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smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart

'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's 'sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from 'his youth; neither will I again smite any more every 'thing living, as I have done. While the earth remain'eth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and sum'mer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them

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'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And 'the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the 'air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 'Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; ' even as the green herb have I given you all things. 'But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, 'shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives

' will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require

' it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's 'brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth 'man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the 'image of GOD made He man.'

And GOD spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying

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'Behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every 'beast of the earth with you; neither shall all flesh be 'cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall 'there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.'

And GOD said

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This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you,

'for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, ' and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me ' and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring 'a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all 'flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to 'destroy all flesh.'

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

And they said one to another-'Let us make brick, and 'burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said-' Let us 'build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto 'heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered ' abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said—

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'Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing 'will be restrained from them, which they have imagined ' to do. Let Us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's 'speech,'

So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

ABRAHAM.

Now the LORD said unto Abram

:

'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and 'from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee and I will make of thee a great nation, and 'I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou 'shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless 'thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee 'shall all families of the earth be blessed.'

So Abram departed, and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.

And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said—

Unto thy seed will I give this land.'

And there builded he an altar unto the LORD.

And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

And

there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot- Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between

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me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; 'for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt

' take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.'

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him,

'Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where 'thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and 'westward for all the land which thou seest, to thee 'will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will 'make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a Iman can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy 'seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will I give it unto thee.'

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Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children: and

she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Hagar bare Abram a son and Abram called his name Ishmael.

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him-

'I am the Almighty GOD: walk before me, and be thou 'perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and 'thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.'

And Abram fell on his face and GOD talked with him, saying

'As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou 'shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy 'name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall 'be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will 'make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 'And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, ' and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an ever'lasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy 'seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy 'seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, 'all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; ' and I will be their God.'

And God said unto Abraham

'Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy 'seed after thee, in their generations. This is my cove'nant, which ye shall keep, between me and you, and thy 'seed after thee; Every man-child among you shall be 'circumcised.'

And God said unto Abraham

'As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless 'her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless 'her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of " people shall be of her.'

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