Genesis 6:9-8:19

Modern English Version

Noah and the Flood

⁹ These are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a just man and blameless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth and saw it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make an ark of cypress wood for yourself. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ And this is how you must make it: The length of the ark will be three hundred cubits, the width of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.^{[a] 16} Make an opening^[b] one cubit^[c] below the top of the ark all around; and you must set the door of the ark on the side. Make it with a lower, a second, and a third story. ¹⁷ I will bring a flood of waters on the earth to destroy all flesh, wherever there is the breath of life under heaven, and everything that is on the earth will die. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you; you must go into the ark—you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ Bring every living thing of all flesh, two of every kind, into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creeping thing of the earth will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ Also, take with you of every kind of food that is eaten and gather it to yourself, and it will be for food for you and for them.”

²² Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

7 The Lord said to Noah, “You and your entire household go into the ark, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me among this generation. ² Take with you seven each of every clean animal, the male and its female, and two each of every unclean animal, the male and its female, ³ and seven each of birds of the air, the male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will destroy from the face of the earth.”

⁵ And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah went with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives into the ark because of the floodwaters. ⁸ Everything that creeps on the land from clean and unclean animals and birds ⁹ came in two by two, male and female, to Noah into the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ After seven days, the waters of the flood were on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the same day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They and every wild animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort, ¹⁵ went with Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh in which was the breath of life. ¹⁶ So they went in, male and female of all flesh, just as God had commanded him; then the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood was on the earth forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose up above the earth. ¹⁸ The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed upward and the mountains were covered fifteen cubits deep.^{[d] 21} All flesh that moved on the earth died: birds and livestock and beasts, and every creeping thing that crept on the earth, and every man. ²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that was on the dry land, died. ²³ So He blotted out every living thing which was on the face of the ground, both man and animals and the creeping things and the birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

²⁴ The waters prevailed on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

The Flood Recedes

8 God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the water receded. ² Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain from the heavens was restrained. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth, and after the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. ⁴ The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The water continually decreased until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ Then at the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, ⁷ and he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro until the waters were dried up on the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were on the surface of all the earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ He waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came to him in the evening, and in her mouth there was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again, but it did not return to him again.

¹³ So in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸ So Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went out. ¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.