Genesis 7:1–9:29

The Flood

7 The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with your whole family; I have found that you are the only one in all the world who does what is right. 2Take with you seven pairs of each kind of ritually clean animal, but only one pair of each kind of unclean animal. 3Take also seven pairs of each kind of bird. Do this so that every kind of animal and bird will be kept alive to reproduce again on the earth. 4Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights, in order to destroy all the living beings that I have made.” 5And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded.

6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood came on the earth. 7*He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood. 8A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean, 9went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. 10Seven days later the flood came.

11 *When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened, 12and rain fell on the earth for 40 days and nights. 13On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. 14With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird. 15A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah, 16as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.

17 The flood continued for 40 days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float. 18The water became deeper, and the boat drifted on the surface. 19It became so deep that it covered the highest mountains; 20it went on rising until it was about seven metres above the tops of the mountains. 21Every living being on the earth died—every bird, every animal, and every person. 22Everything on earth that breathed died. 23The Lord destroyed all living beings on the earth—human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat. 24The water did not start going down for 150 days.

The End of the Flood

8 God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. 2The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, 3and the water gradually went down for 150 days. 4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. 5The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

6 After 40 days Noah opened a window 7and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. 8Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down, 9but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to alight. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in. 10He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again. 11It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. 12Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.

13 When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked round, and saw that the ground was getting dry. 14By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

15 God said to Noah, 16“Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. 17Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.” 18So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives. 19All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.

Noah Offers a Sacrifice

20 Noah built an altar to the Lord; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burnt them whole as a sacrifice on the altar. 21The odour of the sacrifice pleased the Lord, and he said to himself, “Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time. 22As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

God’s Covenant with Noah

9 * God blessed Noah and his sons and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. 2All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. 3Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food. 4*The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood. 5If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life. 6*Human beings were made like God, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else.

7 *“You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.”

8 God said to Noah and his sons, 9“I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, 10and with all living beings—all birds and all animals—everything that came out of the boat with you. 11With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. 12As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, 13I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world. 14Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, 15I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. 16When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. 17That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.”

Noah and His Sons

18 The sons of Noah who went out of the boat were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19These three sons of Noah were the ancestors of all the people on earth.

20 Noah, who was a farmer, was the first man to plant a vineyard. 21After he drank some of the wine, he became drunk, took off his clothes, and lay naked in his tent. 22When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked, he went out and told his two brothers. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it behind them on their shoulders. They walked backwards into the tent and covered their father, keeping their faces turned away so as not to see him naked. 24When Noah was sober again and learnt what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,

“A curse on Canaan!

He will be a slave to his brothers.

26 Give praise to the Lord, the God of Shem!

Canaan will be the slave of Shem.

27 May God cause Japhethd to increase! May his descendants live with the people of Shem!

Canaan will be the slave of Japheth.”

28 After the flood Noah lived for 350 years 29and died at the age of 950.