The Flood

7 The Lord told Noah:

Take your whole family with you into the boat, because you are the only one on this earth who pleases me. ² Take seven pairs of every kind of animal that can be used for sacrifice^[a] and one pair of all others. ³ Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird with you. Do this so there will always be animals and birds on the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain that will last for 40 days and nights, and I will destroy all other living creatures I have made.

^5-7 (A) Noah was 600 years old when he went into the boat to escape the flood, and he did everything the Lord had told him to do. His wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law all went inside with him. ^8-9 He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the boat with him. ¹⁰ Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.

^11-12 (B) The water under the earth started gushing out everywhere, the sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for 40 days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. ¹³ On that day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ¹⁴ They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds. ¹⁵ Noah took a male and a female of every living creature with him, ¹⁶ just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, the Lord closed the door.

^17-18 For 40 days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground. ^19-20 Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were about seven meters below the surface of the water. ²¹ Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. ^22-23 (C) The Lord destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat. ²⁴ A hundred fifty days later, the water started going down.

The Water Goes Down

8 God did not forget about Noah and the animals with him in the boat. So God made a wind blow, and the water started going down. ² God stopped up the places where the water had been gushing out from under the earth. He also closed up the sky, and the rain stopped. ³ For 150 days the water slowly went down. ⁴ Then on the seventeenth day of the seventh month of the year, the boat came to rest somewhere in the Ararat mountains. ⁵ The water kept going down, and the mountain tops could be seen on the first day of the tenth month.

^6-7 Forty days later Noah opened a window to send out a raven, but it kept flying around until the water had dried up. ⁸ Noah wanted to find out if the water had gone down, so he sent out a dove. ⁹ Deep water was still everywhere, and when the dove could not find a place to land, it flew back to the boat. Then Noah held out his hand and helped it back in.

¹⁰ Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. ¹¹ It returned in the evening, holding in its beak a green leaf from an olive tree. Noah knew the water was finally going down. ¹² He waited seven more days before sending the dove out again, and this time it did not return.

¹³ Noah was now 601 years old. And by the first day of that year, almost all the water had gone away. Noah made an opening in the roof of the boat^[b] and saw that the ground was getting dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵ God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. ¹⁷ Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.” ¹⁸ After Noah and his family had left the boat, ¹⁹ the living creatures left in groups of their own kind.

The Lord's Promise for the Earth

²⁰ Noah built an altar where he could offer sacrifices to the Lord. Then he offered on the altar one of each kind of animal and bird that could be used for a sacrifice.^{[c] 21} The smell of the burning offering pleased the Lord, and he said:

Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things its people do. All of them have evil thoughts from the time they are young, but I will never destroy everything that breathes, as I did this time.

God's Promise to Noah

9 ^(D) God said to Noah and his sons:

I am giving you my blessing. Have a lot of children and grandchildren, so people will live everywhere on this earth. ² All animals, birds, reptiles, and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them under your control, ³ and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten. ^4 (E) But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it. ^5-6 (F) I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.

^7 (G) I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.

⁸ Again, God said to Noah and his sons:

⁹ I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. ¹⁰ This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. ¹¹ I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.

^12-13 The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. ¹⁴ When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, ¹⁵ I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life. ¹⁶ When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. ¹⁷ The rainbow will be the sign of that solemn promise.

Noah and His Family

¹⁸ Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, left the boat. Ham later had a son named Canaan. ¹⁹ All people on earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.

²⁰ Noah farmed the land and was the first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ One day he got drunk and was lying naked in his tent. ²² Ham entered the tent and saw him naked, then went back outside and told his brothers. ²³ Shem and Japheth put a robe over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. Without looking at their father, they placed it over his body.

²⁴ When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done, ²⁵ he said,

²⁸ Noah lived 350 years after the flood ²⁹ and died at the age of 950.

The Preaching of John the Baptist

(Mark 1.1-8; Luke 3.1-18; John 1.19-28)

3 Years later, John the Baptist started preaching in the desert of Judea. ^2 (A) He said, “Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven^[a] will soon be here.”^[b]

^3 (B) John was the one the prophet Isaiah was talking about, when he said,

^4 (C) John wore clothes made of camel's hair. He had a leather strap around his waist and ate grasshoppers and wild honey.

⁵ From Jerusalem and all Judea and from the Jordan River Valley crowds of people went to John. ⁶ They told how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the river.

^7 (D) Many Pharisees and Sadducees also came to be baptized. But John said to them:

You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming judgment? ⁸ Do something to show you have really given up your sins. ^9 (E) And don't start telling yourselves that you belong to Abraham's family. I tell you that God can turn these stones into children for Abraham. ^10 (F) An ax is ready to cut the trees down at their roots. Any tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into a fire.

¹¹ I baptize you with water so you will give up your sins.^[c] But someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals.^[d] He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ^12 (G) His threshing fork is in his hand, and he is ready to separate the wheat from the husks.^[e] He will store the wheat in a barn and burn the husks in a fire that never goes out.

The Baptism of Jesus

(Mark 1.9-11; Luke 3.21,22)

¹³ Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John kept objecting and said, “I ought to be baptized by you. Why have you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “For now this is how it should be, because we must do all God wants us to do.” Then John agreed.

¹⁶ So Jesus was baptized. And as soon as he came out of the water, the sky opened, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove. ^17 (H) Then a voice from heaven said, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him.”