Genesis 7-14

International Children’s Bible

The Flood Begins

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “I have seen that you are the best man among the people of this time. So you and your family go into the boat. ² Take with you seven pairs, each male with its female, of every kind of clean animal. And take one pair, each male with its female, of every kind of unclean animal. ³ Take seven pairs of all the birds of the sky, each male with its female. This will allow all these animals to continue living on the earth after the flood. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth. It will rain 40 days and 40 nights. I will destroy from the earth every living thing that I made.”

⁵ Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. ⁷ He and his wife and his sons and their wives went into the boat. They went in to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ The clean animals, the unclean animals, the birds and everything that crawls on the ground ⁹ came to Noah. They went into the boat in groups of two, male and female. This was just as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ Seven days later the flood started.

¹¹ Noah was now 600 years old. The flood started on the seventeenth day of the second month of that year. That day the underground springs split open. And the clouds in the sky poured out rain. ¹² The rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives went into the boat. ¹⁴ They had every kind of wild animal and tame animal. There was every kind of animal that crawls on the earth. Every kind of bird was there. ¹⁵ They all came to Noah in the boat in groups of two. There was every creature that had the breath of life. ¹⁶ One male and one female of every living thing came. It was just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

¹⁷ Water flooded the earth for 40 days. As the water rose, it lifted the boat off the ground. ¹⁸ The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on the water above the earth. ¹⁹ The water rose so much that even the highest mountains under the sky were covered by it. ²⁰ The water continued to rise until it was more than 20 feet above the mountains.

²¹ All living things that moved on the earth died. This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals and creatures that swarm on the earth. And all human beings died. ²² So everything on dry land died. This means everything that had the breath of life in its nose. ²³ So God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land. This was every man, animal, crawling thing and bird of the sky. All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat. ²⁴ And the waters continued to cover the earth for 150 days.

The Flood Ends

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and tame animals with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth. And the water went down. ² The underground springs stopped flowing. And the clouds in the sky stopped pouring down rain. ^3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water had gone down so much that the boat touched land again. It came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.^[a] This was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. ⁵ The water continued to go down. By the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.

⁶ Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. ⁷ He sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then Noah sent out a dove. This was to find out if the water had dried up from the ground. ⁹ The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth. So it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird. And he brought it back into the boat.

¹⁰ After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat. ¹¹ And that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry. ¹² Seven days later he sent the dove out again. But this time it did not come back.

¹³ Noah was now 601 years old. It was the first day of the first month of that year. The water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “You and your wife, your sons and their wives should go out of the boat. ¹⁷ Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones and let them grow in number.”

¹⁸ So Noah went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth and every bird went out of the boat. They left by families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and animals. And he burned them on the altar as offerings to God. ²¹ The Lord was pleased with these sacrifices. He said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil even when they are young. But I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.

The New Beginning

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have many children. Grow in number and fill the earth. ² Every animal on earth and every bird in the sky will respect and fear you. So will every animal that crawls on the ground and every fish in the sea respect and fear you. I have given them to you.

³ “Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants. And now I give you everything for food. ⁴ But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life. ⁵ I will demand your blood for your lives. That is, I will demand the life of any animal that kills a person. And I will demand the life of anyone who takes another person’s life.

⁷ “Noah, I want you and your family to have many children. Grow in number on the earth and become many.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and his sons, ⁹ “Now I am making my agreement with you and your people who will live after you. ¹⁰ And I also make it with every living thing that is with you. It is with the birds, the tame animals and the wild animals. It is with all that came out of the boat with you. I make my agreement with every living thing on earth. ¹¹ I make this agreement with you: I will never again destroy all living things by floodwaters. A flood will never again destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said, “I am making an agreement between me and you and every living creature that is with you. It will continue from now on. This is the sign: ¹³ I am putting my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of the agreement between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow appears in the clouds. ¹⁵ Then I will remember my agreement. It is between me and you and every living thing. Floodwaters will never again destroy all life on the earth. ¹⁶ When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. Then I will remember the agreement that continues forever. It is between me and every living thing on the earth.”

¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “That rainbow is a sign. It is the sign of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸ The sons of Noah came out of the boat with him. They were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three men were Noah’s sons. And all the people on earth came from these three sons.

²⁰ Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank wine made from his grapes. Then he became drunk and lay naked in his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, looked at his naked father. Ham told his brothers outside. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth got a coat and carried it on both their shoulders. They walked backwards into the tent and covered their father. They turned their faces away. In this way they did not see their father without clothes.

²⁴ Noah was sleeping because of the wine. Later he woke up. Then he learned what his youngest son, Ham, had done to him. ²⁵ So Noah said,

²⁶ Noah also said,

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹ He lived a total of 950 years. Then he died.

