7 Then the Lord said to Noah, ^(A)“Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that ^(B)you are righteous before me in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of all ^(C)clean animals,^[a] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, ³ and seven pairs^[b] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For in seven days ^(D)I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, ^(E)and every living thing^[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ^5 (F)And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

God's Covenant with Noah

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And when the Lord smelled ^(A)the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again ^(B)curse^[a] the ground because of man, for ^(C)the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. ^(D)Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. ^22 (E)While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, ^(F)day and night, shall not cease.”