Noah and the Flood

1 When men had begun to multiply on the earth, beautiful daughters were born to them. And the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were exceedingly beautiful, and took as wives any they chose. 2 God said, “My spirit will not judge among these men forever, because they are flesh; so their years will be 120. And he set within those years the ends of the world, yet wickedness was not put out of their hands.” 3 God saw that among all the dwellers on earth deeds of evil were carried out, and since their thoughts were on wickedness all their days, God said, “I will blot out man and everything that has sprouted upon the earth, for I am sorry that I made him.” 4 But Noah found grace and mercy before the Lord, and these are his generations. Noah, who was a righteous man and blameless in his generation, pleased the Lord. God said to him, “The end of all who dwell on the earth has come, for their deeds are very evil. Now make yourself an ark of cedar wood, and make it like this: 300 cubits will be its length, 50 cubits its breadth, and 30 cubits its height. You will enter the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. I will make my covenant with you, to destroy all who dwell on the earth. Of clean animals and of the clean birds of the heavens you will take seven pairs, male and female, so that their offspring may be kept alive on the earth. But of unclean animals and birds you will take two of each, male and female, and you will take provisions for yourself and for them as well.” 5 Noah did what God commanded him and entered the ark, he and all his sons with him. After 7 days the water of the flood began to come upon the earth. On that day all the depths were opened and the great spring of water and the windows of heaven, and there was rain on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. 6 It was then the 1652nd year from the time God had made the heaven and the earth, in the day when the earth was corrupted with its inhabitants because of the wickedness of their deeds. 7 When the flood had continued 140 days on the earth, only Noah and those with him in the ark remained alive; and when God remembered Noah, he made the water subside. 8 On the 90th day God dried the earth and said to Noah, “Go out of the ark, you and all who are with you, and grow and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out of the ark, he and his sons and his sons’ wives, and he brought out with him all the animals, creeping things, birds, and cattle, as God commanded him. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of all the cattle and of the clean birds and offered burnt offerings on the altar; and it was accepted by the Lord as a pleasing aroma. 9 God said, “I will never again curse the earth for man’s sake, for the inclination of man’s heart is bent on evil from his youth. Therefore I will not again destroy all living things together as I have done. But when those who dwell on the earth have sinned, I will judge them by famine or by the sword or by fire or by plague, and there will be earthquakes, and they will be scattered into uninhabited places. But I will not again ruin the earth with the water of a flood; and all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and autumn, day and night, will not cease, until I remember those who dwell on the earth, until the times are fulfilled. 10 “But when the years of the world are fulfilled, then the light will cease and the darkness be quenched, and I will bring the dead to life and raise up from the earth those who sleep. Hell will pay its debt and destruction give back what was entrusted to it, so that I may repay each person according to his works and according to the fruit of his thoughts, until I judge between the soul and the flesh. The world will rest, death will be quenched, and Hell will shut its mouth.⁠a The earth will not be without offspring nor barren for those who dwell in it; and no one who has been justified in me will be defiled. There will be another earth and another heaven, an everlasting dwelling.” 11 The Lord spoke further to Noah and to his sons, saying, “I will make my covenant with you and with your offspring after you, and I will not again ruin the earth with the water of a flood. Everything that lives and moves in it will be food for you. But you must not eat flesh with the blood of its life. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed, for man was made in the image of God. And you, grow and multiply and fill the earth like the multitude of fish that multiply in the waters.” And God said, “This is the covenant I have made between me and you; and when I cover the heaven with clouds, my bow will appear in the cloud, and it will be a reminder of the covenant between me and you and all who dwell on the earth.”