What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3
The Same
It’s about thirty years after Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. His followers have eagerly shared the Good News of what Jesus has done. As a result, many have come to faith in Jesus as their Savior from sin. New congregations are forming. There is even a gathering of Christians in the capital city of the Roman Empire.
Moved by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul sits down to write a letter to these Roman believers. What Paul writes is a letter that outlines some fundamentals of the Christian faith. As he does so, he quickly takes on one of the oldest assumptions people make about their relationship with God.
That old assumption is this: I assume that, somehow, some way, I have it in me to set things right with God. Sure, I know I’m not the person I should be or could be. But if I keep improving myself, if I make up for the bad in my life by doing good, if I can live a life that’s a little better and more spiritual than most, then I’ll be in a proper position to receive blessings from God.
It’s an old assumption that never dies. If Paul were to have a chance to tour our twenty-first century society, nothing would shock him. Even secularists are using the same old tools: Trying to find peace, meaning, fulfillment, identity in what I do.
As old as this assumption is, Paul asserts that it is wrong. The answer to “ultimate meaning” lies not in me. It lies only in Jesus Christ. And all he has won for me—forgiveness, peace, meaning, identity, fulfillment—all this is mine through Spirit-created faith in my Savior. Faith alone.
To prove it, Paul points back 2,000 years. He points back to Abraham. After God gave Abraham a cluster of promises, at the heart of which was the promise of the coming Savior, the Bible records that “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
For Abraham. For Paul. For us. The answer is the same. The answer is Jesus.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when the temptation comes to look inward, move me to look to you. Amen.
[Abram] … pitched his tent there, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and proclaimed the name of the LORD. Genesis 12:8
Proclamation
“I can worship God at home. I can read the Bible at home. I can pray at home. And so, I really don’t get what the difference is between my worship at home and my worship at church. Isn’t it all the same thing?”
Yes. And no.
Can I praise my Lord in the privacy of my home? Yes. By myself, can I let the Word of my Lord speak to me? Yes. When I am all alone, can I talk to my Lord in prayer? Absolutely. And thank God for the privilege.
But if I then conclude that there is no need for me to gather with others to do what I can more conveniently do at home, then I have overlooked something; something big. Then I need to sit down for a moment and watch Abram.
Abram had just completed a journey. In this journey, he left his homeland far behind. Throughout this journey, he did not know where he was going. But now God has made it clear where Abram is to live. He is to pitch his tent in the land of Canaan; a land, God says, he will give to Abram’s descendants.
And so, Abram pitches his tent. He, his family, along with the families of his shepherds, herdsmen, and laborers—they all set up camp. But the episode does not end there. Surrounding Abram’s household is a Canaanite culture that is calloused and often shocking in its ungodliness.
And so, what does Abram do next? He builds an altar and proclaims the name of the Lord.
He proclaims the Lord. Publicly. Openly. He does not just have a quiet devotion in the privacy of his tent. He does not just meditate on God’s Word by himself. He does not just pray to the Lord when he is all alone. He builds an altar and proclaims. For all to see. For all to hear.
He publicly proclaims the only Savior from sin the world is ever going to have.
Like Abram, let’s take advantage of every opportunity to publicly proclaim the name of the Lord.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you’re the only Savior there is. Move me to proclaim you with my fellow believers. Amen.
The LORD had said to Abram, “…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1,3
A Promise
Let’s imagine the life of Abram—this famous figure from the Bible. In our imagination, it’s easy to presume God is coming down every other day to perform a dramatic miracle. It’s easy to picture Abram living a life bursting with high drama, a John Williams soundtrack swelling in the background. And because you and I already know how everything turns out, it’s easy to suppose that, somehow, Abram does too.
These presumptions, of course, are wrong. Ninety-nine percent of Abram’s life had no high drama at all. It was mundane, ordinary, filled with problems, filled with headaches—those made by others and those of his own making—filled with the logistics of finding food and water for his flocks and herds, filled with the complications of caring for his not-always-happy family. And Abram did not have a crystal-clear vision on how everything was going to turn out.
All he had was a promise. The Lord promised to bless him. The Lord promised to take care of him. The Lord promised to do wonderful things through him. And most of all, the Lord promised that, through Abram, he would bring the Savior into the world.
And that was it. That’s what Abram had. Throughout his most ordinary life, Abram possessed an extraordinary promise from God.
With few exceptions, our lives are not lives of high drama. The London Symphony does not follow us around playing a movie score. Our lives contain much that is mundane, ordinary, filled with trouble, bouts of pain, and unresolved problems that need our management. It’s part of living in a broken world—a world broken by your sin and mine.
