Genesis 7–8

Chapter 7

The Flood

¹Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be ^arighteous before Me in this ¹time.

²“You shall take ¹with you of every ^aclean animal ²by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female;

³also of the birds of the ¹sky, ²by sevens, male and female, to keep ³offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

⁴“For after ^aseven more days, I will send rain on the earth ^bforty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land ^cevery living thing that I have made.”

^5aNoah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶Now Noah was ^asix hundred years old when the flood of water ¹came upon the earth.

⁷Then ^aNoah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood.

^8aOf clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground,

⁹there went into the ark to Noah ¹by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰It came about after ^athe seven days, that the water of the flood ¹came upon the earth.

¹¹In the ^asix hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all ^bthe fountains of the great deep burst open, and the ¹floodgates of the sky were opened.

^12aThe rain ¹fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³On the very same day ^aNoah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,

¹⁴they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after ¹their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, ²all sorts of birds.

¹⁵So they went into the ark to Noah, ^aby twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life.

¹⁶Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.

¹⁷Then the flood ¹came upon the earth for ^aforty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

¹⁸The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark ¹floated on the ²surface of the water.

¹⁹The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains ¹everywhere under the heavens were covered.

²⁰The water prevailed fifteen ¹cubits higher, ^aand the mountains were covered.

^21aAll flesh that ¹moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;

²²of all that was on the dry land, all ^ain whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.

²³Thus He blotted out ¹every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the ²sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only ^aNoah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.

^24aThe water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

Chapter 8

The Flood Subsides

¹But ^aGod remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and ^bGod caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

²Also ^athe fountains of the deep and the ¹floodgates of the sky were closed, and ^bthe rain from the sky was restrained;

³and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end ^aof one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.

⁴In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, ^athe ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.

⁵The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the ^awindow of the ark which he had made;

⁷and he sent out a raven, and it ¹flew here and there until the water was dried up ²from the earth.

⁸Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land;

⁹but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the ¹surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself.

¹⁰So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

¹¹The dove came to him toward ¹evening, and behold, in her ²beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.

¹²Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out ^athe dove; but she did not return to him again.

¹³Now it came about in the ^asix hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up ¹from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the ²surface of the ground was dried up.

¹⁴In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

¹⁶“Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.

¹⁷“Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may ^1abreed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.

¹⁹Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out ¹by their families from the ark.

²⁰Then Noah built ^aan altar to the Lord, and took of every ^bclean animal and of every clean bird and offered ^cburnt offerings on the altar.

²¹The Lord ^asmelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said ¹to Himself, “I will never again ^bcurse the ground on account of man, for ^cthe ²intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; ^dand I will never again ³destroy every living thing, as I have done.

²²“While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And ^asummer and winter,

And ^bday and night

Shall not cease.”