January 4
Genesis 11:1 —14:24
January 4
Genesis 11:1 —14:24
11
Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.
2 And it
came about that in their journeying eastward they eventually discovered a valley
plain in the land of Shinar, and they took up dwelling there.
3 And
they began to say, each one to the other: “Come on! Let us make bricks and bake
them with a burning process.” So brick served as stone for them, but bitumen
served as mortar for them.
4 They
now said: “Come on! Let us build ourselves a city and also a tower with its top
in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, for fear we may
be scattered over all the surface of the earth.”
5 And
Jehovah proceeded to go down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men
had built.
6 After
that Jehovah said: “Look! They are one people and there is one language for them
all, and this is what they start to do. Why, now there is nothing that they may
have in mind to do that will be unattainable for them.
7 Come
now! Let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not listen to
one another’s language.”
8 Accordingly
Jehovah scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth, and they
gradually left off building the city.
9 That
is why its name was called Babel, because there Jehovah had confused the
language of all the earth, and Jehovah had scattered them from there over all
the surface of the earth.
10 This
is the history of Shem.
Shem
was a hundred years old when he became father to Arpachshad
two years after the deluge.
11 And
after his fathering Arpachshad
Shem continued to live five hundred years. Meanwhile he became father to sons
and daughters.
12 And
Arpachshad
lived thirty-five years. Then he became father to Shelah.
13 And
after his fathering Shelah Arpachshad
continued to live four hundred and three years. Meanwhile he became father to
sons and daughters.
14 And
Shelah lived thirty years. Then he became father to Eber.
15 And
after his fathering Eber Shelah continued to live four hundred and three
years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
16 And
Eber lived on for thirty-four years. Then he became father to Peleg.
17 And
after his fathering Peleg Eber continued to live four hundred and thirty
years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
18 And
Peleg lived on for thirty years. Then he became father to Reu.
19 And
after his fathering Reu Peleg continued to live two hundred and nine years.
Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
20 And
Reu lived on for thirty-two years. Then he became father to Serug.
21 And
after his fathering Serug Reu continued to live two hundred and seven years.
Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
22 And
Serug lived on for thirty years. Then he became father to Nahor.
23 And
after his fathering Nahor Serug continued to live two hundred years. Meanwhile
he became father to sons and daughters.
24 And
Nahor lived on for twenty-nine years. Then he became father to Terah.
25 And
after his fathering Terah Nahor continued to live a hundred and nineteen
years. Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters.
26 And
Terah lived on for seventy years, after which he became father to Abram, Nahor
and Haran.
27 And
this is the history of Terah.
Terah
became father to Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became father to Lot.
28 Later
Haran died while in company with Terah his father in the land of his birth, in
Ur of the Chaldeans.
29 And
Abram and Nahor proceeded to take wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s
wife was Sarai, while the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of
Haran, the father of Milcah and father of Iscah.
30 But
Sarai continued to be barren; she had no child.
31 After
that Terah took Abram his son and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and
Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went with him
out of Ur of the Chaldeans
to go to the land of Canaan. In time they came to Haran and took up dwelling
there.
32 And
the days of Terah came to be two hundred and five years. Then Terah died in
Haran.
12
And Jehovah proceeded to say to Abram: “Go your way out of your country and
from your relatives and from the house of your father to the country that I
shall show you;
2 and
I shall make a great nation out of you and I shall bless you and I will make
your name great; and prove yourself a blessing.
3 And
I will bless those who bless you, and him that calls down evil upon you I shall
curse, and all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves by
means of you.”
4 At
that Abram went just as Jehovah had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And
Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out from Haran.
5 So Abram
took Sarai his wife and Lot the son of his brother and all the goods that they
had accumulated and the souls whom they had acquired in Haran, and they got on
their way out to go to the land of Canaan. Finally they came to the land of Canaan.
6 And
Abram went on through the land as far as the site of Shechem, near the big
trees of Moreh; and at that time the Canaanite
was in the land.
7 Jehovah
now appeared to Abram and said: “To your seed I am going to give this land.”
After that he built an altar there to Jehovah, who had appeared to him.
8 Later
he moved from there to the mountainous region to the east of Bethel and pitched
his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. Then he built an altar
there to Jehovah and began to call on the name of Jehovah.
9 Afterward
Abram broke camp, going then from encampment to encampment toward the Negeb.
10 Now a
famine arose in the land and Abram made his way down toward Egypt to reside
there as an alien, because the famine was severe in the land.
11 And
it came about that as soon as he got near to entering Egypt, then he said to Sarai
his wife: “Please, now! I well know you are a woman beautiful in appearance.
12 So it
is bound to happen that the Egyptians will see you and will say, ‘This is his
wife.’ And they will certainly kill me, but you they will preserve alive.
13 Please
say you are my sister, in order that it may go well with me on your account, and
my soul will be certain to live due to you.”
14 So it
happened that, as soon as Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians got to see the
woman, that she was very beautiful.
15 And
the princes of Pharaoh also got to see her and they began praising her to Pharaoh,
so that the woman was taken to the house of Pharaoh.
16 And
he treated Abram well on her account, and he came to have sheep and cattle and
asses and menservants and maidservants and she-asses and camels.
17 Then
Jehovah touched Pharaoh and his household with great plagues because of Sarai,
Abram’s wife.
