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People became very evil and did many evil things
1 When people began to become very numerous all over the earth, and many daughters were born to them,
2 some of the men who ◄belonged to/believed in► God saw that some of the women who did not ◄belong to/believe in► God were very beautiful. So they took whichever ones they chose to become their wives.
3 Then Yahweh said, “ I will not allow my Spirit to keep people alive forever (OR, the breath of life will not remain in people forever). They will die eventually. They will live not more than 120 years before they die (OR, there will be only 120 more years before they die).”
4 There were giants called Nephils who lived on the earth at that time and later. During that time some of the Nephil men who ◄belonged to/believed in► God had sex [EUP] with women who did not ◄belong to/believe in► God, and they gave birth to children. The Nephils were considered to be heroic fighters, and they became famous.
5 Yahweh saw that people on the earth had become very wicked, and that everything they thought about evil things continually.
6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made people.
7 So he said, “I will completely destroy the people I made. I will also destroy all the animals and the creatures that scurry across the ground and the birds. None of them will remain on the earth, because I regret that I made them.”
Noah pleased God, so God planned to spare him
8 But Yahweh was pleased with Noah.
9 This is why: Noah was a man who always acted in a righteous way. No one who lived at that time could criticize him about anything. Noah lived in close fellowship with God.
10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 At that time God considered that everyone else on earth was very wicked, and everywhere on the earth, people [MTY] were acting cruelly and violently toward each other.
12 God was dismayed when he saw how evil people [MTY] were, because everyone (OR, all living creatures) had begun to behave in an evil way.
13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy everyone, because all over the earth people are acting violently toward each other. So I am about to get rid of them as well as everything else on the earth.
14 I want you to make for yourself a large boat from cypress wood. Make rooms inside it. Cover the outside and the inside with tar to make it ◄waterproof/so that water cannot get in and sink the boat►.
15 This is the size you must make it: It shall be ◄150 yards/135 meters► long, ◄25 yards/22.5 meters► wide, and ◄15 yards/13.5 meters► high.
16 Make a roof for the boat. Leave a space of about ◄18 in./.5 meter► between the sides and the roof to let air and light enter (OR, the middle of the roof should be 18 inches higher than the sides). Build the boat with three decks inside, and put a door in one side.
17 Listen carefully! I am about to cause a flood to occur that will destroy every creature that lives beneath the sky. Everything on the earth will die.
18 But I will make an agreement with you(sg): You and your wife, your sons and their wives will enter the boat.
19 And I want to save some of all kinds of creatures. So you must also bring two of all living creatures, a male and a female, into the boat with you, so that their species also may remain alive.
20 Two of every kind of creature will come to you in order that by your putting them in the boat you will keep them alive. They will include two of each kind of bird and each kind of animal and each kind of creature that scurries across the ground.
21 You must also take some of every kind of food that you and all these animals will need, and store it in the boat.”
22 So Noah did everything that God told him to do.