Nations Grow and Spread

10 This is the family history of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. After the flood these three men had sons.

Japheth’s Sons

² The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.

³ The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.

⁴ The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim^[b] and Rodanim. ⁵ Those who lived in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea came from these sons of Japheth. All the families grew and became different nations. Each nation had its own land and its own language.

Ham’s Sons

⁶ The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim,^[c] Put and Canaan.

⁷ The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca.

The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.

⁸ Cush also had a descendant named Nimrod. Nimrod became a very powerful man on earth. ⁹ He was a great hunter before the Lord. That is why people say someone is “like Nimrod, a great hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰ At first Nimrod’s kingdom covered Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in the land of Babylonia. ¹¹ From there he went to Assyria. There he built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir and Calah. ¹² He also built Resen, the great city between Nineveh and Calah.

¹³ Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, ¹⁴ Pathrusites, Casluhites and the people of Crete. (The Philistines came from the Casluhites.)

¹⁵ Canaan was the father of Sidon his first son and of Heth. ¹⁶ Canaan was also the father of the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, ¹⁷ Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, ¹⁸ Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. The families of the Canaanites scattered. ¹⁹ The land of the Canaanites reached from Sidon to Gerar as far as Gaza. And it reached to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

²⁰ All these people were the sons of Ham. All these families had their own languages, their own lands and their own nations.

Shem’s Sons

²¹ Shem, Japheth’s older brother, also had sons. One of his descendants was the father of all the sons of Eber.

²² The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.

²³ The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech.

²⁴ Arphaxad was the father of Shelah. Shelah was the father of Eber. ²⁵ Eber was the father of two sons. One son was named Peleg^[d] because the earth was divided during his life. Eber’s other son was named Joktan.

²⁶ Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these people were the sons of Joktan. ³⁰ These people lived in the area between Mesha and Sephar in the hill country in the East.

³¹ These are the people from the family of Shem. They are arranged by families, languages, countries and nations.

³² This is the list of the families from the sons of Noah. They are arranged according to their nations. From these families came all the nations who spread across the earth after the flood.

The Languages Confused

11 At this time the whole world spoke one language. Everyone used the same words. ² As people moved from the East, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia. They settled there to live.

³ They said to each other, “Let’s make bricks and bake them to make them hard.” So they used bricks instead of stones, and tar instead of mortar. ⁴ Then they said to each other, “Let’s build for ourselves a city and a tower. And let’s make the top of the tower reach high into the sky. We will become famous. If we do this, we will not be scattered over all the earth.”

⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. ⁶ The Lord said, “Now, these people are united. They all speak the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. They will be able to do anything they want. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language. Then they will not be able to understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth. And they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is where the Lord confused the language of the whole world. So the place is called Babel.^[e] So the Lord caused them to spread out from there over all the whole world.

The Story of Shem’s Family

¹⁰ This is the family history of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, his son Arphaxad was born. ¹¹ After that, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arphaxad was 35 years old, his son Shelah was born. ¹³ After that, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ When Shelah was 30 years old, his son Eber was born. ¹⁵ After that, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber was 34 years old, his son Peleg was born. ¹⁷ After that, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg was 30 years old, his son Reu was born. ¹⁹ After that, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu was 32 years old, his son Serug was born. ²¹ After that, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug was 30 years old, his son Nahor was born. ²³ After that, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ When Nahor was 29 years old, his son Terah was born. ²⁵ After that, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ After Terah was 70 years old, his sons Abram, Nahor and Haran were born.

The Story of Terah’s Family

²⁷ This is the family history of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. ²⁸ Haran died while his father, Terah, was still alive. This happened in Ur in Babylonia, where he was born. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai. Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran. Haran was the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai was not able to have children.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son) and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram’s wife). They moved out of Ur of Babylonia. They had planned to go to the land of Canaan. But when they reached the city of Haran, they settled there.

³² Terah lived to be 205 years old. Then he died in Haran.

God Calls Abram

12 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives and your father’s family. Go to the land I will show you.

⁴ So Abram left Haran as the Lord had told him. And Lot went with him. At this time Abram was 75 years old. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and everything they owned. They took all the servants they had gotten in Haran. They set out from Haran, planning to go to the land of Canaan. In time they arrived there.

⁶ Abram traveled through that land. He went as far as the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Canaanites were living in the land at that time. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram. The Lord said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸ Then Abram traveled from Shechem to the mountain east of Bethel. And he set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. There Abram built another altar to the Lord and worshiped him. ⁹ After this, he traveled on toward southern Canaan.

Abram Goes to Egypt

¹⁰ At this time there was not much food in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live because there was so little food. ¹¹ Just before they arrived in Egypt, Abram said to his wife Sarai, “I know you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This woman is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but let you live. ¹³ Tell them you are my sister. Then things will go well with me. And I may be allowed to live because of you.”

