Day 3 – The Flood

₅When the LORD saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, ₆he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret ₇that he said, “I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them.” ₈But the LORD was pleased with Noah.

_9-10This is the story of Noah. He had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah had no faults and was the only good man of his time. He lived in fellowship with God, ₁₁but everyone else was evil in God's sight, and violence had spread everywhere. ₁₂God looked at the world and saw that it was evil, for the people were all living evil lives.

₁₃God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to the whole human race. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds. ₁₄Build a boat for yourself out of good timber; make rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. ₁₅Make it 133 metres long, 22 metres wide, and thirteen metres high. ₁₆Make a roof for the boat and leave a space of 44 centimetres between the roof and the sides. Build it with three decks and put a door in the side. ₁₇I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, ₁₈but I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. _19-20Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive. ₂₁Take along all kinds of food for you and for them.” ₂₂Noah did everything that God commanded.

₁The LORD said to Noah, “Go into the boat with your whole family; I have found that you are the only one in all the world who does what is right. ₂Take with you seven pairs of each kind of ritually clean animal, but only one pair of each kind of unclean animal. ₃Take also seven pairs of each kind of bird. Do this so that every kind of animal and bird will be kept alive to reproduce again on the earth. ₄Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights, in order to destroy all the living beings that I have made.” ₅And Noah did everything that the LORD commanded.

₆Noah was 600 years old when the flood came on the earth. ₇He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood. ₈A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean, ₉went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. ₁₀Seven days later the flood came.

₁₁When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened, ₁₂and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights. ₁₃On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ₁₄With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird. ₁₅A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah, ₁₆as God had commanded. Then the LORD shut the door behind Noah.

₁₇The flood continued for forty days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float. ₁₈The water became deeper, and the boat drifted on the surface. ₁₉It became so deep that it covered the highest mountains; ₂₀it went on rising until it was about seven metres above the tops of the mountains. ₂₁Every living being on the earth died — every bird, every animal, and every person. ₂₂Everything on earth that breathed died. ₂₃The LORD destroyed all living beings on the earth — human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat. ₂₄The water did not start going down for 150 days.