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Genesis 7-9
Easy-to-Read Version
Genesis 7-9
Easy-to-Read Version
The Flood Begins
7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “I have seen that you are a good man, even among the evil people of this time. So gather your family, and all of you go into the boat. 2 Get seven pairs (seven males and seven females) of every kind of clean animal. And get one pair (one male and one female) of every other animal on the earth. Lead all these animals into the boat with you. 3 Get seven pairs (seven males and seven females) of all the birds. This will allow all these animals to continue living on the earth after the other animals are destroyed. 4 Seven days from now, I will send much rain on the earth. It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and I will wipe everything off the face of the earth. I will destroy everything I made.” 5 Noah did everything the Lord told him to do.
6 Noah was 600 years old at the time the rains came. 7 He and his family went into the boat to be saved from the flood. His wife and his sons and their wives were on the boat with him. 8 All the clean animals, all the other animals on the earth, the birds, and everything that crawls on the earth 9 went into the boat with Noah. These animals went into the boat in groups of two, male and female, just as God commanded. 10 Seven days later the flood started. The rain began to fall on the earth.
11-13 On the 17th day of the second month, when Noah was 600 years old, the springs under the earth broke through the ground, and water flowed out everywhere. The sky also opened like windows and rain poured down. The rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. That same day Noah went into the boat with his wife, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. 14 They and every kind of animal on the earth were in the boat. Every kind of cattle, every kind of animal that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird were in the boat. 15 All these animals went into the boat with Noah. They came in groups of two from every kind of animal that had the breath of life. 16 All these animals went into the boat in groups of two, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind Noah.
17 Water flooded the earth for 40 days. The water began rising and lifted the boat off the ground. 18 The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on the water high above the earth. 19 The water rose so much that even the highest mountains were covered by the water. 20 The water continued to rise above the mountains. The water was more than 20 feet[a] above the highest mountain.
21-22 Every living thing on earth died—every man and woman, every bird, and every kind of animal. All the many kinds of animals and all the things that crawl on the ground died. Every living, breathing thing on dry land died. 23 In this way God wiped the earth clean—he destroyed every living thing on the earth—every human, every animal, everything that crawls, and every bird. All that was left was Noah and his family and the animals that were with him in the boat. 24 The water continued to cover the earth for 150 days.
The Flood Ends
8 But God did not forget about Noah. God remembered him and all the animals that were with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth, and all the water began to disappear.
2 Rain stopped falling from the sky, and water stopped flowing from under the earth. 3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water was low enough that the boat touched land again. The boat stopped on one of the mountains of Ararat. This was the 17th day of the seventh month. 5 The water continued to go down, and by the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains were above the water.
6 Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. 7 Then he sent out a raven. The raven flew from place to place until the ground was dry and the water was gone. 8 Noah also sent out a dove. He wanted it to find dry ground. He wanted to know if water still covered the earth.
9 The dove could not find a place to rest because water still covered the earth, so the dove came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and caught the dove and brought it back into the boat.
10 After seven days Noah again sent out the dove. 11 And that afternoon the dove came back to Noah. The dove had a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. This was a sign to show Noah that there was dry ground on the earth. 12 Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. But this time the dove didn’t come back.
13 After that Noah opened the door[b] of the boat. He looked and saw that the ground was dry. This was the first day of the first month of the year. He was 601 years old. 14 By the 27th day of the second month, the ground was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Leave the boat. You, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives should go out now. 17 Bring every living animal out of the boat with you—all the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. These animals will make many more animals, and they will fill the earth again.”
18 So Noah went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals, everything that crawls, and every bird left the boat. All the animals came out of the boat in family groups.
20 Then Noah built an altar to honor the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and some of all the clean animals and burned them on the altar as a gift to God.
21 The Lord smelled these sacrifices, and it pleased him. The Lord said to himself, “I will never again curse the earth as a way to punish people. People are evil from the time they are young, but I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time. 22 As long as the earth continues, there will always be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night on earth.”
The New Beginning
9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Have many children. Fill the earth with your people. 2 Every animal on earth, every bird in the air, every animal that crawls on the ground, and every fish in the sea will be afraid of you. All of them will be under your control. 3 In the past, I gave you the green plants to eat. Now every animal will also be food for you. I give you everything on earth—it is yours. 4 But I give you one command. You must not eat meat that still has its life (blood) in it. 5 Also, I will demand your blood for your lives. That is, I will demand the life of any person or animal that takes a human life.
6 “God made humans to be like himself.
So whoever kills a person must be killed by another person.
7 “Have many children and fill the earth with your people.”
