The flood

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5 When the Lord saw that people’s wickedness was increasing in the world, and that the trend of their thoughts was at all times toward evil, 6 he was greatly grieved and regretted that he had made people on the earth. 7 Therefore the Lord said, ‘I will destroy all living beings from off the ground — people, animals, creeping things, and birds — because I regret that I have made them.’ 8 But Noah had won the Lord’s favour.

9 This is the story of Noah. Among the people of his time, Noah was righteous and wholehearted; Noah walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 God saw that the earth was corrupt and full of violence. 12 God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt; all living things on the earth had become corrupt in their ways.

13 So God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to put an end to all living beings, for the earth is filled with their acts of injustice; I am going to destroy them from the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood. Construct rooms in the ark, and coat it within and without with pitch. 15 This is how you shall build it: the length of the ark shall be five hundred feet, its breadth eighty feet, and its height fifty feet. 16 Make a roof for it and place the door on the side. Construct it with lower, second, and third storeys. 17 For I am about to bring floods of water upon the earth to destroy from under heaven every living thing in which is the breath of life; every thing that is on the earth shall die.

18 ‘But I will make a solemn agreement with you. Go into the ark with your sons, your wife and their wives, 19 and take with you into the ark two of every kind living thing, a male and a female, 20 birds, animals and creeping things, so that they might be kept alive. 21 Take and store food for them and you.’

22 Noah did all this. He did everything that God told him to.

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7 Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Enter with all your household into the ark; for I see that in this age you are living before me an upright life. 2 Take seven of all the beasts that are fit for food and sacrifice, the male and the female; but of the beasts that are not fit for food and sacrifice take only two, the male and the female; 3 and of the wild birds that are fit for food and sacrifice take seven, to keep the species alive on the earth. 4 After seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy from the surface of the ground every living thing that I have made.’

5 Then Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. 6 He was six hundred years old, and when the waters of the flood came upon the earth 7 he, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, entered the ark because of the waters of the flood 8 together with the beasts that were fit for food and sacrifice and the beasts that were not fit, and the birds, and everything that creeps upon the ground. 9 Two by two, male and female, they entered the ark as God had commanded Noah.

10 After seven days, the flood waters came. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the windows of heaven were opened — and 12 it rained for forty days and forty nights. 13 That was the day that Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark, and 14 every type of animal, and cattle, and creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and bird 15 went with Noah into the ark, two by two of every kind of living thing. 16 They went in, male and female, as God had commanded Noah; and the Lord shut Noah in the ark.

17 The flood continued for forty days, and the waters increased and raised up the ark, and it was lifted high above the earth. 18 It floated on the surface as the waters rose higher over the land. 19 Higher the waters rose over the land — until the highest mountains were covered 20 by more than twenty feet.

21 All creatures on the land, bird and cattle and animals, every creature that swarms on the ground, every person, 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died. 23 The Lord destroyed everything that existed upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and creeping things, and the birds of the heavens, and Noah only was left and they who were with him in the ark.

24 The waters did not start to go down for a hundred and fifty days.

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8 Then God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the animals that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to blow over the earth, and the flood subsided, 2 the fountains of the deed were stopped and the windows of heaven closed, and the rain from heaven ceased, 3 and the waters withdrew more and more from the land for a hundred and fifty days. 4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to go down until, on the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

6 After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark, 7 and sent out a raven; and it kept going to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the surface of the ground; 9 but the dove found no rest for her foot, and so returned to him to the ark, for the waters covered the surface of the whole earth. So he reached out his hand and took her and brought her back into the ark.

10 Then he waited seven days longer and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 The dove came in to him at dusk and in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive-leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 He waited seven days more and sent out the dove; but it did not return to him again.

13 So it was that in the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the waters had dried up. Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 It was the twenty-seventh day of the second month.

15 God said to Noah, 16 ‘Leave the ark with your wife and sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every living creature, every bird, cattle, and creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they can spread over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply.’ 18 So Noah left the ark with his sons and his wife and his son’s wives, 19 and every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird came out one kind after another. 20 Noah built an altar to the Lord and took one of every beast and bird that was fit for sacrifice and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing odour, he said to himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of people because the inclination of their heart is evil from their youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’

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9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Bear children and multiply and repopulate the earth. 2 Every wild beast and bird and everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea shall fear and dread you; into your hand they are given. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; as I gave the green herbs, I give them all to you. 4 Only you shall not eat flesh while the life is in it, that is, the blood.

5 ‘Moreover, your own life-blood will I require for a person’s life; from every beast will I require it, and from everyone who takes another’s life. 6 Whoever sheds a person’s blood, by people shall their blood be shed; for God made people in his own image. 7 But you are to bear children and repopulate the whole earth and subdue it.’

8 God also said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 ‘Now I make this solemn agreement with you and with your descendants 10 and with every living creature that is with you, with the birds, the cattle, and every wild animal that is with you of all that have gone out of the ark, even with every beast of the earth. 11 This is my solemn agreement: No living thing will ever again be cut off by the waters of the flood, and there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.’

12 God said, ‘This is the symbol of the solemn agreement that I make for all time between me and you and every living creature that is with you: 13 I have placed my bow in the cloud and it shall be the symbol of the solemn agreement between me and the inhabitants of the earth. 14 Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the bow is seen in the cloud, 15 I will remember the agreement which is between me and you and every living creature; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all living things. 16 Whenever the bow is seen in the cloud, I will see it and remember the everlasting agreement between God and every living creature on earth,’ 17 God said to Noah, ‘it is the sign of the solemn agreement which I have made with everything that lives on earth.’