Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

7 (ii) Adonai said to Noach, “Come into the ark, you and all your household; for I have seen that you alone in this generation are righteous before me. ² Of every clean animal you are to take seven couples, and of the animals that are not clean, one couple; ³ also of the birds in the air take seven couples — in order to preserve their species throughout the earth. ⁴ For in seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; I will wipe out every living thing that I have made from the face of the earth.” ⁵ Noach did all that Adonai ordered him to do.

⁶ Noach was 600 years old when the water flooded the earth. ⁷ Noach went into the ark with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. ⁸ Of clean animals, of animals that are not clean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ couples, male and female, went in to Noach in the ark, as God had ordered Noach.

¹⁰ After seven days the water flooded the earth. ¹¹ On the seventeenth day of the second month of the 600th year of Noach’s life all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the sky were opened. ¹² It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On that same day Noach entered the ark with Shem, Ham and Yefet the sons of Noach, Noach’s wife and the three wives of his sons accompanying them; ¹⁴ they, and every animal of every species, all the livestock of every species, every animal that creeps on the ground of every species, and every bird of every species — all sorts of winged creatures. ¹⁵ They went in to Noach in the ark, couples from every kind of living thing that breathes. ¹⁶ Those that entered went in, male and female, from every kind of living being, as God had ordered him; and Adonai shut him inside.

(iii) ¹⁷ The flood was forty days on the earth; the water grew higher and floated the ark, so that it was lifted up off the earth. ¹⁸ The water overflowed the earth and grew deeper, until the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ The water overpowered the earth mightily; all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered; ²⁰ the water covered the mountains by more than twenty-two-and-a-half feet. ²¹ All living beings that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, other animals, insects, and every human being, ²² everything in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life; whatever was on dry land died. ²³ He wiped out every living thing on the surface of the ground — not only human beings, but livestock, creeping animals and birds in the air. They were wiped out from the earth; only Noach was left, along with those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ The water held power over the earth for 150 days.

¹³ When a gentle southerly breeze began to blow, they thought that they had their goal within grasp; so they raised the anchor and started coasting by Crete close to shore. ¹⁴ But before long there struck us from land a full gale from the northeast, the kind they call an Evrakilon. ¹⁵ The ship was caught up and unable to face the wind, so we gave way to it and were driven along.

¹⁶ As we passed into the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with strenuous effort to get control of the lifeboat. ¹⁷ They hoisted it aboard, then fastened cables tightly around the ship itself to reinforce it. Fearing they might run aground on the Syrtis sandbars, they lowered the topsails and thus continued drifting. ¹⁸ But because we were fighting such heavy weather, the next day they began to jettison non-essentials; ¹⁹ and the third day, they threw the ship’s sailing equipment overboard with their own hands. ²⁰ For many days neither the sun nor the stars appeared, while the storm continued to rage, until gradually all hope of survival vanished.

²¹ It was then, when they had gone a long time without eating, that Sha’ul stood up in front of them and said, “You should have listened to me and not set out from Crete; if you had, you would have escaped this disastrous loss. ²² But now, my advice to you is to take heart; because not one of you will lose his life — only the ship will be lost. ²³ For this very night, there stood next to me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve. ²⁴ He said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Sha’ul! you have to stand before the Emperor. Look! God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’ ²⁵ So, men, take heart! For I trust God and believe that what I have been told will come true. ²⁶ Nevertheless, we have to run aground on some island.”

²⁷ It was the fourteenth night, and we were still being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, when around midnight the sailors sensed that we were nearing land. ²⁸ So they dropped a plumbline and found the water one hundred and twenty feet deep. A little farther on, they took another sounding and found it ninety feet. ²⁹ Fearing we might run on the rocks, they let out four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come.

³⁰ At this point, the crew made an attempt to abandon ship — they lowered the lifeboat into the sea, pretending that they were about to let out some anchors from the bow. ³¹ Sha’ul said to the officer and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain aboard the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the lifeboat and let it go.

³³ Just before daybreak, Sha’ul urged them all to eat, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have been in suspense, going hungry, eating nothing. ³⁴ Therefore I advise you to take some food; you need it for your own survival. For not one of you will lose so much as a hair from his head.” ³⁵ When he had said this, he took bread, said the b’rakhah to God in front of everyone, broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ With courage restored, they all ate some food themselves. ³⁷ Altogether there were 276 of us on board the ship. ³⁸ After they had eaten all they wanted, they lightened the ship by dumping the grain into the sea.