Hebrew Bible: Genesis 12-25

Warning: this post contains scenes of a sexual nature that some readers may find disturbing.

The numbers refer to the chapters.

12) God tells Abram to leave his country, Haran, and travel to a far off land where God will make a great nation from his offspring. Abram leaves Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their possessions.

They arrive in the land of Canaan. When they reach the Oak of Moreh, God tells Abram that this is the land which will be given to his offspring. Abram builds an altar and sets up a tent as a home.

There was a famine, so Abram & Co. go to Egypt to wait it out.

Abram tells Sarai (who is later revealed to be his half-sister) to say that she is his sister, not his wife, because she is beautiful and he is worried that the Egyptians will kill him and take her away.

Abram sells Sarai to the Pharaoh for lots of sheep, oxen, donkeys, servants and camels. The Pharaoh marries Sarai.

God afflicts the Pharaoh's house with great plagues because the Pharaoh married another man's wife. The Pharaoh asks Abram why he lied, then sends Abram & Co. away.

13) Abram & Co go back to their tent. Abram tells Lot to go away. Lot decides to go to the Jordan Valley, all the way to the city of Sodom.

14) In the Valley of Siddim, the armies of the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela battle the armies of the kings of Elam, Goiim, Shinar and Ellasar. Four kings against five.

The four win, loot Sodom and Gomorrah, and take Lot prisoner.

Abram is told of his nephew's plight, so gathers his trained men, all 318 of them, and sets off to rescue Lot. Abram's force attacks at night, wins, and recues all the prisoners and looted possessions.

The kings of Sodom and Salem meet Abram when he returns from his victory. The king of Salem, a priest of God, blesses Abram. Abram gives him a tenth of the spoils.

The king of Sodom wants to thank Abram, telling him to take all the rescued goods for himself, but Abram refuses them.

15) Abram is worried about not having had any children yet. God tells him not to worry because his offspring will be as numerous as the stars.

God asks Abram for a 3-year old heifer (a childless cow), a 3-year old goat, a 3-year old ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. Abram gets all these, kills them, cuts all but the birds in half, and lays them out next to each other.

Abram falls into a deep sleep. God tells Abram that his offspring will be servants in a foreign land for 400 years, but not to worry about it because God will pass judgement on the nation they are forced to serve.

16) Sarai is worried about having had any children yet. She tells Abram to 'go in to' Hagar, a servant of theirs. Abram takes Hagar as another wife, goes in to her, and she conceives.

Hagar, feeling empowered for having conceived so quickly, gives Sarai a look of contempt. Sarai gets angry. Hagar flees.

An angel finds Hagar by a spring, and tells her to go back home and submit to her mistress. Hagar does so. Hagar's child is a boy: Ishmael.

17) God appears to Abram and asks him to walk with him. Abram falls on his face. God tells Abram that he shall be the father of a multitude of nations; he shall be exceedingly fruitful; his descendants will be kings; the land of Canaan will belong to his descendants; that this shall be an everlasting covenant; and that henceforth he shall be known as ABRAHAM!

('Abram' means 'exalted father'; 'Abraham' means 'father of a multitude')

God tells Abraham his side of the covenant: every male must be circumcised, their foreskins removed. This is the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham. The male who is 8 days old must be circumcised. Every male, whether relative, servant or slave, must be circumcised.

God tells Abraham that Sarai must now be called Sarah, and promises that Sarah will conceive a son, who shall be called Isaac.

When he had finished speaking, God went up from Abraham.

That very day all the males of Abraham's household were circumcised.

18) God appears to Abraham in the form of three men (early trinity reference?). Abraham offers them food and water, which they accept.

God tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son about this time next year.

19) Two angels arrive in Sodom and meet Lot at the gate to the city. The angels enter Lot's house and have a feast.

All the men of Sodom surround Lot's house and ask for the angels to be brought out so they can 'know' them.

