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.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon 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 ^(G)fountains of the great deep burst forth, and ^(H)the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. ¹⁵ They ^(I)went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in ^(J)as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood ^(K)continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. ¹⁹ And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits^[d] deep. ²¹ And ^(L)all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on the dry land ^(M)in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³ He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only ^(N)Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

The Flood Subsides

8 But God ^(O)remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And ^(P)God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. ^2 (Q)The fountains of the deep and ^(R)the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, ³ and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end ^(S)of 150 days the waters had abated, ⁴ and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of ^(T)Ararat. ⁵ And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made ⁷ and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. ¹¹ And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹² Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

¹³ In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out from the ark, ^(U)you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and ^(V)be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. ¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

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 ^(W)the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again ^(X)curse^[e] the ground because of man, for ^(Y)the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. ^(Z)Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. ^22 (AA)While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, ^(AB)day and night, shall not cease.”

9 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ^(AC)“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ^2 (AD)The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. ^3 (AE)Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And ^(AF)as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its ^(AG)life, that is, its blood. ⁵ And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: ^(AH)from every beast I will require it and ^(AI)from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

⁷ And you,^[f] be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “Behold, ^(AL)I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. ^11 (AM)I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, ^(AN)“This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³ I have set ^(AO)my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ^15 (AP)I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember ^(AQ)the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah's Descendants

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were ^(AR)Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and ^(AS)from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.^[g]

²⁰ Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.^{[h] 21} He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine ^(AT)and knew what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

²⁶ He also said,

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹ All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

A Man with a Withered Hand

3 ^(A)Again ^(B)he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. ² And ^(C)they watched Jesus,^[a] to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” ⁴ And he said to them, ^(D)“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ And he ^(E)looked around at them with anger, grieved at ^(F)their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” ^(G)He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ^6 (H)The Pharisees went out and immediately ^(I)held counsel with ^(J)the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

A Great Crowd Follows Jesus

^7 (K)Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ^(L)a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea ⁸ and Jerusalem and ^(M)Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around ^(N)Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. ⁹ And he told his disciples to ^(O)have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they ^(P)crush him, ¹⁰ for ^(Q)he had healed many, so that all who had ^(R)diseases pressed around him ^(S)to touch him. ^11 (T)And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they ^(U)fell down before him and cried out, “You are ^(V)the Son of God.” ¹² And ^(W)he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The Twelve Apostles

^13 (X)And he went up on the mountain and called to him those ^(Y)whom he desired, and they came to him. ^14 (Z)And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach ^15 (AA)and have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶ He appointed the twelve: ^(AB)Simon (to whom ^(AC)he gave the name Peter); ^17 (AD)James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and ^(AE)Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,^{[b] 19} and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

²⁰ Then he went ^(AF)home, and the crowd gathered again, ^(AG)so that they could not even eat. ^21 (AH)And when ^(AI)his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He ^(AJ)is out of his mind.”

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

²² And ^(AK)the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ^(AL)“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” ^23 (AM)And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. ²⁷ But ^(AN)no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. ^(AO)Then indeed he may plunder his house.

^28 (AP)“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹ but whoever ^(AQ)blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

^31 (AR)And his mother and his ^(AS)brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. ³² And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers^[c] are outside, seeking you.” ³³ And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ And ^(AT)looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ^35 (AU)For whoever ^(AV)does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”