Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together in one gathering, and let the dry land appear;" and it was so. And the waters under the sky gathered to their gatherings, and the dry land appeared.

God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas. God saw that it was good.

God said, "Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth;" and it was so.

The earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth;" and it was so.

and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;" and it was so.

God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;" and it was so.

God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

To Adam he said, "Because you have listened to your wife's voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, "I have gotten a man with the LORD's help."

Again she gave birth, to Cain's brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Cain said to Abel, his brother, "Let's go into the field." It happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

The LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

The LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.

Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Cain went out from the LORD's presence, and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

His brother's name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.

Zillah also gave birth to Tubal Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron. Tubal Cain's sister was Naamah.

There was also born a son to Seth, and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the LORD's name.

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God's likeness.

that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.

The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came in to men's daughters. They bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky's windows were opened.

In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship;

The deep's fountains and the sky's windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,

The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.

It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.

The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma. The LORD said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.

The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that the ground teems with, and all the fish of the sea are delivered into your hand.

I will surely require your blood of your lives. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man.

Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.

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

Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they did not see their father's nakedness.

To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother's name was Joktan.

The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

So the LORD scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

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

And Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went forth from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go out from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

So Abram went, as the LORD had spoken to him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came.

It happened, when he had come near to enter Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at.

It will happen, when the Egyptians will see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife.' They will kill me, but they will save you alive.

Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you."

It happened that when Abram had come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

The LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way."

The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together: for their substance was great, so that they could not live together.

There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite lived in the land at that time.

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

So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.

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

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed may also be numbered.

All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).

They took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

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

that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

The LORD brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be."

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my handmaid. It may be that I will obtain children by her." Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.

He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

Sarai said to Abram, "This wrong is your fault. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between me and you."

He said, "Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, where did you come from? Where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai."

He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. He will live opposite all of his brothers."

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

He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,

I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant." They said, "Very well, do as you have said."

They said to him, "Where is Sarah, your wife? He said, "See, in the tent."

The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.

I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know."

Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Abraham answered, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.

He spoke to him yet again, and said, "What if there are forty found there?" He said, "I will not do it for the forty's sake."

He said, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake."

He said, "Oh do not let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the ten's sake."

The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

He said, "Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.