Noah: The Ark, the Flood and the Return to Dry Land

Genesis 6

¹ When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

² God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.

³ Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”

⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

⁵ Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.

⁶ Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.

⁷ Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.”

⁸ But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.

⁹ This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.

¹⁰ Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

¹² God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

¹³ God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.

¹⁴ Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.

¹⁵ This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

¹⁶ You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.

¹⁷ I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is on the earth will die.

¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

¹⁹ Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

²⁰ Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.

²¹ Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”

²² Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.

Genesis 7

¹ Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.

² You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.

³ Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.

⁴ In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”

⁵ Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.

⁷ Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters.

⁸ Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground

⁹ went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.

¹⁰ After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened.

¹² It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship—

¹⁴ they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.

¹⁵ Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah.

¹⁶ Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.

¹⁸ The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.

¹⁹ The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.

²⁰ The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.

²¹ All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.

²² All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

²³ Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.

²⁴ The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.

Genesis 8

¹ God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.

² The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

³ The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters receded.

⁴ The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains.

⁵ The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

⁶ At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,

⁷ and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.

⁸ He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,

⁹ but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.

¹⁰ He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship.

¹¹ The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.

¹² He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.

¹³ In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ God spoke to Noah, saying,

¹⁶ “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.

¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸ Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.

¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.