¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
 

²And the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
 

³God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
  ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
  ⁵And God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
 

⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
  ⁷And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so.
  ⁸And God called the expanse “heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
 

⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so.
  ¹⁰And God called the dry land “earth”^a and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
 

¹¹God said, “Let the earth sprout forth vegetation: plants seeding forth seed and fruit trees of every kind on the earth, bearing fruit with its seed in it,” and it was so.
  ¹²And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants of every kind seeding forth seed, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with its seed in it. And God saw that it was good.
  ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
 

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons^b and for days and years;
  ¹⁵and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,” and it was so.
  ¹⁶God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and he made the stars.
  ¹⁷And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth
  ¹⁸and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
  ¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
 

²⁰And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”
  ²¹And God created the large sea creatures and every living soul that moves, of every kind of creature with which the waters swarmed, and every kind of winged bird. And God saw that it was good.
  ²²And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
  ²³And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
 

²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of living soul—every kind of livestock and creeping thing and wild animal of the earth.” And it was so.
  ²⁵And God made every kind of wild animal of the earth, and every kind of livestock, and every kind of creeping thing. And God saw that it was good.
 

²⁶And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
 

²⁷So God created humankind in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them.
 

²⁸And God blessed them. And 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 heavens and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth.”
  ²⁹And God said, “Behold, I have given you^c every plant seeding forth seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit yielding seed. They will be food for you.
  ³⁰And to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the ground in which is living soul, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
 

³¹And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
 

¹And the heavens and the earth were finished, with everything that was in them.
  ²On the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
  ³And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he ceased from all his work that creating, God had done.
 

⁴This is the history of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
 

⁵Before any shrub of the field was in the earth and before any plant of the field had sprung up (for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth), and there was no man to till the ground,
  ⁶a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
  ⁷And Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
 

⁸And Yahweh God had planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
  ⁹Yahweh God had made every kind of tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food to spring up from the ground, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
 

¹⁰A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four headwaters.
  ¹¹The name of one is Pishon. It winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold,
  ¹²and the gold of that land is good. Bedellium and the onyx stone are there.
  ¹³The name of the second river is Gihon, it winds through the whole land of Cush.
  ¹⁴The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it runs east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
 

¹⁵Yahweh God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and to care for it.
  ¹⁶Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From every tree of the garden you may eat, yes, eat,
  ¹⁷but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat from it, for in the day^a that you eat from it you will die, yes, die.”
 

¹⁸Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper corresponding to him.”
  ¹⁹Yahweh God had formed out of the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called each living soul, that was its name.
  ²⁰The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam, there was not found a helper corresponding to him.
  ²¹Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at its spot.
  ²²And Yahweh God built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.
  ²³The man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.”
 

²⁴This is why a man will leave his father and his mother and will join with his wife, and they will become one flesh.
  ²⁵They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
 

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any animal of the field that Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the garden?’”
 

²The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,
  ³but from the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die.’”
 

⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die,^{a
  5}for God knows that in the day you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
  ⁶When 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 who was with her, and he ate.
  ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
 

⁸They heard the sound of Yahweh God walking around in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
  ⁹Then Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
 

¹⁰The man said, “I heard the sound of you walking in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
 

¹¹God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
 

¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
 

¹³Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
 

¹⁴Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock and above every animal of the field. On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
  ¹⁵I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.^b He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
 

¹⁶To the woman he said, “I will increase, yes, increase your pain and toil in childbirth. In pain and toil you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
 

¹⁷To 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 must not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground for your sake. In pain and toil you will eat from it all the days of your life.
  ¹⁸It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
  ¹⁹By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you will return.”
 

²⁰Adam called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
  ²¹Yahweh God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.
 

²²Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take of the tree of life and eat, and live forever….”
  ²³Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
  ²⁴So he drove out the man, and east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword that was turning in every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.
 

¹The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived and gave birth to Cain and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.”
  ²She then gave birth to his brother, Abel. Abel was a shepherd of flocks, but Cain was a worker of the ground.
  ³And at the end of the appointed days, Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground.
  ⁴Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock, even of their fat portions. Yahweh had regard for Abel and his offering,
  ⁵but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.
 

⁶Then Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen?
  ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted?^a But if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”
 

⁸Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let’s go out into the field.”^b And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
 

⁹Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
 

¹⁰And he said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.
  ¹¹Now you are cursed from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
  ¹²From now on, when you work the ground it will no longer continue to give its strength to you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
 

¹³Cain said to Yahweh, “My sin is too great to be forgiven.
  ¹⁴Behold, today you have driven me away from the face of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
 

¹⁵Yahweh said to him, “Not so. If anyone kills Cain, he will be avenged seven times.” Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should strike him down.
  ¹⁶Then Cain went out from Yahweh’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
 

¹⁷Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
  ¹⁸To Enoch was born Irad. Irad fathered Mehujael. Mehujael fathered Methushael. Methushael fathered Lamech.
  ¹⁹Lamech took two wives; the name of one was Adah and the name of the other was Zillah.
  ²⁰Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
  ²¹His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.
  ²²Also, Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all kinds of implements of bronze and iron. Tubal-cain’s sister was Naamah.
 

²³Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech: for I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me.
  ²⁴If Cain will be avenged seven times, truly Lamech 77 times.”
 

²⁵Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “For God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, because Cain killed him.”
  ²⁶And to Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. Then he began to call on the name of Yahweh.
 

¹This is the record of the descendants of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness.
  ²He created them male and female, and blessed them and called their name “Adam” in the day when they were created.
 

³Adam lived 130 years and fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
  ⁴The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he fathered sons and daughters.
  ⁵And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
 

⁶Seth lived 105 years and fathered Enosh.
  ⁷Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ⁸And all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.
 

⁹Enosh lived 90 years and fathered Kenan.
  ¹⁰Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ¹¹And all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.
 

