Genesis JE-Source (Everett Fox)

At the time of YHWH God’s making of earth and heaven, no bush of the field was yet on earth, no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for YHWH God had not made it rain upon the earth, and there was no human/adam to work the soil/adama— but a surge would well up from the earth and water all the face of the ground. And YHWH God formed the human, of dust from the ground; he blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being. YHWH God planted a garden in Eden/Land-of-Pleasure, in the east, and there he placed the human whom he had formed. And YHWH God caused to spring up from the ground every type of tree, desirable to look at and good to eat, and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden and the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil. Now a river goes out from Eden, to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four stream-heads. The name of the first one is Pishon/Spreader—that is the one that goes around all the land of Havila, where gold is; the gold of that land is good, there too are bdellium and the precious-stone carnelian. The name of the second river is Gihon/Gusher—that is the one that goes around all the land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel/Tigris—that is the one that goes to the east of Assyria. And the fourth river—that is Perat/Euphrates. YHWH God took the human and set him in the garden of Eden, to work it and to watch it. And YHWH God commanded concerning the human, saying: From every [other] tree of the garden you may eat, yes, eat, but from the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil—you are not to eat from it, for on the day that you eat from it, you must die, yes, die! YHWH God said: It is not good for the human to be alone; I will make him a helper corresponding to him. So YHWH God formed from the ground all the wildlife of the field and all the birds of the heavens and brought [each] to the human, to see what he would call it; and whatever the human called it as a living being, that became its name. The human called out names for all the herd-animals and for the birds of the heavens and for all the wildlife of the field, but for the human, there could not be found a helper corresponding to him. So YHWH God caused a deep slumber to fall upon the human, so that he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And YHWH God built the rib that he had taken from the human into a woman and brought her to the human. The human said: This-time, she-is-it! Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh! She shall be called: Woman/Isha, for from Man/Ish she was taken! Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. Now the two of them, the human and his wife, were nude, yet they were not ashamed. Die, you will not die! Rather, God knows that on the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will become like gods, knowing good and evil. The woman saw that the tree was good for eating and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to contemplate. She took from its fruit and ate and gave also to her husband beside her, and he ate. And the eyes of the two of them were opened and they knew [then] that they were nude. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. They heard the sound of YHWH God [who was] walking about in the garden at the breezy-time of the day. And the human and his wife hid themselves from the face of YHWH God, amid the trees of the garden. YHWH God called to the human and said to him: Where are you? He said: I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid, because I am nude, and so I hid myself. He said: Who told you that you are nude? From the tree about which I commanded you not to eat, have you eaten? The human said: The woman whom you gave to be beside me, she gave me from the tree, and so I ate. YHWH God said to the woman: What, now, have you done? The woman said: The snake enticed me, and so I ate. YHWH God said to the snake: Because you have done this, cursed be you from all the animals and from all the wildlife of the field; on your belly shall you walk and dust shall you eat, all the days of your life. Enmity will I put between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed: they will bruise you on the head, and you will bruise them in the heel! To the woman he said: I will multiply, multiply your pain [from] your pregnancy; with pains shall you bear children. Toward your husband will be your lust, yet he will rule over you. To Adam he said: Because you hearkened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying: You are not to eat from it! Cursed be the ground on your account; with painstaking-labor shall you eat from it, all the days of your life. Thorn and sting-shrub let it spring up for you, when you [wish to] eat the plants of the field! By the sweat of your nostrils shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust shall you return. The human called his wife’s name: Havva/Life-giver, for she became the mother of all the living. YHWH God made Adam and his wife coats of skins, and he clothed them. YHWH God said: Here, the human has become like one of us, in knowing good and evil. So now, lest he send forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live throughout the ages …! So YHWH God sent him away from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he had been taken. He drove the human out and caused to dwell, east of the garden of Eden, the winged-sphinxes and the flashing, ever-turning sword to watch over the way to the Tree of Life.

