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Genesis 5:29-9:28
New Living Translation

29 Lamech named his son Noah, for he said, “May he bring us relief[a] from our work and the painful labor of farming this ground that the Lord has cursed.” 30 After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived another 595 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 31 Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

A World Gone Wrong

6 Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. 2 The sons of God saw the beautiful women[b] and took any they wanted as their wives. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with[c] humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”

4 In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.

5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. 7 And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” 8 But Noah found favor with the Lord.

The Story of Noah

9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. 10 Noah was the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. 12 God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. 13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!

14 “Build a large boat[d] from cypress wood[e] and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. 15 Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.[f] 16 Leave an 18-inch opening[g] below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.

17 “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 19 Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. 20 Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. 21 And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”

22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.

The Flood Covers the Earth

7 When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. 2 Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice,[h] and take one pair of each of the others. 3 Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after the flood. 4 Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”

5 So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him.

6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. 7 He went on board the boat to escape the flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives. 8 With them were all the various kinds of animals—those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not—along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground. 9 They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10 After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth.

11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12 The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.

13 That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives. 14 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind. 15 Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. 16 A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

17 For forty days the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18 As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. 19 Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20 rising more than twenty-two feet[i] above the highest peaks. 21 All the living things on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people. 22 Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. 23 God wiped out every living thing on the earth—people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. 24 And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.

The Flood Recedes

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. 2 The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. 3 So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, 4 exactly five months from the time the flood began,[j] the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 Two and a half months later,[k] as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.

6 After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat 7 and released a raven. The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up. 8 He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside. 10 After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again. 11 This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. 12 He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back.

13 Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began,[l] the floodwaters had almost dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14 Two more months went by,[m] and at last the earth was dry!

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. 17 Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.”

18 So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. 19 And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.[n] 21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. 22 As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

God Confirms His Covenant

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. 2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. 3 I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. 4 But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.

5 “And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. 6 If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings[o] in his own image. 7 Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”

8 Then God told Noah and his sons, 9 “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10 and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. 11 Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

12 Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15 and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” 17 Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

Noah’s Sons

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) 19 From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.

20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.

24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:

“May Canaan be cursed!
    May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”

26 Then Noah said,

“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed,
    and may Canaan be his servant!
27 May God expand the territory of Japheth!
May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,[p]
    and may Canaan be his servant.”

28 Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood.

Footnotes

  1. 5:29 Noah sounds like a Hebrew term that can mean “relief” or “comfort.”
  2. 6:2 Hebrew daughters of men; also in 6:4.
  3. 6:3 Greek version reads will not remain in.
  4. 6:14a Traditionally rendered an ark.
  5. 6:14b Or gopher wood.
  6. 6:15 Hebrew 300 cubits [138 meters] long, 50 cubits [23 meters] wide, and 30 cubits [13.8 meters] high.
  7. 6:16 Hebrew an opening of 1 cubit [46 centimeters].
  8. 7:2 Hebrew of each clean animal; similarly in 7:8.
  9. 7:20 Hebrew 15 cubits [6.9 meters].
  10. 8:4 Hebrew on the seventeenth day of the seventh month; see 7:11.
  11. 8:5 Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month; see 7:11 and note on 8:4.
  12. 8:13 Hebrew On the first day of the first month; see 7:11.
  13. 8:14 Hebrew The twenty-seventh day of the second month arrived; see note on 8:13.
  14. 8:20 Hebrew every clean animal and every clean bird.
  15. 9:6 Or man; Hebrew reads ha-adam.
  16. 9:27 Hebrew May he live in the tents of Shem.
Listen to Genesis 5:29-9:28
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Genesis 5:29-9:28
New International Version

29 He named him Noah[a](A) and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.(B)” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.

