Genesis 6–7

The Wickedness of Humans

⁶When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,^{* 2}the sons of God saw that they were fair, and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.^{* 3}Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide^w in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”^{* 4}The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

⁵The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.^{* 6}And the Lord was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.^{* 7}So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the humans I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air—for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.^*

Noah Pleases God

⁹These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.^{* 10}And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.^*

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹²And God saw that the earth was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.^{* 13}And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.^{* 14}Make yourself an ark of cypress^x wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.^{* 15}This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶Make a roof^y for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.^{* 18}But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.^{* 19}And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.^{* 20}Of the birds according to their kinds and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive.^{* 21}Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” ²²Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.^*

The Great Flood

⁷Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.^{* 2}Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate;^{* 3}and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ⁵And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. ⁷And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.^{* 8}Of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.^{* 12}The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.^{* 13}On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark,^{* 14}they and every wild animal of every kind and all domestic animals of every kind and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every bird of every kind.^{z 15}They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.^{* 16}And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in.^*

¹⁷The flood continued forty days on the earth, and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.^{* 18}The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.^{* 19}The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; ²⁰the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. ²¹And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings;^{* 22}everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.^{* 23}He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark.^{* 24}And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.^*