And all we have is a promise. A promise that the Lord will bless. A promise that the Lord will take care of us. A promise that the Lord will do wonderful things through us.
But here’s the thing. Such a promise is more than enough. It’s more than enough because it’s a promise sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ, the very blood that has washed our sins away.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when the mundane problems of my life overwhelm me, remind me of the extraordinary promise I possess in you. Amen.
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10 This is the account about the development of the family of Shem.
Shem was 100 years old and became the father of Arphaxad two years after the flood. 11 Shem lived 500 years after he became the father of Arphaxad, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
12 Arphaxad lived 35 years and became the father of Shelah. 13 Arphaxad lived 403 years after he became the father of Shelah, and he became the father of sons and daughters. [1]
14 Shelah lived 30 years and became the father of Eber. 15 Shelah lived 403 years after he became the father of Eber, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
16 Eber lived 34 years and became the father of Peleg. 17 Eber lived 430 years after he became the father of Peleg, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived 30 years and became the father of Reu. 19 Peleg lived 209 years after he became the father of Reu, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived 32 years and became the father of Serug. 21 Reu lived 207 years after he became the father of Serug, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived 30 years and became the father of Nahor. 23 Serug lived 200 years after he became the father of Nahor, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived 29 years and became the father of Terah. 25 Nahor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terah, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
26 Terah lived 70 years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
The Development of the Family of Terah
27 Now this is the account about the development [2] of the family of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. 28 Haran died before his father Terah. He died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29 Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. 30 Sarai was barren. She had no child.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, who was the wife of his son Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years. Terah died in Haran.
The Call of Abram
Genesis 12
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Get out of your country and away from your relatives and from your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse anyone who dishonors you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to travel to the land of Canaan. Eventually they arrived in the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land until he came to the Oak of Moreh at the place called Shechem. The Canaanites were in the land at that time.
7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” [3] Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent there, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and proclaimed [4] the name of the Lord. 9 Abram pulled out from there and kept traveling toward the Negev. [5]
The First Trip to Egypt
10 There was a famine in the land. So Abram went down into Egypt to stay there for a while, because the famine was severe in the land. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman. 12 It might happen that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will keep you alive. 13 Please say that you are my sister, so that it will go well for me because of you, and that my life may be preserved on account of you.”
14 So it happened that when Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians did see that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake. Abram received sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with severe diseases [6] because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Here is your wife. Take her and go.”
20 Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him, so they sent him on his way with his wife and all that he had.
Abram and Lot Separate
Genesis 13
1 Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev. He went with his wife and with all that he had, and with Lot too. 2 Abram was very wealthy in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 He went on his journeys from the Negev to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. 4 He went to the site of the altar that he had made there earlier. There Abram proclaimed [7] the name of the Lord.
Footnotes
Genesis 11:13 Some manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament have an extra generation between Arphaxad and Shelah: Cainan (also called Kenan) lived 130 years and became the father of Shelah. Cainan lived 330 years after he had become the father of Shelah, and he became the father of sons and daughters. Cainan occurs in the Greek Old Testament of Genesis 10:24; 11:12-13; and some texts of 1 Chronicles 1:24 (or 18) [sic]. It also occurs in most manuscripts of Luke 3:36. Manuscripts without Cainan include all passages of the Hebrew text (Genesis 10:24; 11:12-13; 1 Chronicles 1:18, 24), the Samaritan Pentateuch, 1 Chronicles 1:24 in the Greek Old Testament [sic], the Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate. It appears that Cainan was not part of the Hebrew text. (It should be noted that there are numerous discrepancies in the textual commentaries about this issue, especially concerning the Greek Old Testament, as is true of many other textual issues.)
Genesis 11:27 Or the account of the subsequent history
Genesis 12:7 Or offspring, literally seed
Genesis 12:8 Or called on
Genesis 12:9 The Negev is the arid region in the far south of Israel. Negev sometimes is used as a synonym for south.
1 Now this is the account about the development of groups of people who descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. Sons [1] were born to them after the flood.
The Descendants of Japheth
2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek, and Tiras. [2]
3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, and the Dodanim. [3]
5 The islands and coastlands were divided into different lands among these peoples on the basis of their languages, their ethnic groups, and their nations.
The Descendants of Ham
6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, [4] Put, and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Ra’amah, and Sabteca.
The sons of Ra’amah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush became the father of Nimrod. He was the first to be a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. That is why the saying is “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Uruk, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. [5]11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, the great city.
13 Mizraim [6] became the father of the Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines descended), and the Caphtorim.
