Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This song is for the music leader.

The Lord's servant, David, wrote it.

David sang these words to the Lord when the Lord saved him from the power of his enemies. This was at the time when Saul was king.

Thank you, Lord!^[a]

¹¹ When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th day of the second month, streams of water came up everywhere from below the earth. Also, the water in the heavens poured down on the earth. ¹² Rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

¹³ On the day that the rain began to fall, Noah and his wife went into the ship. Noah's three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and their three wives also went in. ¹⁴ With them was every different kind of wild animal and every different kind of farm animal. They also had with them every kind of living thing that moves along the ground. Every different kind of bird and other flying things were there too. ¹⁵ Pairs of every kind of animal that lived came to Noah and went into the ship.^{[a] 16} Each pair was one male and one female. This happened in the way that God had told Noah. When they were all in the ship, the Lord shut the door.

¹⁷ For 40 days, the water on the earth became deeper. The water lifted the ship high above the ground.

¹⁸ The water became even deeper and completely covered the earth. The ship went safely on top of the water. ¹⁹ More water came until it covered all the high mountains on the earth. ²⁰ The water still became deeper so that it was more than 6 metres higher than the tops of the mountains.

²¹ As a result, everything that had lived on the earth now died. The birds, the farm animals and the wild animals died. Every living thing that moved across the ground died, and so did all the people. ²² Everything that lived on the dry land died. Nothing could breathe any more. ²³ God destroyed everything that lived on the earth. He destroyed people, animals, living things that move across the ground, and birds. God removed them from the earth. Only Noah and his family, together with the animals that were in the ship, stayed alive.

²⁴ The deep water covered the earth for 150 days.

The deep water goes away

8 Then God thought of Noah, and all the wild animals and the farm animals that were with him in the ship. He caused a wind to blow over the earth. As a result, the water began to go down. ² Streams of water stopped coming up from below the earth. Rain stopped coming down from the sky. ³ The deep water continued to go down for 150 days. ⁴ On the 17th day of the seventh month, the ship stopped on the ground. It was sitting on the top of Ararat mountains. ⁵ The water continued to go down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared above the water.

⁴ God even punished the angels who refused to obey him. He threw them down into the deep hole of hell. He tied them up and he kept them in that completely dark place. They will remain there until the day when God will judge them.^[a]

⁵ Also, a long time ago, God punished all the bad people who lived in the world. He sent water to cover over all the earth. All the people who had turned away from him drowned in the water. But God kept Noah safe. Noah had told people God's message that they should do right things. So God saved Noah, and seven other people, from the water.^[b]

⁶ Later, God punished the people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because they did bad things, God decided to destroy them. He burned those cities completely, so that only ashes remained. When God did that, he showed what will happen to all people who refuse to obey him. ⁷ But God saved Lot from danger. Lot was a good man. He was very sad because the people in Sodom did not obey God's laws. They lived in a very bad way. ⁸ Lot lived among those bad people. Every day, he saw the bad things that they did. Every day, he heard the bad things that they said. As a result, Lot had much trouble in his mind, because he was a good man.^[c]

⁹ We know that the Lord God has done all these things in past times. He knows how to save people who respect him from their troubles. But he will continue to punish the people who refuse to obey him. He will keep them until the day when he will judge them. ¹⁰ God will certainly punish those people who want bad things for themselves. They do the wrong things that their bodies want to do. They do not want to obey anyone's authority.

These false teachers are not afraid of what other people think about them. They think that they themselves are very important. They are not afraid to say many bad things against the great angels in heaven.^[d]