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 God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord 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 God remembered Noah and all the wild and domestic animals with him in the ship. So God 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.

Jesus Is Accused of Working with Beelzebul^(A)

²⁰ Then Jesus went home. Another crowd gathered so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. ²¹ When his family heard about it, they went to get him. They said, “He’s out of his mind!”

²² The experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem said, “Beelzebul is in him,” and “He forces demons out of people with the help of the ruler of demons.”

²³ Jesus called them together and used this illustration: “How can Satan force out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. ²⁵ And if a household is divided against itself, that household will not last. ²⁶ So if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot last. That will be the end of him.

²⁷ “No one can go into a strong man’s house and steal his property. First he must tie up the strong man. Then he can go through the strong man’s house and steal his property.

²⁸ “I can guarantee this truth: People will be forgiven for any sin or curse. ²⁹ But whoever curses the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an everlasting sin.” ³⁰ Jesus said this because the experts in Moses’ Teachings had said that he had an evil spirit.

The True Family of Jesus^(B)

³¹ Then his mother and his brothers arrived. They stood outside and sent someone to ask him to come out. ³² The crowd sitting around Jesus told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ He replied to them, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ³⁴ Then looking at those who sat in a circle around him, he said, “Look, here are my mother and my brothers. ³⁵ Whoever does what God wants is my brother and sister and mother.”