Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, January 3 [Press play below]

8.1 But God gave attention to Noah and to all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to blow over the earth, and the waters began to subside.
8.2 The springs of the watery deep and the floodgates of the heavens were stopped up, so the rain from the heavens stopped falling.
8.3 Then the waters began to recede progressively from the earth. By the end of 150 days, the waters had subsided.
8.4 In the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
8.5 And the waters were steadily decreasing until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
8.6 So at the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window that he had made in the ark
8.7 and sent out a raven; it continued flying outside and returning, until the waters dried off the earth.
8.8 Later he sent out a dove to see whether the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.
8.9 The dove did not find any resting-place to perch, so it returned to him into the ark because the waters were still covering the surface of the whole earth. So he reached his hand out and brought it inside the ark.
8.10 He waited seven more days, and once again he sent out the dove from the ark.
8.11 When the dove came to him toward evening, he saw that there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its bill! So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
8.12 He waited still another seven days. Then he sent out the dove, but it did not return to him anymore.
8.13 Now in the 601st year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters had drained from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying.
8.14 In the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth had dried off.
8.15 God now said to Noah:
8.16 “Go out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives.
8.17 Bring out with you all the living creatures of every sort of flesh, of the flying creatures and of the animals and of all the creeping animals of the earth, that they may multiply on the earth and be fruitful and become many on the earth.”
8.18 So Noah went out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.
8.19 Every living creature, every creeping animal and every flying creature, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.
8.20 Then Noah built an altar to Jehovah and took some of all the clean animals and of all the clean flying creatures and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
8.21 And Jehovah began to smell a pleasing aroma. So Jehovah said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground on man’s account, for the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up; and never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done.
8.22 From now on, the earth will never cease to have seed-sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night.”
9.1 God went on to bless Noah and his sons and to say to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.
9.2 A fear of you and a terror of you will continue upon every living creature of the earth and upon every flying creature of the heavens, upon everything that moves on the ground and upon all the fish of the sea. They are now given into your hand.
9.3 Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. Just as I gave you the green vegetation, I give them all to you.
9.4 Only flesh with its life—its blood—you must not eat.
9.5 Besides that, I will demand an accounting for your lifeblood. I will demand an accounting from every living creature; and from each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his brother.
9.6 Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image He made man.
9.7 As for you, be fruitful and become many, and increase abundantly on the earth and multiply.”
9.8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
9.9 “I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your offspring after you,
9.10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the living creatures of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark—every living creature of the earth.
9.11 Yes, I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all flesh be destroyed by the waters of a flood, and never again will a flood bring the earth to ruin.”
9.12 And God added: “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations.
9.13 I put my rainbow in the cloud, and it will serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
9.14 Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth, then the rainbow will certainly appear in the cloud.
9.15 And I will certainly remember my covenant that I made between me and you and every living creature of every kind; and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.
9.16 And the rainbow will occur in the cloud, and I will certainly see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind on the earth.”
9.17 God repeated to Noah: “This is the sign of the covenant that I establish between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
9.18 Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham later became the father of Canaan.
9.19 These three were Noah’s sons, and all the earth’s population came from them and spread abroad.
9.20 Now Noah started off as a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
9.21 When he drank of the wine, he became intoxicated, and he uncovered himself inside his tent.
9.22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside.
9.23 So Shem and Japheth took a garment and put it upon both their shoulders and walked in backward. Thus they covered their father’s nakedness while their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
9.24 When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him,
9.25 he said: “Cursed be Canaan. Let him become the lowest slave to his brothers.”
9.26 And he added: “Praised be Jehovah, the God of Shem, And let Canaan become a slave to him.
9.27 Let God grant ample space to Japheth, And let him reside in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan become a slave to him also.”
9.28 Noah continued to live for 350 years after the Flood.
9.29 So all the days of Noah amounted to 950 years, and he died.
10.1 This is the history of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Sons were born to them after the Flood.
10.2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
10.3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
10.4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
10.5 From these the inhabitants of the islands spread into their lands, according to their languages and their families and by their nations.
10.6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
10.7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.
The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
10.8 Cush became father to Nimrod. He was the first to become a mighty one on the earth.
10.9 He became a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah. That is why there is a saying: “Just like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.”
10.10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
10.11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,
10.12 and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah: This is the great city.
10.13 Mizraim became father to Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
10.14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.
10.15 Canaan became father to Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth,
10.16 as well as the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,
10.17 the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,
10.18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward, the families of the Canaanites were scattered.
10.19 So the boundary of the Canaanites was from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
10.20 These were the sons of Ham according to their families and their languages, by their lands and their nations.
10.21 Children were also born to Shem, the forefather of all the sons of Eber and the brother of Japheth the oldest.
10.22 The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
10.23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
10.24 Arpachshad became father to Shelah, and Shelah became father to Eber.
10.25 Two sons were born to Eber. The name of the one was Peleg, because in his lifetime the earth was divided. The name of his brother was Joktan.
10.26 Joktan became father to Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
10.27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
10.28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
10.29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all of these were the sons of Joktan.
10.30 Their place of dwelling extended from Mesha as far as Sephar, the mountainous region of the East.
10.31 These were the sons of Shem according to their families and their languages, by their lands and their nations.
10.32 These were the families of the sons of Noah according to their family lines and by their nations. From these the nations were spread abroad in the earth after the Flood.
11.1 Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.
11.2 As they traveled eastward, they discovered a valley plain in the land of Shinar, and they began dwelling there.
11.3 Then they said to one another: “Come! Let us make bricks and bake them with fire.” So they used bricks instead of stone, and bitumen as mortar.
11.4 They now said: “Come! Let us build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered over the entire face of the earth.”
11.5 Then Jehovah went down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men had built.
11.6 Jehovah then said: “Look! They are one people with one language, and this is what they have started to do. Now there is nothing that they may have in mind to do that will be impossible for them.
11.7 Come! Let us go down there and confuse their language in order that they may not understand one another’s language.”
11.8 So Jehovah scattered them from there over the entire face of the earth, and they gradually left off building the city.
11.9 That is why it was named Babel, because there Jehovah confused the language of all the earth, and Jehovah scattered them from there over the entire face of the earth.
11.10 This is the history of Shem.
Shem was 100 years old when he became father to Arpachshad two years after the Flood.
11.11 After becoming father to Arpachshad, Shem continued to live 500 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.12 Arpachshad lived for 35 years and then became father to Shelah.
11.13 After becoming father to Shelah, Arpachshad continued to live 403 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.14 Shelah lived for 30 years and then became father to Eber.
11.15 After becoming father to Eber, Shelah continued to live 403 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.16 Eber lived for 34 years and then became father to Peleg.
11.17 After becoming father to Peleg, Eber continued to live 430 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.18 Peleg lived for 30 years and then became father to Reu.
11.19 After becoming father to Reu, Peleg continued to live 209 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.20 Reu lived for 32 years and then became father to Serug.
11.21 After becoming father to Serug, Reu continued to live 207 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.22 Serug lived for 30 years and then became father to Nahor.
11.23 After becoming father to Nahor, Serug continued to live 200 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.24 Nahor lived for 29 years and then became father to Terah.
11.25 After becoming father to Terah, Nahor continued to live 119 years. And he became father to sons and daughters.
11.26 Terah lived for 70 years, after which he became father to Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
11.27 This is the history of Terah.
Terah became father to Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran became father to Lot.
11.28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
11.29 Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.
11.30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
11.31 Terah then took Abram his son and Lot his grandson, the son of Haran, 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 began dwelling there.
11.32 The days of Terah were 205 years. Then Terah died in Haran.