¹²Kenan lived 70 years and fathered Mahalalel.
  ¹³Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ¹⁴And all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.
 

¹⁵Mahalalel lived 65 years and fathered Jared.
  ¹⁶Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ¹⁷And all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.
 

¹⁸Jared lived 162 years and fathered Enoch.
  ¹⁹Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ²⁰And all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.
 

²¹Enoch lived 65 years and fathered Methuselah.
  ²²Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ²³And all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
  ²⁴Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, because God took him.
 

²⁵Methuselah lived 187 years and fathered Lamech.
  ²⁶Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and fathered sons and daughters.
  ²⁷And all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
 

²⁸Lamech lived 182 years and fathered a son,
  ²⁹and he named him Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us in our work and in the pain and toil of our hands, because of the ground that Yahweh has cursed.”
  ³⁰Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
  ³¹And all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.
 

³²Noah was 500 years old, and Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
 

¹And when man began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them
  ²the sons of God saw the daughters of man, that they were desirable, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.
  ³Yahweh said, “My spirit will not always remain in man, because he also is flesh; yet his days will be 120 years.”
  ⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, the famous men.
 

⁵Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
  ⁶And Yahweh regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
  ⁷Yahweh said, “I will blot out humankind that I have created from the face of the earth; humans, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them.”
  ⁸But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
 

⁹These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
  ¹⁰Noah was the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
 

¹¹The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
  ¹²God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, because all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
  ¹³God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
 

¹⁴Make an ark of gopher wood. You are to make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
  ¹⁵This is how you are to make it: The length of the ark will be 300 cubits,^a its width 50 cubits,^b and its height 30 cubits.^{c
  16}You are to make an opening for daylight on the ark, and have it end a cubit from the top. Put a door on the side of the ark. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
 

¹⁷I, even I, am bringing a flood of water on the earth to destroy from under the heavens all flesh in which is the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth will breathe its last.
  ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you. You are to come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
  ¹⁹You are to bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature—some of all flesh—to keep them alive with you. They are to be a male and a female.
  ²⁰From every kind of bird, from every kind of livestock, and from every kind of creeping thing of the ground—pairs of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
  ²¹Take with you some of all the food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you and for them.”
  ²²And Noah did this. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.
 

¹Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ark, for I have seen you to be righteous before me in this generation.
  ²You are to take seven pairs^a of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.
  ³Also of the birds of the heavens, seven pairs,^b a male and a female, to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth.
  ⁴In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. Every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the surface^c of the ground.”
  ⁵Noah did according to all that God commanded him.
 

⁶Noah was 600 years old when the flood came: waters upon the earth.
  ⁷Noah went into the ark with his sons, and his wife and his sons’ wives because of the waters of the flood.
  ⁸The clean animals, the animals that are not clean, the birds, and everything that crawls on the ground,
  ⁹came by pairs to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
  ¹⁰And after the seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
 

¹¹In 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 windows of heaven were opened.
  ¹²The rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
  ¹³On that same day Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ark,
  ¹⁴they and every kind of wild animal, every kind of livestock, every kind of crawling thing that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird: every chirping bird, every winged bird.
  ¹⁵And they went to Noah into the ark; pairs of all flesh in which there is the breath of life.
  ¹⁶Those that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, just as God had commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in.
 

¹⁷The flood was 40 days on the earth. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.
  ¹⁸The waters rose and greatly increased upon the earth, and the ark floated^d on the surface of the waters.
  ¹⁹The waters rose very very high upon the earth. And all the high mountains that were under all the heavens were covered.
  ²⁰The waters rose 15 cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
  ²¹All flesh that moved on the earth took its last breath—birds, livestock, animals, every swarming thing that swarms on the earth, and all humankind—
  ²²all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life of all that was on the dry land died.
  ²³Every living thing that was on the face^e of the ground was blotted out, from humankind, to livestock, to creeping things, to birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah remained, and those who were with him in the ark.
  ²⁴The waters rose over the earth 150 days.
 

¹Then God remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters subsided.
  ²The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed and the rain from the heavens was held back.
  ³The waters returned from off the earth, advancing and returning. At the end of 150 days the waters began to recede.
  ⁴And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
 

⁵The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
  ⁶And at the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made
  ⁷and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.
  ⁸Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had decreased from the surface of the ground;
  ⁹but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were still on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand and took her and brought her to him into the ark.
  ¹⁰So he waited another seven days and sent the dove out of the ark again.
  ¹¹The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth.
  ¹²Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and she did not return to him any more.
  ¹³And in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters began to dry up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground had begun to dry up.
  ¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was completely dry.
 

¹⁵Then God spoke to Noah, saying,
  ¹⁶“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
  ¹⁷Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—including birds, livestock and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may increase abundantly^a on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
  ¹⁸So Noah went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives with him.
  ¹⁹Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.
 

²⁰Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
  ²¹Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma, and Yahweh said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, because the imagination of people’s hearts is evil from their youth, nor will I ever again strike down every living thing as I have done.
  ²²While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
 

¹God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
  ²The fear of you and the dread of you will come upon every animal of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens. Everything which moves on the ground and all the fish of the sea are given into your hand.
  ³Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As with the green plants, I have now given everything to you.
  ⁴But flesh with its life, its blood, you are not to eat.
  ⁵Surely I will require a reckoning for your lifeblood—from the hand of every animal I will require it, and from the hand of every man. From the hand of a brother human I will require a reckoning for the life of a human.
  ⁶“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood is to be shed, for God made man in his own image.
 

⁷Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth and multiply on it.”
 

⁸God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
  ⁹“And I, behold, I now establish my covenant with you and with your seed^a after you,
  ¹⁰and with every living soul that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark; every animal of the earth.
  ¹¹I will establish my covenant with you; all flesh will not be cut off again by the waters of a flood, nor will there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
 

¹²God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for all generations to come:
  ¹³I set my bow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
  ¹⁴And when I cloud the earth with clouds and the bow is seen in the clouds,
  ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh, and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
  ¹⁶When the bow is in the cloud, I will look at it, remembering the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul of all flesh that is on the earth.”
  ¹⁷Then God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
 

¹⁸The sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth (Ham is the father of Canaan).
  ¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth spread out.
 