The human knew Havva his wife; she became pregnant and bore Kayin. She said: Kaniti/I-have-gotten a man, as has YHWH And she continued bearing—his brother, Hevel. Now Hevel became a shepherd of flocks, and Kayin became a worker of the ground. It was, after the passing of days, that Kayin brought, from the fruit of the ground, a gift to YHWH, while as for Hevel, he too brought—from the firstborn of his flock, from their fat-parts. YHWH had regard for Hevel and his gift, but for Kayin and his gift he had no regard. Kayin became exceedingly upset and his face fell. YHWH said to Kayin: Why are you upset? Why has your face fallen? Is it not [thus]: if you intend good, bear-it-aloft, but if you do not intend good, at the entrance is sin, a crouching-demon, toward you his lust—but you can rule over him. Kayin said to Hevel his brother … But then it was, when they were out in the field that Kayin rose up against Hevel his brother and he killed him. YHWH said to Kayin: Where is Hevel your brother? He said: I do not know. Am I the watcher of my brother? Now he said: What have you done! A sound—your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! And now, cursed be you from the ground, which opened up its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you wish to work the ground it will not henceforth give its strength to you; wavering and wandering must you be on earth! Kayin said to YHWH: My iniquity is too great to be borne! Here, you drive me away today from the face of the ground, and from your face I must conceal myself, I must be wavering and wandering on earth—now it will be: whoever comes upon me will kill me! YHWH said to him: No, therefore, whoever kills Kayin, sevenfold will it be avenged! So YHWH set a sign for Kayin, so that whoever came upon him would not strike him down. Kayin went out from the face of YHWH and settled in the land of Nod/Wandering, east of Eden.

Kayin knew his wife; she became pregnant and bore Hanokh. Now he became the builder of a city and called the city’s name according to his son’s name, Hanokh. To Hanokh was born Irad; Irad begot Mehuyael, Mehuyael begot Metushael, Metushael begot Lemekh. Lemekh took himself two wives: the name of the [first] one was Ada, the name of the second was Tzilla. Ada bore Yaval—; he was the father of those who sit amid tent and herd. His brother’s name was Yuval—; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and the pipe. And Tzilla bore as well—Tuval-Kayin, burnisher of every blade of bronze and iron. Tuval-Kayin’s sister was Naama. Lemekh said to his wives: Ada and Tzilla, hearken to my voice, wives of Lemekh, give ear to my saying: Aye—a man I kill for wounding me, a lad for [only] bruising me! Aye—if sevenfold vengeance be for Kayin, then for Lemekh, seventy-sevenfold! Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son. She called his name: Shet/Granted-One, meaning: God has granted me another seed in place of Hevel, for Kayin killed him. To Shet as well a son was born; he called his name: Enosh/Mortal. At that time they first called out the name of YHWH.

He called his name: Noah, saying: Zeh yenahamenu/May this-one comfort-our-sorrow from our toil, from the pains of our hands coming from the ground, which YHWH has cursed.

Now it was when humans first became many on the face of the ground and women were born to them, that the divine beings saw how fair the human women were, so they took themselves wives, whomever they chose. YHWH said: My rushing-spirit shall not remain in humankind for ages, for they too are flesh; let their days be then a hundred and twenty years! The giants were on earth in those days, and afterward as well, when the divine beings came in to the human women and they bore them [children]—they were the mighty-ones who were of ages [past], the men of name. YHWH saw that great was humankind’s evildoing on earth and every form of their heart’s planning was only evil all the day. Then YHWH was sorry that he had made humankind on earth, and it pained his heart. YHWH said: I will blot out humankind, whom I created, from the face of the earth, {from man to beast, to crawling thing and to the birds of the heavens}, for I am sorry that I made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of YHWH. Noah was a righteous, wholehearted man in his generation.

YHWH said to Noah: Come, you and all your household, into the ark! For you I have seen as righteous before me in this generation. From all [ritually] pure animals you are to take seven and seven [each], a male and his mate, and from all the animals that are not pure, two [each], a male and his mate, and also from the birds of the heavens, seven and seven [each], male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For in yet seven days I will make it rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights and will blot out all existing-things that I have made, from the face of the earth. Noah did it, exactly as YHWH had commanded him.

After the seven days it was that the waters of the Deluge were upon the earth.

