Genesis 6:9-8:19

The Voice

⁹ Here is the account of Noah and his descendants. Noah was a good man, a right-living man, the best man of his generation; and he walked closely with God. ¹⁰ Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

^11-12 They lived at a time when the world had become vile and corrupt. Violence was everywhere. God saw that the earth was in ruins, and He knew why: all people on earth except Noah had lived corrupt lives and ruined God’s plans for them. He had to do something.

²² So Noah listened to God, and he built the ark. He did everything God asked him to do.

⁵ Noah did everything the Eternal One asked him to do.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters swept over the earth. ⁷ Noah and his wife, his sons and their wives, all went into the ark in order to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Noah made sure to take along all of the animals (both ritually acceptable and unacceptable), the birds, and all the small creeping creatures ⁹ in pairs by males and females, just as God had told him to do. They all went into the ark with him, two by two. ¹⁰ After seven days, the rains began and waters flooded the earth.

¹¹ On the 17th day of the 2nd month in Noah’s 600th year, all of the subterranean waters erupted from the depths of the earth and burst skyward, covering the land. The casements of the heavens cracked open, ¹² dousing heavy rains over the watery earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On the same day, Noah, his wife, his sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and his sons’ wives went into the ark, and all were secured within it. ¹⁴ Inside the ark they had with them all sorts of wild animals, domesticated animals, small creeping creatures, and all kinds of birds, that is, every winged creature. ¹⁵ All of them went along into the ark to Noah in pairs—all flesh into which God had breathed the breath of life. ¹⁶ All those in the ark, males and females of all living flesh, went in just as God had told them to do. And the Eternal One shut them all in for the duration of the flood.

¹⁷ The deluge continued for 40 days on the earth. ¹⁸ The waters kept rising until they lifted up the ark so it floated safely over the land; ¹⁹ the torrent continued to swell and increase in momentum until the highest mountain peaks beneath the heavens were covered. ²⁰ In fact, the waters rose and pitched so forcefully over the earth that the mountain peaks disappeared beneath 22 feet of water. ²¹ And all flesh that moved upon the earth died out—birds, domesticated animals, wild animals, all of the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all human beings. ²² Everything and everyone on the dry land in which God had breathed the breath of life died. ²³ God wiped out every living thing from the face of the earth. Every creature He had made—humans, animals, creeping things, and birds—was wiped off the surface of the earth. Only Noah was left and those with him inside the ark. ²⁴ And the waters raged upon the earth for 150 days.

8 But God remembered Noah and all of the wild and domesticated animals with him in the ark. When it was time, God sent the wind to blow over all of the earth, and the waters began to subside. ² The subterranean waters from the depths of the earth and the casements of the heavens were again closed. The drenching rains that once fell from above finally stopped. ³ All of the waters gradually receded from the land. At last, after 150 days, the waters abated; ⁴ and on the 17th day of the 7th month, the ark at last came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters continued to recede until the 10th month. On the 1st day of the 10th month, the tops of the mountains began to appear.

⁶ After 40 more days, Noah opened a window he had built into the ark, ⁷ and he sent one of the ravens out into the sky. The raven flew back and forth until all of the waters had dried up on the land. ⁸ He then sent out a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the surface of the land. ⁹ But the dove found no place to land safely, and it returned to the ark. The waters were still covering the surface of the whole earth. So Noah put out his hand and brought the dove back into the ark. ¹⁰ Noah waited another seven days, and then he sent the dove out again from the ark. ¹¹ This time the dove came back to him in the evening, and there, in its beak, was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew then that the waters had begun to retreat from the land. ¹² For good measure, Noah waited another seven days. Once more, he sent out the dove. This time, it didn’t return.

¹³ On the 1st day of the 1st month in Noah’s 601st year, the waters had dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the ark, looked out, and saw that the land was nearly dry. ¹⁴ By the 27th day of the 2nd month, the earth was completely dry. ¹⁵ God came to Noah with a message.

¹⁸ So Noah left the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ And every animal, every small creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves on the earth—left the ark with him as new families—a new generation.