Genesis 7

The Flood Covers the Earth

1When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. 2Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice,#7:2 Hebrew of each clean animal; similarly in 7:8. and take one pair of each of the others. 3Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after the flood. 4Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”

5So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him.

6Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. 7He went on board the boat to escape the flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives. 8With them were all the various kinds of animals—those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not—along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground. 9They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth.

11When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.

13That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives. 14With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind. 15Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. 16A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

17For forty days the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. 19Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20rising more than twenty-two feet#7:20 Hebrew 15 cubits [6.9 meters]. above the highest peaks. 21All the living things on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people. 22Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. 23God wiped out every living thing on the earth—people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. 24And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.

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Genesis 7

God told Noah to get ready for a flood

1After that, God said to Noah, “You are the only man that lives the right way. Get your family and take them into the big boat. 2You have to take every sort of animal with you into that big boat. You know the sorts of animals that are right for you to give to me? Well, get 7 males and 7 females from each of those sorts of animals. And get all the other animals too, the animals that are not right to give to me. Get one male and one female from each of those sorts of animals. They all have to go on to the big boat. 3And the birds too. They have to go on to the big boat. Get 7 males and 7 females from each sort of bird. That’s how you can keep those birds and animals alive, so that there will always be birds and animals on the earth.

4You see, I’m going to send a big rain. That rain will come in 7 days time. Then it will keep on raining all the time for 40 days. The flood water will come up and wash away all the things that I have made.”

5So Noah did everything just the way God told him to.

The flood water came

6-7Noah was 600 years old at the time that he went into the big boat to be safe from the flood. Noah, and his wife, and his 3 sons, and their wives too, they all went into the big boat. 8-9And a big mob of animals came to Noah, and he took them into the boat too, just like God told him to. There were all sorts of animals. There were animals that were the right sort to give to God, and animals that were not the right sort to give to God. And there were birds and even animals that crawl around on the ground. And there were males and females of each sort of animal, and they went in 2 at a time. They all came together on that big boat, just like God wanted them to.

10Then, 7 days later, the flood water came, just like God said. 11-16Noah was 600 years old at the time that the flood water came. It came on the 17th day of the 2nd month of that year.

Noah, and his wife, and his sons, and their wives too, they all went into the big boat. The names of Noah’s sons were Shem, and Ham, and Jafeth, and they each had a wife. They all went into the boat with all the animals. There were wild animals, and animals that are not wild, and animals that crawl around on the ground. And all the birds were there too. There were males and females of every bird and animal on that big boat. All of the different sorts of animals went into that big boat with Noah. They went in 2 at a time, just like God told Noah. And after the last animal went into the boat with Noah and his family, God shut the door.

Then, on that same day, the rain came out of the sky. It rained really hard all the time. It was like God opened up a big window in the sky, and rain poured down. And water came up from springs, and from everywhere under the ground too. It kept on raining all the time for 40 days. 17The flood water kept on getting higher and higher for all those 40 days, and the big boat started to float on the water. 18The water got deeper and deeper, but that boat was all right, it floated on top of the water, high above the ground.

19The water got so deep that it covered all the big mountains everywhere. 20It covered the tops of those mountains with about 7 metres of water. 21All the people and animals that lived on the earth died. Only the people and animals on that big boat didn’t die. The flood water killed all the birds, and it killed all the animals, the wild animals and the animals that are not wild, and it killed all the animals that crawl around on the ground, and all the people.#Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 2 Peter 3:6 22They all died, everything that breathed air and lived on the ground. 23There were no people or animals left on the earth. There were no birds, and no animals that crawl around on the ground, and no other animals, and no people. God killed them all and washed them away. The only ones that stayed alive were the animals and birds on the big boat with Noah and his family.

24And that flood went on for a long time. The water covered the earth for 5 months.

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