Genesis 6-7

Contemporary English Version

The Lord Will Send a Flood

6 ^1-2 (A) More and more people were born, until finally they spread all over the earth. Some of their daughters were so beautiful that supernatural beings^[a] came down and married the ones they wanted. ³ Then the Lord said, “I won't let my life-giving breath remain in anyone forever.^[b] No one will live for more than 120 years.”^[c]

^4 (B)(C) The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.

^5 (D) The Lord saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. ⁶ He was sorry that he had made them, ⁷ and he said, “I'm going to destroy every person on earth! I'll even wipe out animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them.”

⁸ But the Lord was pleased with Noah, ^9 (E) and this is the story about him. Noah was the only person who lived right and obeyed God. ¹⁰ He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

^11-12 God knew that everyone was terribly cruel and violent. ¹³ So he told Noah:

Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I'm going to destroy the whole earth and all its people. ¹⁴ Get some good lumber and build a boat. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. ¹⁵ Make it 133 meters long, 22 meters wide, and 13 meters high. ¹⁶ Build a roof^[d] on the boat and leave a space of about 44 centimeters between the roof and the sides.^[e] Make the boat three stories high and put a door on one side.

¹⁷ I'm going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes! Nothing will be left alive. ¹⁸ But I solemnly promise that you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law will be kept safe in the boat.^[f]

^19-20 Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, as well as a male and a female of every reptile. I don't want them to be destroyed. ²¹ Store up enough food both for yourself and for them.

^22 (F) Noah did everything God told him to do.

The Flood

7 The Lord told Noah:

Take your whole family with you into the boat, because you are the only one on this earth who pleases me. ² Take seven pairs of every kind of animal that can be used for sacrifice^[g] and one pair of all others. ³ Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird with you. Do this so there will always be animals and birds on the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain that will last for 40 days and nights, and I will destroy all other living creatures I have made.

^5-7 (G) Noah was 600 years old when he went into the boat to escape the flood, and he did everything the Lord had told him to do. His wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law all went inside with him. ^8-9 He obeyed God and took a male and a female of each kind of animal and bird into the boat with him. ¹⁰ Seven days later a flood began to cover the earth.

^11-12 (H) The water under the earth started gushing out everywhere, the sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for 40 days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. ¹³ On that day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ¹⁴ They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds. ¹⁵ Noah took a male and a female of every living creature with him, ¹⁶ just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, the Lord closed the door.

^17-18 For 40 days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground. ^19-20 Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were about seven meters below the surface of the water. ²¹ Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. ^22-23 (I) The Lord destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat. ²⁴ A hundred fifty days later, the water started going down.