Genesis 6-8
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
6 When men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,
2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of all they desired and chose.
3 Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not forever dwell and strive with man, for he also is flesh; but his days shall yet be 120 years.
4 There were giants on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart.
7 So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground—not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air—for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord.
9 This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his [evil] generation; Noah walked [in habitual fellowship] with God.
10 And Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth was depraved and putrid in God’s sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power).
12 And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction.
13 God said to Noah, I intend to make an end of all flesh, for through men the land is filled with violence; and behold, I will [a]destroy them and the land.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher or cypress wood; make in it rooms (stalls, pens, coops, nests, cages, and compartments) and cover it inside and out with pitch (bitumen).
15 And this is the way you are to make it: the length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits [that is, 450 ft. x 75 ft. x 45 ft.].
16 You shall make a roof or [b]window [a place for light] for the ark and finish it to a cubit [at least 18 inches] above—and the [c]door of the ark you shall put in the side of it; and you shall make it with lower, second, and third stories.
17 For behold, I, even I, will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy and make putrid all flesh under the heavens in which are the breath and spirit of life; everything that is on the land shall die.
18 But I will establish My covenant (promise, pledge) with you, and you shall come into the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh [found on land], you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
20 Of fowls and birds according to their kinds, of beasts according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind—two of every sort shall come in with you, that they may be kept alive.
21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and you shall collect and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them.
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
7 And the Lord said to Noah, Come with all your household into the ark, for I have seen you to be righteous (upright and in right standing) before Me in this generation.(A)
2 Of every clean beast you shall receive and take with you seven pairs, the male and his mate, and of beasts that are not clean a pair of each kind, the male and his mate,(B)
3 Also of the birds of the air seven pairs, the male and the female, to keep seed [their kind] alive over all the earth or land.
4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living substance and thing that I have made I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away from the face of the earth.
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.(C)
6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth or land.
7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.(D)
8 Of [d]clean animals and of animals that are not clean, and of birds and fowls, and of everything that creeps on the ground,
9 There went in two and two with Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth or land.
11 In the year 600 of Noah’s life, in the seventeenth day of the second month, that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and burst forth, and the windows and floodgates of the heavens were opened.
12 And it rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On the very same day Noah and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark,
14 They and every [wild] beast according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every moving thing that creeps on the land according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, every winged thing of every sort.
15 And they went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there were the breath and spirit of life.
16 And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded [Noah]; and the Lord shut him in and closed [the door] round about him.
17 The flood [that is, the downpour of rain] was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it was lifted [high] above the land.
18 And the waters became mighty and increased greatly upon the land, and the ark went [gently floating] upon the surface of the waters.
19 And the waters prevailed so exceedingly and were so mighty upon the earth that all the high hills under the whole sky were covered.
20 [In fact] the waters became fifteen cubits higher, as the high hills were covered.
21 And all flesh ceased to breathe that moved upon the earth—fowls and birds, [tame] animals, [wild] beasts, all swarming and creeping things that swarm and creep upon the land, and all mankind.
22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils were the breath and spirit of life died.
23 God destroyed (blotted out) every living thing that was upon the face of the earth; man and animals and the creeping things and the birds of the heavens were destroyed (blotted out) from the land. Only Noah remained alive, and those who were with him in the ark.(E)
24 And the waters prevailed [mightily] upon the earth or land 150 days (five months).
8 And God [earnestly] remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind blow over the land, and the waters sank down and abated.
2 Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the gushing rain from the sky was checked,
3 And the waters receded from the land continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had diminished.
4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat [in Armenia].
5 And the waters continued to diminish until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the high hills were seen.
6 At the end of [another] forty days Noah opened a window of the ark which he had made
7 And sent forth a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters were dried up from the land.
8 Then he sent forth a dove to see if the waters had decreased from the surface of the ground.
9 But the dove found no resting-place on which to roost, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were [yet] on the face of the whole land. So he put forth his hand and drew her to him into the ark.
10 He waited another seven days and again sent forth the dove out of the ark.
11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a newly sprouted and freshly plucked olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the land.
12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, but she did not return to him any more.
13 In the year 601 [of Noah’s life], on the first day of the first month, the waters were drying up from the land. And Noah [e]removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was drying.
14 And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was entirely dry.
15 And God spoke to Noah, saying,
16 Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives with you.
17 Bring forth every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the ground—that they may breed abundantly on the land and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.
18 And Noah went forth, and his wife and his sons and their wives with him [after being in the ark one year and ten days].
19 Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird—and whatever moves on the land—went forth by families out of the ark.
20 And Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean [four-footed] animal and of every clean fowl or bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing odor [a scent of satisfaction to His heart], the Lord said to Himself, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination (the strong desire) of man’s heart is evil and wicked from his youth; neither will I ever again smite and destroy every living thing, as I have done.
22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Footnotes
- Genesis 6:13 Enoch had warned these people (Jude 14, 15); Noah had preached righteousness to them (II Pet. 2:5); God’s Spirit had been striving with them (Gen. 6:3). Yet they had rejected God and were without excuse.
- Genesis 6:16 Noah’s ark possibly had a window area large enough to admit light and provide ventilation.
- Genesis 6:16 “Here can only be meant an entrance which was afterward closed, and only opened again at the end of the flood. And since there were three stories of the ark, the word is to be understood, perhaps, of three entrances capable of being closed, and to which there would have been constructed a way of access from the outside” (J.P. Lange, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures).
- Genesis 7:8 Noah had many years in which to interest travelers in securing these animals for him. The five extra pairs of clean animals were for food, and for sacrifice later.
- Genesis 8:13 Possibly overhanging eaves which prevented the rain from coming through the perforated window space had also prevented Noah from seeing the mountaintops. It is well to remember that the Architect of Noah’s ark was the omniscient Scientist Whose “ways are past finding out,” though men have learned much from them through the centuries. Nothing was lacking in Noah’s ark to keep it from being suited for all that was required of it. The comfortable, light, well-ventilated, watertight, perfectly planned boat, large enough to accommodate all the original land animals intelligently and to permit the four human couples to live separately and in peace, needs no apology today. “In 1609 at Hoorn, in Holland, the Netherlandish Mennonite, P. Jansen, produced a vessel after the pattern of the ark, only smaller, whereby he proved it was well adapted for floating, and would carry a cargo greater by one-third than any other form of like cubical content” (J.P. Lange, A Commentary). It revolutionized shipbuilding. By 1900 every large vessel on the high seas was definitely inclined toward the proportions of Noah’s ark (as verified by “Lloyd’s Register of Shipping,” The World Almanac). Later, ships were built longer for speed, a matter of no concern to Noah.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
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