Ark of Noah (Salvation Through Judgment)

13Then God said to Noah, "The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth. 14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. 16You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks. 17And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish. 18But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 19And you are to bring two of every living creature into the ark—male and female—to keep them alive with you. 20Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive. 21You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals." 22So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.

1Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; 3and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth. 4For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made." 5And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. 6Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. 7And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground 9came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth.

11In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. 13On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons— 14they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. 15They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. 16And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. 17For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. 18So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 19Finally, the waters completely inundated the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. 20The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. 21And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. 22Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed—man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. 24And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

1But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside. 2The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 3The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down. 4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 6After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground. 9But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark. 10Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11And behold, the dove returned to him in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him. 13In Noah's six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth. So Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry. 15Then God said to Noah, 16"Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives. 17Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, and everything that crawls upon the ground—so that they can spread out over the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon it." 18So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.

8Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9"Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth—every living thing that came out of the ark. 11And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." 12And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth." 17So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and every creature on the earth."

9"For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.