The Great Flood

Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth.

And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground

came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth.

In 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.

And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

On 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—

they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature.

They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life.

And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.

So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

Finally, the waters completely prevailed upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered.

The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits.

And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.

Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

And 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.

And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

But 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.

The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

The waters receded steadily from the earth, and after 150 days the waters had gone down.

On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

And 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.

After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark

and sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth.

Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.

But 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.

Noah waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.

And 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.

And Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove again, but this time she did not return to him.

In 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.

By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was fully dry.

Then God said to Noah,

“Come out of the ark, you and your wife, along with your sons and their wives.

Bring 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.”

So Noah came out, along with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.

Every living creature, every creeping thing, and every bird—everything that moves upon the earth—came out of the ark, kind by kind.