Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
8 Let everyone bless God and sing his praises; 9 for he holds our lives in his hands, and he holds our feet to the path. 10 You have purified us with fire,[a] O Lord, like silver in a crucible. 11 You captured us in your net and laid great burdens on our backs. 12 You sent troops to ride across our broken bodies.[b] We went through fire and flood. But in the end, you brought us into wealth and great abundance.
13 Now I have come to your Temple with burnt offerings to pay my vows. 14 For when I was in trouble, I promised you many offerings. 15 That is why I am bringing you these fat male goats, rams, and calves. The smoke of their sacrifice shall rise before you.
16 Come and hear, all of you who reverence the Lord, and I will tell you what he did for me: 17 For I cried to him for help with praises ready on my tongue. 18 He would not have listened if I had not confessed my sins. 19 But he listened! He heard my prayer! He paid attention to it!
20 Blessed be God, who didn’t turn away when I was praying and didn’t refuse me his kindness and love.
7 Finally the day came when the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. 2 Bring in the animals, too—a pair of each, except those kinds I have chosen for eating and for sacrifice: take seven pairs of each of them, 3 and seven pairs[a] of every kind of bird. Thus there will be every kind of life reproducing again after the flood has ended. 4 One week from today I will begin forty days and nights of rain; and all the animals and birds and reptiles I have made will die.”
5 So Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. 6 He was 600 years old when the flood came. 7 He boarded the boat with his wife and sons and their wives, to escape the flood. 8-9 With him were all the various kinds of animals—those for eating and sacrifice, and those that were not, and the birds and reptiles. They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.
10-12 One week later, when Noah was 600 years, two months, and seventeen days old, the rain came down in mighty torrents from the sky, and the subterranean waters burst forth upon the earth for forty days and nights. 13 But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. 14-15 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild—and reptiles and birds of every sort. 16 Two by two they came, male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the Lord God[b] closed the door and shut them in.
17 For forty days the roaring floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18 As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely upon it; 19 until finally the water covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven, 20 standing twenty-two feet and more above the highest peaks. 21 And all living things upon the earth perished—birds, domestic and wild animals, and reptiles and all mankind— 22 everything that breathed and lived upon dry land. 23 All existence on the earth was blotted out—man and animals alike, and reptiles and birds. God destroyed them all, leaving only Noah alive, and those with him in the boat. 24 And the water covered the earth 150 days.
13 Just then a light wind began blowing from the south, and it looked like a perfect day for the trip; so they pulled up anchor and sailed along close to shore.
14-15 But shortly afterwards the weather changed abruptly, and a heavy wind of typhoon strength (a “northeaster,” they called it) caught the ship and blew it out to sea. They tried at first to face back to shore but couldn’t, so they gave up and let the ship run before the gale.
16 We finally sailed behind a small island named Clauda, where with great difficulty we hoisted aboard the lifeboat that was being towed behind us, 17 and then banded the ship with ropes to strengthen the hull. The sailors were afraid of being driven across to the quicksands of the African coast,[a] so they lowered the topsails and were thus driven before the wind.
18 The next day as the seas grew higher, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard. 19 The following day they threw out the tackle and anything else they could lay their hands on. 20 The terrible storm raged unabated many days,[b] until at last all hope was gone.
21 No one had eaten for a long time, but finally Paul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Fair Havens—you would have avoided all this injury and loss! 22 But cheer up! Not one of us will lose our lives, even though the ship will go down.
23 “For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul—for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God has granted your request and will save the lives of all those sailing with you.’ 25 So take courage! For I believe God! It will be just as he said! 26 But we will be shipwrecked on an island.”
27 About midnight on the fourteenth night of the storm, as we were being driven to and fro on the Adriatic Sea, the sailors suspected land was near. 28 They sounded and found 120 feet of water below them. A little later they sounded again and found only 90 feet. 29 At this rate they knew they would soon be driven ashore; and fearing rocks along the coast, they threw out four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.
30 Some of the sailors planned to abandon the ship and lowered the emergency boat as though they were going to put out anchors from the prow. 31 But Paul said to the soldiers and commanding officer, “You will all die unless everyone stays aboard.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes and let the boat fall off.
33 As the darkness gave way to the early morning light, Paul begged everyone to eat. “You haven’t touched food for two weeks,” he said. 34 “Please eat something now for your own good! For not a hair of your heads shall perish!”
35 Then he took some hardtack and gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. 36 Suddenly everyone felt better and began eating, 37 all 276 of us—for that is the number we had aboard. 38 After eating, the crew lightened the ship further by throwing all the wheat overboard.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.