HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 380
G EN ES IS 7
page 10
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. 3 Also 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.
7
— promises —
from God
“I will never again destroy
all living things. As long
as the earth remains,
there will be planting and
harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night.”
G E N E S I S 8:2 1-2 2
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. 10 After
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.
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. 16 A 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. 18 As 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.
21 All 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. 24 And
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. 2 The underground
waters stopped flowing, and the torrential
rains from the sky were stopped. 3 So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After
150 days, 4 exactly five months from the time
the flood began,* the boat came to rest on the
mountains of Ararat. 5 Two 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. 10 After waiting another seven
days, Noah released the dove again. 11 This time
the dove returned to him in the evening with a
fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that
the floodwaters were almost gone. 12 He waited
another seven days and then released the dove
again. This time it did not come back.
13 Noah was now 601 years old. On the first
day of the new year, ten and a half months after
the flood began,* the floodwaters had almost
dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the
covering of the boat and saw that the surface
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. 8:13 Hebrew On the first
day of the first month; see 7:11.