15 Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn) and Heth, 16 as well as the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites spread out. 19 Then the borders of the Canaanites extended from Sidon, southward toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; from there it extended eastward toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
20 These were the sons of Ham, according to their ethnic groups, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
The Descendants of Shem
21 Sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth, [7] the father of all the descendants of Eber.
22 The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. [8]
24 Arphaxad became the father of Shelah. [9] Shelah became the father of Eber. 25 To Eber two sons were born. The name of one was Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided. [10]
Eber’s brother’s name was Joktan. 26 Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 30 Their dwelling was from Mesha all the way to Sephar, in the hill country of the east.
31 These were the descendants of Shem according to their ethnic groups, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
32 These are the families and groups of peoples descended from the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations. From these, nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
The Division of the Earth
Genesis 11
1 The whole earth had one language and a single vocabulary. 2 As people traveled in the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used mud brick instead of stone for building material, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, “Come, let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If this is the first thing they are doing as one people, who all have one language, then nothing that they intend to do will be too difficult for them. 7 Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another’s speech.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 It was named Babel, [11] because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Footnotes
Genesis 10:1 In these tables, sons in some cases includes descendants. Fathers in some cases means ancestors or forefathers.
Genesis 10:2 Some of these names are the names both of ancestral individuals and of ethnic groups that were derived from them. Some of the names also serve as names of geographic places.
Genesis 10:4 The names ending in –im are peoples rather than individuals. Usually we render these names with the suffix -ites, except for a few primordial groups whose names also occur as names of geographic places, such as the Valley of Rephaim. The name Kittim is retained because it is common in literature about the Bible.
Genesis 10:6 Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt.
Genesis 10:10 That is, Babylon
Genesis 10:13 Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt.
Genesis 10:21 Or whose older brother was Japheth, but this translation does not fit the Hebrew construction as well as the translation above does.
Genesis 10:23 The Greek text and 1 Chronicles 1:17 read Meshek.
Genesis 10:24 Some manuscripts of the Greek Old Testament have an extra generation (Cainan or Kenan) between Arphaxad and Shelah. See the note on Genesis 11:13.
Genesis 10:25 Peleg means division.
Genesis 11:9 Babel sounds like the Hebrew word for confusion.
20 Noah built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
God’s Covenant With the Earth
Genesis 9
1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 Every animal on the earth and every bird in the sky will fear you and dread you. Everything that swarms on the ground and all the fish in the sea are handed over to you. 3 Every living, moving thing will be food for you. I have given everything to you, just as I gave you the green plants. 4 But flesh that has the blood (which is its life) still in it, you shall not eat. 5 In fact, I will hold each animal and each person responsible for your lifeblood. I will hold each man responsible for the life of his brother. 6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image.
7 “But you, be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply on it.”
8 God said to Noah and to his sons, who were with him, 9 “Listen, I will now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with everything with you that has the breath of life: with the birds, with the livestock, and with every wild animal that is on the earth with you, with everything that went out of the ark, even with every wild animal on the earth. 11 I will establish my covenant with you: Never again will all living creatures [1] be cut off by the waters of a flood. Neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 God also said, “This is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you that I am giving for all generations to come. 13 I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the cloud, 15 I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of every sort, [2] and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it so that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” 17 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.”
The Repopulation of the Earth
18 The sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, people spread out over the whole earth.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil and planted a vineyard. 21 He drank some of the wine and got drunk. He lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it over their shoulders. They went in backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. They faced backwards, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 He said:
A curse on Canaan! He will be the lowest of servants to his brothers.
26 Then he said:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! Let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth. Let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.
28 Noah lived 350 years after the flood. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years. Then he died.
1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and your entire household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 From every clean animal take with you seven pairs, [1] a male and his female. From the animals that are not clean, take two, a male and his female. 3 Also from the ⎣clean⎦ birds of the sky take seven and seven, male and female, ⎣and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female⎦ [2] to keep their offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. 4 In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will wipe off the face of the earth.”
5 Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.
The Flood
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood [3] came, and water covered the earth.
7 Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9 went into the ark with Noah two by two (male and female), just as God had commanded Noah.
10 After seven days, the waters of the flood came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates [4] of the sky were opened. 12 The rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.
13 On that same day Noah, Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons along with them entered the ark. 14 They went in with every animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and everything that flies according to its kind, flying birds of every sort. 15 Pairs of all the animals [5] that have the breath of life in them went to Noah in the ark. 16 A male and female of each animal that breathes went in, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut Noah in.