²⁰Noah began to be a man of the soil, and planted a vineyard.
  ²¹He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered inside his tent.
  ²²Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
  ²³But Shem and Japheth took a cloak and laid it on both their shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
 

²⁴And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him.
  ²⁵He said, “Cursed be Canaan; he will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”
  ²⁶And he said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Canaan will be his servant.
  ²⁷God will enlarge Japheth. He will dwell in the tents of Shem. Canaan will be his servant.”
 

²⁸Noah lived 350 years after the flood.
  ²⁹So all the days of Noah were 950 years, and then he died.
 

¹Now these are the descendants of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.
 

²The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
  ³The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
  ⁴The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
  ⁵From these the coastlands^a of the nations were separated into their lands, each according to its own tongue, according to their clans within their nations.
 

⁶The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
  ⁷The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
 

⁸Cush fathered Nimrod. He was the first to be a mighty one in the earth.
  ⁹He was a mighty hunter before^b Yahweh. That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh.”
  ¹⁰The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
  ¹¹Out of that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,
  ¹²and built Resen between Nineveh and Calah (which is the great city).
 

¹³Mizraim fathered the Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
  ¹⁴Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came out), and Caphtorim.
 

¹⁵Canaan fathered Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,
  ¹⁶the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,
  ¹⁷the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,
  ¹⁸the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward, the clans of the Canaanites were spread out.
  ¹⁹The territory of the Canaanites was from Sidon going in the direction of Gerar to Gaza; then going in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, to Lasha.
 

²⁰These are the sons of Ham according to their clans, according to their tongues, in their lands, according to their nations.
 

²¹To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, to him also were sons born.
  ²²The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
 

²³The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
 

²⁴Arpachshad fathered Shelah. Shelah fathered Eber.
  ²⁵To 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.
  ²⁶Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
  ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
  ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
  ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
  ³⁰Their dwelling was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east.
 

³¹These are the sons of Shem, according to their clans, according to their tongues, in their lands, according to their nations.
 

³²These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations. From these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.
 

¹The whole earth had one language and one set of words.
  ²And as they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they settled there.
  ³They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them with fire.” They had brick for stone, and they had bitumen for mortar.
  ⁴They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens, and let’s make ourselves a name, lest we become spread out over the face of the whole earth.”
 

⁵And Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the children of men built.
  ⁶Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people and they have all one language, and this is what they are beginning to do. Now all the things that they intend to do will not be withheld from them.
  ⁷Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they do not understand each other’s language.”
  ⁸So Yahweh spread them out from there over the face of the whole earth. So they stopped building the city.
  ⁹Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, and from there Yahweh spread them out over the face of the whole earth.
 

¹⁰These are the descendants of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.
  ¹¹Shem lived 500 years after he fathered Arpachshad and fathered sons and daughters.
 

¹²Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah.
  ¹³Arpachshad lived 403 years after he fathered Shelah and he fathered sons and daughters.
 

¹⁴Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber;
  ¹⁵and Shelah lived 403 years after he fathered Eber and fathered sons and daughters.
 

¹⁶Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg.
  ¹⁷Eber lived 430 years after he fathered Peleg and fathered sons and daughters.
 

¹⁸Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu.
  ¹⁹Peleg lived 209 years after he fathered Reu and fathered sons and daughters.
 

²⁰Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug.
  ²¹Reu lived 207 years after he fathered Serug and fathered sons and daughters.
 

²²Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor.
  ²³Serug lived 200 years after he fathered Nahor and fathered sons and daughters.
 

²⁴Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah.
  ²⁵Nahor lived 119 years after he fathered Terah and fathered sons and daughters.
 

²⁶Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
 

²⁷Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran fathered Lot.
  ²⁸Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.
  ²⁹Abram 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 also was the father of Iscah.
  ³⁰Sarai was barren; she had no child.
 

³¹Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his grandson,^a and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, but they went as far as Haran and settled there.
  ³²The days of Terah were 205 years. Terah died in Haran.
 

¹Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you.
  ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
  ³And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who treats you with contempt I will curse, and all of the clans of the earth will be blessed by you.”
 

⁴So Abram went just as Yahweh had told him to, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.
  ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai, and his nephew^a Lot, along with all their possessions that they had gained and the people^b whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
  ⁶Abram passed through the land to the Place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
  ⁷And Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your seed.” So he built an altar there to Yahweh, who appeared to him.
  ⁸From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and called on the name of Yahweh.
  ⁹Abram traveled, going on by stages toward the Negev.
 

¹⁰Then there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine was severe in the land.
  ¹¹And when he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman.
  ¹²So, when the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ and they will kill me, but they will keep you alive.
  ¹³Please say that you are my sister so that it will be well with me for your sake, and so that my soul will live because of you.”
  ¹⁴And when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.
  ¹⁵The officials of Pharaoh saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
  ¹⁶And he treated Abram well for her sake, so that Abram^c came to have sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male slaves, female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.
 

¹⁷But Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
  ¹⁸Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she is your wife?
  ¹⁹Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? So now, here is your wife! Take her and go!”
 

²⁰So Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.
 

¹So Abram went up out of Egypt, he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negev.
  ²Abram was very wealthy in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
  ³He went on, making and breaking camp from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the first, between Bethel and Ai,
  ⁴to the place of the altar that he had made there earlier. And Abram called on the name of Yahweh there.
 

⁵Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.
  ⁶The land was not able to support them while they were living together, because they had so many possessions that they could not live together,
  ⁷and there were quarrels between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (The Canaanite and the Perizzite were living in the land at that time).
 

