Passage: Genesis 6, 7, 8 (RSV)


Genesis 6


1When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
2the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose.
3Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
5The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
7So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."
8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9These are the generations 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 God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
12And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
13And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
15This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die.
18But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
19And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
20Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive.
21Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them."
22Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Genesis 7


1Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
2Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate;
3and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth.
4For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground."
5And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.
6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.
7And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark, to escape the waters of the flood.
8Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,
9two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
10And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
11In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
12And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13On 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,
14they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle 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 bird of every sort.
15They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
16And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
17The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
18The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
19And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered;
20the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
21And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man;
22everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
23He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.
24And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 8


1But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;
2the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
3and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated;
4and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ar'arat.
5And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made,
7and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.
8Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground;
9but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.
10He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
11and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
12Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.
13In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
15Then God said to Noah,
16"Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you.
17Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh -- birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth -- that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth."
18So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
19And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark.
20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
22While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."



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