1Then the Lord said to Noah, “I have seen that you are the best person among the people of this time, so you and your family can go into the boat. 2Take with you seven pairs, each male with its female, of every kind of clean animal, and take one pair, each male with its female, of every kind of unclean animal. 3Take seven pairs of all the birds of the sky, each male with its female. This will allow all these animals to continue living on the earth after the flood. 4Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth. It will rain forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe off from the earth every living thing that I have made.”

5Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.

6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came. 7He and his wife and his sons and their wives went into the boat to escape the waters of the flood. 8The clean animals, the unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls on the ground 9came to Noah. They went into the boat in groups of two, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10Seven days later the flood started.

11When Noah was six hundred years old, the flood started. On the seventeenth day of the second month of that year the underground springs split open, and the clouds in the sky poured out rain. 12The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

13On that same day Noah and his wife, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives went into the boat. 14They had every kind of wild and tame animal, every kind of animal that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird. 15Every creature that had the breath of life came to Noah in the boat in groups of two. 16One male and one female of every living thing came, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

17Water flooded the earth for forty days, and as it rose it lifted the boat off the ground. 18The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on it above the earth. 19The water rose so much that even the highest mountains under the sky were covered by it. 20It continued to rise until it was more than twenty feet above the mountains.

21All living things that moved on the earth died. This included all the birds, tame animals, wild animals, and creatures that swarm on the earth, as well as all human beings. 22So everything on dry land that had the breath of life in it died. 23God destroyed from the earth every living thing that was on the land—every man, animal, crawling thing, and bird of the sky. All that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat. 24And the waters continued to cover the earth for one hundred fifty days.

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Genesis 7

1And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 2Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female. 3Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth. 4For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.

5And Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded him. 6And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth. 7And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowl, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9there came two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God#GodHebrew: Elohim had commanded Noah. 10And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.

11In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; 14they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and all fowl after its kind — every bird of every wing. 15And they went to Noah, into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which was the breath of life. 16And they that came, came male and female of all flesh, as God#GodHebrew: Elohim had commanded him. And Jehovah shut him in.

17And the flood was forty days on the earth. And the waters increased, and bore up the ark; and it was lifted up above the earth. 18And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark went on the face of the waters. 19And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth; and all the high mountains that are under all the heavens were covered. 20Fifteen cubits upward the waters prevailed; and the mountains were covered.

21And all flesh that moved on the earth expired, fowl as well as cattle, and beasts, and all crawling things which crawl on the earth, and all mankind: 22everything which had in its nostrils the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, died. 23And every living being was destroyed that was on the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and fowl of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah alone remained, and what was with him in the ark. 24And the waters prevailed on the earth a hundred and fifty days.

First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

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Genesis 7

Genesis 7