8 Then God said to Noah and his sons, 9 “I now make my promise to you and to your people who will live after you. 10 I make my promise to all the birds, and to all the cattle, and to all the animals that came out of the boat with you. I make my promise to every living thing on earth. 11 This is my promise to you: All life on the earth was destroyed by the flood. But that will never happen again. A flood will never again destroy all life on the earth.”
12 And God said, “I will give you something to prove that I made this promise to you. It will continue forever to show that I have made an agreement with you and every living thing on earth. 13 I am putting a rainbow in the clouds as proof of the agreement between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, you will see the rainbow in the clouds. 15 When I see this rainbow, I will remember the agreement between me and you and every living thing on the earth. This agreement says that a flood will never again destroy all life on the earth. 16 When I look and see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the agreement that continues forever. I will remember the agreement between me and every living thing on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This rainbow is proof of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.”
Problems Begin Again
18 Noah’s sons came out of the boat with him. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three men were Noah’s sons. And all the people on earth came from these three sons.
20 Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. 21 One day Noah made some wine. He got drunk, went into his tent, and took off all his clothes. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and told his brothers who were outside the tent. 23 Shem and Japheth took a robe, put it across their shoulders, and walked backward into the tent. Then they covered their father without looking at him.
24 Later, Noah woke up. (He was sleeping because of the wine.) When he learned what his youngest son Ham had done to him, 25 he said,
“May there be a curse on Canaan[c]!
May he be a slave to his brothers.”
26 Noah also said,
“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be praised!
May Canaan be Shem’s slave.
27 May God give more land to Japheth.
May God live in Shem’s tents,
and may Canaan be their slave.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 He lived a total of 950 years; then he died.
Footnotes
- Genesis 7:20 20 feet Literally, “15 cubits” which would be 21' 10 3/16" (6.66 m) if this was the short cubit or 25' 6 1/16" (7.77 m) if it was the long cubit.
- Genesis 8:13 opened the door Literally, “removed the covering.”
- Genesis 9:25 Canaan Ham’s son. The people of Canaan lived along the coast of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Later, God gave this land to the Israelites.
Genesis 7-9
New International Version
Genesis 7-9
New International Version
7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family,(A) because I have found you righteous(B) in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean(C) animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive(D) throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain(E) on the earth(F) for forty days(G) and forty nights,(H) and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.(I)”
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.(J)
6 Noah was six hundred years old(K) when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark(L) to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean(M) animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.(N) 10 And after the seven days(O) the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,(P) on the seventeenth day of the second month(Q)—on that day all the springs of the great deep(R) burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens(S) were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.(T)
13 On that very day Noah and his sons,(U) Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.(V) 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind,(W) everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.(X) 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah.(Y) Then the Lord shut him in.
17 For forty days(Z) the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.(AA) 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.[a][b] (AB) 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.(AC) 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life(AD) in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth.(AE) Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.(AF)
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.(AG)
8 But God remembered(AH) Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth,(AI) and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens(AJ) had been closed, and the rain(AK) had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days(AL) the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month(AM) the ark came to rest on the mountains(AN) of Ararat.(AO) 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days(AP) Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven,(AQ) and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.(AR) 8 Then he sent out a dove(AS) to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.(AT) 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year,(AU) the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month(AV) the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.(AW) 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”(AX)
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.(AY) 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord(AZ) and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean(BA) birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings(BB) on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma(BC) and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground(BD) because of humans, even though[c] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.(BE) And never again will I destroy(BF) all living creatures,(BG) as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,(BH)
cold and heat,
summer and winter,(BI)
day and night
will never cease.”(BJ)
God’s Covenant With Noah
9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.(BK) 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.(BL) 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.(BM) Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.(BN)
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.(BO) 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.(BP) I will demand an accounting from every animal.(BQ) And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.(BR)
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;(BS)
for in the image of God(BT)
has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”(BU)
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you(BV) and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant(BW) with you:(BX) Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.(BY)”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant(BZ) I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:(CA) 13 I have set my rainbow(CB) in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow(CC) appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant(CD) between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.(CE) 16 Whenever the rainbow(CF) appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant(CG) between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant(CH) I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
The Sons of Noah
18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth.(CI) (Ham was the father of Canaan.)(CJ) 19 These were the three sons of Noah,(CK) and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.(CL)
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded[d] to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine,(CM) he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked(CN) and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
26 He also said,
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!(CR)
May Canaan be the slave(CS) of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[e] territory;(CT)
may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,(CU)
and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.(CV)
Footnotes
- Genesis 7:20 That is, about 23 feet or about 6.8 meters
- Genesis 7:20 Or rose more than fifteen cubits, and the mountains were covered
- Genesis 8:21 Or humans, for
- Genesis 9:20 Or soil, was the first
- Genesis 9:27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for extend.
Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
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