The Great Flood^(A)

7 Then the ^(B)Lord said to Noah, ^(C)“Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that ^(D)you are righteous before Me in this generation. ² You shall take with you seven each of every ^(E)clean animal, a male and his female; ^(F)two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; ³ also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep ^[a]the species alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For after ^(G)seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth ^(H)forty days and forty nights, and I will ^[b]destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” ^5 (I)And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on ^(A)that day all ^(B)the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the ^(C)windows of heaven were opened. ^12 (D)And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— ^14 (E)they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every ^(F)sort. ¹⁵ And they ^(G)went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. ¹⁶ So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in ^(H)as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

^17 (I)Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, ^(J)and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters.

⁶ So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened ^(A)the window of the ark which he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸ He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹² So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

¹³ And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, ^(B)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 cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and ^(C)be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹ “And as for Me, ^(A)behold, I establish ^(B)My covenant with you and with your ^[a]descendants after you, ^10 (C)and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹ Thus ^(D)I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said: ^(E)“This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set ^(F)My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.