Noah’s Ark

Long ago, when people had begun to spread over the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of men were, and they took as wives any of them they chose.

Then God said, “My spirit will not stay with human beings forever, for they are only flesh. Their days shall be a hundred and twenty years.”

In those days there were giants on the earth, and afterward too, when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and the women bore them children. Those children became the mighty men of old, the heroes whose names everyone knew.

God saw how great the wickedness of people on the earth had become, and that every thought in their hearts was evil, all the time. He was sorry that he had ever made human beings, and his heart was full of grief.

“I will wipe the people I have made from the face of the earth,” God said, “and the animals with them, the creatures that creep along the ground, and the birds of the air. I am sorry that I made them.”

But there was one man God looked on with favor, and that man was Noah.

This is the story of Noah. He was a good and righteous man, the only blameless man of his time, and he walked with God. He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The rest of the earth had gone bad in God’s sight, and it was full of violence. God looked at the earth and saw how corrupt it was, for every living creature on it had turned to wicked ways.

So God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every living thing, because the earth is full of violence through them. I am going to destroy them, and the earth along with them.”

Then God told Noah what to do. “Build yourself an ark of cypress wood. Make rooms inside it, and coat it with pitch inside and out.”

God gave him the measurements too. The ark was to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. A cubit is about the length of a man’s forearm.

“Make a window in the ark,” God went on, “a cubit below the roof. Put a door in the side of the ark, and build it with three decks: a lower deck, a middle deck, and an upper deck.

“I am going to send a flood of waters over the earth, to destroy every creature under the sky that has the breath of life in it. Everything on the earth will die. But with you I will make my covenant. You will go into the ark, you and your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”

God told him about the animals as well. “You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature, a male and a female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, two of every kind of animal, and two of every kind of creature that creeps along the ground will come to you, so that they may stay alive. And gather every kind of food there is and store it away. It will be food for you and for them.”

Noah did all of it. He did everything just as God had commanded him.

Then God said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous among the people of this time. Of every clean animal take seven, males and females, and of every animal that is not clean, one pair, a male and a female. Take seven of every kind of bird too, male and female, to keep their kinds alive on the face of the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe every living thing I have made from the face of the earth.”

And Noah did everything God had commanded him.

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came. He went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, to escape the waters of the flood. Clean animals and animals that were not clean, birds, and every creature that creeps along the ground came to Noah two by two and went into the ark, male and female, just as God had commanded him.

Seven days went by, and then the floodwaters came over the earth.

It was the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, the seventeenth day of the second month. On that day all the springs deep under the earth burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. Rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

When that day came, Noah was inside the ark with his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and with his wife and the three wives of his sons. With them were every kind of wild animal, every kind of farm animal, every kind of creature that creeps along the ground, and every kind of bird, every creature with wings. They had all gone in seven days earlier.

Two by two they came to Noah and went into the ark, all the creatures that have the breath of life in them. They went in male and female of every kind, as God had commanded Noah. Then God shut the door behind them.

For forty days the flood poured over the earth. The waters rose and lifted the ark, and it floated high above the ground. The water grew deeper and deeper, and the ark drifted on its surface.

Higher and higher the water rose, until all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. It stood fifteen cubits above the highest peaks, and the mountains lay hidden beneath it.

Every living thing that moved on the earth died: the birds, the farm animals, the wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the ground, and every human being. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out, people and animals, creeping things and birds of the air. They were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

The waters covered the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

But God remembered Noah, and all the wild animals and farm animals that were with him in the ark. God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to go down. The springs under the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain stopped. Little by little the water drew back from the land, and by the end of the hundred and fifty days it had gone down a long way.

On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The water kept going down until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.

Forty days later, Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven. It flew back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.

Then Noah sent out a dove, to see whether the water had drained from the land. But the dove found nowhere to rest her feet, because water still covered the whole earth, and she flew back to him in the ark. Noah reached out his hand, took hold of her, and brought her back inside.

He waited seven more days and sent the dove out of the ark again. In the evening she came back to him, and there in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. Then Noah knew that the water had gone down.

He waited another seven days and sent the dove out once more. This time she did not come back.

By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water was gone from the earth. Noah took the covering off the ark and looked out, and he saw that the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the whole earth was dry.

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. Bring out with you every living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and every creature that creeps along the ground, so that they can spread across the earth, have young, and fill it again.”

So Noah came out, with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the birds, everything that moves on the earth, came out of the ark, one kind after another.

The first thing Noah did was build an altar to God. He took some of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar.

God smelled the pleasing aroma of the offering, and he said to himself, “Never again will I curse the ground because of people, even though every thought of the human heart is evil from childhood on. And never again will I destroy every living creature, as I have done.

“As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never stop.”

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Have many children, grow in number, and fill the earth. Every animal on the earth and every bird in the air, every creature that moves along the ground and every fish in the sea, will be afraid of you and tremble before you. I have put them into your hands.

“Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. I gave you the green plants to eat, and now I give you everything. But you must not eat meat that still has its lifeblood in it.

“And for your own lifeblood I will demand an account. I will demand it from every animal, and I will demand it from every person: each one will answer to me for the life of a fellow human. Whoever sheds the blood of a human being shall have his own blood shed by a human being, for God made people in his own image. As for you, have many children and grow in number; spread out over the earth and fill it.”

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him. “Now I am making my covenant with you and with your children after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the farm animals, and all the wild animals, every creature that came out of the ark with you, every animal on earth. This is my promise. Never again will all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

“Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in them, I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the covenant that lasts forever, between God and every living creature on the earth.”

Then God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have made between me and every living thing on the earth.”