Saturday, January 03, 2004

The Flood Covers the Earth: Genesis 7:1-9



Genesis 7
The Flood Covers the Earth
1Finally, the day came when the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. 2Take along seven pairs of each animal that I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others. 3Then select seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that every kind of living creature will survive the flood. 4One week from today I will begin forty days and forty nights of rain. And I will wipe from the earth all the living things I have created."
5So Noah did exactly as the LORD had commanded him. 6He was 600 years old when the flood came, 7and he went aboard the boat to escape--he and his wife and his sons and their wives. 8With them were all the various kinds of animals--those approved for eating and sacrifice and those that were not--along with all the birds and other small animals. 9They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10One week later, the flood came and covered the earth.

11When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights. 13But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth--and their wives. 14With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of breathing animal--domestic and wild, large and small--along with birds and flying insects of every kind. 15Two by two they came into the boat, 16male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the LORD shut them in.

17For forty days the floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. 19Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20standing more than twenty-two feet[a] above the highest peaks. 21All the living things on earth died--birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all kinds of small animals, and all the people. 22Everything died that breathed and lived on dry land. 23Every living thing on the earth was wiped out--people, animals both large and small, and birds. They were all destroyed, and only Noah was left alive, along with those who were with him in the boat. 24And the water covered the earth for 150 days.



Footnotes:

Genesis 7:20 Hebrew 15 cubits [6.8 meters].


Genesis 8
The Flood Recedes
1But God remembered Noah and all the animals in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the waters, and the floods began to disappear. 2The underground water sources ceased their gushing, and the torrential rains stopped. 3So the flood gradually began to recede. After 150 days, 4exactly five months from the time the flood began,[a] the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5Two and a half months later,[b] as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks began to appear.
6After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat 7and released a raven that flew back and forth until the earth was dry. 8Then he sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground. 9But the dove found no place to land because the water was still too high. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside. 10Seven days later, Noah released the dove again. 11This time, toward evening, the bird returned to him with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Noah now knew that the water was almost gone. 12A week later, he released the dove again, and this time it did not come back.

13Finally, when Noah was 601 years old, ten and a half months after the flood began,[c] Noah lifted back the cover to look. The water was drying up. 14Two more months went by,[d] and at last the earth was dry! 15Then God said to Noah, 16"Leave the boat, all of you. 17Release all the animals and birds so they can breed and reproduce in great numbers." 18So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. 19And all the various kinds of animals and birds came out, pair by pair.

20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and sacrificed on it the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. 21And the LORD was pleased with the sacrifice and said to himself, "I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though people's thoughts and actions are bent toward evil from childhood. 22As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night."



Footnotes:

Genesis 8:4 Hebrew on the seventeenth day of the seventh month; see 7:11.
Genesis 8:5 Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month; see 7:11 and note on 8:4.
Genesis 8:13 Hebrew on the first day of the first month; see 7:11.
Genesis 8:14 Hebrew The twenty-seventh day of the second month arrived; see note on 8:13.





Genesis 9
Gods Covenant with Noah
1God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth. 2All the wild animals, large and small, and all the birds and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them in your power. 3I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. 4But you must never eat animals that still have their lifeblood in them. 5And murder is forbidden. Animals that kill people must die, and any person who murders must be killed. 6Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God's image. 7Now you must have many children and repopulate the earth. Yes, multiply and fill the earth!"
8Then God told Noah and his sons, 9"I am making a covenant with you and your descendants, 10and with the animals you brought with you--all these birds and livestock and wild animals. 11I solemnly promise never to send another flood to kill all living creatures and destroy the earth." 12And God said, "I am giving you a sign as evidence of my eternal covenant with you and all living creatures. 13I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my permanent promise to you and to all the earth. 14When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, 15and I will remember my covenant with you and with everything that lives. Never again will there be a flood that will destroy all life. 16When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth." 17Then God said to Noah, "Yes, this is the sign of my covenant with all the creatures of the earth."





Noahs Sons

18Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, survived the Flood with their father. (Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites.) 19From these three sons of Noah came all the people now scattered across the earth.
20After the Flood, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. 21One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and lay naked in his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, walked backward into the tent, and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked the other way so they wouldn't see him naked. 24When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham:

"A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants
to the descendants of Shem and Japheth."

26Then Noah said,

"May Shem be blessed by the LORD my God;
and may Canaan be his servant.

27 May God enlarge the territory of Japheth,
and may he share the prosperity of Shem;[a]
and let Canaan be his servant."
28Noah lived another 350 years after the Flood. 29He was 950 years old when he died.



Footnotes:

Genesis 9:27 Hebrew may he live in the tents of Shem.


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