Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.”

Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so.

The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.

So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation at the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

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.

A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.

The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

Gold from that land is pure; bdellium and onyx are also there.

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,

Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him.

And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.”

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

Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive.

On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his three sons’ wives entered the ark with him.

They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, all birds, every fowl, and everything with wings according to their kinds.

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.

All wildlife, all livestock, every bird, and every creature that crawls on the earth came out of the ark by their groups.

I confirm My covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by the waters of a flood; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated.

Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked.

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.

These are Ham’s sons, by their clans, according to their languages, in their own lands and their nations.

Their settlements extended from Mesha to Sephar, the eastern hill country.

These are Shem’s sons by their clans, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.

These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their family records, in their nations. The nations on earth spread out from these after the flood.

As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

So from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.

Therefore its name is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse those who treat you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.

Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

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.

From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh.

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

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

and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.

The four kings took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went on.

I will take nothing except what the servants have eaten. But as for the share of the men who came with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre—they can take their share.”

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

I will keep My covenant between Me and you, and your future offspring throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you.

And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession, and I will be their God.”

God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep My covenant.

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.

He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed to the ground.

So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.”

“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he answered.

The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off.

Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious.

The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people who are in it?

The Lord said, “If I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

suppose the 50 righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”

He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.”

Then he spoke to Him again, “Suppose 40 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it on account of 40.”

Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose 30 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find 30 there.”

Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose 20 are found there?”

He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of 20.”

Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose 10 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of 10.”

Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”

Hurry up! Run there, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar.

Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land.

So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.

From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived in Gerar,

Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.

“Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”

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.

I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies.

and said to Ephron in the presence of the people of the land, “Please listen to me. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”

Abraham answered him, “Make sure that you don’t take my son back there.

The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from my native land, who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘I will give this land to your offspring’—He will send His angel before you, and you can take a wife for my son from there.

If the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are free from this oath to me, but don’t let my son go back there.”

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.

“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

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.

When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed to the ground before the Lord.

So they sent away their sister Rebekah with the one who had nursed and raised her, and Abraham’s servant and his men.

They blessed Rebekah, saying to her:

Our sister, may you become
thousands upon ten thousands.
May your offspring possess
the gates of their enemies.

This was the field that Abraham bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried there with his wife Sarah.

These are the names of Ishmael’s sons; their names according to the family records are: Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

These are Ishmael’s sons, and these are their names by their villages and encampments: 12 leaders of their clans.

When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.

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.

So Isaac left there, camped in the Valley of Gerar, and lived there.

Then Isaac’s slaves dug in the valley and found a well of spring water there.

He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Open Spaces and said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

From there he went up to Beer-sheba,