Genesis 5:25-10:1

Names of God Bible

²⁵ When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶ After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷ Methuselah lived a total of 969 years; then he died.

²⁸ When Lamech was 182 years old, he became the father of a son. ²⁹ He named him Noah [Relief], and said, “This child will bring us relief from the work and painful labor of our hands since Yahweh has cursed the ground.” ³⁰ After Lamech became the father of Noah, he lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹ Lamech lived a total of 777 years; then he died.

³² When Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Evil Increases on the Earth

6 The number of people increased all over the earth, and daughters were born to them. ² The sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of other humans were beautiful. So they married any woman they chose.

³ Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not struggle with humans forever, because they are flesh and blood. They will live 120 years.”

⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, as well as later, when the sons of Elohim slept with the daughters of other humans and had children by them. These children were famous long ago.

⁵ Yahweh saw how evil humans had become on the earth. All day long their deepest thoughts were nothing but evil. ⁶ Yahweh was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and he was heartbroken. ⁷ So Yahweh said, “I will wipe off the face of the earth these humans that I created. I will wipe out not only humans, but also domestic animals, crawling animals, and birds. I’m sorry that I made them.” ⁸ But Yahweh was pleased with Noah.

Noah’s Family and the Ship

⁹ This is the account of Noah and his descendants.

Noah had God’s approval and was a man of integrity among the people of his time. He walked with Elohim. ¹⁰ He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The world was corrupt in Elohim’s sight and full of violence. ¹² Elohim saw the world and how corrupt it was because all people on earth lived evil lives.

¹³ Elohim said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all people because the earth is full of their violence. Now I’m going to destroy them along with the earth. ¹⁴ Make yourself a ship of cypress wood.^[a] Make rooms in the ship and coat it inside and out with tar. ¹⁵ This is how you should build it: the ship is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. ¹⁶ Make a roof for the ship, and leave an 18-inch-high opening at the top.^[b] Put a door in the side of the ship. Build the ship with lower, middle, and upper decks. ¹⁷ I’m about to send a flood on the earth to destroy all people under the sky—every living, breathing human. Everything on earth will die.

¹⁸ “But I will make my promise^[c] to you. You, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives will go into the ship. ¹⁹ Bring two of every living creature into the ship in order to keep them alive with you. They must be male and female. ²⁰ Two of every type of bird, every type of domestic animal, and every type of creature that crawls on the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ Take every kind of food that can be eaten and store it. It will be food for you and the animals.”

²² Noah did this. He did everything that Elohim had commanded him.

The Flood

7 Yahweh said to Noah, “Go into the ship with your whole family because I have seen that you alone are righteous among the people of today. ² Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal (a male and a female of each) and one pair of every kind of unclean^[d] animal (a male and a female). ³ Also, take seven pairs of every kind of bird (a male and a female of each) to preserve animal life all over the earth after the flood. ⁴ In seven days I will send rain to the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. I will wipe off the face of the earth every living creature that I have made.”

⁵ So Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the flood came to the earth. ⁷ Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives went into the ship to escape the floodwaters. ⁸ Clean and unclean animals, birds, and creatures that crawl on the ground ⁹ came to Noah to go into the ship in pairs (a male and female of each) as Elohim had commanded Noah.

¹⁰ Seven days later the flood came on the earth. ¹¹ On the seventeenth day of the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, all the deep springs burst open. The sky opened, ¹² and rain came pouring down on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, as well as Noah’s wife and his three daughters-in-law went into the ship. ¹⁴ They had with them every type of wild animal, every type of domestic animal, every type of creature that crawls on the earth, and every type of bird (every creature with wings). ¹⁵ A pair of every living, breathing animal came to Noah to go into the ship. ¹⁶ A male and a female of every animal went in as Elohim had commanded Noah. Then Yahweh closed the door behind them.

¹⁷ The flood continued for 40 days on the earth. The water increased and lifted the ship so that it rose high above the ground. ¹⁸ As the water rose and became very deep, the ship floated on top of the water. ¹⁹ The water rose very high above the earth. It covered all the high mountains everywhere under the sky. ²⁰ It rose 23 feet above the mountaintops.

