7 Then the Lord said to Noah, ^(A)“Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that ^(B)you are righteous before me in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of all ^(C)clean animals,^[a] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, ³ and seven pairs^[b] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For in seven days ^(D)I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, ^(E)and every living thing^[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ^5 (F)And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the ^(G)fountains of the great deep burst forth, and ^(H)the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. ¹⁵ They ^(I)went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in ^(J)as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood ^(K)continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. ¹⁹ And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits^[d] deep. ²¹ And ^(L)all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on the dry land ^(M)in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³ He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only ^(N)Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

The Flood Subsides

8 But God ^(O)remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And ^(P)God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. ^2 (Q)The fountains of the deep and ^(R)the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, ³ and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end ^(S)of 150 days the waters had abated, ⁴ and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of ^(T)Ararat. ⁵ And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made ⁷ and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. ¹¹ And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹² Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

¹³ In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out from the ark, ^(U)you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and ^(V)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 by families from the ark.

God's Covenant with Noah

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ And when the Lord smelled ^(W)the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again ^(X)curse^[e] the ground because of man, for ^(Y)the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. ^(Z)Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. ^22 (AA)While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, ^(AB)day and night, shall not cease.”

Save Me, O My God

A Psalm of David, ^(A)when he fled from Absalom his son.

The Call of Wisdom

The Temptation of Jesus

4 ^(A)Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness ^(B)to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting ^(C)forty days and forty nights, he ^(D)was hungry. ³ And ^(E)the tempter came and said to him, “If you are ^(F)the Son of God, command ^(G)these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But he answered, ^(H)“It is written,

^5 (J)Then the devil took him to ^(K)the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

and

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again ^(M)it is written, ^(N)‘You shall not ^(O)put the Lord your God to the test.’” ^8 (P)Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, ^(Q)Satan! For ^(R)it is written,

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and behold, ^(U)angels came and were ministering to him.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

¹² Now when he heard that ^(V)John had been arrested, ^(W)he withdrew into Galilee. ¹³ And leaving ^(X)Nazareth he went and lived in ^(Y)Capernaum by ^(Z)the sea, in the territory of ^(AA)Zebulun and Naphtali, ^14 (AB)so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

^17 (AF)From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ^(AG)“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”^[a]

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

^18 (AH)While walking by ^(AI)the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you ^(AJ)fishers of men.”^{[b] 20} Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds

^23 (AK)And he went throughout all Galilee, ^(AL)teaching in their synagogues and ^(AM)proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and ^(AN)healing every disease and every affliction among the people. ²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all ^(AO)Syria, and ^(AP)they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and ^(AQ)pains, ^(AR)those oppressed by demons, ^(AS)those having seizures, and ^(AT)paralytics, and he healed them. ^25 (AU)And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the ^(AV)Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.