Understanding that by 'know' the men mean 'rape', Lot tries to calm the situation down by offering his two virgin daughters to the rapacious crowd, saying:

“I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

This angers the men, because they really want those angels. They try to break into the house.

The angels intervene, striking all the crowd blind, and ask Lot if he has anyone else in the city, because it is about to be destroyed. Lot tells his future son-in-laws to leave the city because it is about to be destroyed. They think he is joking. Big mistake.

The following morning the angels urged Lot to leave quickly. Lot dawdles. They are running out of time. The angels grab Lot, his wife and daughters by their hands and take them out of the city, and tell them to run for their lives, without looking back.

Lot & Co. flee to the city of Zoar. God rains fire and sulphur down from Heaven on to Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying the cities and all their inhabitants. Lot's wife looks back at the destruction, and becomes a pillar of salt.

Lot and his daughters move into a cave.

Lot's daughters are worried about not having had any children yet, so hatch a fiendish plan:

On the first night, they give Lot wine, get him drunk, and the older daughter has sex with him.

On the second night, they give Lot wine, get him drunk, and the younger daughter has sex with him.

They have a son each: Moab and Ben-ammi.

(When I first read that chapter I had to stop reading, thinking 'That's enough Bible for today.')

20) Abraham and Sarah visit the land of Gerar, where they play the Egypt trick again:

They pretend not to be married, say that Sarah is Abraham's sister. and get Sarah married to Abimelech, King of Gerar.

God visits Abimelech in a dream and tells him that he is a dead man because the woman he has taken is already a man's wife.

Abimelech tells God that he did not know this, because they had said that they were siblings. God says that he understands, but that Abimelech muct return Sarah to Abraham or be killed.

When he wakes up, Abimelech asks Abraham why he did all this lying. He answers:

“I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Abimelech returns Sarah, gives Abraham some silver, sheep, oxen, and servants, and tells him that he can stay in Gerar as long as he likes.

Abraham prays, and God removes the curse he had placed on the house of Abimelech because of Sarah: God allowed them to bear children again; he had closed all their wombs.

21) Sarah gives birth to Isaac, just as God said she would.

Sarah decides she doesn't like having Hagar and Ishmael around, and asks Abraham to get rid of them. God tells Abraham that he should do as his wife says. He sends them away with some bread and water.

Hagar and Ishmael wander the wilderness of Beersheba, and run out of water. Hagar leaves Ishmael under a bush and walks off, not wanting to see her child die. She sits down and weeps.

God hears their cries. An angel tells Hagar to pick up Ishmael, for he shall become a create nation. She opens her eyes and sees a well of water. They are saved. Ishmael grows up in the wilderness and becomes an expert archer.

22) God decides to test Abraham, saying to him:

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Abraham goes to the land of Moriah with his son and two servants, and finds the place where God wants Isaac killed. He says to his servants:

“Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

On the way, Isaac asks his father where the sacrificial lamb is. Abraham replies that God will provide one.

They arrive at the place where God wants the sacrifice. Abraham builds an altar, piles the wood, ties up Isaac and lays him out on top.

Abraham is ready to slaughter Isaac with the knife.

An angel intervenes, saying:

“Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Abraham looks around and sees a ram caught by its thorns in a thicket, so sacrifices it instead of Isaac.

The angel tells Abraham:

“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

23) Sarah dies at the age of 127. Abraham asks the Hittites (the people of the land where he is living) for a place to bury her. The Hittites say that Abraham can bury Sarah wherever he likes, because he's awesome. Abraham says that he would like to bury Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah, which is at the end of a field owned by Ephron.

Ephron says Abraham can have the field and the cave. Abraham says he would like to pay for the field. Abraham pays for the field, and buries Sarah in the cave.

24) Abraham is now very old. He tells his oldest servant to go to his old country and find a wife for Isaac, and ensure that she comes back here. Isaac must not move to her.

