6 People began to grow in number all over the earth. They gave birth to daughters. ² The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They chose for themselves any of them that they wanted to become their wives.^[a]

³ The Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not give life to humans for ever. One day they will die. I will not let them live for more than 120 years. Then they will die.’

⁴ The Nephilites lived on the earth at that time, and for some time after that. During that time, the sons of God were having sex with the daughters of men, who gave birth to their children. The Nephilites were famous great men and fighters.

⁵ The Lord saw that men and women on the earth had become very bad. They thought only of evil things all the time. ⁶ The Lord was sorry that he had made humans and put them on the earth. He became very upset. ⁷ So the Lord said, ‘I made humans, but now I will destroy them. I will completely take them off the earth. As well as human people, I will also destroy the animals, the living things that move on the ground, and the birds. I am sorry that I made them.’

⁸ But as for Noah, the Lord was happy about him.^[b]

God saves Noah

⁹ This is the report about Noah and his family.

Noah was a good man. He was the only person at that time who lived in a completely right way. He stayed near to God in his life. ¹⁰ Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

¹¹ God saw that everything on the earth had become spoiled. Everywhere, people were attacking each other. ¹² God saw how much the earth had become spoiled. Everyone was doing bad things. ¹³ God said to Noah, ‘I will destroy everyone. That is what I have decided to do. Everywhere on the earth, people are attacking each other. Now I will destroy the people and also the earth. ¹⁴ So make a ship for yourself. Use wood from cypress trees to make it.^[c] The ship must have rooms in it. Cover the inside and the outside of the ship with tar.^[d]

¹⁵ This is how you will build the ship: It must be 150 metres long, 25 metres wide and 15 metres high.

¹⁶ Make a roof for the ship. Leave a space 45 centimetres high all round under the roof. Put a door in the side of the ship. Inside the ship, make three floors above each other.

¹⁷ I will cover the earth with deep water. I will destroy all living things, wherever they live. Everything that breathes will die. ¹⁸ But I will make a covenant with you, Noah. You will go into the ship. You will take your wife with you, and also your three sons and their wives. ¹⁹ You must also take two of every different kind of animal into the ship. One will be male and the other will be female. Then they will stay alive with you. ²⁰ Bring two of every different kind of bird, two of every different animal and two of every different living thing that moves along the ground. All these will come to you. You will take care of them so that they will stay alive. ²¹ You must also take every different kind of food. That will be food for you and food for the animals.’

²² Noah obeyed God. He did everything that God had told him to do.

God destroys people and animals

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ship. Take your wife and family with you. I can see that you alone do what is right, among all the people on the earth.

² Take seven of every different kind of clean animal. Take a male and a female together. Take two of every different kind of unclean animal. Take a male and a female together. ³ Take seven of every kind of bird. Take males and females. Do this so that they will give birth to young ones. Then each different kind of animal and bird will continue to live on the earth.^[e]

⁴ In seven days, I will cause rain to fall on the earth. It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights. In that way, I will destroy every living thing that I have made on the earth.’

⁵ Noah did everything that God told him to do.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the deep water covered the earth. ⁷ Noah and his wife went into the ship. His sons and their wives also went in. They all went into the ship to be safe from the deep water. ⁸ Pairs of clean animals and unclean animals came to Noah in the ship.^[f] Also, pairs of birds and pairs of all the living things that move across the ground came to him. ⁹ Each pair was one male and one female. They all came to Noah in the ship. Everything happened as God had said to Noah. ¹⁰ After seven days had passed, God sent the deep water to cover the earth.

¹¹ When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th day of the second month, streams of water came up everywhere from below the earth. Also, the water in the heavens poured down on the earth. ¹² Rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On the day that the rain began to fall, Noah and his wife went into the ship. Noah's three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and their three wives also went in. ¹⁴ With them was every different kind of wild animal and every different kind of farm animal. They also had with them every kind of living thing that moves along the ground. Every different kind of bird and other flying things were there too. ¹⁵ Pairs of every kind of animal that lived came to Noah and went into the ship.^{[g] 16} Each pair was one male and one female. This happened in the way that God had told Noah. When they were all in the ship, the Lord shut the door.

¹⁷ For 40 days, the water on the earth became deeper. The water lifted the ship high above the ground.

¹⁸ The water became even deeper and completely covered the earth. The ship went safely on top of the water. ¹⁹ More water came until it covered all the high mountains on the earth. ²⁰ The water still became deeper so that it was more than 6 metres higher than the tops of the mountains.

²¹ As a result, everything that had lived on the earth now died. The birds, the farm animals and the wild animals died. Every living thing that moved across the ground died, and so did all the people. ²² Everything that lived on the dry land died. Nothing could breathe any more. ²³ God destroyed everything that lived on the earth. He destroyed people, animals, living things that move across the ground, and birds. God removed them from the earth. Only Noah and his family, together with the animals that were in the ship, stayed alive.

²⁴ The deep water covered the earth for 150 days.