Noah's Ark

The Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. God regretted making man and decided to destroy all living creatures. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.

God told Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence. I will destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you."

Noah did everything just as God commanded him. He took male and female of every kind of animal into the ark. After seven days, the flood came on the earth. Rain fell for forty days and forty nights, and the waters rose and covered the mountains. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. But God remembered Noah and all the animals with him, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah sent out a raven, and then a dove. The dove returned with an olive leaf in its beak, and Noah knew the waters had receded. God told Noah, "Come out of the ark." Noah built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings. God made a covenant, saying, "Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life," and he set the rainbow in the clouds as the sign of his covenant.