The servant goes to the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia, and rests at a well of water, at the time when women go out to get water. The servant asks God to grant him success.

Before he had finished talking to God, Rebekah came out to collect some water. She was very attractive. The servant runs up to her and asks for water, which she provides for him and his camels.

The servant gives her some jewellery, asks who her father is and whether there is room and his house to stay the night.

Rebekah's brother, Laban, runs out the servant and tells him to come in and rest. The servant explains his purpose for being here, and that he intends to take Rebekah to be Isaac's wife. The family says OK. The servant gives many costly things to Rebekah and her family before heading off back to Abraham with the woman.

Isaac happens to be out in the field meditating when he sees them returning on their camels. The servant tells Isaac that this woman is to be his wife.

'Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.'

25) Abraham gets a new wife called Keturah, and has more children. He also has children from concubines, but he sent them away after giving them gifts.

Abraham's favourite is Isaac, to whom he gives everything. Abraham dies at the age of 175, he is buried with Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah.

Isaac is worried about not having had any children from Rebekah yet, so prays to God for help. God grants the prayer; Rebekah conceives twins. God says to Rebekah:

“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”

The twins are born:
'The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob.'

Esau grew to be a skilful hunter, and his father's favourite.

Jacob grew to be a quiet man who spent a lot of time inside, and was his mother's favourite.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Walden Quotes

Earlier this year I read 'Walden' by Henry Thoreau. Thoreau decided to live simply in the woods for two years, two months and two days to find out what was really necessary in life. He is very quotable. Here are some quotes that I enjoy for whatever reason:

'Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the

manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be any thing but a machine.'

'Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.

What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.'

'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.'

'One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle. Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown.'

'Undoubtedly the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But man’s capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. Whatever have been thy failures hitherto, “be not afflicted, my child, for who shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone?”'

'All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion; for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind.'

'When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress tells me gravely, “They do not make them so now,” not emphasizing the “They” at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as the Fates, and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so rash. When I hear this oracular sentence, I am for a moment absorbed in thought, emphasizing to myself each word separately that I may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what degree of consanguinity They are related to me, and what authority they may have in an affair which affects me so nearly; and, finally, I am inclined to answer her with equal mystery, and without any more emphasis of the “they,”—”It is true, they did not make them so recently, but they do now.”'

'Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.'

'Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at.'

'Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East,—to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them,—who were above such trifling.'

'I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely.'

'One young man of my acquaintance, who has inherited some acres, told me that he thought he should live as I did, if he had the means. I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.'

'The man who goes alone can start to-day; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.'

'I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.'

'Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence,—that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit every where, which still is built on

purely illusory foundations. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.'

'Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through church and state, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d’appui, below freshet and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer, but a Realometer, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time.'

'To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.'

'However much we may admire the orator’s occasional bursts of eloquence, the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or above the fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars is behind the clouds.'

'Probably I should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation.'

'A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips;—not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.'

'Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.'

'There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and his life.'

'Men frequently say to me, “I should think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer to folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially.” I am tempted to reply to such,—This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way? This which you put seems to me not to be the most important question. What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another. What do we want most to dwell near to?'

'Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to me extravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.'

'Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable way,—as any one who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn,—and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.'

'Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.'

'We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring.'

“Direct your eye sight inward, and you’ll find 

A thousand regions in your mind 

Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be 

Expert in home-cosmography.”

'I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.'

'I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less

complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.'


BONUS: Two quotes from Oscar Wilde:

'The hero of the future is he who shall bravely and gracefully subdue this Gorgon of fashion and of convention. When you have chosen your own part, abide by it, and do not weakly try and reconcile yourself with the world.  The heroic cannot be the common nor the common the heroic.  Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age.'

'There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely - or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.'

Hebrew Bible: Genesis 4-11

Genesis goes from the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden straight to the births of their sons, Cain and Abel. Abel became a shepherd; Cain, a farmer of the ground. They both made offerings to God: Abel offered sheep; Cain, the 'fruits of the ground'. God thought that Abel's sheep were great, but didn't like Cain's fruits of the ground.

