One Year Bible.

The Covenant of the Rainbow

¹And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand. ³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things. ⁴But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it. ⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man his blood will be shed;

for in His own image

God has made mankind.

⁷But as for you,

be fruitful and multiply;

spread out across the earth

and multiply upon it.”

⁸Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, ⁹“Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you — the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth— every living thing that came out of the ark. ¹¹And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

¹⁴Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.”

¹⁷So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth.”

Noah’s Shame and Canaan’s Curse

¹⁸The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

²⁰Now Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. ²¹But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said,

“Cursed be Canaan!

A servant of servants

shall he be to his brothers.”

Shem’s Blessing and Noah’s Death

²⁶He also declared:

“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the servant of Shem.

²⁷May God expand the territory of Japheth;

may he dwell in the tents of Shem,

and may Canaan be his servant.”

²⁸After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

The Table of Nations

¹This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.

The Japhethites

²The sons of Japheth:

Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

³The sons of Gomer:

Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

⁴And the sons of Javan:

Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites. ⁵From these, the maritime peoples separated into their territories, according to their languages, by clans within their nations.

The Hamites

⁶The sons of Ham:

Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

⁷The sons of Cush:

Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.

And the sons of Raamah:

Sheba and Dedan.

⁸Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth. ⁹He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; so it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” ¹⁰His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, ¹²and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

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

¹⁵And Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, ¹⁶the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.

Later the Canaanite clans were scattered, ¹⁹and the borders of Canaan extended from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

²⁰These are the sons of Ham according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.

The Semites

²¹And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.

²²The sons of Shem:

Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

²³The sons of Aram:

Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

²⁴Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber.

²⁵Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan.

²⁶And Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan. ³⁰Their territory extended from Mesha to Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

³¹These are the sons of Shem, according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.

³²All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.

BOOK III

Surely God Is Good to Israel

¹A Psalm of Asaph.

Surely God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;

my steps had nearly slipped.

³For I envied the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴They have no struggle in their death;

their bodies are well-fed.

⁵They are free of the burdens others carry;

they are not afflicted like other men.

⁶Therefore pride is their necklace;

a garment of violence covers them.

⁷From their prosperity proceeds iniquity;

the imaginations of their hearts run wild.

⁸They mock and speak with malice;

with arrogance they threaten oppression.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongues strut across the earth.

¹⁰So their people return to this place

and drink up waters in abundance.

¹¹The wicked say, “How can God know?

Does the Most High have knowledge?”

¹²Behold, these are the wicked —

always carefree as they increase their wealth.

¹³Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure;

in innocence I have washed my hands.

¹⁴For I am afflicted all day long

and punished every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak this way,”

then I would have betrayed Your children.

¹⁶When I tried to understand all this,

it was troublesome in my sight

¹⁷until I entered God’s sanctuary;

then I discerned their end.

¹⁸Surely You set them on slick ground;

You cast them down into ruin.

¹⁹How suddenly they are laid waste,

completely swept away by terrors!

²⁰Like one waking from a dream,

so You, O Lord, awaken and despise their form.

²¹When my heart was grieved

and I was pierced within,

²²I was senseless and ignorant;

I was a brute beast before You.

²³Yet I am always with You;

You hold my right hand.

²⁴You guide me with Your counsel,

and later receive me in glory.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but You?

And on earth I desire no one besides You.

²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever.

²⁷Those far from You will surely perish;

You destroy all who are unfaithful to You.

²⁸But as for me, it is good to draw near to God.

I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,

that I may proclaim all Your works.

The Sabbath Rest

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it. ²For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who comprehended it.

³Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said:

“So I swore on oath in My anger,

‘They shall never enter My rest.’”

And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world. ⁴For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this manner: “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.” ⁵And again, as He says in the passage above: “They shall never enter My rest.”

⁶Since, then, it remains for some to enter His rest, and since those who formerly heard the good news did not enter because of their disobedience, ⁷God again designated a certain day as “Today,” when a long time later He spoke through David as was just stated: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. ⁹There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. ¹¹Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

The Living Word

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.