Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

7 The Lord said to Noah, “You and your entire household go into the ark, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me among this generation. ² Take with you seven each of every clean animal, the male and its female, and two each of every unclean animal, the male and its female, ³ and seven each of birds of the air, the male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ In seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will destroy from the face of the earth.”

⁵ And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah went with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives into the ark because of the floodwaters. ⁸ Everything that creeps on the land from clean and unclean animals and birds ⁹ came in two by two, male and female, to Noah into the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ After seven days, the waters of the flood were on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the same day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They and every wild animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort, ¹⁵ went with Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh in which was the breath of life. ¹⁶ So they went in, male and female of all flesh, just as God had commanded him; then the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood was on the earth forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose up above the earth. ¹⁸ The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed upward and the mountains were covered fifteen cubits deep.^{[a] 21} All flesh that moved on the earth died: birds and livestock and beasts, and every creeping thing that crept on the earth, and every man. ²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that was on the dry land, died. ²³ So He blotted out every living thing which was on the face of the ground, both man and animals and the creeping things and the birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

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

The Storm at Sea

¹³ When a south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained the necessary conditions, they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. ¹⁴ But soon afterward a tempestuous wind swept through, called the Euroclydon.^{[a] 15} When the ship was overpowered and could not head into the wind, we let her drift. ¹⁶ Drifting under the lee of an island called Cauda, we could scarcely secure the rowboat. ¹⁷ When they had hoisted it aboard, they used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they might run aground on the sand of Syrtis, they let down the mast, and so were driven. ¹⁸ We were violently tossed by the storm. The next day they threw cargo overboard. ¹⁹ On the third day we threw the tackle of the ship overboard with our own hands. ²⁰ When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was upon us, all hope that we should be saved was lost.

²¹ After they had long abstained from food, Paul stood in their midst and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete, incurring this injury and loss. ²² But now I advise you to take courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³ For there stood by me this night the angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, ²⁴ saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And, look! God has given you all those who sail with you.’ ²⁵ Therefore, men, take courage, for I believe God that it will be exactly as it was told to me. ²⁶ Nevertheless, we must be shipwrecked on a certain island.”

²⁷ When the fourteenth night came, while we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors supposed that they were approaching land. ²⁸ They took soundings and found the water to be one hundred and twenty feet deep.^[b] When they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be ninety feet deep.^{[c] 29} Fearing that we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. ³⁰ When the sailors strove to abandon ship and lowered the rowboat into the sea, under the pretext of lowering anchors out of the bow, ³¹ Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these sailors remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the rowboat and let her fall off.

³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul asked them all to eat, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have waited and continued without food, having eaten nothing. ³⁴ So I urge you to eat. This is for your preservation, for not a hair shall fall from your head.” ³⁵ When he had said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it he began to eat. ³⁶ Then they were all encouraged, and they also ate food themselves. ³⁷ In all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. ³⁸ When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw the wheat into the sea.