Old/New Testament

The Flood Begins

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “I have seen that you are the best man among the people of this time. So you and your family go into the boat. ² Take with you seven pairs, each male with its female, of every kind of clean animal. And take one pair, each male with its female, of every kind of unclean animal. ³ Take seven pairs of all the birds of the sky, each male with its female. This will allow all these animals to continue living on the earth after the flood. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth. It will rain 40 days and 40 nights. I will destroy from the earth every living thing that I made.”

⁵ Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. ⁷ He and his wife and his sons and their wives went into the boat. They went in to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ The clean animals, the unclean animals, the birds and everything that crawls on the ground ⁹ came to Noah. They went into the boat in groups of two, male and female. This was just as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ Seven days later the flood started.

¹¹ Noah was now 600 years old. The flood started on the seventeenth day of the second month of that year. That day the underground springs split open. And the clouds in the sky poured out rain. ¹² The rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On that same day Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives went into the boat. ¹⁴ They had every kind of wild animal and tame animal. There was every kind of animal that crawls on the earth. Every kind of bird was there. ¹⁵ They all came to Noah in the boat in groups of two. There was every creature that had the breath of life. ¹⁶ One male and one female of every living thing came. It was just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

¹⁷ Water flooded the earth for 40 days. As the water rose, it lifted the boat off the ground. ¹⁸ The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on the water above the earth. ¹⁹ The water rose so much that even the highest mountains under the sky were covered by it. ²⁰ The water continued to rise until it was more than 20 feet above the mountains.

²¹ All living things that moved on the earth died. This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals and creatures that swarm on the earth. And all human beings died. ²² So everything on dry land died. This means everything that had the breath of life in its nose. ²³ So God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land. This was every man, animal, crawling thing and bird of the sky. All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat. ²⁴ And the waters continued to cover the earth for 150 days.

The Flood Ends

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and tame animals with him in the boat. God made a wind blow over the earth. And the water went down. ² The underground springs stopped flowing. And the clouds in the sky stopped pouring down rain. ^3-4 The water that covered the earth began to go down. After 150 days the water had gone down so much that the boat touched land again. It came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat.^[a] This was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. ⁵ The water continued to go down. By the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains could be seen.

⁶ Forty days later Noah opened the window he had made in the boat. ⁷ He sent out a raven. It flew here and there until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then Noah sent out a dove. This was to find out if the water had dried up from the ground. ⁹ The dove could not find a place to land because water still covered the earth. So it came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand and took the bird. And he brought it back into the boat.

¹⁰ After seven days Noah again sent out the dove from the boat. ¹¹ And that evening it came back to him with a fresh olive leaf in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the ground was almost dry. ¹² Seven days later he sent the dove out again. But this time it did not come back.

¹³ Noah was now 601 years old. It was the first day of the first month of that year. The water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “You and your wife, your sons and their wives should go out of the boat. ¹⁷ Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones and let them grow in number.”

¹⁸ So Noah went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth and every bird went out of the boat. They left by families.

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and animals. And he burned them on the altar as offerings to God. ²¹ The Lord was pleased with these sacrifices. He said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings. Their thoughts are evil even when they are young. But I will never again destroy every living thing on the earth as I did this time.

The New Beginning

9 Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have many children. Grow in number and fill the earth. ² Every animal on earth and every bird in the sky will respect and fear you. So will every animal that crawls on the ground and every fish in the sea respect and fear you. I have given them to you.

³ “Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants. And now I give you everything for food. ⁴ But you must not eat meat that still has blood in it, because blood gives life. ⁵ I will demand your blood for your lives. That is, I will demand the life of any animal that kills a person. And I will demand the life of anyone who takes another person’s life.

⁷ “Noah, I want you and your family to have many children. Grow in number on the earth and become many.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and his sons, ⁹ “Now I am making my agreement with you and your people who will live after you. ¹⁰ And I also make it with every living thing that is with you. It is with the birds, the tame animals and the wild animals. It is with all that came out of the boat with you. I make my agreement with every living thing on earth. ¹¹ I make this agreement with you: I will never again destroy all living things by floodwaters. A flood will never again destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said, “I am making an agreement between me and you and every living creature that is with you. It will continue from now on. This is the sign: ¹³ I am putting my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of the agreement between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow appears in the clouds. ¹⁵ Then I will remember my agreement. It is between me and you and every living thing. Floodwaters will never again destroy all life on the earth. ¹⁶ When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. Then I will remember the agreement that continues forever. It is between me and every living thing on the earth.”

¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “That rainbow is a sign. It is the sign of the agreement that I made with all living things on earth.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸ The sons of Noah came out of the boat with him. They were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three men were Noah’s sons. And all the people on earth came from these three sons.

²⁰ Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank wine made from his grapes. Then he became drunk and lay naked in his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, looked at his naked father. Ham told his brothers outside. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth got a coat and carried it on both their shoulders. They walked backwards into the tent and covered their father. They turned their faces away. In this way they did not see their father without clothes.

²⁴ Noah was sleeping because of the wine. Later he woke up. Then he learned what his youngest son, Ham, had done to him. ²⁵ So Noah said,

²⁶ Noah also said,

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹ He lived a total of 950 years. Then he died.

The Work of John the Baptist

3 About that time John the Baptist came and began preaching in the desert area of Judea. ² John said, “Change your hearts and lives because the kingdom of heaven is coming soon.” ³ John the Baptist is the one Isaiah the prophet was talking about. Isaiah said:

⁴ John’s clothes were made from camel’s hair. He wore a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Many people went to hear John preach. They came from Jerusalem and all Judea and all the area around the Jordan River. ⁶ They told of the sins they had done, and John baptized them in the Jordan River.

⁷ Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to the place where John was baptizing people. When John saw them, he said: “You are snakes! Who warned you to run away from God’s anger that is coming? ⁸ You must do the things that show that you have really changed your hearts and lives. ⁹ And don’t think that you can say to yourselves, ‘Abraham is our father.’ I tell you that God could make children for Abraham from these rocks. ¹⁰ The ax is now ready to cut down the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.^[a]

¹¹ “I baptize you with water to show that your hearts and lives have changed. But there is one coming later who is greater than I am. I am not good enough to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² He will come ready to clean the grain. He will separate the good grain from the chaff. He will put the good part of the grain into his barn. And he will burn the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out.”^[b]

Jesus Is Baptized by John

¹³ At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River. He came to John and wanted John to baptize him. ¹⁴ But John tried to stop him. John said, “Why do you come to me to be baptized? I should be baptized by you!”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “Let it be this way for now. We should do all things that are right.” So John agreed to baptize Jesus.

¹⁶ Jesus was baptized and came up out of the water. Heaven opened, and he saw God’s Spirit coming down on him like a dove. ¹⁷ And a voice spoke from heaven. The voice said, “This is my Son and I love him. I am very pleased with him.”