²¹ Every creature that crawls on the earth died, including birds, domestic and wild animals, and everything that swarms over the earth, along with every human. ²² Everything on dry land (every living, breathing creature) died. ²³ Every living creature on the face of the earth was wiped out. Humans, domestic animals, crawling creatures, and birds were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ship were left.

²⁴ The floodwaters were on the earth for 150 days.

God Remembers Noah

8 Elohim remembered Noah and all the wild and domestic animals with him in the ship. So Elohim made a wind blow over the earth, and the water started to go down. ² The deep springs and the sky had been shut, and the rain had stopped pouring. ³ The water began to recede from the land. At the end of 150 days the water had decreased. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The water kept decreasing until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ After 40 more days Noah opened the window he had made in the ship ⁷ and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water on the land had dried up. ⁸ Next, he sent out a dove to see if the water was gone from the surface of the ground. ⁹ The dove couldn’t find a place to land because the water was still all over the earth. So it came back to Noah in the ship. He reached out and brought the dove back into the ship. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent the dove out of the ship. ¹¹ The dove came to him in the evening, and in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf. Then Noah knew that the water was gone from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but it never came back to him.

¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water on the land had dried up. Noah opened the top of the ship, looked out, and saw the surface of the ground. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was dry.

¹⁵ Then Elohim spoke to Noah, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ship with your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives. ¹⁷ Bring out every animal that’s with you: birds, domestic animals, and every creature that crawls on the earth. Be fertile, increase in number, and spread over the earth.”

¹⁸ So Noah came out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal, crawling creature, and bird—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ship, one kind after another.

²⁰ Noah built an altar to Yahweh. On it he made a burnt offering of each type of clean^[e] animal and clean bird. ²¹ Yahweh smelled the soothing aroma. Yahweh said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of humans, even though from birth their hearts are set on nothing but evil. I will never again kill every living creature as I have just done.

God Blesses Noah and His Sons

9 Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fertile, increase in number, and fill the earth. ² All the wild animals and all the birds will fear you and be terrified of you. Every creature that crawls on the ground and all the fish in the sea have been put under your control. ³ Everything that lives and moves will be your food. I gave you green plants as food; I now give you everything else.

⁴ “But you are not to eat meat with blood in it. (Blood is life.) ⁵ In addition, I will demand your blood for your life. I will demand it from any animal or from any person. I will demand the life of any person who kills another person.

⁷ Be fertile, and increase in number. Spread over the earth, and increase.”

God’s Promise—The Sign of the Rainbow

⁸ Elohim also said to Noah and his sons, ⁹ “I am going to make my promise^[f] to you, your descendants, ¹⁰ and every living being that is with you—birds, domestic animals, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ship—every living thing on earth. ¹¹ I am making my promise to you. Never again will all life be killed by floodwaters. Never again will there be a flood that destroys the earth.”

¹² Elohim said, “This is the sign of the promise I am giving to you and every living being that is with you for generations to come. ¹³ I will put my rainbow in the clouds to be a sign of my promise to the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I form clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in the clouds. ¹⁵ Then I will remember my promise to you and every living animal. Never again will water become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember my everlasting promise to every living animal on earth.”

¹⁷ So Elohim said to Noah, “This is the sign of the promise I am making to all life on earth.”

Noah Curses Canaan but Blesses Shem and Japheth

¹⁸ Noah’s sons, who came out of the ship, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹⁹ These were Noah’s three sons. From them the whole earth was populated. Ham was the father of Canaan.^[g]

²⁰ Noah, a farmer, was the first person to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some wine, got drunk, and lay naked inside his tent. ²² Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father naked. So he went outside and told his two brothers.

²³ Shem and Japheth took a blanket and laid it over their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered their father’s naked body. They turned their faces away so that they didn’t see their father naked.

²⁴ When Noah sobered up, he found out what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ So he said,

²⁸ Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹ Noah lived a total of 950 years; then he died.

The 14 Descendants of Japheth^(A)

10 This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their descendants. Shem, Ham and Japheth had children after the flood.