Genesis
Chapter 7

1

Then the LORD said to Noah: "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.

2

Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate;

3

likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female. Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth.

4

Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made."

5

Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him.

6

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood waters came upon the earth.

7

Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.

8

Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

9

(two by two) male and female entered the ark with Noah, just as the LORD had commanded him.

10

As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

11

¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: it was on that day that All the fountains of the great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

12

For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth.

13

On the precise day named, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of Noah's sons had entered the ark,

14

together with every kind of wild beast, every kind of domestic animal, every kind of creeping thing of the earth, and every kind of bird.

15

Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life entered the ark with Noah.

16

Those that entered were male and female, and of all species they came, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

17

The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

18

The swelling waters increased greatly, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

19

Higher and higher above the earth rose the waters, until all the highest mountains everywhere were submerged,

20

the crest rising fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains.

21

All creatures that stirred on earth perished: birds, cattle, wild animals, and all that swarmed on the earth, as well as all mankind.

22

Everything on dry land with the faintest breath of life in its nostrils died out.

23

The LORD wiped out every living thing on earth: man and cattle, the creeping things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left.

24

The waters maintained their crest over the earth for one hundred and fifty days,

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Footnotes

¹ [11] Abyss: the subterranean ocean; see note on 1:2.

New American Bible Copyright © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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