Noah Enters the Ark
1Yahweh said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of animal that is not clean, a male and its mate, 3and also seven pairs of every kind of bird of the sky, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. 4In seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing I have made.” 5Noah did everything just as Yahweh commanded him. 6Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the floodwaters. 8Of the clean animals and the animals that are not clean, of the birds and everything that creeps on the ground, 9two by two they came to Noah, into the ark, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth.
The Flood Covers the Earth
11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the springs of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. 12Rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. 13On that very day, Noah went into the ark, together with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his wife, and the three wives of his sons — 14they, and every kind of wild animal, every kind of livestock, every kind of creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every kind of bird, every winged creature. 15Two by two, of all flesh that has the breath of life, they came to Noah, into the ark. 16Those that entered were male and female of every kind of flesh, just as God had commanded him, and Yahweh shut him in. 17The flood continued for forty days on the earth. The waters increased and lifted the ark, and it rose above the earth. 18The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 19The waters swelled more and more on the earth, until all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. 20The waters rose more than fifteen cubits above the mountains, covering them. 21Every creature that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, wild animals, everything that swarmed on the earth, and all humankind. 22Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23Every living thing on the face of the ground was wiped out — people, livestock, creeping things, and the birds of the sky; they were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. 24The waters kept rising on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.
