Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ The Lord saw that men and women on the earth had become very bad. They thought only of evil things all the time. ⁶ The Lord was sorry that he had made humans and put them on the earth. He became very upset. ⁷ So the Lord said, ‘I made humans, but now I will destroy them. I will completely take them off the earth. As well as human people, I will also destroy the animals, the living things that move on the ground, and the birds. I am sorry that I made them.’

⁸ But as for Noah, the Lord was happy about him.^[a]

God saves Noah

⁹ This is the report about Noah and his family.

Noah was a good man. He was the only person at that time who lived in a completely right way. He stayed near to God in his life. ¹⁰ Noah became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

¹¹ God saw that everything on the earth had become spoiled. Everywhere, people were attacking each other. ¹² God saw how much the earth had become spoiled. Everyone was doing bad things. ¹³ God said to Noah, ‘I will destroy everyone. That is what I have decided to do. Everywhere on the earth, people are attacking each other. Now I will destroy the people and also the earth. ¹⁴ So make a ship for yourself. Use wood from cypress trees to make it.^[b] The ship must have rooms in it. Cover the inside and the outside of the ship with tar.^[c]

¹⁵ This is how you will build the ship: It must be 150 metres long, 25 metres wide and 15 metres high.

¹⁶ Make a roof for the ship. Leave a space 45 centimetres high all round under the roof. Put a door in the side of the ship. Inside the ship, make three floors above each other.

¹⁷ I will cover the earth with deep water. I will destroy all living things, wherever they live. Everything that breathes will die. ¹⁸ But I will make a covenant with you, Noah. You will go into the ship. You will take your wife with you, and also your three sons and their wives. ¹⁹ You must also take two of every different kind of animal into the ship. One will be male and the other will be female. Then they will stay alive with you. ²⁰ Bring two of every different kind of bird, two of every different animal and two of every different living thing that moves along the ground. All these will come to you. You will take care of them so that they will stay alive. ²¹ You must also take every different kind of food. That will be food for you and food for the animals.’

²² Noah obeyed God. He did everything that God had told him to do.

Soldiers take Paul to Rome

27 Some time after that, Festus decided that we should sail to Italy. So he commanded a soldier called Julius to guard Paul and some other prisoners. Julius was an officer in the Roman army. He had authority over 100 soldiers in a group called ‘The Emperor Augustus Group’.^[a]

² We went onto a ship that had come from Adramyttium. This ship was ready to leave. It would sail to the towns on the coast of Asia region. A man called Aristarchus also sailed with us. He came from a city in Macedonia called Thessalonica.

³ The next day after we left Caesarea, we arrived at Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul. He said, ‘Paul, you can go and visit your friends here. They can give you anything that you need.’ ⁴ Then we sailed out across the sea again. But the wind was blowing against our ship. So we sailed round the island called Cyprus. We sailed on the side of the island where the wind was not strong. ⁵ When we were near to Cilicia and Pamphylia, we sailed straight across the sea. Then we arrived at Myra, in the region called Lycia. ⁶ The Roman officer found another ship there. It had sailed from Alexandria and it would sail to Italy. So the officer put us on this ship. ⁷ We sailed slowly for several days. It was difficult to sail, but after some time we arrived near the town of Cnidus. Because of the strong wind, we could not continue to sail in that direction. So we sailed along the side of the island called Crete, where the wind was not strong. We sailed past the point of land called Salmone. ⁸ It was still difficult to sail, so we sailed near to the coast. Then we arrived at a place called ‘Safe Port’. This port was near to the town of Lasea.

⁹ We remained there for many days. By then it had become dangerous to continue the journey. It was already after the Day of Atonement.^[b]

So Paul spoke to the army officer and to the sailors. ¹⁰ He said, ‘Friends, I understand that now our journey will be dangerous. The ship may break in pieces. You may lose the things that the ship is carrying. All of us may even die.’ ¹¹ But the army officer did not believe what Paul said. Instead, he decided to do what the owner of the ship and the captain said.^[c]

¹² This port was not a good place for a ship to remain during the winter. Most of the men on the ship wanted to continue the journey. They wanted to sail as far as Phoenix, if they could get there. They could stay there for the winter. Phoenix was a port on the island called Crete. It was open to the sea both to the south-west and to the north-west.^[d]