Study Desk

Lamech named his son Noah, for he said, "May he bring us relief from our work and the painful labor of farming this ground that the Lord has cursed."

So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.

This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.

He went on board the boat to escape the flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives.

That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives.

But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside.

So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat.

Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.

If anyone takes a human life, that person's life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.

Then God told Noah and his sons,

One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers.

When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.

Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: "May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives."

Then Noah said, "May the Lord , the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant!

May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant."

Since he was the greatest hunter in the world, his name became proverbial. People would say, "This man is like Nimrod, the greatest hunter in the world."

He built his kingdom in the land of Babylonia, with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh.

From there he expanded his territory to Assyria, building the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah,

Eber had two sons. The first was named Peleg (which means "division"), for during his lifetime the people of the world were divided into different language groups. His brother's name was Joktan.