The Corruption of Mankind

6 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, ² that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were ^[a]beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. ³ Then the Lord said, “^(A)My Spirit shall not ^[b]strive with man forever, ^[c](B)because he also is flesh; ^[d]nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” ⁴ The ^(C)Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

⁵ Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that ^(D)every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ^6 (E)The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was ^(F)grieved ^[e]in His heart. ⁷ The Lord said, “^(G)I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the ^[f]sky; for ^(H)I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸ But ^(I)Noah ^(J)found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

⁹ These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a ^(K)righteous man, ^[g](L)blameless in his ^[h]time; Noah ^(M)walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah ^[i]became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ Now the earth was ^(N)corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was ^(O)filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for ^(P)all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

¹³ Then God said to Noah, “^(Q)The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall ^[j]cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred ^[k]cubits, its breadth fifty ^[l]cubits, and its height thirty ^[m]cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a ^[n]window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from ^[o]the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ Behold, ^(R)I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish ^(S)My covenant with you; and ^(T)you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ^19 (U)And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. ^20 (V)Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ As for you, take for yourself some of all ^(W)food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” ^22 (X)Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

The Flood

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be ^(Y)righteous before Me in this ^[p]time. ² You shall take ^[q]with you of every ^(Z)clean animal ^[r]by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; ³ also of the birds of the ^[s]sky, ^[t]by sevens, male and female, to keep ^[u]offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For after ^(AA)seven more days, I will send rain on the earth ^(AB)forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land ^(AC)every living thing that I have made.” ^5 (AD)Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Now Noah was ^(AE)six hundred years old when the flood of water ^[v]came upon the earth. ⁷ Then ^(AF)Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. ^8 (AG)Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ there went into the ark to Noah ^[w]by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ It came about after ^(AH)the seven days, that the water of the flood ^[x]came upon the earth. ¹¹ In the ^(AI)six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all ^(AJ)the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the ^[y]floodgates of the sky were opened. ^12 (AK)The rain ^[z]fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day ^(AL)Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after ^[aa]their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, ^[ab]all sorts of birds. ¹⁵ So they went into the ark to Noah, ^(AM)by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. ¹⁶ Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.

¹⁷ Then the flood ^[ac]came upon the earth for ^(AN)forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. ¹⁸ The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark ^[ad]floated on the ^[ae]surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains ^[af]everywhere under the heavens were covered. ²⁰ The water prevailed fifteen ^[ag]cubits higher, ^(AO)and the mountains were covered. ^21 (AP)All flesh that ^[ah]moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; ²² of all that was on the dry land, all ^(AQ)in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. ²³ Thus He blotted out ^[ai]every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the ^[aj]sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only ^(AR)Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. ^24 (AS)The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

The Flood Subsides

8 But ^(AT)God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and ^(AU)God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. ² Also ^(AV)the fountains of the deep and the ^[ak]floodgates of the sky were closed, and ^(AW)the rain from the sky was restrained; ³ and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end ^(AX)of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. ⁴ In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^(AY)the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the ^(AZ)window of the ark which he had made; ⁷ and he sent out a raven, and it ^[al]flew here and there until the water was dried up ^[am]from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; ⁹ but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the ^[an]surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came to him toward ^[ao]evening, and behold, in her ^[ap]beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. ¹² Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out ^(BA)the dove; but she did not return to him again.

¹³ Now it came about in the ^(BB)six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up ^[aq]from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the ^[ar]surface of the ground was dried up. 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, that they may ^[as](BC)breed abundantly on the earth, and 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 ^[at]by their families from the ark.

²⁰ Then Noah built ^(BD)an altar to the Lord, and took of every ^(BE)clean animal and of every clean bird and offered ^(BF)burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ The Lord ^(BG)smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said ^[au]to Himself, “I will never again ^(BH)curse the ground on account of man, for ^(BI)the ^[av]intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^(BJ)and I will never again ^[aw]destroy every living thing, as I have done.

The Lord’s Care over All His Works.

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

3 ^(A)He ^(B)entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. ^2 (C)They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, ^(D)so that they might accuse Him. ³ He *said to the man with the withered hand, “^[a]Get up and come forward!” ⁴ And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. ⁵ After ^(E)looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately began ^[b]conspiring with the ^(F)Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

^7 (G)Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and ^(H)a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, ⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from ^(I)Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of ^(J)Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. ^9 (K)And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; ¹⁰ for He had ^(L)healed many, with the result that all those who had ^(M)afflictions pressed around Him in order to ^(N)touch Him. ¹¹ Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are ^(O)the Son of God!” ¹² And He ^(P)earnestly warned them not to ^[c]tell who He was.

The Twelve Are Chosen

¹³ And He *went up on ^(Q)the mountain and *^(R)summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. ¹⁴ And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, ¹⁵ and to have authority to cast out the demons. ¹⁶ And He appointed the twelve: ^(S)Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), ¹⁷ and ^[d]James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of ^[e]James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); ¹⁸ and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and ^[f]James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the ^[g]Zealot; ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

²⁰ And He *came ^[h](T)home, and the ^(U)crowd *gathered again, ^(V)to such an extent that they could not even eat ^[i]a meal. ²¹ When ^(W)His own ^[j]people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “^(X)He has lost His senses.” ²² The scribes who came down ^(Y)from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by ^[k](Z)Beelzebul,” and “^(AA)He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” ^23 (AB)And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in ^(AC)parables, “How can ^(AD)Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ If ^(AE)Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but ^[l]he is finished! ^27 (AF)But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

²⁸ “^(AG)Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹ but ^(AH)whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

^31 (AI)Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. ³² A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” ³³ Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” ³⁴ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “^(AJ)Behold My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever ^(AK)does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”