Cain gets angry. God tries to calm him down. It doesn't work. Cain kills Abel.

God asks Cain if he's seen Abel around. Cain answers “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?”

God, knowing what Cain has done, curses him with Reduced Farming Ability, and to forever be a wanderer with no home.

Cain worries that everyone will hate him and try to kill him. God assures him otherwise:

“Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.'

Cain wanders off with his unnamed wife. Presumably she is also Cain's sister, but we have not been told about her birth. This is the first and last time she is mentioned. Unnamed wives are a recurring thing, and it would get irritating if I pointed it out each time. I probably won't point it out again.

Adam and Eve have another son, Seth, to replace Abel. End of chapter 4.

Chapter 5 traces the lineage of Adam and Seth to Noah and his children.

Chapter 6 tells us that after humans began multiplying, the 'sons of God' saw that the women were attractive, and mated with them to create the Nephilim, a race of giants.

God sees that man is now very wicked, and regrets having made man in the first place.

“I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” Says God.

Noah was a righteous blameless man who walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

God tells Noah that he is determined to end all flesh because the earth is full of violence, and gives him detailed instructions to build an ark made of 'gopher wood' (an unknown type of wood) to survive a big flood.

"Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.”

Noah does all this. End of chapter 6.

At the start of chapter 7, God changes his mind. He tells Noah:

“Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate,  and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

Seven days is a bit short notice to get an extra 12 of each clean animal, and an extra 12 of each bird, but Noah gets it done. He's a trooper.

The flood came on the 17th day of the 7th month in the year that Noah was 600 years old.

I'm going to write this date as 17/7/00 so I can keep track of the dates given later, and present this summary in chronological order. The Bible tells the story achronologically.

The fountains of the deep burst forth, the windows of heaven open.

The flood continued for 40 days. All of the ground, all of the mountains, were covered by water.

'Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.'

After those 40 days, Noah sends out a Raven to look for dry land. It finds nothing. Then Noah sends out a dove. It finds nothing.

Seven days later, Noah tries again with the dove. It brings back a freshly picked olive leaf, so Noah now knows that there is dry land somewhere, and that an olive tree has grown really quickly.

Seven days later, Noah tries again with the dove. It does not return.

17/7/00: Seven months after the start of the flood, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat, which are still submerged.

1/10/00: After ten months, the tops of mountains start to appear.

1/1/01: Noah is in his 601st year. He removes the covering of the ark and sees dry land.

27/2/01: The earth is dry. God tells Noah to get everything out of the ark, and get busy repopulating the Earth.

Noah builds an altar to God, and burns a piece of each clean animal. God smells the offering and says, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

God then authorizes the use of animals as food, and the use of the death penalty, saying to Noah & Co.:

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

God makes a covenant with Noah. God says he will never again use a flood to wipe out all life. God puts a rainbow in the sky as a sign of this covenant, and says:

"When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth,”

Noah becomes a farmer, and plants a vineyard. He gets really drunk and passes out naked. Ham sees him and tells his two brothers, Shem and Japheth, who take a garment to Noah, while walking backwards so they do not see his nudity, and cover him up.

When Noah wakes and sees what has been done to him he curses Canaan, the son of Ham, so that all his descendants will forever be servants of the descendants of Shem and Japheth.

That brings us to the end of chapter 9.

Chapters 10 and 11 would work better being swapped around. Chapter 10 describes the descendants of Noah's sons: where they spread, what nations they founded, each with their own language. Chapter 11 begins the Tower of Babel story, which occurs when the 'whole earth had one language and the same words':

The people settle in the land of Shinar and decide to build a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens.

God visits the city and the tower, and says:

“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”

So God does just that: he confuses their language, and disperses them over the earth.

The rest of the chapter traces the lineage to Abram.