Genesis 6

Noah and the flood

The LORD will send a flood

1-2More and more people were born, until finally they spread all over the earth. Some of their daughters were so beautiful that supernatural beings#6.1,2 supernatural beings: Or “angels”. came down and married the ones they wanted.#Job 1.6; 2.1. 3Then the LORD said, “I won't let my life-giving breath remain in anyone for ever.#6.3 I won't…for ever: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. No one will live for more than one hundred and twenty years.”#6.3 No one…years: Or “In fact, they will all be destroyed in about one hundred years” (that is, at the time of the flood).

4The 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.#Nu 13.33.

5The LORD saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil.#Mt 24.37; Lk 17.26; 1 P 3.20. 6He was very sorry that he had made them, 7and he said, “I'll destroy every living creature on earth! I'll wipe out people, animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them.”

8But the LORD was pleased with Noah, 9and this is the story about him. Noah was the only person who lived right and obeyed God.#2 P 2.5. 10He had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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

Cruelty and violence have spread everywhere. Now I'm going to destroy the whole earth and all its people. 14Get some good timber and build a boat. Put rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. 15Make it one hundred and thirty-three metres long, twenty-two metres wide, and thirteen metres high. 16Build a roof#6.16 roof: Or “window”. on the boat and leave a space of about forty-four centimetres between the roof and the sides.#6.16 leave…sides: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. Make the boat three storeys high and put a door on one side.

17I'm going to send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes! Nothing will be left alive. 18But I solemnly promise that you, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law will be kept safe in the boat.#6.18 boat: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 18.

19-20Bring 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. 21Store up enough food both for yourself and for them.

22Noah did everything the LORD told him to do.#He 11.7.

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Genesis 6

CHAPTER 6

1And when men began to be multiplied on [the] earth, and had begat daughters,

2the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and took wives to them of all which they had chosen.

3And God said, My spirit shall not dwell in man without end, for he is flesh; and the days of him shall be an hundred and twenty years.

4Soothly giants were on the earth in those days, forsooth after that the sons of God entered [in] to the daughters of men, and those daughters begat; these were mighty of the world and famous men.

5Soothly God saw that much malice of men was in [the] earth, and that all the thought of their heart was attentive, either given, to evil in all time,

6and it repented him that he had made man in earth; and God was wary before against time to coming [or to come], and was touched with sorrow of heart within;

7and said, I shall do away man, whom I made of nought, from the face of the earth; from man till to living things, from creeping beast till to the birds of heaven; for it repenteth me that I made them.

8Forsooth Noah found grace before the Lord.

9These be the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations; Noah went with God,

10and begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11Forsooth the earth was corrupt before God, and was filled with wickedness.

12And when God saw, that the earth was corrupt, for each flesh, or man, had corrupted his way on [the] earth,

13he said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; the earth is filled with wickedness of the face of them, and I shall destroy them with the earth.

14Make thou to thee a ship#6:14 Throughout Genesis, whenever the “Later Version” refers to Noah’s ‘ship’, the “Early Version” refers to Noah’s ‘ark’. of wood hewn and planed; thou shalt make dwelling places in the ship, and thou shalt anoint it with pitch within and withoutforth.

15And so thou shalt make it. The length of the ship shall be of three hundred cubits, the breadth shall be of fifty cubits, and the highness thereof shall be of thirty cubits.

16Thou shalt make a window in the ship, and thou shalt end the highness thereof in a cubit; soothly thou shalt set the door of the ship in the side beneath; thou shalt make solars or upper rooms, and places of three chambers in the ship.

17Lo! I shall bring waters of deluge, or great flood, on the earth, and I shall slay each flesh in which is the spirit of life under heaven, and all things that be in [the] earth, shall be wasted.

18And I shall set my covenant of peace with thee; and thou shalt enter into the ship, [thou], and thy sons, and thy wife, and the wives of thy sons shall enter with thee.

19And of all living beasts of all flesh, thou shalt bring into the ship twain [or two] and twain, of male kind and female, that they live with thee;

20of birds by their kind, and of work beasts in their kind, and of each creeping beast of [the] earth, by their kind; twain [or two] and twain of all shall enter with thee, that they may live.

21Therefore thou shalt take with thee of all meats that may be eaten, and thou shalt bear together at thee, and those shall be as well to thee as to the beasts into meat.

22Therefore Noah did all things which God commanded to him.

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