Old/New Testament

Chapter 7

¹ Then the Lord said to Noah: Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this generation have I found to be righteous before me.^{(A) 2} Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; ³ likewise, of every bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, to keep their progeny alive over all the earth. ⁴ For seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the face of the earth every being that I have made.^{(B) 5} Noah complied, just as the Lord had commanded.

The Great Flood. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came upon the earth. ⁷ Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.^{(C) 8} Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that crawls on the ground, ⁹ two by two, male and female came to Noah into the ark, just as God had commanded him.^{(D) 10} When the seven days were over, 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

¹² For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth.

¹³ On the very same day, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of Noah’s sons had entered the ark, ¹⁴ together with every kind of wild animal, every kind of tame animal, every kind of crawling thing that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird. ¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life came to Noah into the ark. ¹⁶ Those that entered were male and female; of all creatures they came, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters. ¹⁹ Higher and higher on the earth the waters swelled, until all the highest mountains under the heavens were submerged. ²⁰ The waters swelled fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains. ²¹ All creatures that moved on earth perished: birds, tame animals, wild animals, and all that teemed on the earth, as well as all humankind.^{(E) 22} Everything on dry land with the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ The Lord wiped out every being on earth: human beings and animals, the crawling things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left.

²⁴ And when the waters had swelled on the earth for one hundred and fifty days,

Chapter 8

¹ God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. ² The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the downpour from the sky was held back. ³ Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished ⁴ that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.^{[b] 5} The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch of the ark that he had made, ^7 [c]and he released a raven. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth. ⁸ Then he released a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. ⁹ But the dove could find no place to perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water over all the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. ¹⁰ He waited yet seven days more and again released the dove from the ark. ¹¹ In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had diminished on the earth. ¹² He waited yet another seven days and then released the dove; but this time it did not come back.

^13 [d]In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth. Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground had dried. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah: ¹⁶ Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you—all creatures, be they birds or animals or crawling things that crawl on the earth—and let them abound on the earth, and be fertile and multiply on it.^{(F) 18} So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives; ¹⁹ and all the animals, all the birds, and all the crawling creatures that crawl on the earth went out of the ark by families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, the Lord said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done.^(G)

Chapter 9

Covenant with Noah. ^1 [e]God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.^{(I) 2 [f]}Fear and dread of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. ^3 (J)Any living creature that moves about shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. ^4 (K)Only meat with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.^{[g] 5} Indeed for your own lifeblood I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from a human being, each one for the blood of another, I will demand an accounting for human life.^(L)

⁷ Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it.^(N)

^8 [i]God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you^{(O) 10} and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. ¹¹ I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.^{(P) 12} God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: ^13 (Q)I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being.^{(R) 16} When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature—every mortal being that is on earth. ¹⁷ God told Noah: This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and every mortal being that is on earth.

Noah and His Sons. ^18 [j]The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.^{(S) 19} These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.

²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and lay naked inside his tent.^{(T) 22} Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside. ²³ Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their shoulders, they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said:

²⁶ He also said:

²⁸ Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. ²⁹ The whole lifetime of Noah was nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

II. The Proclamation of the Kingdom

Chapter 3

The Preaching of John the Baptist.^{[a](A) 1} In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea^{[b] 2} [and] saying, “Repent,^[c] for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”^{(B) 3 [d]}It was of him that the prophet Isaiah^(C) had spoken when he said:

^4 [e](D)John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him ⁶ and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.^[f]

⁷ When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees^[g] coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?^{(E) 8} Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. ⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.^{(F) 10} Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ^11 (G)I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.^{[h] 12 [i](H)}His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The Baptism of Jesus.^{[j] 13 (I)}Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. ^14 [k]John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” ¹⁵ Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. ^16 [l](J)After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. ¹⁷ And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son,^[m] with whom I am well pleased.”^(K)