Psalm 18^[a](A)

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,^(A) on the seventeenth day of the second month^(B)—on that day all the springs of the great deep^(C) burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens^(D) were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.^(E)

¹³ On that very day Noah and his sons,^(F) Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.^{(G) 14} They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind,^(H) everything with wings. ¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.^{(I) 16} The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah.^(J) Then the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ For forty days^(K) the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.^{(L) 20} The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.^{[a][b] (M) 21} Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.^{(N) 22} Everything on dry land that had the breath of life^(O) in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth.^(P) Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.^(Q)

²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.^(R)

8 But God remembered^(S) Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth,^(T) and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens^(U) had been closed, and the rain^(V) had stopped falling from the sky. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days^(W) the water had gone down, ⁴ and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month^(X) the ark came to rest on the mountains^(Y) of Ararat.^{(Z) 5} 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.

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned,^(A) but sent them to hell,^[a] putting them in chains of darkness^[b] to be held for judgment;^{(B) 5} if he did not spare the ancient world^(C) when he brought the flood on its ungodly people,^(D) but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;^{(E) 6} if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes,^(F) and made them an example^(G) of what is going to happen to the ungodly;^{(H) 7} and if he rescued Lot,^(I) a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless^{(J) 8} (for that righteous man,^(K) living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials^(L) and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.^{(M) 10} This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire^(N) of the flesh^[c] and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings;^(O)