Every Woman's Bible Genesis sampler - Flipbook - Page 25
15
around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build
three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.
17 “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood
that will destroy every living thing that breathes.
Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my
covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your
wife and your sons and their wives. 19 Bring a pair of
every kind of animal—a male and a female—into
the boat with you to keep them alive during the
flood. 20 Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind
of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept
alive. 21And be sure to take on board enough food
for your family and for all the animals.”
22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.
The Flood Covers the Earth
When everything was ready, the Lord said to
Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for
among all the people of the earth, I can see that you
alone are righteous. 2 Take with you seven pairs—
male and female—of each animal I have approved
for eating and for sacrifice,* and take one pair of each
of the others. 3Also take seven pairs of every kind of
bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair
to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after
the flood. 4 Seven days from now I will make the rains
pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days
and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all
the living things I have created.”
5 So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded
him.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered
the earth. 7 He went on board the boat to escape the
flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives.
8 With them were all the various kinds of animals—
those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those
that were not—along with all the birds and the small
animals that scurry along the ground. 9 They entered
the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had
commanded Noah. 10After seven days, the waters of
the flood came and covered the earth.
11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground
waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in
mighty torrents from the sky. 12 The rain continued
to fall for forty days and forty nights.
7
GENESIS 8
13 That very day Noah had gone into the boat with
his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—
and their wives. 14 With them in the boat were pairs
of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large
and small—along with birds of every kind. 15 Two by
two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. 16A male and female of each
kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah.
Then the Lord closed the door behind them.
17 For forty days the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the
earth. 18As the waters rose higher and higher above
the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface.
19 Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20 rising more than twenty-two
feet* above the highest peaks. 21All the living things
on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground,
and all the people. 22 Everything that breathed and
lived on dry land died. 23 God wiped out every living
thing on the earth—people, livestock, small animals
that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky.
All were destroyed. The only people who survived
were Noah and those with him in the boat. 24And the
floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.
The Flood Recedes
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent
a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters
began to recede. 2The underground waters stopped
flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were
stopped. 3So the floodwaters gradually receded from
the earth. After 150 days, 4exactly five months from
the time the flood began,* the boat came to rest on the
mountains of Ararat. 5Two and a half months later,*
as the waters continued to go down, other mountain
peaks became visible.
6 After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat 7 and released a raven.
The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters
on the earth had dried up. 8 He also released a dove
to see if the water had receded and it could find dry
ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to land
because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and
drew the dove back inside. 10After waiting another
seven days, Noah released the dove again. 11 This time
8
7:2 Hebrew of each clean animal; similarly in 7:8. 7:20 Hebrew 15 cubits [6.9 meters]. 8:4 Hebrew on the seventeenth day of
the seventh month; see 7:11. 8:5 Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month; see 7:11 and note on 8:4.
6:11–7:24 Human wickedness had reached the point that God
decided to start over with Noah, the only godly person alive. The
Flood would return the world to its pre-created state—formless
and empty, with water covering everything. Therefore, Noah
and his family needed to preserve a pair of every animal to
repopulate the earth after the Flood (see 8:17).
8:1 This verse is the center of a massive chiasm (or literary
sandwich). What precedes this verse is a description of the
building and boarding of the ark and the rising of the waters
for 150 days. What follows is a description of the receding of
the waters for 150 days and the disembarking of the animals.
God’s remembering Noah does not suggest that he forgot
about him but marks the moment in which God took action to
keep his promise.
