Live-Wire Bible Study - Day 4 - Genesis 9–11 · Mark 4 · Psalm 29 - FeedTheGoodHorse

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Jan 06, 2026

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Day 4: Genesis 9–11 · Mark 4 · Psalm 29 · Commentary · Commentary² · Video

The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.1

Genesis 9

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every animal 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 given. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. 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 surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it, and from the human. From each person I will require a reckoning for the life of another human.

“Whoever sheds human blood,
by a human shall his blood be shed,
for God made the human in his image.”

You, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Look, I establish my covenant with you and with your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I set between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 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. 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.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

These are the sons of Noah who went out from the ark: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was spread out.

Noah began to be a man of the ground, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.”

Noah lived after the flood three hundred fifty years. Thus all the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, and he died.

Genesis 10

These are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastlands of the nations spread out in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.

The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.

Cush fathered Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went out into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

Mizraim fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorim.

Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites spread abroad. The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza, and as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the older brother of Japheth, children were born. The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. Their dwelling place was from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east.

These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

These are the clans of the sons of Noah, by their generations, in their nations. From these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

Genesis 11

The whole earth had one language and the same words. As they journeyed east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the humans had built. The Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

These are the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old when he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood. Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad five hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and fathered Shelah. Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah four hundred three years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Shelah lived thirty years and fathered Eber. Shelah lived after he fathered Eber four hundred three years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Eber lived thirty-four years and fathered Peleg. Eber lived after he fathered Peleg four hundred thirty years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Peleg lived thirty years and fathered Reu. Peleg lived after he fathered Reu two hundred nine years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Reu lived thirty-two years and fathered Serug. Reu lived after he fathered Serug two hundred seven years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Serug lived thirty years and fathered Nahor. Serug lived after he fathered Nahor two hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Nahor lived twenty-nine years and fathered Terah. Nahor lived after he fathered Terah one hundred nineteen years, and he fathered sons and daughters.

Terah lived seventy years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

These are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Mark 4

Again he began to teach beside the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.

He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, “Listen. A sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. He said to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they turn and be forgiven.”

He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” He explained the parable of the sower to them.

He said, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed, and not to be put on a lampstand? For nothing is hidden except to be made visible, and nothing is concealed except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

He said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he does not know how. The earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

He said, “With what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the heavens can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

Later, on that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be still. Be silent.” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no trust?” They were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”