¹⁴ So Abram went into Egypt. The people of Egypt saw that Sarai was very beautiful. ¹⁵ Some of the Egyptian officers saw her also. They told the king of Egypt how beautiful she was. They took her to the king’s palace. ¹⁶ The king was kind to Abram because he thought Abram was Sarai’s brother. He gave Abram sheep, cattle and male and female donkeys. Abram also was given male and female servants and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord sent terrible diseases on the king and all the people in his house. This was because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So the king sent for Abram. The king said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I made her my wife. But now here is your wife. Take her and leave!” ²⁰ Then the king commanded his men to make Abram leave Egypt. So Abram and his wife left with everything they owned.

Abram and Lot Separate

13 So Abram, his wife and Lot left Egypt. They took everything they owned and traveled to southern Canaan. ² Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold.

³ He left southern Canaan and went back to Bethel. He went where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ It was the place where Abram had built an altar before. So he worshiped the Lord there.

⁵ During this time Lot was traveling with Abram. Lot also had many sheep, cattle and tents. ⁶ Abram and Lot had so many animals that the land could not support both of them together. ⁷ Abram’s herders and Lot’s herders began to argue. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at this time.

⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “There should be no arguing between you and me. Your herders and mine should not argue either. We are brothers. ⁹ We should separate. The whole land is there in front of you. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

¹⁰ Lot looked all around and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. It was like the Lord’s garden, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose to move east and live in the Jordan Valley. In this way Abram and Lot separated. ¹² Abram lived in the land of Canaan. But Lot lived among the cities in the Jordan Valley. He moved very near to Sodom. ¹³ Now the people of Sodom were very evil. They were always sinning against the Lord.

¹⁴ After Lot left, the Lord said to Abram, “Look all around you. Look north and south and east and west. ¹⁵ All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people. ¹⁷ Get up! Walk through all this land. I am now giving it to you.”

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the great trees of Mamre. This was at the city of Hebron. There he built an altar to the Lord.

Lot Is Captured

14 Now Amraphel was king of Babylonia. Arioch was king of Ellasar. Kedorlaomer was king of Elam. And Tidal was king of Goiim. ² All these kings went to war against several other kings: Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela. (Bela is also called Zoar.)

³ These kings who were attacked united their armies in the Valley of Siddim. (The Valley of Siddim is now the Dead Sea.) ⁴ These kings had served Kedorlaomer for 12 years. But in the thirteenth year, they all turned against him. ⁵ Then in the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings with him came and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim. They also defeated the Zuzites in Ham and the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim. ⁶ And they defeated the Horites in the mountains of Edom to El Paran. (El Paran is near the desert.) ⁷ Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh). They defeated all the Amalekites. They also defeated the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.

⁸ At that time the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela went out to fight in the Valley of Siddim. (Bela is called Zoar.) ⁹ They fought against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Babylonia, and Arioch king of Ellasar. So there were four kings fighting against five. ¹⁰ There were many tar pits in the Valley of Siddim. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their armies ran away. Some of the soldiers fell into the tar pits. But the others ran away to the mountains.

¹¹ Now Kedorlaomer and his armies took everything the people of Sodom and Gomorrah owned. They also took all their food. ¹² They took Lot, Abram’s nephew who was living in Sodom. The enemy also took everything he owned. Then they left. ¹³ One of the men who was not captured went to Abram, the Hebrew. He told Abram what had happened. At that time Abram was camped near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite. Mamre was a brother of Eshcol and a brother of Aner. And they had all made an agreement to help Abram.

Abram Rescues Lot

¹⁴ Abram learned that Lot had been captured. So he called out his 318 trained men who had been born in his camp. Abram led the men and chased the enemy all the way to the town of Dan. ¹⁵ That night he divided his men into groups. And they made a surprise attack against the enemy. They chased them all the way to Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶ Then Abram brought back everything the enemy had stolen. Abram brought back the women and the other people. And he also brought back Lot and everything Lot owned.

¹⁷ After defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, Abram went home. As Abram was returning, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh. (That is now called King’s Valley.)

¹⁸ Melchizedek king of Salem also went to meet Abram. Melchizedek was a priest for God Most High. He brought bread and wine. ¹⁹ Melchizedek blessed Abram and said,

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he had brought back from the battle.

²¹ Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “You may keep all these things for yourself. Just give me my people who were captured.”

²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I make a promise to the Lord. He is the God Most High, who made heaven and earth. ²³ I promise that I will not keep anything that is yours. I will not keep even a thread or a sandal strap. That way you cannot say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ ²⁴ I will keep nothing but the food my young men have eaten. But give Aner, Eshcol and Mamre their share of what we won. They went with me into battle.”