⁸So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between me and you and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, because we are relatives.
  ⁹Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right, or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
 

¹⁰Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that all of it was well-watered, as you go toward Zoar, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt (this was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah).
  ¹¹So Lot chose the plain of the Jordan for himself and Lot traveled east. So they separated from each other,
  ¹²and Abram lived in the land of Canaan and Lot lived among the cities of the plain and moved his tent near Sodom.
  ¹³(But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against Yahweh).
 

¹⁴After Lot had separated from him, Yahweh said to Abram, “Now, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are to the north and south and east and west,
  ¹⁵for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your seed forever.
  ¹⁶I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your seed could also be counted.
  ¹⁷Get up. Walk through the land, through its length and its width, because I will give it to you.”
 

¹⁸And Abram moved his tent and went and lived by the oaks of Mamre that are in Hebron, and he built an altar to Yahweh there.
 

¹Now in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,
  ²they made war with Bera king of Sodom and Birsha king of Gomorrah and Shinab king of Admah and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).
  ³All these joined together in the Plain of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
  ⁴They served Chedorlaomer for 12 years, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
  ⁵In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer came, and the kings who were with him, and struck down the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
  ⁶and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran, which is by the desert.
  ⁷Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and struck down all the territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that lived in Hazazon-tamar.
 

⁸The king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they lined up in the Plain of Siddim for battle against them;
  ⁹against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings against the five.
  ¹⁰Now the Plain of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some people hid themselves in them,^a and the rest of them fled to the hill country.
  ¹¹They took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went away.
  ¹²They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his possessions, and went away.
 

¹³Then someone who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner; and these were allies of Abram.
  ¹⁴When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, 318, and pursued them as far as Dan.
  ¹⁵He split up his forces against them at night, he and his servants, and struck them down and pursued them to Hobah, which is north^b of Damascus.
  ¹⁶He brought back all the possessions, and he also brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, and also the women and the people.
 

¹⁷Then 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).
  ¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine, and he was a priest of God Most High.
  ¹⁹He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, creator of heaven and earth;
  ²⁰and blessed be God Most High, who has given your enemies into your hand.” And Abram gave him a tenth of all.
 

²¹And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, and take the possessions for yourself.”
 

²²Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand and sworn to Yahweh, God Most High, creator of heaven and earth,
  ²³that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, so that you cannot say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
  ²⁴Nothing for myself! But what the young men have eaten and the share of the spoil of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, they must get their share.”
 

¹After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward is exceedingly great.”
 

²But Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I continue to be^a childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”
  ³Abram said, “Behold, you have given no seed to me, and behold, a member of my household^b is my heir.”
 

⁴But behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.”
  ⁵Yahweh brought him outside and said, “Look now toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your seed will be.”
 

⁶And he believed^c Yahweh, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
 

⁷He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to possess it.”^d
 

⁸And he said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will possess it?”
 

⁹So he said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
 

¹⁰So he brought him all of these and cut them down the middle and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not divide the birds.
  ¹¹And the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
  ¹²When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, terror and a great darkness fell on him.
 

¹³And he said to Abram, “Know, yes, know that your offspring will live as sojourners in a land that is not theirs (and will serve them and they will afflict them) 400 years.
  ¹⁴But I will judge that nation whom they will serve, and in the end they will come out with great wealth.
  ¹⁵But you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age.
  ¹⁶In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
 

¹⁷And when the sun went down and it became dark, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces.
  ¹⁸On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
  ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
  ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
  ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
 

¹Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him any children. Now she had a female slave, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar.
  ²So Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, Yahweh has prevented me from bearing. Go in to^a my slave. Perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
  ³So after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave, and gave her to Abram her husband as his wife.
  ⁴He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became insignificant in her eyes.
  ⁵Sarai said to Abram, “This abuse is because of you! I gave my slave into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became insignificant in her eyes. May Yahweh judge between me and you.”
 

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your slave is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, so she ran away from her.
 

⁷The angel of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the desert; by the spring on the road to Shur.
  ⁸He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where did you come from and where are you going?” So she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”
 

⁹Then the angel of Yahweh said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit yourself to the harsh treatment under her hands.”
  ¹⁰The angel of Yahweh said to her, “I will make your seed many, yes, many, so that they will not be able to be counted because of the multitude.”
 

¹¹The angel of Yahweh said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son, and you are to call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard and paid attention to your affliction.
  ¹²He will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against every man and every man’s hand will be against him. He will live nearby all of his brothers.”
 

¹³She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees me.” For she said, “Here I have seen the one who sees me!”
  ¹⁴Therefore the well was called, “Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
 

¹⁵So Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
  ¹⁶And Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
 

¹When Abram was 99 years old Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty.^a Walk before me and be blameless.
  ²I will make my covenant between me and you, and will increase you exceedingly exceedingly much.
 

³Abram fell on his face, and God spoke to him, saying,
  ⁴“As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
  ⁵No longer will your name be called Abram,^b but your name will be Abraham,^c for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
  ⁶I will make you exceedingly exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations from you, and kings will come out from you.
  ⁷I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your seed after you.
  ⁸I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings—all the land of Canaan—as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
 

⁹And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you are to keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.
  ¹⁰This is my covenant between me and you and your seed after you that you must keep: every male among you is to be circumcised.
  ¹¹You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
  ¹²He who is eight days old among you must be circumcised, every male throughout your generations; including a slave who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your seed.
  ¹³He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, yes, circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh as a permanent covenant.
  ¹⁴The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person^d will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
 

¹⁵And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are not to call her name Sarai, for her name will be Sarah.
  ¹⁶I will bless her, and also I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.”
 

¹⁷Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is 100 years old? Will Sarah, who is 90 years old, give birth?”
  ¹⁸Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
 

¹⁹God said, “Yes, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you are to call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.
  ²⁰And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will exceedingly exceedingly multiply him. He will become the father of 12 rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
  ²¹But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
  ²²When he finished talking with him, God departed from Abraham.
 

