seventy-five years old} when he went out from Haran.

And Abram traveled through the land up to the place of Shechem, to the Oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites [were] in the land at that time.

And it happened [that] as he drew near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, "Look now, I know that you are a woman beautiful of appearance,

Why did you say 'She [is] my sister,' so that I took her to myself as a wife? Now then, here [is] your wife. Take her and go."

Now Abram [was] very wealthy in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

And there was a quarrel between the herdsmen of the livestock of Abram and the herdsmen of the livestock of Lot. Now at that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.

Now the men of Sodom {were extremely wicked sinners against Yahweh}.

And Yahweh said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, "Now, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you [are] to the north, and to the south, and to the east and to the west,

Now the Valley of Siddim {was full of tar pits}. And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and {fell into them}, but the rest fled to the mountains.

And they took Lot, the son of the brother of Abram, and his possessions, and left. (Now he had been living in Sodom.)

And he said, "O Yahweh God, how shall I know [that] I will possess it?"

And he said to Abram, "{You must surely know} that your descendants shall be [as] aliens in a land {not their own}. And they shall serve them and they shall oppress them four hundred years.

Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, had borne him no children. And she had a female Egyptian servant, and her name [was] Hagar.

And Sarai said to Abram, "may my harm [be] upon you. {I had my servant sleep with you}, and [when] she saw that she had conceived, {she no longer respected me}. May Yahweh judge between me and you!"

Your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.

And God said to Abraham, "Now [as for] you, you must keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations.

And God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear a son for you, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant to his offspring after him.

And he said, "I will certainly return to you {in the spring}, and look, Sarah your wife [will have] a son." Now Sarah [was] listening at the doorway of the tent, and which [was] behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah [were] old, {advanced in age}; {the way of women} had ceased to be for Sarah.

Then Yahweh said to Abraham, "What [is] this [that] Sarah laughed, saying, 'Is it indeed true [that] I will bear a child, now [that] I have grown old?'

But Sarah denied [it], saying, "I did not laugh," because she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh."

I will go down and I will see. Have they done altogether according to its cry of distress [which] has come to me? If not, I will know."

And he said, "Please, now, I was bold to speak to my Lord. What if twenty be found there?" And he answered, "I will not destroy [it] for the sake of the twenty."

And he said, "Behold, my lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you can rise early and go on your way." And they said, "No, but we will spend the night in the square."

And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where [are] the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them."

And he said, "No, my brothers, please do not do [such a] wrong [thing].

But they said, "Step aside!" Then they said, "{This fellow} came to dwell as a foreigner and he acts as a judge! Now we shall do worse to you than them!" And they pressed very hard against the man, against Lot, and they drew near to break the door.

And Lot said to them, "No, please, my lords.

And the firstborn [daughter] said to the younger one, "Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us according to the manner of all the land.

And they gave their father wine to drink that night, and the firstborn went and lay with her father, but he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

And they gave their father wine to drink again that night, and the younger got up and lay with him, but he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, "my Lord, will you even kill a righteous people?"

Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you did this, and I also {kept you from sinning} against me. Therefore, I did not allow you to touch her.

So now, return the wife of the man, for he [is] a prophet, so that he will pray for you and you will live. And {if you do not return her}, know that you will certainly die, and all that [are] yours."

And Abraham said, "Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place; they will kill me on account of the matter of my wife.

So now, swear to me here by God [that] you will not deal with me falsely, or with my descendants, or my posterity. According to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall [pledge] to do with me and with the land where you have dwelled as an alien."

And Abimelech said, "I do not know who did this thing, neither did you tell me, nor have I heard [of it] except for today."

And he said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the boy; do not do anything to him. For now I know that you are {one who fears} God, since you have not withheld your son, your only child, from me."

(Now, Bethuel fathered Rebekah). These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, the brother of Abraham.

Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites with respect to all [who were] entering the gate of his city, [and] said,

"No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field and the cave which [is] in it, I [also] give it to you in the sight of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead."

Now Abraham [was] old, {advanced in age}, and Yahweh had blessed Abraham in everything.

And let it be [that] the girl to whom I shall say, 'Please, offer your jar that I may drink' and [who] says, 'Drink--and I will also water your camels,' she [is the one] you have chosen for your servant, for Isaac. By her I will know that you have shown loyal love to my master."

Now the girl [was] very pleasing in appearance. [She was] a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.

And the man [was] gazing at her silently to know [if] Yahweh had made his journey successful or not.