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Noah’s Family and the Ship

This is the account of Noah and his descendants.

Noah had God’s approval and was a man of integrity among the people of his time. He walked with God. 10 He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 The world was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence. 12 God saw the world and how corrupt it was because all people on earth lived evil lives.

13 God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all people because the earth is full of their violence. Now I’m going to destroy them along with the earth. 14 Make yourself a ship of cypress wood. [a] Make rooms in the ship and coat it inside and out with tar. 15 This is how you should build it: the ship is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for the ship, and leave an 18-inch-high opening at the top. Put a door in the side of the ship. Build the ship with lower, middle, and upper decks. 17 I’m about to send a flood on the earth to destroy all people under the sky—every living, breathing human. Everything on earth will die.

18 “But I will make my promise [b] to you. You, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives will go into the ship. 19 Bring two of every living creature into the ship in order to keep them alive with you. They must be male and female. 20 Two of every type of bird, every type of domestic animal, and every type of creature that crawls on the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 Take every kind of food that can be eaten and store it. It will be food for you and the animals.”

22 Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

The Flood

The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ship with your whole family because I have seen that you alone are righteous among the people of today. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal (a male and a female of each) and one pair of every kind of unclean [c] animal (a male and a female). Also, take seven pairs of every kind of bird (a male and a female of each) to preserve animal life all over the earth after the flood. In seven days I will send rain to the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. I will wipe off the face of the earth every living creature that I have made.”

So Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

Noah was 600 years old when the flood came to the earth. Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives went into the ship to escape the floodwaters. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and creatures that crawl on the ground came to Noah to go into the ship in pairs (a male and female of each) as God had commanded Noah.

10 Seven days later the flood came on the earth. 11 On the seventeenth day of the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, all the deep springs burst open. The sky opened, 12 and rain came pouring down on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

13 On that same day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, as well as Noah’s wife and his three daughters-in-law went into the ship. 14 They had with them every type of wild animal, every type of domestic animal, every type of creature that crawls on the earth, and every type of bird (every creature with wings). 15 A pair of every living, breathing animal came to Noah to go into the ship. 16 A male and a female of every animal went in as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

17 The flood continued for 40 days on the earth. The water increased and lifted the ship so that it rose high above the ground. 18 As the water rose and became very deep, the ship floated on top of the water. 19 The water rose very high above the earth. It covered all the high mountains everywhere under the sky. 20 It rose 23 feet above the mountaintops.

21 Every creature that crawls on the earth died, including birds, domestic and wild animals, and everything that swarms over the earth, along with every human. 22 Everything on dry land (every living, breathing creature) died. 23 Every living creature on the face of the earth was wiped out. Humans, domestic animals, crawling creatures, and birds were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ship were left.

24 The floodwaters were on the earth for 150 days.

Footnotes

  1. 6:14 Or “teakwood.”
  2. 6:18 Or “covenant.”
  3. 7:2 Clean   ” refers to anything that is presentable to God. “Unclean   ” refers to anything that is not presentable to God.

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