²³Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all the slaves who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of the house of Abraham, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on the same day, just as God had spoken to him.
  ²⁴Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
  ²⁵And Ishmael, his son, was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
  ²⁶On the same day both Abraham and Ishmael his son were circumcised,
  ²⁷and also all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
 

¹And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.
  ²And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing nearby him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and he bowed down to the ground
  ³and said, “Lord, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please do not just pass your servant by.
  ⁴But let a little water be brought, then wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
  ⁵I will get a piece of bread so you can refresh yourselves, then pass on by. For that is why you are passing by your servant.” They said, “Very well, do as you have said.”
 

⁶Then Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three measures^a of fine flour! Knead it and make loaves.”
  ⁷Abraham ran to the herd and took a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.
  ⁸And he took curds, and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
 

⁹They asked him, “Where is Sarah, your wife?” He said, “Here, in the tent.”
 

¹⁰He said, “I will return, yes, return to you at this time next year. And, behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him.
 

¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in days. The way of women had ceased to be for Sarah.
  ¹²So Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my lord is also old, will I have this pleasure?”
 

¹³But Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really give birth to a child now that I am old?’
  ¹⁴Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you—at this time next year—and Sarah will have a son.”
 

¹⁵Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid. But he said, “No. Indeed, you laughed.”
 

¹⁶The men got up from there and looked down toward Sodom. Abraham was walking with them to send them on their way.
  ¹⁷Yahweh said, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
  ¹⁸since Abraham will become, yes, become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by him?
  ¹⁹For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing what is right and just, so that Yahweh can bring on Abraham what he has spoken concerning him.”
  ²⁰And Yahweh said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so very grievous,
  ²¹that I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to reports that have come to me. And if not, I will know.”
 

²²The men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before Yahweh.
  ²³And Abraham drew near and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
  ²⁴What if there are 50 righteous inside the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it?
  ²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”
 

²⁶And Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom 50 righteous inside the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
 

²⁷And Abraham answered and said, “Behold now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes.
  ²⁸What if of the 50 righteous, five are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city because of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.”
 

²⁹And he spoke to him again, and said, “What if 40 are found there?” And he said, “I will not do it for the sake of the 40.”
 

³⁰Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are 30 found there?” He said, “I will not do it if I find 30 there.”
 

³¹He said, “Behold now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. What if 20 are found there?” And he said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the 20.”
 

³²And he said, “Oh let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
  ³³And when he finished speaking with Abraham, Yahweh departed, and Abraham returned to his place.
 

¹And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them and rose up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the earth.
  ²And he said, “Behold now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, spend the night and wash your feet. Then you can rise up early and go on your way.” But they said, “No, rather we will spend the night in the city square.”
  ³But he pressed them strongly, so they turned aside with him and went into his house. He made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
 

⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.
  ⁵They called out to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we can know them sexually.”
 

⁶But Lot went out to them, to the entrance, and shut the door behind him.
  ⁷And he said, “Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
  ⁸Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever is good in your eyes. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
 

⁹But they said, “Stand aside!” Then they said, “This one came as a sojourner and he is behaving like a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” And they pressed strongly against the man, against Lot, and drew near to break down the door.
  ¹⁰But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot to them, into the house, and shut the door.
  ¹¹They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both young and old,^a so that they became weary of trying to find the door.
 

¹²Then the men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and all that you have in the city, bring them out of this place.
  ¹³For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against them is so great before the face of Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
 

¹⁴So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were takers of his daughters in marriage, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh is about to destroy the city.” But in the eyes of his sons-in-law he was as one who was joking.
 

¹⁵And when the dawn arose, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away because of the iniquity of the city!”
  ¹⁶But he hesitated. So the men grabbed his hand, and his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, because Yahweh was merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city.
 

¹⁷And when they had brought them out, one of them said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the hill country or you will be swept away!”
 

¹⁸But Lot said to them, “Please, no, Lord.
  ¹⁹Behold, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown me great faithfulness by saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hill country, lest this disaster overtake me and I die.
  ²⁰Look, this city is close enough to escape to, and it is small. Let me escape there—isn’t it small?—and my soul will live.”
 

²¹And he said to him, “Behold, I will grant you this request too, and I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
  ²²Be quick! Escape to there!—for I cannot do anything until you get there.” That is why the name of the city was called Zoar.
 

²³The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
  ²⁴Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire—it was from Yahweh out of heaven.
  ²⁵And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the vegetation of the ground.
  ²⁶But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
 

²⁷And Abraham started early in the morning to go to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
  ²⁸He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain. And he looked, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
  ²⁹And when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities where Lot had settled.
 

³⁰And Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hill country, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
  ³¹Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come into us as is the way of all the earth.
  ³²Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and let’s lie with him, so that we can keep seed alive through our father.”
  ³³So they made their father drink wine that night; and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. But he didn’t know when she lay down nor when she arose.
 

³⁴And on the next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, last night I lay with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. Then you go in and lie with him so that we can keep seed alive through our father.”
  ³⁵So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, but he didn’t know when she lay down nor when she arose.
 

³⁶Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
  ³⁷The firstborn gave birth to a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.
  ³⁸The younger also gave birth to a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon of today.
 

¹Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the Negev and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur. Then, while sojourning at Gerar,
  ²Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
 

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
 

⁴Now Abimelech had not come near her, so he said, “Lord, will you kill a nation even though it is righteous?
  ⁵Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister?’ And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and with clean hands I have done this.”
 

⁶God said to him in the dream, “Indeed, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.
  ⁷But now, return the man’s wife. Indeed, he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will die, yes, die; you and all who are yours.”
 

⁸So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and spoke all these things in their ears, and the men were greatly frightened.
 

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done things to me that should not be done!”
  ¹⁰And Abimelech went on asking Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?”
 

