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)

Ezra Comes to Jerusalem

7 After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes^(A) king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah,^(B) the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,^{(C) 2} the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok,^(D) the son of Ahitub,^{(E) 3} the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, ⁴ the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, ⁵ the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas,^(F) the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest— ⁶ this Ezra^(G) came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted^(H) him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.^{(I) 7} Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, musicians, gatekeepers and temple servants, also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.^(J)

⁸ Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king. ⁹ He had begun his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was on him.^{(K) 10} For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching^(L) its decrees and laws in Israel.

King Artaxerxes’ Letter to Ezra

¹¹ This is a copy of the letter King Artaxerxes had given to Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law, a man learned in matters concerning the commands and decrees of the Lord for Israel:

²⁷ Praise be to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has put it into the king’s heart^(AD) to bring honor^(AE) to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem in this way ²⁸ and who has extended his good favor^(AF) to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the Lord my God was on me,^(AG) I took courage and gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.

Psalm 7^[a]

A shiggaion^[b](A) of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite.