Noah and the Ark

As people multiplied on the earth, wickedness increased. Every thought of the human heart was only evil, all the time. God's heart was filled with grief. 'I will wipe mankind from the face of the earth,' He said.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. He walked faithfully with God.

God told Noah His plan. 'I am going to bring floodwaters to destroy all life. But I will establish My covenant with you. Build an ark of cypress wood.' God gave Noah detailed instructions—the ark would be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, with three decks and one door.

Noah obeyed. For perhaps 100 years, he built. People must have mocked him—building a massive boat far from any sea! But Noah kept building and preaching righteousness.

When the ark was finished, God told Noah to bring his family and two of every kind of animal—seven pairs of the clean animals—into the ark. They came to Noah, and he brought them in. Then the Lord shut the door.

After seven days, the rain began. For forty days and forty nights, water poured from the sky and burst from the ground. The floodwaters rose until even the highest mountains were covered. Every living thing outside the ark perished.

But God remembered Noah. After 150 days, He sent a wind, and the waters began to recede. The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sent out a raven, then a dove. When the dove returned with an olive leaf, Noah knew the earth was drying.

Finally, God said, 'Come out of the ark.' Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices. God was pleased and made a covenant: 'Never again will I destroy all life with a flood.' He set His rainbow in the clouds as a sign of this everlasting promise.

From Noah's three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—all the nations of the earth descended. God blessed them: 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'