7 Then the Lord said to Noah, ^(A)“Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that ^(B)you are righteous before me in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of all ^(C)clean animals,^[a] the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, ³ and seven pairs^[b] of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For in seven days ^(D)I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, ^(E)and every living thing^[c] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ^5 (F)And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the ^(G)fountains of the great deep burst forth, and ^(H)the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, ¹⁴ they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. ¹⁵ They ^(I)went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. ¹⁶ And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in ^(J)as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood ^(K)continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. ¹⁹ And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits^[d] deep. ²¹ And ^(L)all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on the dry land ^(M)in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³ He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only ^(N)Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

The Storm at Sea

¹³ Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. ¹⁴ But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, ^(A)struck down from the land. ¹⁵ And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. ¹⁶ Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda,^[a] we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat. ¹⁷ After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would ^(B)run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear,^[b] and thus they were driven along. ¹⁸ Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day ^(C)to jettison the cargo. ¹⁹ And on the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰ When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

²¹ Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, ^(D)you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this ^(E)injury and loss. ²² Yet now I urge you to ^(F)take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³ For this very night ^(G)there ^(H)stood before me ^(I)an angel of the God ^(J)to whom I belong and ^(K)whom I worship, ²⁴ and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; ^(L)you must stand before Caesar. And behold, ^(M)God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ ²⁵ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. ²⁶ But ^(N)we must ^(O)run aground on some island.”

²⁷ When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. ²⁸ So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms.^[c] A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.^{[d] 29} And fearing that we might ^(P)run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. ³⁰ And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered ^(Q)the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, ³¹ Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. ³⁴ Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength,^[e] for ^(R)not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” ³⁵ And when he had said these things, he took bread, and ^(S)giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they all ^(T)were encouraged and ate some food themselves. ³⁷ (We were in all 276^{[f] (U)}persons in the ship.) ³⁸ And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, ^(V)throwing out the wheat into the sea.