YHWH closed [the door] upon him. Now the Deluge was forty days upon the earth.

He blotted out all existing-things that were on the face of the ground, from man to beast, to crawling thing and to birds of the heavens; they were blotted out from the earth. Noah alone remained, and those who were with him in the ark.

And the torrent from the heavens was held back. The waters returned from upon the earth, advancing and returning.

It was at the end of forty days:

Then he sent out a dove from him, to see whether the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting-place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for there was water upon the face of all the earth. He sent forth his hand and took her, and brought her to him into the ark. Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove yet again from the ark. The dove came back to him at eventime, and here, a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak! So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from upon the earth. Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, but she returned to him again no more. Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw: here, the face of the ground had dried up.

Noah built an altar to YHWH. He took from all pure animals and from all pure birds and offered up offerings on the altar. YHWH smelled the soothing savor and YHWH said in his heart: I will never curse the ground again on humankind’s account, since what the human heart forms is evil from its youth; I will never again strike down all living-things, as I have done; [never] again, all the days of the earth, shall sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night ever cease!

Noah was the first man of the soil; he planted a vineyard. He drank from the wine and became drunk and exposed himself in the middle of his tent. And Ham, {the father of Canaan}, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Yefet took a cloak, they put it on the shoulders of the two of them, and they walked backward, and covered their father’s nakedness. —Their faces were turned backward, so their father’s nakedness they did not see. Noah awoke from his wine, and it became known [to him] what his littlest son had done to him. He said: Cursed be Canaan; servant of servants may he be to his brothers! And he said: Blessed be YHWH, God of Shem, but may Canaan be servant to them! May God extend/yaft Yefet; let him dwell in the tents of Shem, but may Canaan be servant to them!

Now Cush begot Nimrod; he was the first mighty man on earth. He was a mighty hunter before YHWH; therefore the saying is: Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before YHWH. His kingdom, at the beginning, was Bavel, and Erekh, Accad and Calne, in the land of Shin’ar. From this land Ashur went forth and built Nineveh—along with the city squares and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah—that is the great city. Mitzrayim begot the Ludites, the Anamites, the Lehavites, the Naftuhites, the Patrusites, and the Casluhites, from where the Philistines come, and the Caftorites. Canaan begot Tzidon his firstborn and Het, along with the Yevusite, the Amorite and the Girgashite, the Hivvite, the Arkite and the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Tzemarite and the Hamatite. Afterward the Canaanite clans were scattered abroad. And the Canaanite territory went from Tzidon, then as you come toward Gerar, as far as Gaza, then as you come toward Sedom and Amora, Adma, and Tzevoyim, as far as Lasha.

[Children] were also born to Shem, the father of all the Sons of Ever [and] Yefet’s older brother.

{Arpakhshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Ever}. Two sons were born to Ever: the name of the first one was Peleg/Splitting, for in his days the earth-folk were split up, and his brother’s name was Yoktan. Now Yoktan begot Almodad and Shelef, Hatzarmavet and Yera, Hadoram, Uzal and Dikla, Oval, Avimael and Sheva, Ofir, Havila, and Yovav—all these are the Sons of Yoktan. Now their settlements went from Mesha, then as you come toward Sefar, to the highlands of the east.

Now all the earth was of one language and one set-of-words. And it was when they migrated to the east that they found a valley in the land of Shin’ar and settled there. They said, each one to his neighbor: Come-now! Let us bake bricks and let us burn them well-burnt! —;For them brick-stone was like building-stone, and raw-bitumen was for them like red-mortar. And they said: Come-now! Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth! But YHWH came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. YHWH said: Here, [they are] one people with one language for them all, and this is [merely] the first of their doings—now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do! Come-now! Let us go down and there let us baffle their language, so that no one will understand the language of his neighbor. So YHWH scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they had to stop building the city. Therefore its name was called Bavel/Babble, for there YHWH baffled the language of all the earth-folk, and from there, YHWH scattered them over the face of all the earth.

Avram and Nahor took themselves wives; the name of Avram’s wife was Sarai, the name of Nahor’s wife was Milca—daughter of Haran, father of Milca and father of Yisca. Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.