Old/New Testament

Deliverance Through the Flood

7 Then Adonai said to Noah, “Come—you and all your household—into the ark. For you only do I perceive as righteous before Me in this generation. ² Of every clean animal you shall take with you seven of each kind, male and female; and of the animals which themselves are not clean two, male and female; ³ also of the flying creatures of the sky seven of every kind, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of the whole land. ⁴ For in seven more days, I am going to make it rain upon the land forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe out all existence that I made from the face of the ground. ⁵ So Noah did all just as Adonai commanded him.

⁶ Now Noah was 600 years old when the flood came—water upon the land. ⁷ So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, entered the ark because of the floodwaters. ⁸ Of the clean animals and unclean animals, the flying creatures and everything that crawls on the ground, ⁹ two by two they came to Noah, into the ark, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.

¹⁰ After the seven days, the floodwaters were upon the land. ¹¹ In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day, all the water sources of the great deep burst open, and the windows of the sky were opened. ¹² Then there was rain upon the land 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah, along with Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s wife and the three wives of Noah’s sons with them, entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to its kind, and every crawling creature that crawls on the land according to its kind, and every flying creature according to its kind, every bird, every winged creature. ¹⁵ So to Noah and into the ark they went by twos—all flesh in which was the spirit of life. ¹⁶ Those that came, male and female of all flesh, came just as God commanded him. Then Adonai shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood was forty days upon the land, and the waters increased and lifted the ark, so that it rose above the land. ¹⁸ The waters overpowered and became very mighty over the land, and the ark drifted on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The waters completely overpowered the land so that all the high mountains beneath the entire sky were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose 15 cubits higher, as the mountains were covered. ²¹ All flesh perished—those that crawl on the land, the flying creatures, livestock, wild animals, all creatures that swarm upon the land, and all humankind. ²² Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land—died. ²³ So He wiped out all existence that was upon the surface of the ground, everything from people to livestock, to crawling creatures, and to flying creatures of the sky. They were wiped out off the land. Only Noah and those with him in the ark survived. ²⁴ The waters overpowered the land for 150 days.

8 Then God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. So God caused a wind to pass over the land and the water subsided. ² Also the sources of the deep and the windows of the skies were closed up, and the rain from the sky was held back. ³ The waters kept receding gradually from upon the land and the waters decreased by the end of 150 days. ⁴ The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters went on decreasing until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ It was at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven and it kept going back and forth until the waters were drying up from the land. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see whether the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole land. He stretched out his hand and he took her, and brought her to him into the ark. ¹⁰ So he waited yet another seven days and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came to him at evening, and surprisingly—a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the land. ¹² After he waited seven more days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again.

¹³ It was in his six-hundred-and first year—in the first month, on the first day of the month—that the waters had dried up from the land. Then Noah removed the cover of the ark and he looked, and behold, the surface of the ground had dried up. ¹⁴ By the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was dry.

Noah’s Soothing Sacrifice

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Every animal that is with you of all flesh, including the flying creatures, livestock and every crawling creature that crawls on the land, bring out with you, and let them swarm in the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the land.”

¹⁸ So Noah came out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal—every crawling creature, every flying creature, everything that crawls upon the land—came out from the ark in their families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to Adonai and he took of every clean domestic animal and of every clean flying creature and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ When Adonai smelled the soothing aroma, Adonai said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, even though the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from youth. Nor will I ever again smite all living creatures, as I have done.

Covenant with Noah’s Descendants

9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land. ² The fear and terror of you will be on every wild animal, and on every flying creature of the sky, with everything that crawls on the ground and with all the fish of the sea—into your hand they are given. ³ Every crawling thing that is alive will be food for you, as are the green plants—I have now given you everything. ⁴ Only flesh with its life—that is, its blood—you must not eat! ⁵ Surely your lifeblood will I avenge. From every animal and from every person will I avenge it. From every person’s brother will I avenge that person’s life.

⁷ But as for you, be fruitful and multiply! Flourish in the land and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹ “Now I, behold, I am about to establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, including the flying creatures, the livestock, and every wild animal with you, of all that is coming out of the ark—every animal of the earth. ¹¹ I will confirm My covenant with you—never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to ruin the land.”

¹² Then God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. ¹³ My rainbow do I place in the cloud, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the land. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the land and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember My covenant that is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the rainbow is in the cloud, I will look at it, to remember the perpetual covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the land.”

¹⁷ Then God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed between Me and all flesh that is on the land.”

Dispersion of Noah’s Family

¹⁸ Noah’s sons who came out from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth, and Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were Noah’s sons, and from these the whole earth dispersed.

²⁰ Then Noah, a man of the soil, was first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine, got drunk, and was uncovered in his tent. ²² Then Ham, Canaan’s father, saw his father’s private parts and told his two brothers outside. ²³ So Shem and Japheth took the cloak and laid it over both their shoulders and walked backwards and with it covered their father’s private parts. But their faces were turned away, so they did not see their father’s private parts.

²⁴ When Noah woke up from his wine, he learned what his youngest son had done to him. ²⁵ So he said,

²⁶ He also said,

²⁸ Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. ²⁹ So all Noah’s days were 950 years. Then he died.

John’s Witness to Israel’s Leaders

3 In those days, John the Immerser came proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Turn away from your sins, for the kingdom of heaven is near!” ^{[a] 3} For he is the one Isaiah the prophet spoke about, saying,

⁴ Now John wore clothing from camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts^[c] and wild honey. ⁵ Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were being immersed by him in the Jordan River.

⁷ But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance; ⁹ and do not think that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’! For I tell you that from these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!

¹¹ “As for me, I immerse you in water for repentance. But the One coming after me is mightier than I am; I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will immerse you in the Ruach ha-Kodesh and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He shall clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He shall burn up with inextinguishable fire.”^[d]

The Heavens Open at Yeshua’s Mikveh

¹³ Then Yeshua came from the Galilee to John, to be immersed by him in the Jordan. ¹⁴ But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be immersed by You, and You are coming to me?”

¹⁵ But Yeshua responded, “Let it happen now, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” So John yielded to Him.

¹⁶ After being immersed, Yeshua rose up out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Ruach Elohim^[e] descending like a dove and coming upon Him. ¹⁷ And behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased!”^[f]