17 The flood kept coming on the earth for forty days. The waters became deeper and lifted up the ark until it floated high above the earth. 18 The water kept increasing and overwhelmed the earth, and the ark was carried along on the surface of the water. 19 The water overwhelmed the earth. All the high mountains that were under the entire sky were covered. 20 The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains and covered them. 21 All living creatures [6] that moved on the earth perished, including birds, livestock, wild animals, every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything that breathed the breath of life through its nostrils, that is, everything that was on the dry land, died. 23 Every living thing that was on the face of the earth was wiped out, including mankind, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They all were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, as well as those who were with him in the ark. 24 The waters overwhelmed the earth for one hundred fifty days.
Genesis 8
1 God remembered Noah, as well as all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were also closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 3 The waters kept receding from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had decreased. 4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters receded continuously until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.
6 Then at the end of forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark. 7 He sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground, 9 but the dove found no place to rest its foot, and it returned to him in the ark, because there was water on the surface of the whole earth. Noah reached out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back to him in the ark. 10 He waited another seven days. Then he sent the dove out of the ark again. 11 The dove came back to him at evening, and there in its mouth was an olive leaf it had just plucked. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again. This time it did not return to him anymore.
13 And so in the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked out. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15 God spoke to Noah. He said, 16 “Go out of the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of every sort that is with you, all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may swarm over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
18 Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species. [7]
Footnotes
Genesis 7:2 Literally by sevens. There is a difference of opinion whether seven pairs of each clean animal were to be taken onboard or seven of each clean animal: three pairs and one extra for sacrifice.
Genesis 7:3 The words in the half-brackets are not present in the Hebrew text but are in the Greek Old Testament. It seems the Hebrew copyist’s eye might have jumped from the occurrence of female before the first half-bracket to the occurrence of female before the second half-bracket. The loss of this phrase would lead to the removal of the word clean near the beginning of the verse.
Genesis 7:6 Or deluge
Genesis 7:11 Or windows
Genesis 7:15 Literally all flesh
Genesis 7:21 Literally all flesh
Genesis 8:19 Literally by their families. Species here is not a narrow technical term as it is in present-day science.
1 This is what happened when mankind [1] began to multiply on the face of the earth. [2]
When daughters were born to people, 2 the sons of God [3] saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives for themselves any of them they chose. 3 The Lord said, “My Spirit will not struggle [4] with man forever, because he is only flesh. [5] His days will be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim [6] were on the earth in those days. After that, the sons of God went to the daughters of men, who bore children for them. Those became the powerful, famous men of ancient times.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every day. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow. [7]7 The Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, along with the animals, the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, because I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah and the Ark
9 This is the account about the development of Noah’s family.
Noah was a righteous man, a man of integrity in that generation. Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 In the sight of God the earth was morally corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh was corrupt in all their ways on the earth.
13 So God said to Noah, “I have decreed the end of all flesh, because the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.
14 “Make an ark [8] of gopher wood. [9] Make rooms in the ark. Seal it inside and outside with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: The length of the ark is to be 450 feet, its width 75 feet, and its height 45 feet. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and leave an eighteen-inch opening just under the roof. Place a door on the side of the ark. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17 “I myself am about to bring a flood of waters on the earth, in order to destroy all flesh under the sky that has the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth will die, 18 but I will establish my covenant [10] with you. You shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You shall bring a pair (male and female) of every kind of living flesh into the ark with you to keep them alive. 20 Include the birds according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing on the ground according to their kinds. Two of every sort shall come to you, so you can keep them alive. 21 Take with you every type of food that is eaten, and store it for yourself, so it can be used as food for you and for them.”
22 So that is what Noah did. He did everything that God commanded him, just as he had been told.
Footnotes
Genesis 6:1 Literally the adam. The rendering of adam may be man, men, or mankind.
Genesis 6:1 The adamah, the soil or ground
Genesis 6:2 The sons of God were the descendants of Seth. They were marrying the daughters of the ungodly line of Cain and of those who followed in Cain’s way.
Genesis 6:3 Or remain
Genesis 6:3 Flesh may refer to both sinfulness and mortality.
Genesis 6:4 Nephilim is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word. Its meaning is uncertain, but it is explained by the last sentence of the verse. There can be no direct connection with the Nephilim in Canaan after the flood.
Genesis 6:6 The exact force of the two verbs in this verse is difficult to render in English. God’s regret and grief are not simply his sorrow over sin and its consequences, but that he will now change his course of action.
Genesis 6:14 An ark is a box. The ark was apparently more like a floating box than like a ship.
Genesis 6:14 Gopher is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word. Many versions translate it as cypress, but we do not know what kind of wood it was.