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Genesis 4-7 Common English Bible (CEB)

Cain and Abel

The man Adam knew his wife Eve intimately. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have given life to[a] a man with the Lord’s help.” She gave birth a second time to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel cared for the flocks, and Cain farmed the fertile land.


Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”[b] When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.




13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Now that you’ve driven me away from the fertile land and I am hidden from your presence, I’m about to become a roving nomad on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.”

15 The Lord said to him, “It won’t happen;[c] anyone who kills Cain will be paid back seven times. The Lord put a sign on Cain so that no one who found him would assault him. 16 Cain left the Lord’s presence, and he settled down in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain’s descendants



23 Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice;
        wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words:
I killed a man for wounding me,
        a boy for striking me;
24     so Cain will be paid back seven times
        and Lamech seventy-seven times.”

25 Adam knew his wife intimately again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth[e] “because God has given me another child in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.” 26 Seth also fathered a son and named him Enosh. At that time, people began to worship in the Lord’s name.

Adam’s descendants

This is the record of Adam’s descendants. On the day God created humanity, he made them to resemble God and created them male and female. He blessed them and called them humanity[f] on the day they were created. When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son in his image, resembling him, and named him Seth. After Seth’s birth, Adam lived 800 years; he had other sons and daughters. In all, Adam lived 930 years, and he died.

When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years; and he had other sons and daughters. In all, Seth lived 912 years, and he died.

When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. 10 After Kenan’s birth, Enosh lived 815 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 11 In all, Enosh lived 905 years, and he died.


15 When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. 16 After Jared’s birth, Mahalalel lived 830 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 17 In all, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and he died.

18 When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. 19 After Enoch’s birth, Jared lived 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 20 In all, Jared lived 962 years, and he died.

21 When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God. After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch lived 300 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 23 In all, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God and disappeared because God took him.

25 When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. 26 After Lamech’s birth, Methuselah lived 782 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 27 In all, Methuselah lived 969 years, and he died.

28 When Lamech was 182 years old, he became the father of a son 29 and named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us relief[g] from our hard work, from the pain in our hands, because of the fertile land that the Lord cursed.” 30 After Noah’s birth, Lamech lived 595 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 31 In all, Lamech lived 777 years, and he died.


Ancient heroes

When the number of people started to increase throughout the fertile land, daughters were born to them. The divine beings saw how beautiful these human women were, so they married the ones they chose. The Lord said, “My breath[h] will not remain in humans forever, because they are flesh. They will live one hundred twenty years.” In those days, giants[i] lived on the earth and also afterward, when divine beings and human daughters had sexual relations and gave birth to children. These were the ancient heroes, famous men.

Great flood


These are Noah’s descendants. In his generation, Noah was a moral and exemplary man; he[j] walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 In God’s sight, the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. 12 God saw that the earth was corrupt, because all creatures behaved corruptly on the earth.

13 God said to Noah, “The end has come for all creatures, since they have filled the earth with violence. I am now about to destroy them along with the earth, 14 so make a wooden ark.[k] Make the ark with nesting places and cover it inside and out with tar. 15 This is how you should make it: four hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. 16 Make a roof[l] for the ark and complete it one foot from the top.[m] Put a door in its side. In the hold below, make the second and third decks.


22 Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.

The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark with your whole household, because among this generation I’ve seen that you are a moral man. From every clean animal, take seven pairs, a male and his mate; and from every unclean animal, take one pair, a male and his mate; and from the birds in the sky as well, take seven pairs, male and female, so that their offspring will survive throughout the earth. In seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe off from the fertile land every living thing that I have made.”

Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.

Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters arrived on earth. Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark to escape the floodwaters. From the clean and unclean animals, from the birds and everything crawling on the ground, two of each, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, just as God commanded Noah. 10 After seven days, the floodwaters arrived on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day—on that day all the springs of the deep sea erupted, and the windows in the skies opened. 12 It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 That same day Noah, with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his sons’ three wives, went into the ark. 14 They and every kind of animal—every kind of livestock, every kind that crawls on the ground, every kind of bird[n] 15 they came to Noah and entered the ark, two of every creature that breathes. 16 Male and female of every creature went in, just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.[o]



  1. Genesis 4:1 Or created; Heb sounds similar to Cain.
  2. Genesis 4:8 LXX, Syr, Vulg, Sam; MT lacks Let’s go out to the field.
  3. Genesis 4:15 LXX, Syr, Vulg; MT therefore
  4. Genesis 4:22 Heb lacks the ancestor of.
  5. Genesis 4:25 Sounds like the Heb verb gave
  6. Genesis 5:2 Heb adam
  7. Genesis 5:29 Heb resembles the sound of Noah’s name.
  8. Genesis 6:3 Or spirit
  9. Genesis 6:4 Or the Nephilim
  10. Genesis 6:9 Heb Noah
  11. Genesis 6:14 Or ark of gopher wood, an unknown species of tree
  12. Genesis 6:16 Or window
  13. Genesis 6:16 Heb uncertain
  14. Genesis 7:14 LXX; MT every bird, every winged thing
  15. Genesis 7:16 Heb lacks the door.
Common English Bible (CEB)

Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

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