18 With
that Pharaoh called Abram and said: “What is this you have done to me? Why did
you not tell me that she was your wife?
19 Why
did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I was about to take her as my wife? And
now here is your wife. Take her and go!”
20 And
Pharaoh issued commands to men concerning him, and they went escorting him and
his wife and all that he had.
13
Following
that Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot
with him, to the Negeb.
2 And
Abram was heavily stocked with herds and silver and gold.
3 And
he made his way from encampment to encampment out of the Negeb and to Bethel,
to the place where his tent had been at first between Bethel and Ai,
4 to the
place of the altar that he had made there originally; and Abram proceeded to
call there on the name of Jehovah.
5 Now
Lot, who was going along with Abram, also owned sheep and cattle and tents.
6 So
the land did not allow for them to dwell all together, because their goods had
become many and they were not able to dwell all together.
7 And a
quarrel arose between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s
livestock; and at that time the Canaanite
and the Perizzite
were dwelling in the land.
8 Hence
Abram said to Lot: “Please, do not let any quarreling continue between me and
you and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we men are brothers.
9 Is not
the whole land available to you? Please, separate from me. If you go to the
left, then I will go to the right; but if you go to the right, then I will go to
the left.”
10 So
Lot raised his eyes and saw the whole District of the Jordan, that all of it was
a well-watered region before Jehovah brought Sodom and Gomorrah
to ruin, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt as far as Zoar.
11 Then
Lot chose for himself the whole District of the Jordan, and Lot moved his camp
to the east. So they separated the one from the other.
12 Abram
dwelt in the land of Canaan, but Lot dwelt among the cities of the District.
Finally he pitched tent near Sodom.
13 And
the men of Sodom were bad and were gross sinners against Jehovah.
14 And
Jehovah said to Abram after Lot had separated from him: “Raise your eyes,
please, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and
eastward and westward,
15 because
all the land at which you are looking, to you and to your seed I am going to
give it until time indefinite.
16 And I
will constitute your seed like the dust particles of the earth, so that, if a
man could be able to count the dust particles of the earth, then your seed could
be numbered.
17 Get
up, go about in the land through its length and through its breadth, because to
you I am going to give it.”
18 So Abram
continued to live in tents. Later on he came and dwelt among the big trees of
Mamre, which are in Hebron; and there he proceeded to build an altar to
Jehovah.
14 Now
it came about in the days of Amraphel
king of Shinar, Arioch
king of Ellasar,
Chedorlaomer
king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,
2 that
these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah,
Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber
king of Zeboiim,
and the king of Bela (that is to say, Zoar).
3 All
these marched as allies to the Low Plain of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea.
4 Twelve
years they had served Chedorlaomer,
but the thirteenth year they rebelled.
5 And in
the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer
came, and also the kings who were with him, and they inflicted defeats on the
Rephaim
in Ashteroth-karnaim,
and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
6 and
the Horites in their mountain of Seir, down to El-paran, which is at the
wilderness.
7 Then
they turned about and came to En-mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and defeated the
whole field of the Amalekites
and also the Amorites
who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar.
8 At
this point the king of Sodom went on the march, and also the king of Gomorrah
and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim
and the king of Bela (that is to say, Zoar), and they drew up in battle order
against them in the Low Plain of Siddim,
9 against
Chedorlaomer
king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim and Amraphel
king of Shinar and Arioch
king of Ellasar;
four kings against the five.
10 Now
the Low Plain of Siddim was pits upon pits of bitumen; and the kings of Sodom
and Gomorrah
took to flight and went falling into them, and those who remained fled to the
mountainous region.
11 Then
the victors took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah
and all their food and went on their way.
12 They
also took Lot the son of Abram’s brother and his goods and continued on their
way. He was then dwelling in Sodom.
13 After
that a man who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. He was then
tabernacling among the big trees of Mamre the Amorite,
the brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they were confederates of Abram.
14 Thus
Abram got to hear that his brother had been taken captive. With that he
mustered his trained men, three hundred and eighteen slaves born in his
household, and went in pursuit up to Dan.
15 And
by night he resorted to dividing his forces, he and his slaves, against them,
and thus he defeated them and kept in pursuit of them up to Hobah, which is
north of Damascus.
16 And
he proceeded to recover all the goods, and he recovered also Lot his brother and
his goods and also the women and the people.
17 Then
the king of Sodom went out to meet him after he returned from defeating Chedorlaomer
and the kings that were with him, to the Low Plain of Shaveh, that is, the
king’s Low Plain.
18 And
Melchizedek
king of Salem brought out bread and wine, and he was priest of the Most High
God.
19 Then
he blessed him and said:
“Blessed be Abram of the Most High God,
Producer of heaven and earth;
20 And
blessed be the Most High God,
Who has delivered your oppressors into your hand!”
At that Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
21 After
that the king of Sodom said to Abram: “Give me the souls, but take the goods
for yourself.”
22 At
this Abram said to the king of Sodom: “I do lift up my hand [in an oath] to
Jehovah the Most High God, Producer of heaven and earth,
23 that,
from a thread to a sandal lace, no, I shall take nothing from anything that is
yours, in order that you may not say, ‘It was I who made Abram rich.’
24 Nothing
for me! Only what the young men have already eaten, and the share of the men who
went with me, Aner, Eshcol and Mamre—let them take their share.”