¹¹And Abraham said, “Because I said to myself, ‘Surely there is no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.
  ¹²And also, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.
  ¹³And when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her, “This is the faithfulness that you can show to me. Everywhere that we go, say about me, ‘He is my brother.’”
 

¹⁴Then Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male slaves and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.
  ¹⁵Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you. Wherever it seems good in your eyes, dwell there.”
  ¹⁶And to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your ‘brother’ 1,000 pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to everyone who is with you. In front of everyone you are vindicated.”
 

¹⁷Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female slaves so that they gave birth,
  ¹⁸for Yahweh had closed, yes, closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
 

¹Now Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah what he had spoken.
  ²And Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the set time that God had told him.
  ³And Abraham called his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac.
  ⁴Abraham circumcised his son Isaac at eight days old, as God had commanded him.
  ⁵Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
 

⁶And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
  ⁷And she said, “Who would have declared to Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? Yet I have given birth to a son in his old age!”
 

⁸The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
  ⁹But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
  ¹⁰So she said to Abraham, “Send away this slave woman and her son! For the son of this slave woman will not be heir with my son Isaac.”
 

¹¹But the matter was very distressing in Abraham’s eyes, because of his son.
  ¹²But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be distressing in your eyes because of the boy and because of your slave woman. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, because it is through Isaac that your seed will be called.
  ¹³And I will also make a nation of the son of the slave woman, because he is your seed.”
 

¹⁴Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a skin-bottle of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
  ¹⁵When the water in the skin was used up, she placed the child under one of the shrubs.
  ¹⁶Then she went and sat down by herself opposite him at a distance; about a bow shot away. For she said, “Do not let me see the death of the child.” She sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept.
 

¹⁷But God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy in the place where he is.
  ¹⁸Get up, lift up the boy and hold him tightly with your hand. For I will make him into a great nation.”
  ¹⁹And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went, filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
  ²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
  ²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
 

²²At that time Abimelech, and Phicol the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in everything that you do.
  ²³So now swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me nor with my son nor with my son’s son. Rather, according to the loyalty that I have shown you, you are to show to me and the land in which you have sojourned.”
 

²⁴And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
  ²⁵But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well that Abimelech’s servants had seized by force.
 

²⁶But Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, nor have I heard about it until today.”
 

²⁷Then Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant.
  ²⁸Then Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
  ²⁹Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart by themselves?”
 

³⁰He said, “Take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, so that it will be a witness for me that I have dug this well.”
  ³¹So he called that place Beer-sheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.
  ³²So they cut a covenant at Beer-sheba. Then Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
 

³³And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.
  ³⁴Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days.
 

¹And after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
 

²Then he said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you of.”
 

³So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went to the place that God had told him of.
  ⁴On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place in the distance.
  ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go over there and bow down in worship, then come back to you.”
  ⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his own hand the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together.
 

⁷And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
 

⁸And Abraham said, “God will himself see to providing the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together.
 

⁹And they came to the place that God had told him of, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on the wood.
  ¹⁰Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
 

¹¹But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
 

¹²He said, “Do not reach out your hand toward the boy; do not do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
  ¹³Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son.
  ¹⁴So Abraham called the name of that place “Yahweh Will Provide.” As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain it will be provided.”
 

¹⁵And the angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time out of heaven
  ¹⁶and said, “I have sworn by myself,” says Yahweh, “because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son,
  ¹⁷that I will bless, yes, bless you, and I will make your seed many, yes, many, like the stars of the heavens and like the sand that is on the seashore. And your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.
  ¹⁸By your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
 

¹⁹Then Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.
 

²⁰And after these things it was told to Abraham, saying, “Behold, Milcah has also borne sons to your brother Nahor:
  ²¹Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel (the father of Aram),
  ²²and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.”
  ²³Bethuel fathered Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
  ²⁴And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.
 

¹Now Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of Sarah’s life.
  ²Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
 

³And Abraham rose up from before his dead wife and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying,
  ⁴“I am a sojourner and a foreigner living among you. Give me property for a tomb^a among you, so that I may bury my dead from before me.”
 

⁵The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,
  ⁶“Hear us, my lord. You are a mighty ruler^b among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. No man among us will withhold from you his tomb for burying your dead.”
 

⁷Then Abraham rose up and bowed down to the people of the land, that is, to the sons of Heth.
  ⁸And he spoke with them, saying, “If you are willing to allow me to bury my dead from before me, hear me and intercede with Ephron the son of Zohar for me,
  ⁹that he give me the cave of Machpelah that he owns, which is at the edge of his field. For the full price in silver let him give it to me in your presence as a property for a burying place.”
 

¹⁰Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, that is, of all those who come to the gate of his city, saying,
  ¹¹“No, my lord, hear me! I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it. Before the eyes of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
 

¹²And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.
  ¹³And he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “Hear me, if you will. I will give the price of the field. Accept it from me, and I will bury my dead there.”
 

¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
  ¹⁵“My lord, hear me. A piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver^c—what is that between me and you? Bury your dead.”
  ¹⁶And Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ rate.
 

¹⁷So the field of Ephron that was at Machpelah, which was to the east^d of Mamre, the field and the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, that were within its boundaries, were deeded over
  ¹⁸to Abraham as a possession before the eyes of the sons of Heth, before all those who come to the gate of his city.
  ¹⁹And after this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre^e (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
  ²⁰The field and the cave that is in it were deeded over from the sons of Heth to Abraham as property for a burying place.
 

¹Now Abraham was old and well advanced in days, and Yahweh had blessed Abraham in all things.
  ²And Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his house who was in charge of all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh,
  ³and I will have you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,
  ⁴but you are to go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
 

⁵The servant said to him, “What if the woman is not willing to follow me to this land? Should I then take your son back to the land that you came out from?”
 

