Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Chapter 7

¹ The Lord said to Noah, “Enter into the ark with your entire family, for I have seen that you, of all this generation, are just in my sight. ² You are to take seven pairs of each type of clean animal with you, male and female. You are to take one pair of each type of unclean animal with you, male and female. ³ You are also to take seven pairs of birds of the air, male and female, with you, so that you may save every species of animal upon the earth. ⁴ In seven days I will make it begin to rain upon the earth, and it will rain for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

⁵ Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him to do.

End of the Sinful World.^{[a] 6} Noah was six hundred years old when the flood began and the waters covered the earth. ⁷ Noah went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and the wives of his sons to escape from the waters of the flood. ⁸ The clean animals and the unclean animals, the birds, and the creatures that creep on the ground^{[b] 9} entered the ark two by two, male and female, along with Noah, just as the Lord had commanded. ¹⁰ After seven days, the waters of the flood covered the earth; ¹¹ this happened in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month. On that very day the springs of the great abyss and the floodgates of the heavens opened.^{[c] 12} The rains fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ That day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth entered the ark along with the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons. ¹⁴ They entered along with all living creatures according to their kind, all cattle according to their kind, all creeping creatures according to their kind, and all birds according to their kind. ¹⁵ They went into the ark with Noah, two by two, every creature that had breath in it. ¹⁶ Those that came, male and female of every type of flesh, entered the ark as God had commanded. The Lord closed the door after them.

¹⁷ The flood lasted for forty days. The waters rose and lifted the ark off the earth as they increased. ¹⁸ The waters continued to swell and increased greatly on the earth until the ark floated upon the waters. ¹⁹ The waters rose more and more on the earth and covered all the highest mountains that are under the heavens. ²⁰ The waters were fifteen cubits over the tops of the mountains that they covered.

²¹ Every living creature that moves upon the earth, every bird, cattle, wild animal, and creature that crawls upon the earth, and every single person on dry land died. ²² Every creature on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

²³ This is how every living creature on earth was slain, every human being and every animal, every reptile and every bird of the air. They were blotted out of the earth, and only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.^[d]

²⁴ The waters covered the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

¹³ When a gentle southerly breeze began to blow, they thought that they would be able to achieve their objective. They weighed anchor and began to sail past Crete, hugging the shore. ¹⁴ But before long a violent wind, called a northeaster, swept down on them. ¹⁵ Since the ship was caught up in it, we had to give way to the wind and let ourselves be driven along.

¹⁶ As we passed along the sheltered side of a small island called Cauda,^[a] we managed with some difficulty to secure the ship’s lifeboat. ¹⁷ After hoisting it up, they used cables to undergird the ship. Then, afraid of running aground on the shallows of Syrtis,^[b] they lowered the sea anchor and so let themselves drift.

¹⁸ We were being pounded so violently by the storm that on the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. ¹⁹ Then on the third day, they threw the ship’s gear overboard with their own hands. ²⁰ For many days, neither the sun nor the stars could be seen, and the storm continued to rage until we finally abandoned all hope of being saved.

²¹ When they all had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete. Then you would have avoided all this damage and loss. ²² I urge you now to keep up your courage. There will be no loss of life among you. Only the ship will be lost.

²³ “Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve appeared to me, ²⁴ and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You shall appear before Caesar. Furthermore, for your sake God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.’ ²⁵ Therefore, men, keep up your courage. I have complete trust in God that what he told me will be fulfilled. ²⁶ But we will run aground on some island.”

²⁷ On the fourteenth night, we were still drifting across the Adriatic Sea.^[c] About midnight, the sailors began to suspect that they were nearing land, ²⁸ so they took soundings and found that the water was twenty feet deep. A little farther on they again took soundings and found fifteen feet.

²⁹ Fearing that we might run aground on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come. ³⁰ The sailors then tried to abandon ship. They had already lowered the lifeboat into the sea, on the pretext that they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. ³¹ But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay^[d] with the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes of the lifeboat and set it adrift.

³³ Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, “This is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense, going hungry and eating nothing. ³⁴ Therefore, I beg you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose even a hair of his head.”

³⁵ After he had said this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they were all encouraged and began to eat. ³⁷ Altogether, there were two hundred and seventy-six persons on board. ³⁸ After they had eaten as much as they wanted they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.