Genesis 6
6
Corruption on the Earth
(Matthew 24:36–51)
1Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.
3So the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever,#6:3 LXX and Syriac My Spirit will not remain in man forever for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years.”
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.
5Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time. 6And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7So the Lord said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”
Noah’s Favor with God
8Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
9This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence. 12And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt; for all living creatures #6:12 Literally all flesh; similarly in verses 13, 17, and 19 on the earth had corrupted their ways.
Preparing the Ark
(Hebrews 11:7)
13Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.
14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood;#6:14 Gopher is an unknown kind of tree; possibly cypress or cedar. make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.#6:15 The ark was approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high (137.2 meters long, 22.9 meters wide, and 13.7 meters high). 16You are to make a roof #6:16 Or skylight or window for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top,#6:16 A cubit is approximately 18 inches or 45.7 centimeters. place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.
17And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish. 18But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
19And you are to bring two of every living creature into the ark—male and female—to keep them alive with you. 20Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive. 21You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals.”
22So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.
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Genesis 6
6
There were big, strong fighting men
1The people on the earth kept on having lots of kids, and those kids grew up and kept on having more kids, so after some time there were lots of people on the earth. And some people had very pretty daughters.
2There were some men that everyone called the Sons of God. They looked at the pretty young women, then they picked out the women they wanted, and they married them. 3God looked at everything that was happening. He said, “I gave people their breath, but I will not let it stay in them for ever. They are just people. They will live for only 120 years.”
4Those men that were called the Sons of God, they slept with the pretty women, like men usually sleep with their wives, and then those women had kids called Nefalim. Those Nefalim kids grew up to be big, strong fighting men. They were the great fighters in the stories from a long time ago.#Numbers 13:33
People kept on doing bad things
5God looked at the people on the earth, and he saw them doing lots of bad things. He knew the way they were thinking. They were thinking bad things all the time. God saw that the people were very bad. 6So God was feeling sad. He really felt no good inside. He thought to himself, “I should not have made all these people.”
7And God said, “These people keep on doing bad things, and that makes me really sad. I’m sorry that I made them. I’m sorry I made everything on the earth. I want to finish up everything. I want to kill all the people I made, and I want to kill all the animals on earth, the big animals, and the little animals, and even the animals that crawl around on the ground, and I want to kill all the birds that fly in the sky.”
8But God looked at the man called Noah, and Noah made God happy.
The story about Noah
9This is the story about Noah and his family. Noah was a good man. He didn’t do anything wrong. He was God’s friend, and he spent a lot of time with God.#2 Peter 2:5 10He had 3 sons. Their names were Shem, Ham, and Jafeth.
11-12Everyone on the earth kept on doing bad things. They were doing wrong to each other, and fighting and hurting each other. God looked down and saw all the bad things that were going on. The people were always doing things that were really bad.
13So God said to Noah, “Look, everyone is doing bad things and hurting each other. I’m going to kill everyone, and I will finish up everything on the earth.”
God told Noah to build a big boat
14Then God said to Noah, “Make a really big boat for yourself. Make it out of that strong wood called cypress. Make some rooms in the boat. And get some tar, and paint the inside of the boat, and paint the outside too. That will keep the water out of the boat.
15Listen, this is how big I want you to make the boat. It has to be 140 metres long, and 23 metres wide, and 13½ metres high. 16I want you to make a roof for that boat, but leave ½ a metre between the top of the walls and the roof, all around the top of the boat. And put a door in the side of the boat. And make 3 floors in the boat, one floor on the bottom and the other 2 floors upstairs.
17You see, soon I will bring a lot of flood water, and it will cover the earth, and everything that is on the earth will die. Everything that breathes air will die, wherever they live. 18But don’t worry. I’m making a strong promise to you, that I will look after you. I will look after you, and your wife, and all your kids, and their wives too. You all have to go into that boat.#1 Peter 3:20
19And you have to bring lots of animals into that boat too. Every sort of animal that is on the earth has to go into that boat, so that they will stay alive in the big flood. Get one male and one female of each sort of those animals, and take them into the boat with you. You see, you have to keep those animals alive. 20And you have to do the same thing for all those different sorts of birds. Get one male and one female of all of those birds. And you have to do the same thing for all those animals that crawl around on the ground. You have to get one male and one female of all those animals too. I will get 2 of every sort of animal to come to you, so you can keep them alive.
21And you have to gather up lots of food, all the sorts of food that people eat, and all the things that animals eat too. You have to put it all in the boat, so that you will all have enough food.”
22Then Noah did all of that. He did everything that God told him to do.#Hebrews 11:7
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