32 After Noah was 500 years old,(C) he became the father of Shem,(D) Ham and Japheth.(E)

Wickedness in the World

6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth(F) and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God(G) saw that the daughters(H) of humans were beautiful,(I) and they married(J) any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit(K) will not contend with[b] humans forever,(L) for they are mortal[c];(M) their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim(N) were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans(O) and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.(P)

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,(Q) and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.(R) 6 The Lord regretted(S) that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth(T) the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.(U)” 8 But Noah(V) found favor in the eyes of the Lord.(W)

Noah and the Flood

9 This is the account(X) of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless(Y) among the people of his time,(Z) and he walked faithfully with God.(AA) 10 Noah had three sons: Shem,(AB) Ham and Japheth.(AC)

11 Now the earth was corrupt(AD) in God’s sight and was full of violence.(AE) 12 God saw how corrupt(AF) the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.(AG) 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy(AH) both them and the earth.(AI) 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[d] wood;(AJ) make rooms in it and coat it with pitch(AK) inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[e] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[f] high all around.[g] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters(AL) on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.(AM) 18 But I will establish my covenant with you,(AN) and you will enter the ark(AO)—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.(AP) 20 Two(AQ) of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind(AR) of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.(AS) 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.(AT)

7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family,(AU) because I have found you righteous(AV) in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean(AW) 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(AX) throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain(AY) on the earth(AZ) for forty days(BA) and forty nights,(BB) and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.(BC)”

5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.(BD)

6 Noah was six hundred years old(BE) when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark(BF) to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean(BG) 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.(BH) 10 And after the seven days(BI) the floodwaters came on the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,(BJ) on the seventeenth day of the second month(BK)—on that day all the springs of the great deep(BL) burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens(BM) were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.(BN)

13 On that very day Noah and his sons,(BO) Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.(BP) 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,(BQ) everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.(BR) 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah.(BS) Then the Lord shut him in.

17 For forty days(BT) 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.(BU) 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.[h][i] (BV) 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.(BW) 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life(BX) 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.(BY) Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.(BZ)

24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.(CA)

8 But God remembered(CB) Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth,(CC) and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens(CD) had been closed, and the rain(CE) had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days(CF) the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month(CG) the ark came to rest on the mountains(CH) of Ararat.(CI) 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

6 After forty days(CJ) Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven,(CK) and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.(CL) 8 Then he sent out a dove(CM) to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.(CN) 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year,(CO) the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month(CP) the earth was completely dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.(CQ) 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”(CR)

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.(CS) 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord(CT) and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean(CU) birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings(CV) on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma(CW) and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground(CX) because of humans, even though[j] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.(CY) And never again will I destroy(CZ) all living creatures,(DA) as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,(DB)
cold and heat,
summer and winter,(DC)
day and night
will never cease.”(DD)

God’s Covenant With Noah

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.(DE) 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.(DF) 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.(DG) Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.(DH)

4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.(DI) 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting.(DJ) I will demand an accounting from every animal.(DK) And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.(DL)

6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
    by humans shall their blood be shed;(DM)
for in the image of God(DN)
    has God made mankind.

7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”(DO)

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you(DP) and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant(DQ) with you:(DR) Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.(DS)”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant(DT) I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:(DU) 13 I have set my rainbow(DV) in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow(DW) appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant(DX) between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.(DY) 16 Whenever the rainbow(DZ) appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant(EA) between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant(EB) I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

The Sons of Noah

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth.(EC) (Ham was the father of Canaan.)(ED) 19 These were the three sons of Noah,(EE) and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.(EF)

20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded[k] to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine,(EG) he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked(EH) and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

“Cursed(EI) be Canaan!(EJ)
    The lowest of slaves
    will he be to his brothers.(EK)”

26 He also said,

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!(EL)
    May Canaan be the slave(EM) of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[l] territory;(EN)
    may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,(EO)
    and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 5:29 Noah sounds like the Hebrew for comfort.
  2. Genesis 6:3 Or My spirit will not remain in
  3. Genesis 6:3 Or corrupt
  4. Genesis 6:14 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  5. Genesis 6:15 That is, about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 135 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high
  6. Genesis 6:16 That is, about 18 inches or about 45 centimeters
  7. Genesis 6:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
  8. Genesis 7:20 That is, about 23 feet or about 6.8 meters
  9. Genesis 7:20 Or rose more than fifteen cubits, and the mountains were covered
  10. Genesis 8:21 Or humans, for
  11. Genesis 9:20 Or soil, was the first
  12. Genesis 9:27 Japheth sounds like the Hebrew for extend.
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