⁶But Abraham said to him, “Make sure that you don’t take my son back there again!
  ⁷Yahweh, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth,^a and who has spoken to me, and who has sworn to me, saying, ‘I will give this land to your seed,’ he himself will send his angel before you so that you can take a wife for my son from there.
  ⁸But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be clear from this oath of mine. Only you must not take my son back there.”
  ⁹So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his lord, and swore to him concerning this matter.
 

¹⁰Then the servant took ten camels of his lord’s camels and departed, having all kinds of good things of his lord’s with him. He arose and went to Aram-naharaim to the city of Nahor.
  ¹¹And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the water well at evening time, the time when the women go out to draw water.
 

¹²And he said, “O Yahweh, the God of my lord Abraham, please let it happen for me this day, and deal faithfully with my lord Abraham.
  ¹³Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
  ¹⁴Let it come to pass that the girl to whom I will say, ‘Please let down your water jug that I may drink,’ and she responds, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink,’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown faithfulness to my lord.”
 

¹⁵And before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jug on her shoulder.
  ¹⁶The girl was very beautiful in appearance, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the spring and filled her water jug, and came up.
  ¹⁷And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a sip, a little water from your water jug.”
 

¹⁸And she said, “Drink, my lord.” She quickly let down her water jug to her hand and gave him a drink.
  ¹⁹And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will also draw water for your camels until they have finished drinking.”
  ²⁰And she quickly emptied her water jug into the watering-trough and ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
  ²¹The man kept watching her, remaining silent, to know if Yahweh had made his journey successful or not.
 

²²And when the camels finished drinking, the man took a gold nose ring of half a shekel weight,^b and two bracelets weighing ten shekels^c of gold for her wrists,
  ²³and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there a place in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”
 

²⁴And she said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.”
  ²⁵And she said to him, “Yes, there is straw, and yes, plenty of feed, and yes, a place to spend the night.”
 

²⁶The man kneeled down and worshiped^d Yahweh.
  ²⁷And he said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my lord Abraham, who has not forsaken his covenant faithfulness and his truthfulness toward my lord. As for me, Yahweh has guided me on the way to the house of my lord’s relatives.”
 

²⁸Then the girl ran and told her mother’s house about these things.
  ²⁹Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man, to the spring.
  ³⁰And when he saw the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, “This is what the man said to me,” he went to the man. And behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring.
 

³¹And he said, “Come, O blessed of Yahweh! Why are you standing outside? For I have prepared the house, and a place for the camels.”
  ³²So the man came into the house. And Laban unloaded the camels, and he gave straw and feed for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
 

³³But when food was set before him to eat, he said, “I will not eat until I have stated my business.” And he said, “Speak.”
 

³⁴So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant.
  ³⁵Yahweh has blessed my lord abundantly, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and male slaves and female slaves and camels and donkeys.
  ³⁶Sarah, my lord’s wife, bore a son to my lord when she was old, and he has given all that he has to him.
  ³⁷My lord made me swear, saying, ‘You are not to take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,
  ³⁸but you are to go to my father’s house and to my clan, and take a wife for my son.’
  ³⁹I said to my lord, ‘What if the woman will not follow me?’
  ⁴⁰And he said to me, ‘Yahweh, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success so that you will take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house.
  ⁴¹Then will you be free from my oath. Or, when you come to my clan, if they do not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.’
 

⁴²“I came today to the spring and said, ‘O Yahweh, the God of my lord Abraham, if now you are making the journey on which I am going successful,
  ⁴³behold, as I am standing by this spring of water, let the young woman who comes out to draw water, to whom I say, “Please give me a little water to drink from your jug,”
  ⁴⁴and she says to me, “Drink, and I will also draw for your camels,”—let her be the woman whom Yahweh has appointed to be for my lord’s son.’
 

⁴⁵“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her jug on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
  ⁴⁶And she quickly let down her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will also give water to your camels.’ So I drank, and she also gave water to the camels.
  ⁴⁷Then I asked her and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists,
  ⁴⁸and I kneeled down and worshiped Yahweh and blessed Yahweh, the God of my lord Abraham, who had led me in the true way to take my lord’s brother’s daughter for his son.
  ⁴⁹Now if you will act with covenant faithfulness and truthfulness towards my lord, tell me. If not, tell me, so that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”
 

⁵⁰Then Laban and Bethuel answered, “The thing has come from Yahweh. We cannot speak to you bad or good.
  ⁵¹Behold, Rebekah is before you. Take her and go, and let her be the wife for your lord’s son, as Yahweh has spoken.”
 

⁵²And when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed down on the ground before Yahweh.
  ⁵³Then the servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave valuable presents to her brother and her mother.
 

⁵⁴He and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. They rose up in the morning and he said, “Send me away to my lord.”
 

⁵⁵But her brother and her mother said, “Let the young girl stay with us a few days, at least ten. After that she will go.”
 

⁵⁶But he said to them, “Do not delay me, for Yahweh has made my journey successful. Send me away that I may go to my lord.”
 

⁵⁷And they said, “We will call the young girl and ask for an answer from her own mouth.”
 

⁵⁸Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.”
  ⁵⁹So they sent away Rebekah their sister with the one who had nursed and raised her, and Abraham’s servant and his men.
 

⁶⁰They blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your seed possess the gate of those who hate him.”
 

⁶¹Rebekah arose with her young women, and they rode on the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and went away.
 

⁶²Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the land of the Negev.
  ⁶³Isaac went out for a stroll in the field in the evening. He lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming.
  ⁶⁴And Rebekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac. So she got down from the camel.
  ⁶⁵She said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my lord.” So she took her veil and covered herself.
  ⁶⁶And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.
 

⁶⁷Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
 

¹And Abraham had taken another wife, and her name was Keturah.
  ²And she bore him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah.
  ³And Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurites Letushites, and Leummites.
  ⁴The sons of Midian: Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
  ⁵Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac,
  ⁶but to the sons of the concubines whom Abraham had, he gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, to the land of the east.
 

