Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons who were with him. He said, ⁹ “I am now making my covenant with you and with all your children who will be born after you. ¹⁰ I am making it also with every living creature that was with you in the ark. I am making my covenant with the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals. I am making it with all the creatures that came out of the ark with you. In fact, I am making it with every living thing on earth. ¹¹ Here is my covenant I am making with you. The waters of a flood will never again destroy all life. A flood will never again destroy the earth.”

¹² God continued, “My covenant is between me and you and every living creature with you. It is a covenant for all time to come. Here is the sign of the covenant I am making. ¹³ I have put my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Sometimes when I bring clouds over the earth, a rainbow will appear in them. ¹⁵ Then I will remember my covenant between me and you and every kind of living creature. The waters will never again become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. I will remember that my covenant will last forever. It is a covenant between me and every kind of living creature on earth.”

¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “The rainbow is the sign of my covenant. I have made my covenant between me and all life on earth.”

³⁹ When daylight came, they saw a bay with a sandy beach. They didn’t recognize the place. But they decided to run the ship onto the beach if they could. ⁴⁰ So they cut the anchors loose and left them in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that held the rudders. They lifted the sail at the front of the ship to the wind. Then they headed for the beach. ⁴¹ But the ship hit a sandbar. So the front of it got stuck and wouldn’t move. The back of the ship was broken to pieces by the pounding of the waves.

⁴² The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners. They wanted to keep them from swimming away and escaping. ⁴³ But the commander wanted to save Paul’s life. So he kept the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and swim to land. ⁴⁴ The rest were supposed to get there on boards or other pieces of the ship. That is how everyone reached land safely.