Noah

Men began to increase on the earth and the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become,

and that every intention of his heart was only evil. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his

time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of

them. Make yourself a boat of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. The boat is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and put a door in the side of the boat. You are to bring two of all living creatures into the boat, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Then the LORD said to Noah, “I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe

from the face of the earth every living creature I have made. The LORD then said "Go into the boat, you and your whole family, and all the pairs of animals and also seven pairs of every kind of clean animal and bird to keep them alive." And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the springs of the

great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened and rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that same day Noah entered the boat and God closed the door. For forty days it rained and all the highest mountains were covered by the water. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the boat. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. Then God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down. 5 The tops of the mountains became

visible. 13-14 By the th day of the second month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had completely dried up from the earth. 15 Then God said to Noah, "Come out of the boat, you and all with you." 18 So Noah and his family and all the

animals came out of the boat, one kind after another. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Never

again will I destroy all living creatures. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. I will also demand of man an accounting for the life of your fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth." And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living

creature, a covenant for all generations to come: Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."