⁷Now these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life that he lived: 175 years.
  ⁸Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, old and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
  ⁹And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, that is before Mamre,
  ¹⁰the field that Abraham purchased from the children of Heth. Abraham was buried there with Sarah his wife.
  ¹¹And after the death of Abraham God blessed Isaac his son. Isaac lived by Beer Lahai Roi.
 

¹²Now these are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave girl, bore to Abraham.
  ¹³And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
  ¹⁴and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
  ¹⁵and Hadad, and Tema, and Jetur, and Naphish, and Kedemah.
  ¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve rulers according to their tribal groups.
  ¹⁷These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. And he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
  ¹⁸And he settled from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And he lived near all his brothers.
 

¹⁹Now these are the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac.
  ²⁰Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.
  ²¹And Isaac prayed to Yahweh for his wife because she was barren, and Yahweh answered his prayer and Rebekah his wife conceived.
  ²²But the children struggled together inside her. She said, “If it is so, why am I this way?” And she went to inquire of Yahweh.
  ²³And Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from your belly will be divided. One people will be stronger than the other people; and the elder will serve the younger.”
 

²⁴And her days to give birth were fulfilled, and behold, there were twins in her womb.
  ²⁵The first came out reddish with hair all over him like a hairy cloak. They named him “Esau.”
  ²⁶And after that his brother came out, and his hand was grasping Esau’s heel, so he was named “Jacob.” Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them.
 

²⁷The boys grew up. Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.
  ²⁸Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for his wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
 

²⁹Once when Jacob was boiling some boiled stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted and hungry.
  ³⁰And Esau said to Jacob, “Please! Let me gulp down some of that red stuff, that red stuff, because I am exhausted and hungry. So his name was called Edom.
 

³¹But Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.”
 

³²And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die, so of what use is a birthright to me?”
 

³³Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
  ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and boiled lentils. And he ate, drank, got up, and went off; so Esau showed contempt for his birthright.
 

¹Now there was a famine in the land besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
  ²And Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down into Egypt. Live in the land where I will tell you.
  ³Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.
  ⁴I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and will give to your seed all these lands. And by your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
  ⁵because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
  ⁶So Isaac lived in Gerar.
 

⁷And the men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “My wife.” He thought, “Otherwise the men of this place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful in appearance.”
  ⁸But when he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.
 

⁹So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife! So how could you say, ‘She is my sister?’” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Otherwise I might die because of her.’”
 

¹⁰Then Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? Before long one of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
  ¹¹And Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will be put to death, yes, death.”
 

¹²Isaac sowed seed in that land, and reaped in that same year a hundredfold, and Yahweh blessed him.
  ¹³And the man became great, becoming greater and greater until he became very great.
  ¹⁴And he owned flocks, herds, and a large group of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
  ¹⁵Now all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up and filled with dirt.
  ¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much stronger than we are.”
 

¹⁷So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar and lived there.
  ¹⁸Then Isaac reopened the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. And he called their names by the names that his father had called them.
  ¹⁹Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of running water there.^{a
  20}The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” He called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him.
  ²¹So they dug another well, but they argued over that well also. So he called its name Sitnah.
  ²²Then he left that place and dug another well but they did not argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, “Now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
 

²³And he went up from there to Beer-sheba.
  ²⁴Yahweh appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
 

²⁵So he built an altar there and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s servants also dug a well there.
 

²⁶Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his counselor and Phicol the commander of his army.
  ²⁷Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
 

²⁸They said, “We have seen, yes, seen that Yahweh was with you. So we said, Let there be an oath between us, between us and you, and let us cut a covenant with you,
  ²⁹so that you will do us no harm, because we have not touched you and because we have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of Yahweh.”
 

³⁰So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
  ³¹And they rose up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
  ³²On the same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
  ³³He called it Shibah. So the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.
 

³⁴When Esau was 40 years old he took as wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite,
  ³⁵and they were a source of bitterness^b to Isaac and to Rebekah.
 

¹And when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son?” He said to him, “Here I am.”
 

²He said, “See now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.
  ³So now, take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt wild game for me,
  ⁴and make me tasty food, such as I love, and bring it to me in order that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”
 

⁵Now Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for wild game and to bring it.
  ⁶Then Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,
  ⁷‘Bring me wild game and make me tasty food, so that I can eat and bless you in the presence of Yahweh before my death.’
  ⁸So now, my son, obey my voice in that which I command you.
  ⁹Go now to the flock and get me two good young goats from there. I will make from them tasty food for your father, such as he loves.
  ¹⁰You bring it to your father to eat, in order that he will bless you before his death.”
 

¹¹But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
  ¹²What if my father feels me? In his eyes I will be a deceiver and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
 

¹³But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”
 

¹⁴So he went, got them, and brought them to his mother. And his mother made tasty food, such as his father loved.
  ¹⁵Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, that were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
  ¹⁶She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth of his neck.
  ¹⁷Then she gave the tasty food and the bread that she had made into the hand of her son Jacob.
 

¹⁸And he went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
 

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you told me. Please get up. Sit and eat of my wild game, in order that your soul may bless me.”
 

²⁰Isaac said to his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” He said, “Because Yahweh your God made it happen for me.”
 

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
 

²²So Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
  ²³(He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him).
  ²⁴Then He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”
 

²⁵And he said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s wild game that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.
 

²⁶His father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.”
  ²⁷So he went near and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said, “Look, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed.
  ²⁸May God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and new wine.
  ²⁹Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”
 

³⁰And as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had gone, yes, gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came from his hunting.
  ³¹He also had made tasty food, and he brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s wild game, in order that your soul may bless me.”
 

³²Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
 

³³Then Isaac trembled with an exceedingly great trembling and said, “Who was it then who hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate from all of it before you came, and have blessed him? Indeed, he will be blessed.”