Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹¹ On the seventeenth day of the second month of the 600th year of Noach’s life all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the sky were opened. ¹² It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On that same day Noach entered the ark with Shem, Ham and Yefet the sons of Noach, Noach’s wife and the three wives of his sons accompanying them; ¹⁴ they, and every animal of every species, all the livestock of every species, every animal that creeps on the ground of every species, and every bird of every species — all sorts of winged creatures. ¹⁵ They went in to Noach in the ark, couples from every kind of living thing that breathes. ¹⁶ Those that entered went in, male and female, from every kind of living being, as God had ordered him; and Adonai shut him inside.

(iii) ¹⁷ The flood was forty days on the earth; the water grew higher and floated the ark, so that it was lifted up off the earth. ¹⁸ The water overflowed the earth and grew deeper, until the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water overpowered the earth mightily; all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered; ²⁰ the water covered the mountains by more than twenty-two-and-a-half feet. ²¹ All living beings that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, other animals, insects, and every human being, ²² everything in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life; whatever was on dry land died. ²³ He wiped out every living thing on the surface of the ground — not only human beings, but livestock, creeping animals and birds in the air. They were wiped out from the earth; only Noach was left, along with those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ The water held power over the earth for 150 days.

8 God remembered Noach, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down. ² Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the sky were stopped, the rain from the sky was restrained, ³ and the water came back from completely covering the earth. It was after 150 days that the water went down. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The water kept going down until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁴ For God did not spare the angels who sinned; on the contrary, he put them in gloomy dungeons lower than Sh’ol to be held for judgment. ⁵ And he did not spare the ancient world; on the contrary, he preserved Noach, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, and brought the Flood upon a world of ungodly people. ⁶ And he condemned the cities of S’dom and ‘Amora, reducing them to ashes and ruin, as a warning to those in the future who would live ungodly lives; ⁷ but he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the debauchery of those unprincipled people; ⁸ for the wicked deeds which that righteous man saw and heard, as he lived among them, tormented his righteous heart day after day. ⁹ So the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and how to hold the wicked until the Day of Judgment while continuing to punish them, ¹⁰ especially those who follow their old natures in lust for filth and who despise authority.

Presumptuous and self-willed, these false teachers do not tremble at insulting angelic beings;